Makwan Amirkhani36, has made a significant international career in the freestyle cage.
“Mr., who has fought 14 times in the world’s biggest sport organization UFC. Finland” has now drifted into a losing streak of four matches. Of these, Amirkhani lost the last two fights in the European Oktagon promotion.
The first match in Finland in more than ten years is now ahead. Amirkhani will face the 41-year-old Swede by Fernando Flores At the Vantaa Ice Cage event on December 28.
In his professional career, Flores has won 12 matches and lost as many. Despite his experience, “El Toro” has not been seen in internationally significant organizations, and he has played his entire career in the Nordic countries, except for a couple of stints in Germany.
of the Ice Cage event at the press conference and when talking to sports people, Flores has been described, among other things, as a “warm-up opponent” and a “throw bag”.
If the losses suffered in the Octagon organization were humiliating experiences after the UFC career, losing to Flores on his home field would be a complete disaster for Amirkhani.
– It’s quite a warm-up opponent for me, who would I piss off with it. But you can always get lucky. I should eat that alive, Amirkhani admits to Urheilu.
Amirkhani adds that “many people think Flores is a mouse”, but he himself should approach the match like a lion in a cage.
Despite this, the Finnish player does not seem to consider his opponent a great threat.
– It must be won dominantly and overwhelmingly. I’m not saying Fernando is bad, but I’ve been fighting for the last ten years at a level where that night can end well.
Tough talk
Amirkhani says he plans to compete up to five times next year.
– I want to hurry. More in Finland, but whether those matches are in the Ice Cage or the Octagon, I’ll say after them To Sean Shelby (UFC matchmaker) to understand why he believed I would become something big.
The goal sounds unrealistic, because Mr. In its long professional career, Finland has never competed five times in one calendar year. The previous and at the same time the only calendar year of four matches in Amirkhan’s career is 2012.
With the Flores struggle, the balance for 2024 will be three matches. Amirkhani lost in March To Mochamed Machaeville and in June For Attila Korkmaz In the Octagon organization.
Originally, Oktagon and Amirkhan’s plan was to organize four matches for the Finn this year, but the injury in the Korkmaz match changed the schedules. Amirkhani suffered a bad shoulder injury that required surgery and sidelined the fighter for six months.
According to the estimates of people who closely followed Amirkhani, the talk of a UFC return is utopian at the moment.
Right now, Amirkhan’s only trump card is that he should still have good relations with the UFC and that the fighter is a man familiar to the Vegas organization.
Amirkhani says that he thinks that it is enough for him to believe in himself.
– I honestly feel that there is a possibility (to return to the UFC one day).
Has there been any talk with the UFC for a long time?
– There is nothing to talk about, you have to show otherwise. Little birds always talk, and if that’s not enough, you have to take more matches. Christmas is the first obstacle, says Amirkhani.
However, the freelancer is already 36 years old, and he hasn’t won a match in over two and a half years.
Succeeding in his UFC return goals would now require Amirkhani to stay healthy and be able to fight as many times as possible in the near future in order for him to build some sort of winning streak.
The last time Amirkhani has been on a winning streak of more than two matches was in 2014−2016, when he won four matches.
Anaconda
Amirkhani feels that during his losing streak, he has not been in the right state of mind and the potential has therefore remained unrealized.
The beginning of the matches is usually good, but then Mr. Finland starts to whistle.
– It doesn’t matter where you fight in the future, if everything is not in order upstairs. You have to be well prepared, Amirkhani says now.
This time, he believes he is ready for anything.
– If you have to stand and hit, then let’s hit. The situation must be controlled all the time. The further the match goes, the worse I make a mark.
In Vantaa, we might see a bravura stranglehold if Flores is, as expected, the winning party.
– No offense to the opponent, but I wonder if it should be pulled straight to the anaconda, Amirkhani downloads.
No excuses
Amirkhani’s match condition is a bit of a mystery, because the orthopedic surgeon at Fenix medical center in Porvoo Christer Lybäck recommended to Amirkhan after the surgery in the summer that he would not fight again this year.
The estimated recovery time was about half a year. However, according to Lybäck, fighting at the end of the year was just within the limits of possibilities, if everything goes well.
However, Amirkhani has not had time to complete the very long training period and preparation period with a completely healthy hand.
Lybäck now tells that Amirkhan’s recovery went well and that he can fight.
– I don’t think that (the operated shoulder) will have an effect at all. A full recovery was expected.
Amirkhani claims that he hasn’t even thought about his hands being broken and bandaged for a while.
Lybäck believes that a broken shoulder should not weigh on the fighter’s mind and that it should not affect the fight anyway.
– There is a risk of recurrence after the dislocation, but in this case the ligaments were repaired at an early stage.
So we saw a healthy Amirkhani in the cage, even though the match comes quickly after the injury.
– There shouldn’t be an increased risk, but there can always be a new injury, says Lybäck.
So there can be no excuses: Amirkhani is a huge early favorite. There must be a cover for tough talk now, but the UFC is probably too distant a dream, even if he wins his “warm-up opponent”.