Just three weeks ago at Superior Challenge 9 Finland’s Anton Kuivanen (20-7) put Sweden’s Diego Gonzalez to sleep with a flashy striking combination. Last night at the first ever Grand Combat Entertainment the Finnish lightweight scored another impressive knock out. This time it was Spanish veteran Oriol Gaset who fell victim to Kuivanen’s explosive striking attacks. At just one minute of the first round Kuivanen got a thai plum on Gaset and took the life out of the Spaniard with a crushing knee strike to the solar plexus.
“It was great to get back to action so quickly after the last fight. Really good atmosphere tonight. This was another short fight for me. I was just getting warmed up when it ended already. Training has been going really well this fall and early winter. I’ve been healthy so it’s been a lot of fun to work hard and improve as a fighter. We’ve been training together with all the top fighters in Finland. We travel to different gyms and those guys visit us at GB Gym in Helsinki. I’ve been really pleased with this arrangement.” commented the happy Finn in Häkkiradio’s interview.
Anton Kuivanen vs Oriol Gaset at Grand Combat Entertainment
Helsinki based Kuivanen (20-7) is now 3-1 after his three fight run in the UFC. Kuivanen won a clear decision over tough TUF vet Jason Pierce in May but suffered a surprising set back in September when he was knocked out at 30 second mark by American Ryan Reynolds at Cage 23. The win over respected veteran Gonzalez got the Finn back on track. Now with two impressive win under his belt Kuivanen can close the year on a positive note.
Kuivanen’s manager and assistant coach Olli Hartikainen was very satisfied with Kuivanen’s performance at GCE:
“People have been asking me that where is Kuivanen heading and what kind of shape he is in. My answer is: take three minutes of your time and use it to watch Anton’s last two fights. You can even watch the replays in that time. That’s what’s up with Kuivanen. He is a professional fighter who has the ability to end fights in a blink of an eye.” said Hartikainen to MMAViking.com after the event.
When asked about the reasons behind Kuivanen’s recent knock out wins, Hartikainen has simple answers.
“After the shock defeat to Reynolds, Kuivanen and his crew has done a lot of work to finding out what went wrong and what could be improved. Deep analysis of the things that lead to that loss and then right back to work. Also Kuivanen knows he has to finish guys in impressive fashion if he wants to get back to the UFC. Now we’re enjoying the fruits of hard work and determination.”
When and where Kuivanen will fight next, is still unclear at this point.
“We will sit down now and make a plan of where we go from here. Maybe Anton’s goes on a training camp abroad before the next fight. He has now two straight highlight knock outs under his belt which makes him an interesting fighter for the promotions. This also means that we will have multiple options to choose from. ” summarized Hartikainen.
For full results and play-by-play of GCE, check out our results page.
