TheDude
7th November 2004, 11:59 AM
Okay, I think I should do my part, so Iīm going to write something about Fight Festival 12, the biggest MMA/Muay Thai-show in Finland.
Fight Festival is the biggest martial arts show in Finland, having 3-4 shows a year, it attracts about 1500 spectators who completely fill the venue. Fight Festival has been putting on great shows, and brought some world class fighters to Finland(V. Overeem headlined FF7, Alex Stiebling was there on two occasions FF 8 and FF 10.). With those great shows, it now has a lot of loyal followers.
Muay Thai is an important part of the show, and usually the split is 50/50 between Vale Tudo and Muay Thai fights. Vale Tudo rules are simply put UFC rules without elbows(3*5 minute rounds) Muay Thai rules depend on the match(amateur or professional), but in amateur no knees to the head, and fighters wear elbow protection and gloves. Pro bouts are full MT-rules.
The Muay Thai section of the events have usually been headlined by one of Finlands great MT fighters or by Jomhod Kiatadisak. Currently Finland has 3 pro-MT fighters. Topi Helin is a promising HW-fighter, who just turned pro. He won the amateur World Championship 2003 beating Sergey Gur in the finals. On the FF12 card, Helin Record (http://www.muaythai.fi/index.php?id=5) will be facing Zabid SamedovSherdog record (http://ko.sherdog.com/fightfinder/displayfighter.cfm?fighterid=792) from Belarus. Note worthly is Helins coach, the former WMC champion Riku Immonen. He has really been on a mission to make Helin a complete fighter, with good hands, kicks, knees, elbows and clinch. Actually there has been fights were Helin has clinched for the entire fight, just to improve his clinch game.
Also on the FF12 card is the tough Jarno Marila. Record (http://www.muaythai.fi/index.php?id=33) This will be Marilas 4 professional fight. He was supposed to battle Melvin Rozenblad on the FF11 card for the WMC European Championship title, but was forced to withdraw from the fight. Instead Melvin faced an excellent striker in Youri Boreiko. The whole fight was packed with action, Melvin dropping Youri earlier in the fight. Youri made a great comeback, and with heavy punches forced Rozenblad on his heels KOīing him in the fourth. The audience was thrilled with the action, so it was expected that Youri would face Marila for the title in FF12. The plot for the fight is simple: Marila has to use his great kicks, knees and elbows to stop the striker. If he fails to do this, he will get dropped.
The last pro-MT fight on the card features the legendary Jomhod. He was supposed to face Shamil Gaidarbekov already on the FF11 card, but Shamil broke his hand and was forced to withdraw. Instead of Shamil, Jomhod was put against Evgeni Gvozdev, an experienced fighter from Belarus. Evgenis experience did not show, and Jomhod dropped him with a spinning(and jumping) back-kick in the beginning of the second round. Jomhods age is really starting to show, but under MT-rules, his experience makes up for it. Jumping knees and elbows etc. he knows it all, in his last fight in Finland he first opened up a big cut on his opponents forehead, and then destroyed him with lowkicks. It will be interesting to see what Shamil can bring to the table. His fight in K-1 Max was good, and I feel he won the fight. If he can survive long enough and pressure Jomhod, he stands a change of wearing down Jomhod. I donīt know how old Jomhod is, but his age starts to show especially in his kicks and in his stamina. This fight will tell a lot about whether or not Jomhod would have ruled in K-1 Max. The rules make A BIG difference, especially for Jomhod, but still...
Also on the Fight Festival 12 card is a 4-man K-1 rules tournament. Petri Reima is looking to come back after his semifinal loss against Brecht Wallis in K-1 Scandinavia 2004. The other fighters in the tournament, are Antoni Hardonk from Holland, Abdouliie "Abbe" Joof from Sweden and Roman Suchoterin from Belarus.
For the MMA-fans, the most interesting thing about FF12, is the fight between Atte Backman and Gilbert Yvel. Finally we get to see Yvel in Finland. I have no idea how Backman could beat Yvel, especially if Yvels ground game has improved as much as it has been hyped.
So totally there will be 12 fights on the card. 4 MT fights, 3 K-1 fights and 5 MMA-fights. The full card can be seen at Fight Festival homepage (http://www.kamppailuopisto.com/fightfestival/kalenteri.html). Unfortunately, there is not an english version available of the site.
Fight Festival is the biggest martial arts show in Finland, having 3-4 shows a year, it attracts about 1500 spectators who completely fill the venue. Fight Festival has been putting on great shows, and brought some world class fighters to Finland(V. Overeem headlined FF7, Alex Stiebling was there on two occasions FF 8 and FF 10.). With those great shows, it now has a lot of loyal followers.
Muay Thai is an important part of the show, and usually the split is 50/50 between Vale Tudo and Muay Thai fights. Vale Tudo rules are simply put UFC rules without elbows(3*5 minute rounds) Muay Thai rules depend on the match(amateur or professional), but in amateur no knees to the head, and fighters wear elbow protection and gloves. Pro bouts are full MT-rules.
The Muay Thai section of the events have usually been headlined by one of Finlands great MT fighters or by Jomhod Kiatadisak. Currently Finland has 3 pro-MT fighters. Topi Helin is a promising HW-fighter, who just turned pro. He won the amateur World Championship 2003 beating Sergey Gur in the finals. On the FF12 card, Helin Record (http://www.muaythai.fi/index.php?id=5) will be facing Zabid SamedovSherdog record (http://ko.sherdog.com/fightfinder/displayfighter.cfm?fighterid=792) from Belarus. Note worthly is Helins coach, the former WMC champion Riku Immonen. He has really been on a mission to make Helin a complete fighter, with good hands, kicks, knees, elbows and clinch. Actually there has been fights were Helin has clinched for the entire fight, just to improve his clinch game.
Also on the FF12 card is the tough Jarno Marila. Record (http://www.muaythai.fi/index.php?id=33) This will be Marilas 4 professional fight. He was supposed to battle Melvin Rozenblad on the FF11 card for the WMC European Championship title, but was forced to withdraw from the fight. Instead Melvin faced an excellent striker in Youri Boreiko. The whole fight was packed with action, Melvin dropping Youri earlier in the fight. Youri made a great comeback, and with heavy punches forced Rozenblad on his heels KOīing him in the fourth. The audience was thrilled with the action, so it was expected that Youri would face Marila for the title in FF12. The plot for the fight is simple: Marila has to use his great kicks, knees and elbows to stop the striker. If he fails to do this, he will get dropped.
The last pro-MT fight on the card features the legendary Jomhod. He was supposed to face Shamil Gaidarbekov already on the FF11 card, but Shamil broke his hand and was forced to withdraw. Instead of Shamil, Jomhod was put against Evgeni Gvozdev, an experienced fighter from Belarus. Evgenis experience did not show, and Jomhod dropped him with a spinning(and jumping) back-kick in the beginning of the second round. Jomhods age is really starting to show, but under MT-rules, his experience makes up for it. Jumping knees and elbows etc. he knows it all, in his last fight in Finland he first opened up a big cut on his opponents forehead, and then destroyed him with lowkicks. It will be interesting to see what Shamil can bring to the table. His fight in K-1 Max was good, and I feel he won the fight. If he can survive long enough and pressure Jomhod, he stands a change of wearing down Jomhod. I donīt know how old Jomhod is, but his age starts to show especially in his kicks and in his stamina. This fight will tell a lot about whether or not Jomhod would have ruled in K-1 Max. The rules make A BIG difference, especially for Jomhod, but still...
Also on the Fight Festival 12 card is a 4-man K-1 rules tournament. Petri Reima is looking to come back after his semifinal loss against Brecht Wallis in K-1 Scandinavia 2004. The other fighters in the tournament, are Antoni Hardonk from Holland, Abdouliie "Abbe" Joof from Sweden and Roman Suchoterin from Belarus.
For the MMA-fans, the most interesting thing about FF12, is the fight between Atte Backman and Gilbert Yvel. Finally we get to see Yvel in Finland. I have no idea how Backman could beat Yvel, especially if Yvels ground game has improved as much as it has been hyped.
So totally there will be 12 fights on the card. 4 MT fights, 3 K-1 fights and 5 MMA-fights. The full card can be seen at Fight Festival homepage (http://www.kamppailuopisto.com/fightfestival/kalenteri.html). Unfortunately, there is not an english version available of the site.