Samuli Kärkkäinen fought against 30 world champions.
- Samuli Kärkkäinen’s sport is professional boxing, but in practice he is still a semi-professional.
- The goal of the 31-year-old family man from Järvenpäää is the lower heavyweight European championship.
- For that, he sought to learn as a sparring opponent of Mairis Briedis, who is preparing for the World Championship match in the lower heavyweight division.
Samuli Kärkkäinen. The name doesn’t mean anything to many, but the man is known in boxing circles: not just anyone can invite the world champion to the same ring.
– Yes, it shows that I have been noticed somewhere, Kärkkäinen smiles.
– It creates good self-esteem and gives motivation for training.
Latvian Mairis Briedisworld champion of the lower heavyweight division and number one in the Ring ranking, invited Kärkkäinen as a training opponent for a five-day training camp in Riga at the end of May.
– A really great trip, he says.
– I was quite taken that I was asked there. I learned a lot of good things.
EC goal
Samuli Kärkkäinen trains at the Ruskeasuo sports hall in Helsinki. Vesa Parviainen
Samuli Kärkkäinen has fought as a professional 16 times, and seven of the 15 victories have come by knockout. The only loss came in the fall of 2019, when Jarkko Ojapalo won the lower heavyweight Finnish championship by unanimous decision.
After Ojapalo ended his career, Kärkkäinen is ranked number one in Finland in the series. The SM title is open, but the goal of the 31-year-old from Järvenpää is much higher: the professional European championship.
– There is no other way to get there than by training with the best, and this was one of them, he says, referring to Briedis, the three-time world champion in the weight class.
– There can’t be anything better in my series.
Kärkkäinen appreciates the invitation to be the champion’s training opponent as a merite in his career. Among the Finns, Briedis has previously only been able to spar Juho Haapoja.
Briedis successfully defended his IBF and Ring titles last year. EPA / AOP
Briedis, 37, is 12th in BoxRec’s world rankings for all weight classes. So it’s a really tough factor.
Now the Latvian prepares to defend his IBF championship belt in Australia on Saturday, July 2 Jai Opetaiaa against.
The program of the training camp included three ten-round sparring matches, and the rounds were even four minutes long.
– They were longer than usual in order to get more repetitions. Videos of Opetaia’s matches were also watched a lot, Kärkkäinen says.
As a training opponent, he tried to imitate the left-handed Australian as a kid. The technical sections directed by Briedis’ coach were part of the pattern in the matches.
Let’s go all out
Mairis Briedis (left) invited Kärkkäinen to Riga as his training opponent. Samuli Kärkkäinen’s album
Usually, World Championship level boxers have several training opponents in the camp.
– There can be five guys. If someone falls, the legs are pulled out and the next one in.
From this, even someone uninitiated to boxing can understand that in sparring matches, some rounds are taken to the full.
– Every time we hit, we hit with full force.
Kärkkäinen, who played 30 overlong rounds against the world champion, had enough to swagger, as he was exceptionally the only sparring player during the training week.
– I went to every practice like a match. Sure, we have protection and at least nominally bigger gloves, but professional-style sparring gloves are tough. There is no other way to get used to hardness than by taking it hard.
How did you feel you did against the world champion?
– Maybe I had my moments, but there is still a long way to go to that level, Kärkkäinen answers.
There is also the risk of being knocked out in a sparring match. That didn’t happen to Kärkkääne, even though sometimes he got into trouble.
– Briedis was a fair guy. When he noticed that he hit a little harder, he immediately gave a little space. Of course, I said myself to let him come.
Kärkkäinen also had his own successes in matches.
– They came less often than for him, but for me they were much bigger.
Where was the difference to the top of the world visible?
– He exuded tremendous experience and calmness in all situations. There wasn’t a moment when he didn’t know what he was doing. Physics was also way ahead, Kärkkäinen admits.
He closely followed the work of Briedis and his coach. He didn’t have his own coach with him on the trip.
– They didn’t do anything more amazing than what is done here, but everything was done with even more quality and precision. Of course, we also strived for it, but even small things were discussed and discussed there.
– Everything had to go smoothly, and they did the same to me. Sometimes it was stopped and corrected to do this and that. It gave me a very professional image.
Wild West
The sparring trip was the second in Kärkkäinen’s career. Last time he also acted Latvian Nikolai Grishunin as a training opponent.
– There have been more invitations, but either I haven’t been able to go or I haven’t heard anything from them.
The world of boxing is brutal.
– A couple of times I have organized my work and all my affairs so that I can leave, and announced this for the matchmaker. He has reported further, but has not received any response.
– It could be that there have been invitations everywhere and then they take the best ones. Professional boxing is really the wild west, Kärkkäinen laughs.
Economically, camp trips are not goldmines for training opponents. The reward is better measured in hundreds than thousands of euros.
Some ring veterans at the end of their careers only go around sparring.
– They are sad cases, says Kärkkäinen.
– That’s why we go to them, to develop.
The conditions on Kärkkäinen’s sparring trips have been fine and the treatment has been good in all respects.
– The plane tickets come from there, the accommodation is ready, and I also got food money. On this trip, the hotel was also of high quality and the ride to the training hall was always ready, he thanks.
On career terms
At the WC level, where Briedis strikes, the rewards are calculated in millions – at the WC level, at most in the thousands.
Kärkkäinen, who belongs to the Pro Boxing Team Finland team, estimates that most of his boxing income consists of match fees and about a fifth comes from partners.
The Corona era has also disciplined boxing evenings, so Kärkkäinen cannot support himself and his family by playing sports alone. In addition to his career, he has worked in the baggage department at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
– Match offers of 10,000 and 20,000 euros have come from abroad. However, I haven’t left. You have to watch your opponent carefully, because frankly, they never ask to win, Kärkkäinen states a generally known fact in professional boxing.
– It’s not worth taking on a level that doesn’t exist yet. In ice hockey, you just lose, but here it also hurts, he compares to the team sport he practiced until A-junior age.
– Of course, there is always a chance to win when even one shot can decide, but we have built my career correctly. We have calculated that I will start to be one good win away from the European lists, which would then be a chance to get to the EU and EC matches.
Success in them would enable full professionalism. Along with the EC title, that is Kärkkäinen’s goal.
– Let’s see what we can find in the trophy cabinet.