Porvoo, a small coastal city in South of Finland, is known for it’s high quality fighters in MMA, BJJ and especially Muay Thai. On the 8th and 9th of June it’s central market serves as a battleground for the multifaceted Battle of Porvoo 3event. The show will spread over two nights and includes both amateur and professional bouts in Muay Thai, MMA and Boxing. Saturday’s event is filled with Muay Thai Finnish Championships bouts while Friday’s card was more diverse. Friday night was headlined by a high quality Muay Thai bout between Finland’s Antero Hynynen and Thailand’s Check Bin who is a former champ of the famous Racthadamnoen Stadium.
For MMA fans there were two MMA fights on Friday’s card. Hometown hero Johan Vänttinen, a rising welterweight prospect, took on Latvian Darius Kavarzan in a welterweight bout. The Latvian fighter comes from a Muay Thai background which showed early as he started off with kicks. Vänttinen was the better grappler of the two and was looking to take the fight to the ground as soon as possible. The Finn landed a takedown early in the fight and quickly progressed to mount. From the mount Vänttinen landed heavy elbows on his opponent who was unable to escape the tough position. After few hard shots the ref had seen enough and waved off the bout. With the TKO win Vänttinen progressed to 8-2 on his pro career and is now riding a five fights win streak with only one of those fights going to distance.
In the other MMA fight Espoo’s top ranked featherweight Joni Salovaara was looking to bounce back to winning ways after suffering a disappointing loss to Lithuanian submission expert Sergej Grecicho in May. Salovaara was also matched up with a Latvian striker in Roman Siaudinis. Salovaara countered Siaudinis’ kicks with a stiff 1-2 combination that sent Siaudinis to the floor. On the ground Salovaara quickly achieved dominant position. From the side mount the Finn locked in a kimura hold that forced Siaudinis to tap out. The win moves Salovaara to 11-5 overall and 8-1 in his last nine bouts.
