Both promotion officials and Niklas Bäckström have confirmed that the bout will not happen due to the inability of Svensson to make the featherweight limit, or even the re-negotiated catchweight. Svensson struggled bringing down his weight close to the agreed to catch weight of 67.5 kg. It seems the Swede was close to 70.0 kg before his health turned for the worse and the match was forced into cancellation.
When MMA Viking talked to Bäckström about another opponent for his big Stockholm fight, he said “nobody wanted it”. So the undefeated featherweight that has waited and trained months for the bout will be left in the cold as other HILTI Stockholm fighters step into the cage. “I”m so sickened” says a Vision employee on finally making the decision that the bout will not be happening.
Vision officials posted on the website today “Unfortunately the day has been marred with controversy after Martin Svensson failed to make weight in his highly anticipated match up against Niklas Backstrom in the VISION featherweight division. Svensson failed to get below 69.5kg and the fight is now off. Svensson is notorious for cutting a huge amount of weight for his fights, being a huge fighter in the featherweight division at around 6ft 3″ in height.”
