Imagine a world where MMA is organized like Football or Baseball and the only time you get to watch fights is during the season. Imagine having to go months upon months without being able to watch any fights. Please check your heart rate and oxygen intake. Most of us can’t even go a full week of zero MMA without having physical withdrawl symptoms like convulsions or random acts of vomitting. It’s a frightening concept for us, but a reality for MMA fans in Finland.
That’s because Finland doesn’t do MMA in the summer, only the winter. Sort of like our Football or Hockey seasons. I guess it’s not so bad because a Finnish winter can last anywhere from 100-200 days depending on how far north you go. That means they only go about 3 months or so without any MMA and it’s not as though they don’t have access to the internet or television. Still at 3 months without local events, I might need grief counseling or medication to treat my depression.
Maybe the time without MMA makes the lead up to the events even more exciting. I picture the Finns holding tailgate style parties outside the arenas prefight. Coming together in fight night comraderie to celebrate with pickled herring and roasting reindeers on giant spigots and chugging bottles of homebrewed juniper beer.
Here’s what the lineup of first three weeks of Finland MMA 2011-2012 looks like. There’s a few UFC vets in the mix:
Botnia Punishment X on Sept 23, 2011
Jarkko Latomäki, Team BP / Shooters MMA 18-7-0 vs Diego Gonzalez, Hilti BJJ, Sweden 13-5-0
James ” Scraps ” Saville, Caged Steel, England 8-3-0 vs Thomas “Moon Lee” Hytten, Team Hell Boy, Norway 9-7-1
Welterweight title fight : Olli-Jaakko Uitto, Team BP 7-1-1 vs Manuel Sully, Parebellum Combat Club, France 6-1-0
Glenn Sparv, Team BP 3-0-0 vs Jan Doskocil, GFC Team / UFC Hradek Kralove, Chech Republic 4-0-0
Johnny Isaksson, Team BP, Finland 3-0-1 vs Filip Macek, GCF Team, Chech Republic 5-2-0
Juhani Aho, Team BP / Shooters MMA 0-0-0 vs Tommi Marttinen, Mikkeli Full Contact 1-0-0
Fight Festival 31 October 1, 2011
Lucio Linhares, Brasilia vs Kenny Robertson, USA
Niko Puhakka, Espoon Kehähait vs John Gunderson, USA
Marcus Vänttinen, Fight Factory vs Victor Valimaki, Kanada
Jarkko Jussila, Vaasan Budokan vs Petar Zivkovic, Serbia
Juha-Pekka Vainikainen, Espoon Kehähait vs Steve Lopez, USA
Joni Salovaara, Espoon Kehähait vs Paul Reed, Englanti
Janne Elonen-Kulmala, Espoon Kehähait vs Donatas Karlonas, Liettua
Mikael Silander, Espoon Kehähait vs Perttu Paatola, Tampereen Kamppailu-urheilijat
Anton Kuivanen GB Gym / Team MMA Finland ( 15-4-0 ) vs Curt Warburton ( 7-3-0 ) Wolfslair Academy England
Ville Räsänen ( 11-3-0 ) MMA Imatra vs Assan Njie (11-2-0 ) GBG MMA
Tom Niinimäki (15-5-0 ) FFG vs Johnny Fracley ( 13-8-0 ) A.B.S / F.S.T
Jarno Nurminen (5-2-0 ) Team Scandinavia vs Catalin Zmarandescu (6-2-0) Romania
Maiju Kujala (6-3-0) MMA Lappeenranta vs Karla Benitez ( 5-0-0 ) Espanja
Whoa, that’s a whole bunch of MMA for the next three weeks in the land of fin. Looks as though the Bosnia Punishment event is something fans can even check out via Facebook according to thier website. You can get updates and more info on Finland MMA via Beatings from the North. Nautiskella. [source]
