Our content partner FightSport.fi interviewed many of the fighters from the Carelia Fight 8 card. Here are some thoughts from the fighters about their upcoming bouts.
Ville Räsänen (fights Sergei Bal):
“My training for this fight has gone extremely well so I’m feeling really confident about Saturday’s fight. Sergei Bal has heavy hands and overall he is really good on the feet. I think I’m the better grappler. I’ve taken a leave of absence from my day job and trained really hard the whole summer. I’m pleased with the improvement that I’ve gain recently. Fighting in front of my hometown crowd gives me an extra boost which is why I love to fight at Carelia Fight shows.”
Toni Valtonen (fights Ilja Skondric):
“I’ve been excited about this fight for the last few weeks. I’m coming back from my longest break in my career but I’m expecting that a new climb will begin from this fight. I know Skondric is a really aggressive fighter that tries to take your head off with each strike he throws. Lately I have put a lot of effort in improving my wrestling technique and I’m planning to use it in this fight. ”
Juha Saarinen (fights Florian Martin):
“I took some time off after the Agaev fight to allow couple of injuries to heal but now I’m a good shape and eager to fight. I have cut down on boxing training and focused more on MMA sparring. We’ve also sparred with Toni Valtonen who is in great shape too. Martin looked more of a grappler in the videos I saw but those were old clips. I got to stay sharp on the feet in case Martin has been working on his striking game for the last few years.
Timo-Juhani Hirvikangas (fights Freddy Debessel):
“My summer training went really went and I manage to get a lot work done. I’ve been putting a lot of effort to improving my conditioning that has been my weak point in the past. Your skills won’t help you if you’re too tired to use them. On the technical side I’ve work the most on wrestling and striking. It feels that everything is going better on those areas of the game now. I basically don’t know anything about the opponent other than they said he was more of a grappler but I’m not too stressed about it. I have trained hard to be a better fighter without focusing on some specific opponent.”
