EVT 5 “Phoenix – European Grand Prix” was held in Stockholm, Sweden, on the 8th of October, at a sold out Solnahallen. Four 4-man tournaments were to be decided in one evening, meaning the winners of each semi final had to face the winner of the other semi final in his weight class. When the smoke had cleared, the 5th edition of European Vale Tudo stood out as one of the very best MMA shows in this part of the world. The famous Judoka, former Pride Bushido fighter and FightSport editor, Bernard Amoussou went as far as calling it “the best event outside of Japan” he´d ever seen, and he has attended the last several UFC shows, among others!

Normally there are at least one or two snoozers at even the best events, but EVT “Phoenix” turned out to be almost magic, in that way. Every single fight showcased hungry, skilled athletes, who put on marvellous performances, by fighting with intensity, aggression, creativity and confidence. None of the participants in this European Grand Prix fought not to lose. No, these guys all came to win. And win big!

As always the Swedish fans impress, with their knowledge and appreciation of the game´s finer details. Of course they applaud when a fighter gets through with a punch right on the button or a big slam, but even more so, they cheer when they are seeing skilful manoeuvres. Submission attempts and escapes or even fine defensive details are appreciated loudly, which makes for a fantastic atmosphere, surrounding the cage. Several of the foreign fighters commented on this, as they had never experienced this before. The amateur MMA event, Cage Challenge 3, was held at the same arena a few hours before the tournament was set to start. But even here, the fans showed how dedicated they are, as Solnahallen was more or less filled up with fans, at the start of the amateur event. Cage Challenge 3 was a good warm-up to the main show, as the 10 amateur fights showed some of the new talents in Northern Europe, but also served as an evident eye opener to the leap in levels between the amateur fighters and the top pro fighters.

In a battle of southpaws, Thomas Hytten (Team Frontline, Norway) and Bendy Casimir (Team Haute Tension, France) had the honour of opening the show, in this first -70 kg semi final. Bendy (4-2-1) opened best, by catching a lowkick and taking the Norwegian fighter down. Bendy attacked Hyttens legs and worked hard for kneebars and heelhooks, before Hytten (4-3-1) managed to grab a hold of Bendy´s head and pull himself to safety. Before the event, Hytten told Fighter “You won´t recognise me. I´m a changed fighter. I´m much more aggressive now”. True to his word, Hytten started unleashing thunderous bombs from within the Frenchman´s guard, and the crowd got louder and louder, as referee Marko Ervasti had to jump in to save the semi-unconscious Bendy at the 4:51 mark of the 1st round. This crushing win secured Hytten his place in the final.

In the other semi final in the -70 kg division, somebody´s zero had to go, as the undefeated Jarkko Latomaki (Shootfighting Lappeenranta, Finland) took on the undefeated dark horse, in Blazej Woznicki (Bastion Tychy, Poland). Latomäki (4-0-0) brought the 5 kilos lighter Woznicki (2-0-0) down immediately, but found himself wrapped up in a Polish lock flow. Woznicki transitioned beautifully into an armbar, as they hit the ground, and Latomäki fought hard to escape and barely managed to get out, before he was locked in a triangle choke and then in an armbar again. The crowd went nuts and screamed and hollered as the Polish slickster put on a beautiful display in offensive guard use. The Finnish warrior showed poise and got out of all the submissions attempts, before he was swept. Just as Woznicki was loading up on a big right, Latomäki showed surprising guard skills of his own, as he used the opening to snap on a tight triangle choke and worked the armbar from the triangle for the tap out at 3:55 of the 1st round. That meant a submission win and a place in the final, for Latomäki.

Local hero, Mattias Awad (Örebro MMA Center, Sweden) took on the hard hitting Mohammed Khacha (French Top Team, France) in the first -77 kg semi final. Having seen Awad (2-0-0) on tape, Khacha (5-2-0, 1 NC) knew he couldn’t let the Swede take him down, so he used footwork, lateral movement and defensive skills to confuse Awad, with an elusive target. Suddenly he would switch mode, throw single right hand bombs and by doing this he seriously rocked Awad , knocked him down and took him completely out of the fight. The pattern continued in the 2nd round, but with 1½ minute left Awad finally got Khacha down, backmounted and rained down punches on Khacha, who laid on his side covering up, when referee Ervasti made a somewhat quick stoppage due to the strikes. “I don´t feel like I made a mistake. He wasn´t defending himself intelligently. He laid on the side, covering up, but didn´t do anything. If I was in this position 100 times, I would do the same thing in all 100 situations”, stated Ervasti afterwards. Awad was battered, hurt and his face told the story, as he was all swollen up, but he showed so much heart and desire, which took him to the final, in the end.

Fabricio Nascimento (Nova Uniao Italy, Italy) ate a big kick at the very start, from Dennis Siver (Kiboju, Germany) in the other -77 kg semi final. Nascimento (9-2-0) managed to get Siver (5-0-0) down, though, as Siver followed up with another kick, and quickly worked in a tight kimura. The German fought desperately to get out, but tapped out after his elbow cracked at the 0:47 mark, and Nascimento celebrated his spot in the final.

In the first -83 kg semi final, Daniel Weichel (Power Academy, Germany) nullified Boris Jonstomp´s (Team Haute Tension, France) wicked stand-up game and took this fight to the ground. Both fighters slammed the other hard and worked for submissions, as the fans hollered wildly, in the 1st round. Weichel (8-1-0) used his wrestling to take Jonstomp (2-2-0) down, but the Frenchman´s explosiveness made this an exciting back and forth match, as he showed good defence on the ground. The German prodigy showed his impressive ground game, as he escaped a guillotine choke, immediately took Jonstomp´s back and choked him out at 2:12 of the 2nd round, to advance to the final.

Antonio Tello (Allianza MMA, Spain) was taken down twice by the very popular local, Johan Antonsson (Team Yamasaki, Sweden), but he turned out to be too big a mountain to climb for Antonsson, in the second -83 kg semi final. Antonsson (1-1-0) couldn´t get his punches off, on the ground, and tired as Tello (4-1-0) grew stronger. A short punch on the inside, opened up a cut high on Rocco´s head, but it never got to be a factor. The Spaniard turned a takedown attempt from the Swede into his own advantage and landed in sidemount. He mounted, punched away, Rocco rolled over and Tello sunk in the choke for the victory at 3:15. Unfortunately, Tello injured his knee and broke a toe during this fight, and Antonsson, to the delight of the Swedish fans, took his place in the final.

The much smaller Rafael Silva (Fernando Loio Team, Portugal) was very much the underdog against Mikka Illmen (GB Gym Helsinki, Finland), in this first semi final in the -91 kg division. Silva (2-1-0) showed no respect, though, and took down Ilmén (3-7-0), sunk in a tight guillotine choke, rolled to guard and took Ilmén´s feared punching power, strength and weight advantage out of the match, as the Finnish fighter was forced to tap out after only 45 seconds. Silva impressed and hardly broke a sweat, on his way to the final.

Gregorz Jakubowski (Mighty Bulls, Poland) bored in and took down Francis Carmont (Team Haute Tension, France) after the inaugural feeling out process. Jakubowski (10-3-2) punched a bit, but couldn´t get anything serious off. Carmont (1-2-0) adeptly swept the Polish grappler, but Jakubowski adjusted and locked in a guillotine as he was rolled over. The Frenchman fought hard to escape, but to no avail, and tapped out at 1:52, which secured Jakubowski the last spot in the final.

In the -70 kg final, Hytten came out aggressively, but Latomäki, tried to shoot instead of trading bombs with the Norwegian. Hytten sprawled, turned Latomäki into the fence and down on the ground. Hytten was on fire this night, showed world class and at this point, it was really just a matter of time, as he once again started to throw heavy, heavy punches, from Latomäki´s guard. These weren´t the typical pitty-patty GnP punches. Hytten got maximum leverage into his shots, which he landed with almost surgical precision, one at a time. “Punches thrown with bad intentions”, as Mike Tyson once coined the term. Latomäki was more or less knocked out, and he tapped out at 1:15 from the strikes. “It all went black and then I decided to tap out” the gracious loser said. The -70 kg winner said: “It went really well. I felt strong out there and this is a big step for me in the right direction for me.”

The -77 kg final turned out to be the fight of the night, as the battered Awad took on the fresh Nascimento. The Italian BJJ black belt charged in, got Awad down and looked for a quick win. Showing a bit of arrogance, Nascimento decided to go for a kneebar, giving up his position. Awad defended well, worked out of the submission bit by bit and started to secure Nascimento´s back. At this point it felt like the roof came off Solnahallen, as the crowd exploded and with them, so did Awad. Nascimento got guard and went for an armbar, but Awad started to GnP him to pieces. The Italian took a beating in the 1st round, but Awad simply increased the pace in the 2nd and worked Nascimento over. Awad kept throwing leather, and nullified Nascimento´s submission attempts. Nascimento was clearly frustrated and desperately went for another kneebar, which led to the end. Awad defended again, got his back and as every single person in the building screamed their lungs out (at least that´s what it sounded like) he sunk in the RNC and Nascimento tapped out at 4:07 of the 2nd round. “It feels so good and especially to win this way, by choking out a BJJ black belt. I´m really tired, but very, very happy”, said the amazing -77 kg tournament winner.     

Weichel took on Antonsson, in the -83 kg final, and put on a sizzling display in technique, intensity and will to win, at all times. Rocco came out hard, but Weichel countered with a whizzer, throwing the bigger man. Antonsson got up, though, took his back and tried suplexing Weichel. The powerful Swede got on top, but couldn´t pass Weichel´s guard and the young German neutralized his offence. As the scrambled to their feet, Antonsson shot in again, but Weichel sprawled, sunk in a modified RNC and moved to Rocco´s back, one step at a time ending the fight at 3:41 and winning the -83 kg tournament. “This is amazing. This isn´t my natural weight, but I overcame the size disadvantage and won both my fights on submission. I love the Swedish fans and their appreciation of the sport”, Weichel told Fighter afterwards.   
 

The final in -91 kg turned out to be a technical battle between two very good grapplers. For 2 full rounds, both of them looked for submissions. Silva, being the smaller man, worked from the bottom and made good attempts at submitting Jakubowski, but after a duel of leglocks went in Jakubowski´s favour and he came close to submitting the Portuguese on a toehold, the bigger man took over. A good big man beats a good small man, they say, which could have been the case here, as Silva was giving away several kilos, but the Polish warrior simply had the answer for whatever Silva tried. Jakubowski dominated from top, but never came closer to beating Silva than the leglock counter in the 1st round. Jakubowski won a 3-0 after two completed round. With this -91 kg tournament victory he has secured his career´s biggest win.

This was a breathtaking event. Hytten looked absolutely unstoppable at -70 kg and there´s no telling how far he will go, now. The form he displayed this night is world class. It´s as simple as that. Weichel impressed all by his amazing all-round game, attacking all the time, and it´s almost surreal that he´ll peak some 7-8 years from now. Jakubowski showed solid grappling skills and showed that big men can put on technical performances, winning both fights on his technique.