The miserable summer that we had in Finland this year is fading away already but with the fall comes also positive things: new MMA season 2012-2013 begins! Carelia Fight 8 will be the show to launch the new season on the 1st of September in Imatra, a city that lies right by the Russian border in Eastern Finland.

Previously Carelia Fight shows have been focused on presenting local talent for the local crowd but this time the promoter has made a decision to “go big” with the fight card in order to pull new crowd from a distance.

It’s safe to say that the promoter has succeeded in the task as the card has a big portion of the top Finnish talent on it: Niko Puhakka, Lucio Linhares, Ville Räsänen, Juha Saarinen, Toni Valtonen, Timo-Juhani Hirvikangas and Espoo based Chute Boxe veteran Marcio Cesar Gracinha among others.

Light heavyweight fighter Juha “Juice” Saarinen (8-2) is one of the Finnish stars on the Carelia Fight 8 card

Main card
Lucio Linhares vs. Boubacar Balde, France
Ville Räsänen vs. Sergei Bal, Russia
Niko Puhakka vs. Sebastien Garguier, France
Toni Valtonen vs. Ilja Skondric, Slovakia
Juha Saarinen vs. Florian Martin, France
Marcio Cesar Gracinha vs. TBA
Timo-Juhani Hirvikangas vs. Freddy Debessel, France

Prelims
Aleksi Mäntykivi vs. Jani Salmi
Eeva Siiskonen vs. Florence Berthe, France
Jukka Paananen vs. Daniel Campestrini

MMA Viking will provide a detailed preview of the fights beforehand. Live results and a full scale event report with pictures will follow after the show.