Finnish flyweight Mikael “Hulk” Silander (8-1) will have his biggest fight so far on Saturday at Cage Warriors 55 in Dublin, Ireland where he will lock horns with Ireland’s Neil Seery (12-9) for the promotion’s flyweight belt. Beforehand the match up looks like an exciting battle between a strong grappler in Silander and a dangerous striker in Seery.
Silander, who has notable wins over Michal Hamrsmid and Wade Choate, is the highest ranked Nordic Flyweight and holds 7th position on the European flyweight ranking. Silander’s only loss came via decision to Russia’s top ranked Ali Bagautinov at the Battle of Moscow 7 in June 2012. Physically powerful Silander is known for high level wrestling skills and ever improving submission grappling. Silander has finished four of his eight career wins by submission.
Dublin’s own Neil Seery is a technical striker who has fighting pro since 2005. After mixed results in higher weight classes, the Irish has found new success in the flyweight division. Seery has fought his last five bouts under the CageWarriors banner and gone 4-1 in those with lone loss coming to Lithuanian grappler Artemij Sitenkov at Cage Warriors 46. In his latest fight at Cage Warriors 53 in April, Seery knocked out Paul Marin with a hard round house kick to the liver.
In a recent video interview with our content partner FightSport.fi, the Finn shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight on foreign soil and how the preparation for the bout has gone.
“It will be the biggest fight of my career so far but even bigger fights will come after this one. Fighting on Seery’s home turf doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve fought on foreign soil before and it won’t have any affect on my performance. It’s a nice little addition that I get to fight a local guy for the title.” said the Finn.
Silander feels that he is well prepared for the battle on Saturday:
“I feel like I’m the best shape of my life right now. I’ve been able to stay healthy and train hard for the fight so I’m feeling great. We have watched some tape on Seery and studied his style. He looks to be dangerous on the feet and pretty good in everything.”
The Finn, who hasn’t fought since October 2012 when he submitted American veteran Wade Choate at Fight Festival 32, isn’t worried about the possible ring rust.
“I don’t think the time off from fighting is a problem in anyway, not physically or mentally. I’m been competing in freestyle wrestling and submission grappling on top of MMA training. The preparation for this fight has gone as planned so I feel like there hasn’t even been a break.” commented the confident Finn.
The sold out Cage Warriors 55 takes place this Saturday at the Helix Arena in Dublin, Ireland. The show will be headlined by a super exciting welterweight title fight between heavyhanded strikers Che Mills of England and Cathal Pendred of Ireland.
