Daniel Forsberg vs. Ole Laursen

OLE LAURSEN

Ole ‘Iron Fist’ Laursen (born August 21, 1977) is a Danish Muaythai and mixed martial artist living in Ubon Ratchatani, Thailand. Laursen is fighting out of his own Legacy Gym.

Laursen was born in Manila, Philippines to Danish father and a Spanish-Filipino mother and moved to Denmark with his family when he was two years old. Laursen got involved with martial arts through his older brother Christian, and was 15 when he began training in Muaythai.

As an amateur Laursen had six fights before turning professional. He lost his first amateur bout, took a year off, and then came back with five straight wins – all by knockout, winning the 1998 Danish amateur kickboxing title in the process. He made his professional debut in 2000 and picked up his first major honour that summer, defeating Eval Denton to win the I.K.F. European title.

Laursen relocated from Europe to San Diego in the United States, where he won the vacant I.M.T.C. Championship in 2001. However, he was unable to defend his title later on that year, losing a controversial decision to the Thai fighter Kongnapa in what many thought was a Laursen victory.

In 2002 Laursen made his first appearance for the K-1 organization at the K-1 World MAX 2002 USA in Denver, Colorado, where he made the final only to lose to U.S rival Duane Ludwig. This defeat meant that Laursen was unable to participate in the inaugural K-1 MAX final but he made up somewhat for that defeat by winning the prestigious King’s Cup in Bangkok, Thailand at the end of the year. In 2003 Laursen signed up with the newly formed European promotion Super League. In Super League Laursen fought and beat world champions such as Peter Crooke and Kamal El Amrani.

In 2003 Laursen entered Rumble of the Kings qualification series for K-1 Max and fought the biggest star at that time Jomhod Kiatadisak in a super fight. His next K-1 Max fight came in Japan, 2006 when he fought Gago Drago in Japan.

Laursen fought all the biggest names in K-1 Max such as Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, Buakaw Por Pramuk, Masato, Andy Souwer, Giorgio Petrosyan, Farid Villaume but prior to each fight, Laursen needed to drop more than 10 kilos prior to each fight which made him weak. The weight was eventually not possible to make so Ole focused on MMA instead of Muaythai/Kickboxing.

Laursen’s total Muaythai/Kickboxing record (Amateur + Pro fights) is 45-21-0. 17 of his victories come in the way of knock out. 6 of his total fights are made as amateur and 60 are professional fights.

Boxing

Laursen had a trial with the Philippines National Boxing Team and was accepted but decided to move to Thailand instead of staying in the Philippines to pursue a career in boxing

MMA

Laursen made his professional MMA debut in 2006 and had two fights with the K-1 Hero’s promotion in Japan. He lost his first fight against Genki Sudo by decision and his second fight to Caol Uno by third round submission. Laursen was suffering from a knee injury and was not able to train properly for the fight with Uno.

Laursen did not begin to fight MMA regularly again until 2010 because he was focused on his K-1 and Muaythai career. His next two fights were both in China, with Laursen submitting Liu Guang Yao in 2007 and knocking out Shawn David in 2009.

In 2010, he signed with ESPN Star Sports Promotion Martial Combat in Singapore. He defeated Eduardo Pachu in the third round of their five-round ‘super fight’ at Martial Combat 1. His second fight was against Nick Le Conte at Martial Combat 8 and Laursen won by unanimous decision. His final fight for Martial Combat was against Malaysian Muaythai champion Jian Kai Chee at Martial Combat 12 and Laursen won by TKO in the first round.

In November 2010 MMA website, Bloody Elbow ranked Laursen number eight on a list of the top lightweight prospects in the world.

In 2010, he became Martial Combat Light weight champion and in 2012 he earned fight of the night bonus, in One fighting championship. 

In 2017 Ole became the KFWC MMA welterweight World champion.

His MMA record is 8-4-0

DANIEL FORSBERG

Daniel Forsberg is a 25 years old Finnish Muaythai fighter from Turku and trained by the legendary former IFMA & WMC World Champion Riku Immonen. 

Daniel started his martial art carrier with Taekwondo. In 2007, he changed discipline to Muaythai and made his first fight in 2008.

He is studying to became a nurse and works in psychiatric hospital for prisoners. 

He has two children and his goal is to be world champion. His southpaw fighting style is based on heavy hands and hard elbows. Beside Muaythai, Daniel is also competing in amateur boxing.

Daniel has a total Muaythai record (Amateur + Pro fights) of 37-14-0. 9 of his victories come in the way of knock out. 44 of his fights are made as amateur and 7 are professional fights.

His carrier started up as junior and he won the Finish amateur junior championships in 2009. After that he became Finnish amateur champion (senior) 4 times between 2012 to 2015. In 2015, he also became Nordic amateur champion in -81 kg category. In 2016 Daniel took a bronze medal in IFMA amateur world championship A-class.

Daniel’s nick name in Muaythai forums have been Swede-killer, since he has demolished several Swedish champions and in one case even ended one Swedish Champions carrier. He is also an upcoming professional star of the Lithuanian based KOK events.

His + sides are his physical strength, his hands and elbows but he is also a typically south paw fighter.

In the fight against Ole Laursen, Daniel represents the younger, hungrier but less experienced fighter. But he is 25 and has already fought 51 fights which leaves the biggest question if his physical strength could be enough against a very experienced and versatile fighter which Ole is.