UFC Sweden event review .

Post date: 16-Apr-2012 20:01:36

We attended the weigh INS on the Friday afternoon where we first discovered how vocal the Swedish fans can be as they got behind some of there favourite fighters .The only fighter to struggle to make weight was Dennis Siver who was making his debut in the feather weight division. However he was able to get down to the 145 pound mark at the second time of asking. The fans were then treated to a Q & A session with Tito Ortiz and Mike Goldberg. Tito was in good form answering questions about his future in the sport and gave advice on how he got to the top of the game. He also spoke about how he built his brand “Team punishment” and memorable moments in his career as a fighter in the UFC. Social media paid of for one lucky fan that followed Tito on twitter and asked for two tickets that Tito tweeted he had to spare. The former light heavy weight champ was more than happy to reward the fan and gave him both tickets to the sold out event.

On the day of the event we woke to a thick covering of snow in Stockholm. However this did not seem to interfere with fans getting to the event as they arrived early and in huge numbers. The under card had many Swedish fighters who all showed they could compete at this level. The most popular being Reza Madadi or Mad Dog who is a former Greco Roman wrestling champ and made a winning start to his UFC career tapping his opponent out in second round. Unfortunately not all the Swedish fighters were able to come out on top as Papy Abedi lost quickly in the first round by rear naked choke.

The first fight on the pay per view was a clash of two top bantamweights in Brad Pickett and Damacio Page. Both fighters were coming of losses in there previous bouts and wasted no time going at it. However Pickett quickly established his dominance in and action packed fight with good hands and multiple takedowns eventually finishing Page with a rear naked choke in the second round.

Another Englishmen on the card was John Maguire who was facing off against Damarques Johnson a former runner up on the ultimate fighter. This welterweight weight clash was mostly contested on the ground with Maguire determined to avoid trading blows with the much larger Johnson. After managing to avoid a kimura attempt by Johnson Maguire was able to transition to an arm bar and finish the fight in the second round. Maguire is starting to prove that he is one of the divisions most dangers fighters on the ground after finishing the Jeremy horn trained fighter. Maguire jokingly said after the fight that his style of grappling was gypsy jujitsu and entered the cage as a pink belt having only worn a Gi on a couple of occasions.

The Dennis Siver vs Diego Nunes fight was a three round war which displayed the most technical stand up of the night. Although the decision went to Siver it could easily have went to Nunes as the German looked to have sustained more damage during the fight. After the fight Nunes contested the decision by saying “I think it was an unfair decision take a look at Dennis’s face. The first round was back and forth but I feel like I did more damage”.

The Paulo Thiago vs Siyar Bahadurzada did not last long with Bahadurzada knocking out Thiago in there first exchange. For me this was a shock result as I see Thiago as a future title contender. The shaken Brazilian fighter said after the fight “I am disappointed but will be back.

The co main event was contested between Brain Stann and Alessio Sakara. This middle weight fight was also over quickly with Stann knocking Sakara to the ground with several knees before rendering him unconscious with some vicious ground and pound. This result we especially impressive as Stann has recently lost his brother in law and had considered pulling out of the fight. Alessio Sakara said after the fight “I am sorry for the loss I feel I have let all the fans down”

The main event between Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson and Brazils Thiago Silva was a stand up battle which went all three rounds. Gustafsson hurt Silva early knocking him to the floor but did not follow the BJJ black belt to the canvass. He instead used his range and much better footwork to keep the aggressive Silva at bay and pull of the decision win. This was the perfect end to a great night of fights for the Swedish fans as they watched there home town boy get his hand raised.

Master Wang and I then attended the post fight press conference and asked the UFC president if we would get an event in Scotland in the near future. Although he would not say when he assured us that Scotland was very much on the UFC, s radar. He also stated that although Mark Hunt may get a twitter bonus for the online campaign to get him a title shot he was a few fights away from that goal. Dana also gave his approval to making MMA an Olympic event some time in the future and said he was very impressed with the Swedish market. The sub of the night went to John Maguire who said he was going to buy his mum a new caravan with the bonus money. The knockout of the night went to Siyar Bahadurzada who looks to have a very bright future in the UFC.

MUSCLE MOLE