Fight Night 7 show goes down on the 14th of April at the Hockey Hall in Lappeenranta, Finland. The event is pretty much themed Finland vs Russia since half of the fights on the card has a hometown hero pitted against a Russian fighter.

Saarinen wants only tough fights and one of those he will get against Agaev.
Fight Night 7 is on the same night as UFC in Stockholm but considering the cards drawing power to local folks the promotion shouldn’t have any problems pulling in enough people to the hockey arena.

Finland’s Juha “Juice” Saarinen looks to bounce back to winning ways after getting beat up by Mikhail Zayats at the Cage 18 show in early March. Hopefully Saarinen, who trained with the Blackzillians in Florida before his last fight,  can recover from the battle wounds in time and fight at this show against Baga Agaev. This is another tough fighter for the Finn as Agaev is an experienced veteran of MMA and other combat sports. The Russian hails from an extensive judo background that shows in his strong clinch game and excellent submissions on the ground. Agaev’s biggest win is over legendary Kevin Randleman who like many others had to tap out to Agaev’s slick armbar.

Another Finn looking to come back from a defeat at Cage 18 is Finland’s top welterweight Ville Räsänen (11-3) who surprisingly got TKO’ed on the feet by the late replacement Vaidas Valancius of Lithuania. Räsänen will not get an easy fight this time either as he will lock horns with the dangerous Russian Sergei Bal. Bal just knocked out Seydina Seck, who Räsänen beat by decision in September 2011.

Räsänen (in red) got caught at the Cage 18 by Vaidas Valancius. Photo by Antti Latva-Kyyny

MMA Imatra’s gritty lightweight Antti Virtanen is 2-1 in his last three with the loss coming to Sweden’s Claes Beverlöv at Cage 17. The Finn gets a stiff challenge from Russia in a form of Akop Stepanyan. Stepanyan record is a bit deceiving as after losing his first three pro bouts, Stepanyan has now won nine fights in a row.

In a rare HW fight Finland’s Kalle Da Silva fights against Sweden’s Fatty Junior Karanta who makes his pro debut.

In the lone women’s bout StrikeForce veteran Maiju “Mai” Kujala will face the undefeated Ukrainian Lena Ovchynnikova who has a strong background in kickboxing.

Main card
LHW: Juha Saarinen (7-2) vs Baga Agaev (25-11), Russia

WW: Ville Räsänen (11-3) vs Sergei Bal (11-7-1), Russia

LW: Antti Virtanen (6-4) vs Akop Stepanyan (9-3), Russia

HW: Kalle Da Silva (3-3) vs Fatty Junior Karanta (0-0), Sweden

Women FW: Maiju Kujala (6-3) vs Lena Ovchynnikova (8-0), Ukraine

LW: Lauri Väätäinen (5-5) vs Ramazan Kurbanismailov (2-1), Russia

Prelims
WW: Jussi Pulkkinen vs Lauri Tonteri

LW: Kari Päivinen vs Makwan Amirkhani

LW: Jani Ridasmaa vs Juho Kahranaho

LW: Aleksi Mäntykivi vs Olli Santalahti

FW: Tommi Marttinen vs Ruslan Kurbanismailov, Russia

BW: Petja Härkönen vs Joni Sarkala

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