Salmon Stops Rupponen, Linhares Impresses
Markus Wikholm Sep 23, 2007
HELSINKI, Finland, Sept. 22 -- If you had a discussion with an MMA
devotee about European countries big on mixed martial arts, an odd
one might pop up beside England and Russia: Finland.
One reason the small north-European country is worth mentioning on the MMA world map is its colorful and long-running history with the sport: from the early vale tudo rules event FinnFight, which was the stomping grounds (literally) of a young Joachim Hansen (Pictures), to the recent ZST co-promoted event "Prestige" and the birth of regulation with the Finnish Mixed Martial Arts Federation.
Now the country has a plethora of amateur and professional MMA
events. Arguably largest is the Fight Festival series, which held
Fight Festival 22 on Saturday, headlined by a fighter who presents
another reason for mentioning Finland on the world stage: Mikko Rupponen.
Rupponen, a professional fighter since 1999, is frequently named during discussions about who should be fighting in major organizations. Originally from a Muay Thai background, his extremely aggressive style of wrestling and ground-and-pound has brought him success inside the ring and notoriety outside it.
That fighter was originally scheduled to be Steve Byrnes (Pictures), UFC Fight Night 7 veteran, but he was forced out due to an injury in training. The replacement was a big step-up in name value when Sean Salmon (Pictures) answered the call.
However, the one-time UFN headliner and All-American wrestler didn't mind playing the role of spoiler in stopping Rupponen on a cut in the first round.
The pre-fight rituals were done in the usual Rupponen fashion. After Salmon had made his entrance, the crowd was asked to hold their cheers when the Finnish fighter entered the ring in utter silence.
Once inside the ropes, Rupponen received a huge ovation from the sold-out crowd and the catch-weight match at 195 pounds began.
After a short feeling-out process on the feet, Salmon caught a kick from Rupponen, got a single-leg takedown and hastily moved to the side-mount. Rupponen quickly exploded back up, and he powered out of a standing guillotine attempt. The stand-up phase ended again when Salmon scored another takedown, which earned him a spot inside the Rupponen's guard.
The American fighter started to punish the Finn with punches and short elbows. Soon a cut opened above Rupponen's right eye. The referee halted the fight, and the ringside doctor examined the cut while Salmon's cornerman, "Dirty" Bob Schreiber, signaled to continue the barrage of elbows should the match continue.
The fight restarted in the same position, and Salmon continued his steady work inside the guard. He did not have to work for long, though, as the referee called a second timeout due to Rupponen bleeding profusely from the corner of his eye. This time it was clear that Rupponen could not continue, and the referee awarded Salmon the TKO at 3:32 of round one.
After the fight Salmon exchanged a few words with Rupponen and thanked everyone for coming. He seemed extremely gracious in victory and left to applause, though the crowd was obviously disappointed and stunned that their home favorite was stopped.
The MMA portion of the undercard saw both international and local talent in very different fights.
At 190 pounds, Alliance jiu-jitsu black belt Lucio Linhares added another win to his record at 1:56 of the first round over the German fighter Nordin Asrih.
Linhares is a frequent visitor to Finland as a guest trainer in the many local Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools and has fought many times in local MMA events. The Finnish crowd treated Linhares, who looks like he's on loan from the cast of the movie "300," as one of their own.
They have witnessed a tremendous evolution in the Brazilian. He has gone from looking lost without his gi to an all-around MMA practitioner with submission skills for fighting and stand-up skills that have even garnered him a knockout victory.
Asrih, from the straightforwardly named German Best Team, started the fight with a quick pace, trying to behead Linhares with swinging punches. Instead, the composed Brazilian used his foe's aggression to his advantage and quickly planted Asrih to the ground with a shot.
Stuck in a tight half-guard, Linhares then tried to free himself to side-mount, but instead he forced in a Kimura for the tapout. The combination of explosive submission work and then donning the Finnish flag on his beanie got Linhares a pop from the audience.
An intense three-round battle was waged between two veterans of the European scene, when Niko Puhakka of Finland and the crafty Dutch submission artist Furdjel de Windt (Pictures) went tit-for-tat in a 160-pound fight.
The first round started with a steady feeling-out-process standing up. That ended abruptly when de Windt tried to shoot on Puhakka, who sidestepped the shot and took the top in de Windt's guard. De Windt pressured his opponent with repeated armbars and triangle chokes, but Puhakka avoided the slick submission attempts while simultaneously trying to strike.
At the end of the round de Windt mixed his offense with a tight heelhook. Right before the bell, Puhakka cleared his leg, which was at an angle that no physician would recommend.
In the second round Puhakka started connecting with some harsh one-two combinations that gave him the upper hand on the Dutchman, who was pressured into another takedown attempt. This time Puhakka was ready, and he shot a hard knee to the chest of de Windt, sending him backward. On the ground Puhakka then passed to side-mount and unleashed multiple knees and punches to his opponent's body.
A scramble in the third round saw Puhakka catch de Windt in a deep kneebar. The scramble continued as de Windt escaped, and the fight moved to de Windt's guard with both men gassed. De Windt then gathered what was left in his tank and slipped into a back-mount, from where he struggled for a submission until time expired.
With Puhakka clearly winning the second and de Windt the third, the judges felt that Puhakka was more dominating in the first round and thus gave him the unanimous decision. The active guard and smooth ground game of de Windt left an impression, but not being able to get a top position from a takedown determined the fate of the fighter from Holland.
The start of the heavyweight fight between Finland's Marcus Vänttinen and Holland's Samir Bourekba left the mostly male audience growling in sympathy when Vänttinen unintentionally kneed the Dutch fighter below the belt. After Bourekba recovered, the next two rounds consisted of Vänttinen firing low kicks and trying for upper-body takedowns while Bourekba answered with haymakers.
Bourekba used his weight advantage to power Vänttinen to the mat in the third round, only to get caught in a triangle choke at 1:26.
Light heavyweight Toni Valtonen controlled and frustrated Germany's Martin Zawada for a decision. In the second round Valtonen's repeated takedown attempts paid off. After executing an upper-body takedown, he stopped his opponent's sweeps to keep the top position in a fight that could not be described as a crowd-pleaser.
The highlight knockout of the night came courtesy of Mikko Suvanto, a fighter nicknamed "Rehtori" or "Headmaster," who mastered the art of kicking a fellow man to the head in the second round of his bout against another Finnish middleweight, Timo Suhonen.
Suhonen showed impressive takedown defense and wrestling in the first round. In the second he delivered spinning back kicks that garnered cheers while Suvanto worked mostly for low kicks.
Then, in a classic trick of going high for a change, Suvanto unleashed a devastating kick to Suhonen's head at 2:52. The previously undefeated middleweight needed oxygen from EMTs afterward.
Eventually, after a few scary moments, the crowd cheered Suhonen as he got up, still visibly out of it, and slowly worked his way out of the ring.
Huge heavyweight Atte Backman stopped his much smaller opponent, Emir Smajlovic of Holland. The height difference wasn't much of an issue because the first strike of the fight was a cross from Backman that sent Smajlovic tumbling to the mat.
Regrouping quickly, Smajlovic caught Backman in a half-guard guillotine, which the Finn eventually cleared. Backman then mounted the Dutchman, and the same right hand that was introduced to Smajlovic earlier in the round started to pound him again for the TKO at 2:50 of round one.
One reason the small north-European country is worth mentioning on the MMA world map is its colorful and long-running history with the sport: from the early vale tudo rules event FinnFight, which was the stomping grounds (literally) of a young Joachim Hansen (Pictures), to the recent ZST co-promoted event "Prestige" and the birth of regulation with the Finnish Mixed Martial Arts Federation.
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Rupponen, a professional fighter since 1999, is frequently named during discussions about who should be fighting in major organizations. Originally from a Muay Thai background, his extremely aggressive style of wrestling and ground-and-pound has brought him success inside the ring and notoriety outside it.
Coming off a trademark brutal TKO stoppage of PRIDE veteran
Hirotaka Yokoi
(Pictures) and having prepared for
this fight with Team Quest, Rupponen was looking for a victory over
a UFC fighter.
That fighter was originally scheduled to be Steve Byrnes (Pictures), UFC Fight Night 7 veteran, but he was forced out due to an injury in training. The replacement was a big step-up in name value when Sean Salmon (Pictures) answered the call.
However, the one-time UFN headliner and All-American wrestler didn't mind playing the role of spoiler in stopping Rupponen on a cut in the first round.
The pre-fight rituals were done in the usual Rupponen fashion. After Salmon had made his entrance, the crowd was asked to hold their cheers when the Finnish fighter entered the ring in utter silence.
Once inside the ropes, Rupponen received a huge ovation from the sold-out crowd and the catch-weight match at 195 pounds began.
After a short feeling-out process on the feet, Salmon caught a kick from Rupponen, got a single-leg takedown and hastily moved to the side-mount. Rupponen quickly exploded back up, and he powered out of a standing guillotine attempt. The stand-up phase ended again when Salmon scored another takedown, which earned him a spot inside the Rupponen's guard.
The American fighter started to punish the Finn with punches and short elbows. Soon a cut opened above Rupponen's right eye. The referee halted the fight, and the ringside doctor examined the cut while Salmon's cornerman, "Dirty" Bob Schreiber, signaled to continue the barrage of elbows should the match continue.
The fight restarted in the same position, and Salmon continued his steady work inside the guard. He did not have to work for long, though, as the referee called a second timeout due to Rupponen bleeding profusely from the corner of his eye. This time it was clear that Rupponen could not continue, and the referee awarded Salmon the TKO at 3:32 of round one.
After the fight Salmon exchanged a few words with Rupponen and thanked everyone for coming. He seemed extremely gracious in victory and left to applause, though the crowd was obviously disappointed and stunned that their home favorite was stopped.
The MMA portion of the undercard saw both international and local talent in very different fights.
At 190 pounds, Alliance jiu-jitsu black belt Lucio Linhares added another win to his record at 1:56 of the first round over the German fighter Nordin Asrih.
Linhares is a frequent visitor to Finland as a guest trainer in the many local Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools and has fought many times in local MMA events. The Finnish crowd treated Linhares, who looks like he's on loan from the cast of the movie "300," as one of their own.
They have witnessed a tremendous evolution in the Brazilian. He has gone from looking lost without his gi to an all-around MMA practitioner with submission skills for fighting and stand-up skills that have even garnered him a knockout victory.
Asrih, from the straightforwardly named German Best Team, started the fight with a quick pace, trying to behead Linhares with swinging punches. Instead, the composed Brazilian used his foe's aggression to his advantage and quickly planted Asrih to the ground with a shot.
Stuck in a tight half-guard, Linhares then tried to free himself to side-mount, but instead he forced in a Kimura for the tapout. The combination of explosive submission work and then donning the Finnish flag on his beanie got Linhares a pop from the audience.
An intense three-round battle was waged between two veterans of the European scene, when Niko Puhakka of Finland and the crafty Dutch submission artist Furdjel de Windt (Pictures) went tit-for-tat in a 160-pound fight.
The first round started with a steady feeling-out-process standing up. That ended abruptly when de Windt tried to shoot on Puhakka, who sidestepped the shot and took the top in de Windt's guard. De Windt pressured his opponent with repeated armbars and triangle chokes, but Puhakka avoided the slick submission attempts while simultaneously trying to strike.
At the end of the round de Windt mixed his offense with a tight heelhook. Right before the bell, Puhakka cleared his leg, which was at an angle that no physician would recommend.
In the second round Puhakka started connecting with some harsh one-two combinations that gave him the upper hand on the Dutchman, who was pressured into another takedown attempt. This time Puhakka was ready, and he shot a hard knee to the chest of de Windt, sending him backward. On the ground Puhakka then passed to side-mount and unleashed multiple knees and punches to his opponent's body.
A scramble in the third round saw Puhakka catch de Windt in a deep kneebar. The scramble continued as de Windt escaped, and the fight moved to de Windt's guard with both men gassed. De Windt then gathered what was left in his tank and slipped into a back-mount, from where he struggled for a submission until time expired.
With Puhakka clearly winning the second and de Windt the third, the judges felt that Puhakka was more dominating in the first round and thus gave him the unanimous decision. The active guard and smooth ground game of de Windt left an impression, but not being able to get a top position from a takedown determined the fate of the fighter from Holland.
The start of the heavyweight fight between Finland's Marcus Vänttinen and Holland's Samir Bourekba left the mostly male audience growling in sympathy when Vänttinen unintentionally kneed the Dutch fighter below the belt. After Bourekba recovered, the next two rounds consisted of Vänttinen firing low kicks and trying for upper-body takedowns while Bourekba answered with haymakers.
Bourekba used his weight advantage to power Vänttinen to the mat in the third round, only to get caught in a triangle choke at 1:26.
Light heavyweight Toni Valtonen controlled and frustrated Germany's Martin Zawada for a decision. In the second round Valtonen's repeated takedown attempts paid off. After executing an upper-body takedown, he stopped his opponent's sweeps to keep the top position in a fight that could not be described as a crowd-pleaser.
The highlight knockout of the night came courtesy of Mikko Suvanto, a fighter nicknamed "Rehtori" or "Headmaster," who mastered the art of kicking a fellow man to the head in the second round of his bout against another Finnish middleweight, Timo Suhonen.
Suhonen showed impressive takedown defense and wrestling in the first round. In the second he delivered spinning back kicks that garnered cheers while Suvanto worked mostly for low kicks.
Then, in a classic trick of going high for a change, Suvanto unleashed a devastating kick to Suhonen's head at 2:52. The previously undefeated middleweight needed oxygen from EMTs afterward.
Eventually, after a few scary moments, the crowd cheered Suhonen as he got up, still visibly out of it, and slowly worked his way out of the ring.
Huge heavyweight Atte Backman stopped his much smaller opponent, Emir Smajlovic of Holland. The height difference wasn't much of an issue because the first strike of the fight was a cross from Backman that sent Smajlovic tumbling to the mat.
Regrouping quickly, Smajlovic caught Backman in a half-guard guillotine, which the Finn eventually cleared. Backman then mounted the Dutchman, and the same right hand that was introduced to Smajlovic earlier in the round started to pound him again for the TKO at 2:50 of round one.
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