Paulo Thiago
Stockholm card filling up
The UFC’s debut in Sweden has a few more fights official for three months from now.
The promotion early Tuesday announced the addition of five previously reported fights to UFC on Fuel TV 2, which is slated for April 14 in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital city.
Siyar Bahadurzada will make his UFC debut against Paulo Thiago; DaMarques Johnson (16-9, 4-3 UFC) is official for a fight with John Maguire (17-3, 1-0 UFC), news previously reported by HeavyMMA; Simeon Thoresen will make his UFC debut fellow promotional newcomer Besam Yousef; Cyrille Diabate meets Swedish newcomer Jörgen Kruth at light heavyweight; and middleweight Francis Carmont meets Swedish UFC rookie Magnus Cedenblad. The UFC said verbal agreements are in place for all five fights.
Before the official announcement of these five fights for Sweden, the UFC had announced a middleweight bout between Brian Stann (11-4, 5-3 UFC) and Italian fighter Alessio Sakara (15-8, 6-5 UFC) and a welterweight bout between Papy Abedi (8-1, 0-1 UFC) and James Head (7-2, 0-1 UFC).
Bahadurzada (20-4-1), an Afghanistan-born striker who has lived in Holland the last 12 years, makes his UFC debut on a six-fight winning streak, including wins over UFC veterans Derrick Noble and John Alessio. The Golden Glory-trained welterweight signed with the promotion last fall and was booked to make his debut this week at UFC 142 against Erick Silva. But an injury forced him out, pushing his first appearance to the Sweden card. Thiago (14-3, 4-3 UFC) also was supposed to fight at UFC 142, but was forced out with an injury. He is coming off a win over David Mitchell at UFC 134 in Rio in August, which snapped a two-fight skid.
Diabate (17-8-1, 2-2 UFC) will look to get back in the win column after a loss to Anthony Perosh at UFC 138 in November. The French kickboxer last won last March at UFC on Versus 3 with a unanimous decision win over Steve Cantwell. He’ll welcome Kruth (5-0), an accomplished Stockholm-born kickboxer and Muay Thai practitioner who has finished all five of his MMA bouts in the first round.
Yousef (6-0) comes to the UFC with an undefeated record and four first-round finishes, all for the Sweden-based The Zone FC promotion. His four first-round finishes lasted an average of just 1:08. Thoresen (16-2-1) comes to the UFC from Norway, and is a BAMMA and Deep veteran who holds a win over Maguire, who fights Johnson on the same card. And Carmont (17-7, 1-0 UFC) tries to make it 2-0 in the UFC when he faces Swedish fighter Cedenblad (10-3), who has won seven straight fights – six by stoppage. Cedenblad’s two wins in 2011 both ended with first-round submissions. Carmont, from France, won his UFC debut at UFC 137 in October with a unanimous decision over Chris Camozzi.
The event is expected to air on Fuel TV as the second live UFC card on the cable channel in 2012. The first will take place Feb. 15 in Omaha, Neb. The card in Sweden will be the UFC’s 10th country outside the United States. And as of now, it could be the fourth straight event outside the United States over a six-week stretch between February and April of this year. The promotion is scheduled to be in Japan on Feb. 26, Australia on March 3, Montreal on March 24 and now Stockholm on April 14. The promotion’s first event in the Scandinavian country in northern Europe will take place at the 12,000-seat Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm.