Sweden
Tobias Harila ready to earn Cage Warriors title shot – slams top featherweights for ducking him
Tobias Harila, one of the top MMA prospects in Sweden, is scheduled to return to action at Cage Warriors 141 in London on July 22.
As first reported by Maximum Sports, “Bad Intention” will now face former title challenger James Hendin.
View this post on Instagram
Speaking exclusively to Frontkick.online, Harila said that this is the fight that will earn him a shot at the promotion’s featherweight strap. Nothing else makes sense anymore.
“James Hendin was pretty much the only featherweight under contract with Cage Warriors who said yes when he got offered to fight me,” Tobias Harila told Frontkick. “Everyone else has been turning me down. Since I sign with Cage Warriors, they’ve pretty much had to bring new fighters into the organization to fight me and I don’t really care about that, but the only problem is that no one knows who I’m fighting then. When no one following Cage Warriors knows who these guys are, I feel like those kind of fights doesn’t get me to the title as quickly.
“However, James Hendin has been in there with most of the guys in my division. He’s fought Paul Hughes and Jordan Vucenic amongst others. In my mind, a win against him – preferably a knock out – will weigh heavily. My understanding is that I’ll become the clear No. 1 contender by defeating him.”
Tobias “Bad Intention” Harila has gold in sight. Photo by Johnathon “SWEEP” Michael/Frontkick.online
Tobias Harila: “Paul Hughes is ducking me”
Last year, Harila went to the US to spend seven weeks with some of the best fighters in the world at Henri Hooft’s Sanford MMA gym in Florida. He was then supposed to fight shortly after returning back home in December, but ended up having to wait until March of this year due to a string of last-second cancelations, shifts of opponents and fighters turning him down.
When he finally got to return to the cage, Harila scored a big first-round knockout win against Declan McAleenan at lightweight.
Since then, the Swede has been targeting a fight against interim champion Paul Hughes at Cage Warriors 140, scheduled to go down in Belfast on June 25. However, those plans fell through when Hughes announced that he wouldn’t be fit to compete on the card.
View this post on Instagram
Harila has been terrorizing Hughes on social media, accusing him of running scared. But when asked about him recently, he didn’t elaborate much as his focus has now shifted towards Hendin instead.
“I don’t really have that much to say about him at the moment,” Harila replied. “Paul Hughes is ducking me. He’s been doing anything he can to avoid a fight against me.”
Preparing with top-level sparring at Allstars
Ahead of the Hendin fight, Harila will mostly stay at home to do most of his preparations with head coach Jörgen Hamberg at Västerås Fight Club, were he’s been training at since the beginning of his MMA journey.
Jörgen Hamberg has been coaching Tobias Harila since day one. Photo by Johnathon “SWEEP” Michael/Frontkick.online
However, he’s also been going to Allstars Training Center to spar as of late – and plans to continue doing that every now and then too.
“I just went sparring with Guram Kutateladze, Felipe Lima and Adam Borics at Allstars. It’s always fun to spar with those guys and I’ll be going there a few more times ahead of this fight,” Harila said.
View this post on Instagram
Read more: Rising Stars: Here Are Sweden’s Top 17 MMA Prospects
Subscribe to Frontkick.online on YouTube for the best MMA videos and interviews in Scandinavia!
