Bernardo Sopai Kicks Way to Title as Fight Club Rush Debuts in Stockholm

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Fight Club Rush ventured from Vasteras for its debut in Stockholm, and the event featured plenty of firepower.

In the FCR 13 main event, rising star Bernardo Sopai stopped Karlen Minasian with a head kick to capture the promotion’s bantamweight strap, which was recently vacated by Felipe Lima. Sopai took the fight to the ground early, and outside of a couple surprising hip tosses from Minasian in the clinch, the Albanian controlled the first frame.

It was a tentative second round until Sopai turned up the pace with punches and landed a lightning fast right hand that the Ukrainian acknowledged. The Allstars Training Center fighter moved forward and launched a powerful right head kick that sent the Orebro Fight Gym product crumbling to the ground, where the referee immediately stepped in to call an end to the bout at 59 seconds of Round 2.

“I was patient, I know he was hurt.” said Sopai about the finishing sequence. “I just followed my gameplan.”

Touma Dominates Husseini

In the co-main event, Jonny Touma was supposed to rematch Zoran Milic for FCR flyweight title, but injury prevented the bout from happening. Instead it was Safiullah Husseini that stepped in on short notice to fill the slot in a non-title affair.

Touma grabbed a guillotine early and looked like he was going to end the night quickly, but Husseini stayed calm and was able to posture out of the squeeze. Husseini attacked often with kicks, but Touma made him pay for it by taking him down and sealing the deal with a rear-naked choke at 4:52 of the opening period.

“I felt relaxed.” said Touma, who then called for a title shot: “Let’s go.”

In other action, Khamzat Chimaev training partner Bilal Tipsaev put on a 15-minute mixed martial arts masterclass against Glenn McVeigh en route to a unanimous decision; Wasiu Adeshina upset Sakhi Qambari with a second-round TKO at the 4:02 mark; Nabbe Malki won his professional debut against Taylan Isik via Round 1 TKO at 2:14; Djaba Murtazaliev hit a Round 1 rear-naked choke against Raymond Johansson and Moein Ahmadi tapped Abdallah Habib with a first-round RNC.