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Five reasons you can’t miss Allstars Fight Night 5 on Saturday
Allstars Fight Night 5. Photo: Stefan Romare and Chris Önnerby
Allstars Fight Night has quickly become one of the hottest and fastest-growing MMA organizations in Scandinavia with their action packed fights at the state-of-the-art Allstars Training Center in Stockholm.
On Saturday the promotion returns with their fifth event to date, this time at the banquet hall Colosseum in Stockholm. The card features title fights, influencer fights and an amateur featherweight tournament.
Click ”Next” to check out Frontkick’s Tobias Lindkvist five biggest reasons to tune in to watch Allstars Fight Night 5!
Three title fights
Najib Adams will fight for the inagural amateur light heavyweight title. Photo Chris Önnerby
In the AFN 5 headliner we will see a bantamweight title bout where Mark Vologdin steps in on short notice to replace former champ Bernardo Sopai, who suddenly signed with the UFC. The young Allstars fighter comes from a first-round submission win at AFN 1 and will face Brazil’s Ricardo Monteiro for the vacant 135-lbs strap.
Saturday’s card has in fact no fewer than three title fights on the main card, two of them for amateur belts. The necessity of having titles in such a small organization has lately been a topic of discussion, but I really dig the concept of a title fight. I mean, what’s there not to like?
More titles to the people!
Featherweight tournament
Anton Ringvall will fight in the AFN tournament. Photo: Chris Önnerby
The tournament concept is growing popular among European MMA promotions and when AFN announced their amateur featherweight tournament it gained a lot of attention in the Swedish MMA scene.
Eight fighters will duke it out in Saturday’s quarterfinals but only one fighter will get the prize of a three-fight pro contract to win the promotion. Gymgrossisten will also provide the featherweight tournament winner a bunch of stuff, including a total amount of 10.000 SEK after winning his first pro fight with AFN.
Make it or break it for Megic Mike
Megic Mike. Photo Chris Önnerby
Fan or not – Megic Mike has brought a young audience to AFN that usually won’t go to MMA shows.
However, if the TikTok-star gets his second straight loss on Saturday, it will be hard for the promotion to continue having Megic Mike as a name to draw attention.
Another loss would take nothing away from him as a fighter or person, the social media star has proven a willingness to step into the cage to trade, and he should get credit for it. But for how much longer will the crowd be interested if he loses another fight?
Liam Pitts is the star of the show
Liam Pitts. Photo: Chris Önnerby
Liam Pitts is yet to make his professional debut but he’s for sure one of the most talked about MMA fighters in Sweden at the moment. Even though he’s not headlining the AFN cards he’s arguably still the fighter with most eyes on him. And that for a good reason too.
Instead of another hungry fighter coming from a tough background we have an up-and-comer who was known to the mainstream audience even before stepping into the cage, needing to prove himself over and over to win the respect of the Swedish MMA scene. It’s interesting, and well-worth pointing out, to see a skilled fighter from ”the other side” coming in to compete against the odds.
Personally I think Liam is just as good as he claims to be, and so far he ran through all opposition. Therefore the amateur bantamweight title fight is the highlight of the card in my opinion.
Change of venue
Allstars Fight Night 5. Photo: Chris Önnerby
One of the things I’ve been really enjoying with the previous AFN events is the dense, loud and hot-as-hell atmosphere at the Allstars Training Center. So when the organization decided to change the venue to the banquet hall Colosseum, with three course meals and charge 499 SEK for a ticket, a question inevitably came to mind; to what extent will the change affect the upcoming event?
Will the show miss something with the lack of young and loud MMA fans supporting their local favorite fighters in the gym, or will the change of scenery to the luxuries Colosseum actually do AFN good?
I guess we will see on Saturday!
Allstars Fight Night 5 lineup
Liam Pitts and Megic Mike. Photo: Chris Önnerby
The card will be streamed by afnmma.se starting at 18:00 CET.
Main card
- Bantamweight title bout: Mark Vologdin vs. Ricardo Monteiro
- Flyweight bout: Abdurakhman Nasrutdinov vs. Markus Adolfsson
- Catchweight bout (60 kg): Eli Elias vs. Hamid Tawana
- Bantamweight title bout (amateur): Liam Pitts (c) vs. Tufan Ahmadi
- Super heavyweight (amateur B-class): Megic Mike vs. Big Huappa
- Welterweight (amateur): Fabian Misk vs. Fredrik Sandberg
- Light heavyweight title bout (amateur): Najib Adams vs Malik Haziyev
- Catchweight bout (74 kg): Mukhammad Eskirkhanov vs. Lucas Tenorio
- Bantamweight bout (amateur): Mansor Rasouli vs. Giorgos Pilidis
Undercard
- Welterweight (amateur): Sebastian Palacio Gomez vs
- Welterweight (amateur): Emin Omic vs. Christian Hansen
AFN Amateur Featherweight Tournament
- Quarterfinal A: Elshod Aanvarov (Allstars) vs. Saikhan Sulimanov (Grottan Helsingborg)
- Quarterfinal B: George Youssef (Örebro Fight Gym) vs. Gustav Holmqvist (Nova MMA)
- Quarterfinal C: Sukhrob Tokhirov (Allstars) vs. Elias Ksia (GBG MAC)
- Quarterfinal D: Anton Ringvall (Hammarö Fight Club) vs. Raham Kafaei (Söders Fight Gym)
* Fight card is subject of change.
Read more: Top 15 Best MMA Gyms In Sweden