PFL champion Impa Kasanganay was living in his car, now he has billion dollar ambitions in and out of the cage
Before finding world title success, and millionaire status, in the PFL, Impa Kasanganay lived out of his car.
Despite making it to the UFC via Dana Whiteâs Contender Series and fighting elite names like Joaquin Buckley, Kasanganay spent six months homeless while trying to rebuild his MMA career. A year later, he won the PFL 2023 Season, earning him $1million and opening all sorts of doors outside of the cage.
Now, he has an MBA from Harvard and just started on the athlete program at one of the big four accounting firms; EY. He faces Fabian Edwards tonight in Orlando to kick off the 2024 Global Season, but his ambitions stretch far beyond the confines of a cage.
REFINERY: PFL champion Impa Kasanganay is giving back to his community as he makes surprise purchase with $1million prizeImpa Kasanganay explains what spurred him on while living in carFollowing his exit from the UFC, Impa Kasanganay had to rebuild his career from scratch. After a run through different promotions, he ended up on the PFL Challenger Series, earning himself a spot in the 2023 season which he won to become a millionaire.
He came within one fight of replicating the feat last year, while also coming within one judgesâ scorecard of beating Bellator champion Johnny Eblen in Saudi Arabia. Now, he is relishing the chance to take on Fabian Edwards and his famed fighting family that includes former UFC champion Leon.
âWhen I was hitting the bag at one in the morning when I first started training, that was what I prayed for,â he told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. âI was sleeping in my car before training sessions and then I actually lived in my car.
âThose sort of things are what you prayed for, to fight at the top of the top⊠To be a part of that and have the opportunity, the honor and privilege to go after that big game hunt? That to me is awesome, I always visualize myself hunting, owning a ranch and home-grown cultivating everything that I eat.
âWhen you get that big game that you can take out and kill and put the food on your familyâs table thereâs something special about that. Itâs what makes men men in a sense, I think.
âYou want to dominate, you donât just want to do good or get in a scrap, you want to dominate that person, kill them and move forward. So thatâs why Iâm interested in a guy like Fabian, heâs been in there with some of the best; Johnny Eblen twice, Mike Shipman, Costello Van Steenis, goodness gracious.
âAnd heâs trained with such solid minds. The way his family helped his brother Leon get the title? Thereâs something special about that, right? Iâll claim the victory, shake his hand and move forward but it will be a really cool feather in my cap.â
Impa Kasanganay plots has âbillion dollar dealsâ in mind for finance careerWhile most fighters could only dream of making seven figures and winning a world title in their entire career, Kasanganay has much broader ambitions. He completed an MBA in Harvard last year, and now wants to make a splash in the finance world as part of EYâs program for elite athletes.
âI lost that last fight and I knew that wasnât me,â he continued. âNow itâs like âokay, ground yourself and goâ. So these last six months Iâve been doing a lot of inner work, faith work, life work and business, all while staying active and now itâs time to start enjoying the fruits of the labor.
âTo me, fighting is short-sighted and the goal is to be a multi-trillionaire. In a sense, a million dollars is good. Especially in a crowd of people making tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. I donât want to be in that group only.
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty ImagesâI want to be in the rooms with people who make hundreds of millions of dollars in deals â billions of dollars in deals. You can help so many people with that; your future family, yourself and so many others.
âTo me, every challenge is about being the best at it. If you make a million dollars, are you the best at making money? No. If you become a champion, then youâre the best fighter. So everything I do I want to be the best at.
âThat gives me a challenge for business, a challenge for life, something special. You can change your life and your familyâs life and other peopleâs lives. But when it comes to fighting, thatâs not for the money necessarily. I want to be the top warrior.â
