“Tshilobo” Impa Kasanganay will be facing Alex Polizzi at PFL 2: 2024 Regular Season booked for April 12. Ahead of this matchup the PFL champion sits down with Ian of Calf Kick Sports to discuss his philosophy of success. See below for full interview.
Impa Kasanganay:
Get money so they can say they have more money than somebody else. Sometimes they only educate themselves so they have more, to say they have more knowledge than the person next to them. I look at it differently. I think like, the more money I make, the more people I can help, help my future family, honor God, and do my job.
For me, education is just something that, it’s a privilege, it’s a gift, and the fact that I have the ability to learn and continue to, I’m grateful. But people think that fighters should be these, People, I think that kind of takes away from the martial artist. Maybe they just need just a fighter or what they would, maybe reflecting what they would be like for me, fighting.
It’s just, it’s a, it’s a martial art and you should still keep learning other aspects of life. So for me, I’m grateful that I’ve been trained by my parents. education. And I grew up in this country. I grew up in the South. I recognize that at a time in life, it was illegal for somebody like me to even have an education or even read a book.
So, I just want to see how much more I can learn and how many people I can help along the way of a future family. And I believe that having an eagerness and hunger to learn makes you a better person, fighter, athlete. I’m not saying just going to college or educating yourself that way. I mean, even the person who can fix the diesel engine is very, very educated.
And they may have never went to college a day in their life. Right? So, to me, never let school get in the way of your education. So for me, it’s like, I’m grateful that, like the education that I’m receiving, education that I’ve had to date is recognized, but also let people know, like, Hey, you might think these fighters are just meathead, tough people who are just going to throw down, but.
Try to get to know them and I think you can, you can learn a lot from them and they might see life differently too because they’re willing to step into something a lot of people aren’t and that’s what I would say.
Ian:
Yeah man that’s awesome because I feel the same way. I actually full-time teach at a trade school, so, education is not always just a college degree.
I understand that completely. Thank you, that’s awesome. That actually kind of, leads into, so as a first generation American, I mean, does that, do you feel like that puts more stress on you or less stress because, your parents have already kind of done the hard part of, of getting here to better themselves or how does, how does that affect you?
Impa:
It inspires me really. My dad, I always say, came to this country, 16 dollars in his pocket. Studied engineering. My mom is a nurse. She works so many hours and they never complain, but they’re always about learning. For me, it doesn’t put stress on me. I think, if there’s any pressure, there is the privilege. Henry always says, Henry Hooft always says, pressure is a privilege.
And it’s true. Like, I think it’s a privilege of the fact that they set us up to be here, but there’s so much more to gain. , like my, my, aside from me and my brother and sister doing great, my brother’s a basketball coach at the University of Tennessee. He finished up his master’s degree.
And then now he’s just going to be in his second year, been doing well for himself and finally his. Success in education, basketball, and it’s a passion. My little sister is very, very smart and she’s so arts and creative, but she also goes up the West Point, right? And she’s in a study.
So I believe that my parents, like, they set a fire, they set a blaze. And now it’s up to us to make that blaze take over even more. , it’s not just to be, to see it as a crippling thing where some people are, Oh my gosh, I feel the pressure of what my family and parents have done.
I see that. How do I make myself better? How do I make myself, how do I, my dad always said I have to do better than him. Right? I’m like, man, you’ve done a lot of really great things. So, well, I pursue my passions. I pursue what God’s called me to do. I focus on education. I make myself better. And my dad always told me, he’s like, you eat as much as you can when you’re young.
So when I’m young, I’m like, As I’m young, as I’m pushing, I want to keep pushing and pushing and pushing to challenge myself to grow, to be better. And that for me is more of like, you’re adding coal to the fire. You’re adding fuel to the flame to give me the strength to keep going forward, not as a place where I feel pressure, that’s burning me down.
If anything, that fire just led to a new one that led to a new one that led to a new one. And anytime I feel a little bit like, Oh man, there’s some weight here. I know my parents carried so much for us and it gives me extra strength to move forward. So, I love the feel of the challenge to where some people might think how can you work, educate yourself, keep doing other things and fight?
And then when you do it, you’re like, because of the way my family taught me. So, that for me is just, it’s an honor. It’s an honor.
Ian:
That’s awesome. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of people who don’t have that kind of, drive that they get from their parents. So, I mean, that, that truly is a blessing.
That’s, awesome to hear, and that, that really kind of, you seem like just such a humble and respectful guy and that seems like that’s just a day one thing for, you and your siblings then?
Impa:
I appreciate you. Yeah, my parents, we, we put them through it some moments, but they don’t play.
They don’t play, so, But for all the right reasons, they really love us and, from day one, I mean, when I was a kid, you always had to read books in the summer, practice math, study the arts, you had to, take care of yourself. All right. So it’s based on, it’s just like, loving one another and most importantly, loving God, a Christian family, right?
That was the most important thing for us in the house. And then honoring them through that. And I think it’s only because they wanted our lives to be better. They always pushed us to have a better education. My dad was my little sister with math and everything like that. So she can prepare for the day.
Look at my dad, so great at, engineering and physics. And the mom’s always loving us, encouraging us. Like they set the standard of how to be better. The young age, you kind of, you just. You’re driven to say, how can I make things better? And that, for me, is, is something that’s instilled in me since I was young.
And sometimes when you’re young, you don’t understand it all the time, why your parents demand certain things from you. But as you get older and you mature, you’re like, wow, Thank you for that.
Ian:
One of the things I’ve noticed about, just you, in particular, is the respect thing is so huge for, you, it seems, you do your posts after fights, thanking your opponent, praising God for the opportunity, all this stuff, what made you decide that that was something that you needed to do after each fight?
Impa:
Yeah, for me, it’s like, I’ve never been perfect. I’ve made a lot of like stupid mistakes in a sense, right? Like in my life. So God’s given me a lot of grace in a way, like where sometimes you feel like nothing, you’re undeserving, not that I feel undeserving, that I am undeserving. Yeah. Sometimes the blessings that I get in my life.
And, God didn’t have to choose me, right? But he did choose, he did choose me. And you see it in the moments and I still have to work. I still have to show up. I still have to go to training, as I will today. And as I have this morning, I still show up. But it’s like, sometimes man, like they say, the more fortunate you are than others, don’t build a bigger fence, build a longer table sticks true.
Like God’s blessed me so much that when I do go to battle with my opponents, God, allow that person to be my enemy. He allowed that person. He allowed that. Moments to happen. And I have to thank God and everything, the whole moment, without God, if that moment would have been created.
So I give the praise to him and he helps me check my life because I realized that even in my sinful ways and my vices and my challenging days, like, whatever, maybe where it doesn’t honor him, he still blesses me. He still blesses, continues to bless me, and still will bless me. And it challenged me.
Okay. How can it be better? How can it be better? How can it be better? So I always have to thank my opponent because they. You, you shed blood on that person. You, you, you go to battle ’em. They wanna put food on their family’s table. I’m just, very grateful for it and I decided when I first started fighting, when I was an amateur, like, who do you come home to?
Like, I’m not gonna be a trash talker. Yeah. I’m not gonna be a person who disrespects it because even though it would feel good at the moment, I don’t want my kids one day and the day to have kids to look up on the internet and be like, how should I act? And they watch a view because maybe I die. Maybe I died before they were fully grown.
And then the look, the only thing they have me are old fights, old interviews, documentaries, videos, whatever it be riding a motorcycle. And if it’s all just me swearing, cursing up a storm, acting a fool, did I give them the right to, and then your offspring, it just has a negative. Role model, right? And that’s that that’s what’s going to carry on so you make the world a worse place Then you make your family’s name worse because I don’t want to disrespect that so that for me So it’s like who do you come home to?
And when I come home to like the day that I’m married. I want my wife to see that it’s the right way I want my kids to see too that like I live the right way the best that I could. So that was always a big thing for me because I always saw myself as a champion. I always saw myself as being Something special in this I saw myself as being somebody you. It’s going to dominate in every facet of this pursuit.
So you get the attention, you get the eyes on you and you have an opportunity to see how you carry yourself. And that was, that’s when I, I decided that I’m going to carry myself, with my faith of the center.
Ian:
That’s, that’s awesome, man. Just one last quick one. I’m kind of shifting gears a little bit because I’m sure some people want to hear about the fighting game. Something I’ve been interested in is is how much different is the the tournament style the the PFL as opposed to UFC like I know you’ve said it’s the best thing that’s ever happened. But As far as the actual fighting goes have you seen a major difference or is it just the fact that they treat you so much?
Impa:
I’m very much appreciative for the opportunities that I got. And who knows? Maybe when I was in the UFC, I would have got those, like, the more time went by. But, I don’t know. I mean, I love the fact that I’m active.
I love the fact that I get to earn my way to the top. Like, I love the fact that everybody’s, very, very respectful towards me. from the top down. Like, I’m always, like, very much welcomed in the rooms that I walk into. As a testimony to my family, to God, to my trainers, everybody’s helped me get here.
I’m very, very blessed in that regard. And, man, like, the fact that I can earn it, it definitely, blesses me. And I’m not saying people in the UFC don’t earn their opportunities, but more so too. Like, I don’t have to necessarily be, I don’t have to go with the general trash talker, like, make a media show of it.
I can, I can still build the media, but I don’t have to necessarily, Just sell out. And that to me, is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel welcome. I feel respected. And I believe that the more work you put in, the more airtime you get, and the more opportunities and moments you create, that’s what sets you up for the future. And I think that’s where I have my best opportunity.
God bless you.
Calf Kick Sports 