Muaythai and Olympic Wrestling Join Forces
STOCKHOLM – Sweden is preparing for a first ever event in the world, where top athletes within Greco-Roman wrestling will compete in the same event as top Muaythai champions. This event is approved by FILA, the world governing body for wrestling, the World Muaythai Council, and IFMA which is the world governing body for Amateur Muaythai.
The event is nationally sanctioned by the Swedish muaythai federation and the Stockholm wrestling federation. Muaythai and wrestling already have been working close together word level, being two of the 15 world recognized combat sports organizing the SportAccord World Combat Games under patronage of the IOC. The event will last for two days from the 6th to the 7th of June, with Amateur fights and International Wrestling Tournaments on the first day, and ending with the Stockholm Open Wrestling and World Fighters United Muaythai event on the second day.
The two-day sporting event will be family-friendly event, featuring some of the best athletes in the world showcasing their skills. The Stockholm Open Wrestling on Saturday, June 7th will include 120 top class wrestlers from all over the world competing in the tournament. Later on in the day, the World Fighters United event will take place which will feature the eight wrestling finals as well as eight top-class Muaythai fights and three WMC Scandinavian Title fights.
The first title fight will be for the Women’s WMC Scandinavian 55.34kg division. This fight will be between IFMA World Champion and two times winner of the World Combat Games, Fatima Pinto of Norway and Sofia Olofsson of Sweden, a two times Swedish Champion, and IFMA Nordic Champion 2012. Fatima will be moving up in weight class to challenge Sofia Olofsson for the WMC Scandinavian Title.
The second title that is at stake is in the Men’s WMC Scandinavian 58.97kg division, which will be a bout between Malick Bah of Sweden and Julian Bengsten of Denmark. Malick is a Swedish Champion from 2011 and he has an IFMA European Championships silver medal from 2010. Julian is Danish Champion and IFMA Nordic Champion.
The third WMC Scandinavian title fight will be between Ricardo Gonzalez of Sweden and Fahzan bin Khalid of Denmark. Ricardo has grown as a fighter during the last two years, and will be fighting the two-time Danish Champion, Fahzan bin Khalid, who also has a bronze from the IFMA World Championships. Ricardo is also a two-time Swedish Champion and a two-time IFMA Nordic Champion.
We would like to congratulate the organizers for this historical event. Stay tuned for more updates on the tournament in the following weeks.
