Big heavyweights, IMMAF gold medalists go to war at Saturday’s Excellence MMA event in Sweden

Swedish MMA is booming. Following last weekends incredible Fight Club Rush 12 event we’ll now get even more local fights on this coming Saturday, courtesy of the Linköping-based promotion Excellence Fighting Championship.

Excellence was founded by Swedish MMA coach and referee Anders ”Taxi” Ohlsson and social media influencer Samuel Ericsson, who’s also a professional fighter in the Karate Combat organisation. They were about to put on their third event back in 2020 but as covid hit and government mandates were put in place that restricted public gatherings, they had no choice but to pump the breaks like most other sporting events around the world.

Now, they’re finally back with a fight card that features local amateur prospects, IMMAF gold medalists and a professional contest between Swedish heavyweights Jonnie Andersson and Salif David Diop as the main event.

 

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Andersson, who took a bronze medal at last year’s IMMAF World Cup in Prauge, will be making his professional debut infront of his hometown crowd. His opponent Diop, nicknamed ”Black Viking”, is also a former member if the Swedish national MMA team looking for his first win as a pro after loosing in his debut against rising star Nermin Hajdarpasic last year.

IMMAF gold medalists square off in Swedish superfight

In the co-main event of Excellence Fighting Championship 3, we’ll get to see what could be considered an IMMAF superfight between two of Sweden’s hottest amateur fighters as Nikolija Milosevic takes on Millie Eriksson in a bantamweight bout.

 

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Milosevic has really burst onto the scene and accomplished a lot despite being relatively green as a MMA fighter. She made her amateur debut at a BRAVE event in Stockholm back in 2020 and immediately displayed a surprisingly well-rounded game as she defeated the then-reigning Swedish champ Jessica Andersson by unanimous decision. She then returned to the cage at this years IMMAF world championship in Abu Dhabi and got home with a gold medal after winning four fights in the bantamweight division.

Most recently, Milosevic competed at the national MMA championship and became the official Swedish champ at bantamweight after finishing Jessica Andersson in a rematch. Now, she’ll take on Eriksson who’s a fellow IMMAF gold medalist herself.

Eriksson has far more experience in the cage and as long been considered a standout prospect at the Swedish amateur MMA scene. She was handpicked early by the national team management and got the opportunity to represent her country as the first-ever Swedish junior contestant at a IMMAF championship back in 2018, coming home with a silver medal from the Junior World Championship. She’s been a member of the national team since and most recently earned a gold medal at the IMMAF World Cup in Prague, where she competed at flyweight.

Excellence Fighting Championship 3: Official fight card

Check out the full fight card for Excellence Fighting Championship 3 down below!

Main card:

• Heavyweight: Jonnie Andersson vs. Salif Diop – professional bout
• Women’s bantamweight: Nikolija Milosevic vs. Millie Eriksson – amateur bout
• Welterweight: Tobias Söderberg vs. Ola Jacobsson – amateur bout
• Featherweight: Awat Kohzadi vs.  Ali Yazbeck – amateur bout
• Welterweight: Ilian Ayoub vs. Ludwig Lindefors – amateur bout

Prelims:

• Bantamweight: Sahand Shokohi vs. Hamid Tawana – amateur bout
• Middleweight: Oskar Carlsson vs. Tobias Seger – amateur bout
• Lightweight: Jafar Yousifi vs. Edward Homsi – amateur bout
• Featherweight: Fabian Long vs. Johan Ahlgren – amateur bout
• Lightweight: Anton Ringvall vs. Wahid Jarah – amateur bout
• 59 kg catchweight: Simon Alvhed vs. Markus Adolfsson – amateur bout

 

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Excellence Fighting Championship 3: Stream & start time

For those who want to check out the action in person in Linköping’s Sportcenter, there’s still some tickets left on Ticketmaster. Doors open at 5 p.m. CEST (17.00) and the first fight starts at 6 p.m. CEST (18.00).

You can also watch the official broadcast on brought by Fighter TV – a Swedish streaming service for fight fans that covers a variety of regional Swedish MMA events. The commentators will be Carl-Michael Andersson and Sebastian Vendel-Martinez.

Once the first fight starts at 6 p.m, the rest of the bouts will follow without any holdups which means that there’s no specific time set for when the main card begins. So make sure to tune in early on Saturday and watch the fighters go at it from the get-go!