By Jake Smith
After a successful 2021 World Cup, the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation have once again impressed. With four athletes guaranteed medals, the colours of which will be important as to where the nation finds themselves in the medal table, come tournament end.
Josefine Modig will be looking to add a second gold medal to her collection, having already guaranteed herself a bronze.
Modig shone at the 2021 World cup, with three impressive stoppages on her way to the top of the podium. After receiving a bye in the first round, the World Cup gold medalists first outing of the tournament was against Janika Antinmaa. Although not finding the finish, Modig convincingly cruised to a unanimous decision victory.
Altynay Mergenbay awaits Modig in the semi-finals. A win over the Kazakhstan native would see Modig face either one of the two division favourites in the shape of Aieza Ramos Bertolso or Fabiola Silva.
Throughout 2015 and 2016, Robin Enontekiö regularly featured at IMMAF tournaments, his most successful of which, claiming gold at the 2016 IMMAF All African Championships. Heading into the 2021 World Championships, Enontekiö found himself on a four-fight skid, having competed only four times in the last 6 years.
Fellow World Cup competitor Oskar Jaskari also entered the World Championships with accolades from the previous IMMAF event; when he took home a bronze medal in the Men’s Bantamweight division.
Slated to face Djadoo Lionel Ashley Cedric in the opening round of the tournament, Jaskari proceeded automatically to the round of 16 following his opponent missing weight.
Yaroslav Livandovskyi stood across the cage from Jaskari in his first bout of the tournament. Scoring a 30-27 unanimous decision victory against, Jaskari proceeded to the quarter-finals. It was another decision victory for Jaskari against Shamil Alikhanov in a closely contested quarter-final. He will meet Yevgeni Shinkarevsky in the semi-final of the championships.
Enontekiö announced himself to the rest of the Light Heavyweight division in emphatic style, delivering one of the knockouts of the day with a stunning one-punch KO in the first round against Ijaz Cave.
Entering the tournament on the back of four decision losses. It appears Enontekiö is eager not to allow his bouts to go to the judge’s scorecards. In his quarter-final bout, Enontekiö met with Anthony Nantois, the IMMAF veteran once again finding a first-round finish, tying up a neat armbar with seven seconds of the opening round left.
The 205lb-er has flipped his form upside down and is now riding a two-fight winning streak into the semi-final, where he will take on Dmytro Babynskyi.
Nina Nikolija Milosevic will claim her first IMMAF medal in the women’s Bantamweight division. In her debuting IMMAF bout, she faced Russian neutral athlete, Daria Tereshchenko, whom the Swede dispatched by way of unanimous decision. In the quarter-finals, she came up against Austria’s Katharina Rychkova. Milosevic impressed yet again. She will take on a second Russian neutral athlete in the last four, where she will square off with Tatiana Postarnakova.
The remainder of the 2021 IMMAF World Championships, hosted by the UAE Jiu-Jitsu & MMA Federation, supported by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council in partnership with Palm Sports, can be streamed live at IMMAF.tv.
