Töölö Hall in Helsinki was packed for the Fight Festival 27 that offered an amazing card for a euro MMA event. UFC vets and top European fighters filled the card along with some of the best Finnish talent. The star of the night was of course the former PRIDE champ and once the number one lightweight in the world Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio, who took on the hometown hero Niko Puhakka.

Main event of the evening: Niko Puhakka vs Marcus Aurelio
Aurelio quickly showed a glimpse of his superb grappling skills and scored a takedown. Puhakka did a great job from the bottom and Aurelio had a difficult time passing the guard of the Finn. Puhakka also managed to tie Aurelio’s arms pretty well, so he couldn’t deliver any really heavy shots from the top. At the end of the first round Aurelio scored some big shots on the feet and had Puhakka in trouble. In the second round Puhakka landed couple of solid shots to Aurelio's head and body. The crowd went crazy and unfortunately also Puhakka went a bit crazy rushing in with a flurry of strikes leaving an opening for Aurelio to slip to his back. Once a grappler like Aurelio takes your back, it’s over and so it was in this case to as Aurelio applied a RNC in 2.40 of the second round. It was great to see a fighter of Maximus’ caliber fighting in euro show and really making a effort to get a win. In his post fight speech Maximus thanked the crowd for being so supportive and also spoke highly of Puhakka’s ground skills.


If you want to know what happened to Jake O'Brien, Sean Salmon and UK's own Emma Watson, read the full report from my blog Beatings from the North