| Marcus Widengren Interview. | ||
| Submitted by Gamzathkanov | ||
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| -----: | Marcus please tell us about your career in fighting and your bio(date of birth, hometown, height, weight level in BJJ)? | |
| Marcus: |  This is my fightrecord:BadBoy Cup 2000 1st. BadBoy Cup Open class 2000 1st. S.O.S.W. 2000 1st. European cup 3 2000 1st. Frank Shamrock Invitational 2001 1st. Gameness Cup 2002 1st. Fighter Extreme 1 2002 1st. I was born 21th of november 1975 and I live in stockholm (soon that will be Rio). I currently weigh about 86 kg. |
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| -----: | How did you start Martial Arts and how for long have you been training at hilti? | |
| Marcus: | I started training martial arts when I was
eleven years old (about 15 years ago), so
MA has always been a very important part
of my life. I mostly trained the japanese
MA Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu under Maasaki
Hatsumi and I travelled to Japan many times
from the age of fifteen until I lived there
for a year after school, when I was 19 years
old. Over the years I have tried a little
bit of Kung Fu, Wing Tsun and Tai Chi as
well. In september 1999 a friend of mine
took me to a bjj-academy (HILTI). After that
I was stuck.. (laughs). |
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| -----: | What is your current training program? | |
| Marcus: | I train BJJ 5-6 times a week, before competitions
I complement that with cardiotraining
(Spinning)
1-2 times a week. Hatha Yoga
is also
a important part of my training, for
strength
(since I donīt lift weights), flexiblity,
breathing and relaxation. |
|
| -----: | What is your favorite technique? | |
| Marcus: | It depends, when I train I focus on one submission
and then I try getting it, but from
all kind
of positions. Then I think it will
happen
naturally in a competition. The last
two
months before Fighter Extreme I did
alot
of training with the Gi, so lately
I have
been practising different kinds of
chokes
a lot. Without the Gi I like the straight
armbar. |
|
| -----: | Congratulations on your victory of FIGHTER EXTREME; talk us through your fight? | |
| Marcus: |  Thank you. I met the skilled norwegian Trond Saksenvik, the fight started and both were trying to get a good grip standing up.. when I felt I had a good grip I went for a "firemanīs throw" and threw him, I think it's called Kata Guruma in japanese. Since Trond had a very good defence, he took me back in his guard, I tried to pass again, Trond defended by going to all four (turtling) and rolling so I had to start in his guard again. I changed strategy and stood up and passed his guard standing, trying to put "knee on belly", again Trond defended and went to all four, but this time he forgot to protect his neck , so I went for a clock choke which made him tap after almost two and a half minutes. A very intense fight. |
|
| -----: | What do you think about the two fights of the main event? | |
| Marcus: | First of all, I have to salute all four of
them for putting pride and ego to the
side
to compete in that event. I would always
prefer a teacher that competed and
lost,
to a teacher that never risks anything.
Rikard and Christians fight went like I thought it would, both are very good but Rikard is just too much for most of us.. (laughs). The fight between Augusts and Rikard B, was a little boring in my opinion, personally I was looking forward to more action on the ground. But August won fair and square because he had a smart strategy that he was able to pull of. And I don't blame him, against an opponent like Rikard B I would use a good strategy too.. |
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| -----: | Your teacher's Rickard Andersson is a great fighter. He also won with the technical move on this time. What are your thoughts on Rickard Andersson? | |
| Marcus: | I think he is a great fighter, who is not
afraid of challenges. If there is a
competition,
he alway goes there if he can. I think
this
is very important, because he sets
a good
example for all his students and shows
that
you should always try and not to be
afraid
of losing. Furthermore I think he learns very fast and if he went to brazil and stayed there for a longer time, I'm sure he has the potential to become one of the worlds best grapplers. He is also very strong and never gives up, which can be horrible if you are his student.. (laughs) |
|
| -----: | What do you think of your teammate's performance in FIGHTER EXTREME? | |
| Marcus: | I think they all did a tremendous job, I
got impressed with all of them. |
|
| -----: | How many days you stay in Brazil before FIGHTER EXTREME? | |
| Marcus: | I have been there 2 times this year, unfortunatly
I canīt stay there more then two weeks
at
a time, because of my school. |
|
| -----: | Did you change the contents of your training after going to Brazil? | |
| Marcus: | I think, after training in brazil, you start
to realize that technique is really
very
important, atleticism will not take
you all
the way. So when I get back to sweden,
I
try to train like they do over there,
more
relaxed and flowing. Try to stop using
force
when sparring. Thats the most important
in
my opinion. |
|
| -----: | When you were training at Brazil, What did you think of the level of the Scandinavian BJJ and MMA? | |
| Marcus: | I think it's very high, in a few years I
think scandinavia will be a force to be reckoned
with in all the big events. It's growing
very quick here and everyone is getting better
and better every day. |
|
| -----: | Are you interested in NHB? | |
| Marcus: | O Yes, I'm a big fan! I watch everything
I can get my hands on. |
|
| -----: | I heard some rumor that you will fight in NHB's ring. Is it sure? | |
| Marcus: | (laughs) No, that is just a rumour. Right
now I don't have that interest to fight NHB
myself. But that can also change in the future
of course. |
|
| -----: | How does your Academy train for stand-up skills? and yourself? | |
| Marcus: |  Our academy doesnīt focus very much on stand-up
unfortunatly, because I think you have to
do that if you want to be succesful in NHB.
The time of the old-school BJJ-approach is
over a long time ago. We have some skilled boxers and Thaiboxers there, but it's not very well organized. Personally I don't train standup at all, I donīt find the time right now. I would like to train boxing though in the future. |
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| -----: | What was your most memorable fight to date?
|
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| Marcus: | Every fight is special, but if I must choose,
it will be my last fight in Fighter
Extreme.
It was 1.500 people in the audience
and among
all those scary-looking fighters,
my
mother watched the fight as well(laughs).
|
|
| -----: | who do you think is the strongest fighter in your weight class(except you)? | |
| Marcus: | Oh.. tough question, there is so many good
fighters in scandinavia in my weightclass,
Trond Saksenvik, Arben Latifi, Yke
Leino,
Halvor Hagen, Richard Carneborn and
probably
a whole bunch I canīt remember right
now.
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| -----: | What are your fight plans for 2002? | |
| Marcus: | Mundials, Bad boy cup, Fighter Submission
wrestling tournament, the brazilian
Bjj Championships,
actually anything that I can find.
|
|
| -----: | You have been to Japan, what is your impression of Japan? | |
| Marcus: | Very beautiful country, friendly, polite
an a very dedicated people. Great food! |
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| -----: | Which Japanese fighter do you like most ?
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| Marcus: | Also here is hard to name only one.. Sakuraba,
Rumina Sato, Hayato "MACH"
Sakurai,
Kikuta Sanae is some of my favorites.
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| -----: | What is a martial arts in your life? | |
| Marcus: | I basically train because itīs fun, but I
also think it's a way to develop your personality
to the better. I feel that I grow a lot as
a humanbeing through my training in the martial
arts. |
|
| -----: | Thank you for the long interview. | |
| Marcus: | Thank you! |
|
| -----: | We keep supporting you on our site. | |
| Marcus: | You are doing a great job in my opinion.
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