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NFC 134: Flashlighter vs Jokinen review
Nordic Fire Championship returned to the United States with a bang as NFC 134: Flashlighter vs. Jokinen showcased three hours worth of top-flight MMA action.
Eighty-eight thousand strong filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the company's first excursion outside Helsinki since October of 2011. Nearly 100,000 people watched worldwide via pay-per-view and the atmosphere was electric for this ten fight card, headlined by a champion vs. champion superfight between the #5 and #2 fighters in the world.
Not short of knockouts or controversial endings, the last of the preliminary card featured Jean Pierre Babin (9-1-0) facing Sampsa Siloposki (24-11-0). A world-class muay thai fighter and no stranger to the octagon, the NFC veteran Sampsa was looking to build off his first round knockout of Kosti Johannes at NFC 131. On the other side of the Octagon was the young and highly toted Babin, a knockout artist making his NFC debut. The fight started off fairly even, but around the first minute of roun done, Babin was able to open up a cut on Sampsa's forehead. Repeated left and right hands along with serious head kicks only opened the wound further, despite Siloposki being able to hang in there and shake off numerous shots that would fall a lesser opponent. In the second round he was able to score a takedown, but after a referee standup Jean Pierre Babin swarmed over Siloposki, connecting with punches at will. At 3:10 of round 2, the doctor was called in to look at Sampsa Siloposki's massively bleeding cut, and it was ruled that he wasn't fit to continue. Jean Pierre Babin wins by TKO in the last prelim bout of the evening, notching his first NFC win and carving a name for himself in the middleweight division.
Following that was a heavyweight bout between Peter Smith (21-10-0) and Hemmo Kalske (22-5-1) to begin the main card. Smith, making his NFC debut after a five-fight win streak in NFC: Challengers, came in to the fight a little bit shorter and way lighter than the 281 pound Kalske, who was riding a six-fight win streak dating back to his appearances in Challengers. Peter Smith dominated the fight early despite Kalske trying to chop down the legs. His aggression lead to him being able to rock Hemmo with a clipping hook in round three, though Kalske was able to recover. In the fourth round, Kalske scored with an elbow that cut Smith open. After 5 rounds, each judge scored it 50:45 Smith, and he came away with the victory.
Afterwards, the 185 match featuring Hiro Protagonist (23-8-1) and Silva Anderson (15-2-0) ended fairly quickly- to the tune of 13 seconds. At 0:13 of the first round, Protagonist landed a big combination that fell Silva and forced the referee to stop the fight. In his NFC debut, Hiro wins by TKO (Strikes).
The next match was another middleweight match between two fighters still rather young in their careers- the Finn Kalle Reinikainen (16-3-0) faced down Kurokawa Kenji (20-4-0). Reinikainen, coming off of a light heavyweight loss to Jeremy Tonal, dropped back down to his natural weight class at 185. "The Devil", as Kenji is called, was making his NFC debut. The fight early on was back-and-forth, with both fighters scoring with impressive strikes. At about a minute in, Kalle was able to cut Kenji with a jab. As the time went on, Kalle began to take control of the round, opening up the cut more and more before rocking Kurokawa near the end of the round. In round two, Reinikainen dropped Kurokawa with a devastating head kick, but Kurokawa Kenji was able to recover in time. However, at 2:21 of the second round, the doctor was called in to take a look at Kurokawa's cut, which had seriously worsened at the end of the first round. He decided that Kenji couldn't compete; Kalle Reinikainen comes away victorious in the co-main event of the evening by TKO (cut).
The main event of the evening was of course welterweight champion Felix Flashlighter (28-10-1) facing lightweight champion Otso Jokinen (20-3-0). Both fighters had been on win streaks prior to the match, though Jokinen's spanned nine fights versus Felix's three. Early on in the fight, both fighters came out swinging- Jokinen attempted three takedowns in the first round, but Flashlighter was able to defend all of them. However, Jokinen's impressive usage of the clinch definitely won the round for him, keeping Flashlighter controlled and peppering him with strikes against the cage. The second round showed Otso's olympian wrestling get the better of the larger fighter, taking down Felix twice. The third and fourth rounds were clearly experiments in frustration for Flashlighter as Otso arguably took both, with good octagon control in the former and scoring a takedown in the latter. Round five saw Felix stepping it up, swinging for the fences- however, it was not enough. The scores came in 46:50, 45:50 and 45:50 for Otso Jokinen, making him victorious in a early contender for FOTY 2012.
Also on the undercard: in a superheavyweight bout, Garson DeBramalo knocked out Diaz Brothers with an uppercut from hell, Tauno Palo beat Sean Michaels by decision, Jeggu Bomb took a decision from Kosti Johannes, Janne Maunonen scored the only submission victory of the night with a triangle submission over Tony Tauno, and Mikael Samoth defeated Rick Thompson in the first fight of the night.
All in all, the event showed the main moral of MMA- anything can happen. Until next time, this has been the Nordic Fire Championship.
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