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Some of the most epic moments in Swedish combat sports history!
Klara Svensson, Ingemar Johansson and Alexander Gustafsson is important names in Swedish combat sports
Boxing world titles, Olympic gold medals and grudge matches – let’s take a look at seven of the biggest and most historic combat sports moments in Swedish history!
7. Grudge match between Lauren and Svensson, 2016
The epic 2016 grudge match between Klara Svensson and Mikaela Laruen is by far the one of the biggest Swedish boxing fights ever.
When the fired-up rivals squared off at Hovet in Stockholm, with the vacant WBC interim welterweight title on the line, there was so much more at stake than just a world title.
Svensson and Laruen were the absolute best female boxers in Sweden at the time, but genuinely did not like each other. The two rivals had traded verbal jabs for months, fuelling the rivalry, before Svensson moved up a weight class and Lauren moved down, so they could finally duke it out at welterweight.
”It was a conflict that was for real, it was no act. Everyone felt the tension between us when we were in the same room,” Svensson said about the rivalry.
The fight went the distance in ten bloody and tough rounds, and after the final bell, Svensson stood as the winner via unanimous decision.
The fact that people still talk about the boxing bout, more than six years later, shows proof of how unique it was and the impact it in Sweden.
”I’m proud. We never had a hype like that ahead of a boxing bout in Sweden before,” Lauren said six years after the fight. ”I think it was a big thing for boxing and women’s sport. There were a lot of people that didn’t even know that boxing events could be arranged in Sweden.”
6. Alexander Gustafsson headlines Tele2 Arena, 2015
Photo: Troy Taormina – USA TODAY Sports
The fight between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson in Stockholm is one of the absolute highlights in Swedish combat sports.
The pair headlined a UFC event at a sold out Tele2 Arena, and for the card to be broadcasted live during Prime time hours in the US, the main card began in a very inconvenient hour in Sweden.
To be able to sell out 30,000 seats for an MMA event, with a main card starting at two o’clock in the morning local time, shows what an enormous star Gustafsson was at the time.
Perhaps the Swedish National Football team could pull off something similar if they played the World Cup finals, but other than that, no other sports star in Sweden could ever sell out such a crazy event in the middle of the night. Period.
5. Smilla Sundell becomes youngest ONE champion, 2022
In April 2022, Swedish Muay Thai star Smilla Sundell defeated Jackie Buntan to win the inaugural ONE women’s strawweight title.
After five thrilling rounds, where Sundell showed relentless pressure as she picked her opponent apart with quick and accurate strikes, she was awarded the victory by unanimous decision.
Just 17 years old at the time, Sundell wrote history as the youngest fighter to ever win a world title in the promotion’s Muay Thai division.
“I’m so happy right now. It’s my biggest dream coming true,” Sundell said post-fight.
4. Badou Jack becomes three-division world champion, 2023
Badou Jack. Photo: Joe Camporeale – USA TODAY Sports
When 39-year-old Badou Jack dethroned WBC cruiserweight champion Junior Makabu in February 2023, he wrote Swedish combat sports history as he became a three-division boxing world champ.
The Swede put on a masterclass perforcmance as he outboxed and battered Makabu throughout the fight, dropping him in round four and eleven, just to finish him with a barrage of punches in round twelve.
3. Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jon Jones 1, 2013
Alexander Gustafsson and Jon Jones. Photo: Tom Szczerbowski – USA TODAY Sports
The 2013 UFC light heavyweight title fight between Alexander Gustafsson and Jon Jones marks a before and after moment for how Swedish people viewed the sport of MMA.
When Alex stepped into the cage, very few expected that he would give Jones the hardest fight to this day. Over five tough and bloody rounds, Gustafsson gave the champion all kinds of hell as he battered and cut Jones in a way that no fighter has done before or after.
And even if he didn’t win the fight on the scorecards, the impact it had on Swedish MMA is unmeasurable.
When Gustafsson left the cage, he might have lost the razor-thin fight, but he had won the hearts of MMA fans all over the world – as well as the Swedish public in general.
”The Mauler” became a household name in a country where MMA was considered something for thugs. His fame reached well beyond the borders of combat sport, and opened doors for each and every fighter that is part of Swedish MMA today.
2. Swedish wrestlers wins 10 Olympic medals, 1932
Ivar Johansson. Picture by IOC
It’s a well kept secret that wrestling is the Olympic sport where Swedish athletes found most success over the years. 28 (!) Olympic gold medals has so far gone to yellow-blue wrestlers.
Most of these medals were won in earlier decades of the 20th century, and it’s particularly one year that stands out as the highlight of this nation’s wrestling history.
Under the red-hot California sun at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the Swedish wrestlers pulled off one of the absolute biggest achievements in the history of Swedish combat sports – or any sport for that matter – as they won no fewer than ten medals.
And wrestling stand-out Ivar Johansson became the first wrestler to ever win two gold medals at the same Olympic games.
He first won gold in freestyle wrestling, as a middleweight. Then Johansson skipped the medal ceremony to drop weight in the sauna, and the day after, he won his second gold in Greco-Roman wrestling, at welterweight.
1. Ingemar Johansson becomes heavyweight boxing champion, 1959
Ingemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson at Yankee Stadium
Among all the classic moments in Swedish sports, it’s hard to not put heavyweight boxer Ingemar Johansson’s 1959 win over Floyd Patterson at the top of the bill.
”Ingo” entered the ring in Yankee Stadium as a 5–1 underdog, but after giving Patterson an exceptionally brutal battering the fight was stopped in the third round, and Sweden had their first, and so far only, heavyweight boxing world champion.
There was a massive hype surrounding the bout, but sadly, the board of the Swedish Public Service decided to not broadcast the event on radio nor national television as professional boxing was (and still is to a certain point) considered to be something ugly in the country.
However, three million Swedes, which was more than 1/3 of the population at the time, listened to the title fight live via Radio Luxembourg, where commentator Lars-Henrik Ottoson guided them through the greatest Swedish combat sports moment of all time.
Read more: Complete list: Here are Sweden’s 29 UFC fighters throughout history