After fight interview of CEC's new Light Heavyweight champ Tommi Hartola.
Congrats, Tommi.
Thank you. First of all I'd like to state that Viiksi Tolonen is a classy fellow and I hope that I can be even half the champ he has been. I'd also like to thank Gus Malcolm and his org for making this match come true.
Any thoughts of the fight you'd like to share with us? Did the fight go as you expected it would?
Uh, let me gather my thoughts for a sec here... I am still bit shocked for dethroning the champ. Umm... Yeah, I guess the match went out pretty much like we expected it'd go. Except I was bit shell shocked at first, when Viiksi stormed in like a bat out of hell. I mean I've watched each and every one of his matches at least three times and Alexander [Maynard] said he'd punch me in the face if I tried to talk any more about his match with Viiksi. Yet it was still a sobering experience to stand and strike with the legend himself. The way how Viiksi just viciously darts in and starts pounding your face to bloody pulp and kicking your ankles to bits 5 minutes a time, without missing a beat is something you have to experience before you can truly understand it, the pace he sets is just brutal.
My tactic was simply to weather the early storm and start picking him apart as soon as a suitable opening showed up. Thankfully I had an excellent camp to prepare me to the fight. While Viiksi kicks hard as hell, Kaarlo [Vihtala] kicks even harder. Kaarlo, if you are listening, let me state it one more time: In sparring you don't get extra points for crippling the other guy!
In the end of the second round I was grinning like an idiot, when it occured to me that the whole situation where I was walking in to torrent of strikes just to land a few of my own in return just seemed like a damned Rocky movie with a bunch of painful leg kicks added in. Thankfully Viiksi started to slow down in the start of the third and I was able to set the pace from there forward.
Any future plans?
Since both of us will be walking with a limp for the next weeks, I've already challenged Viiksi to a post-fight wheelchair race.
Thank you, Tommi.