Photo: Dan Donovan

Tommy Karlsson is a beast. He may very well be the next big thing to come out of Europe. This very disciplined competitor has set big goals ahead of him and intends to achieve them. In this interview with BJJ Eastern Europe, Tommy gun talks about how he left his research job and dedicated his life to training, his training regimen, his love for meat (He eats 1kg of meat per day), and his passion for his viking ancestors: 

Hi Tommy, can you please introduce yourself to the BJJ Community of Eastern Europe? 

Hi! My name is Tommy Karlsson and I am a 24 year old (born -89) brown belt from Sweden. I recently moved to Jönköping to really focus on my Jiu-Jitsu, and left my job at the research laboratory in renewable energy doing so. My biggest accomplishments in Jiu-Jitsu are except for the last competition in London several medals at the Europeans and also winning the Swedish Championship. The medal I remember the most is the silver medal I took at Europeans in Super heavy though, I had only trained for 4 months or so, and that’s when I decided to focus on becoming a world champion one day.

Tommy at the 2013 London Open

Please guide us through your Jiu-Jitsu journey.

When I was 18 I moved to Halmstad here in Sweden to study, I wanted to become an energy engineer. I imagined that it could be good to do something else beside the studies though, but I did not want to just go working out at a gym. So I started with MMA. It did not take long though before I realized that it was the grappling part that was the most fun, and I ended up just training grappling after a while.

So you decided to focus on grappling and BJJ?

Yes, I did. Now, five years later, I live in Jönköping training with one of the best academies in Scandinavia. During these five years I have nearly never missed a training session, and Jiu-Jitsu is now my passion, and curse in my life.

Please tell us about your training regimen and love of competition. What motivates you?

A normal week for me is 3 Jiu-Jitsu classes with gi, and 2 classes in no-gi. Then I also try to get at least 1-2 sessions of drilling. Furthermore I am working out at the gym 2 times a week at least, and depending on what week it is around 2 HIIT sessions… So around 10-11 times a week usually. Then there is morning walks around the lake, and mental training sessions in an isolation tank and meditation.

What really motivate me are the competitions. I love the whole thing from preparing before the competition, to be at the arena, to warm up and then go on to the mat, and fight against someone that’s also are trying to impose their will. I guess it’s my Viking blood that loves to go to battle, and I really cannot live without it.

Tommy with his teamates

You had a great performance at the London where you took 3 golds. Satisfied? What were your toughest fights?

Yeah, I must say that I am satisfied. Before the competition I had visualized to take home 4 golds, but I ended up losing in the quarterfinal in the gi open division against Darragh O Conaill.

The toughest fights were that fight where I ended up losing on points against him, and the second hardest fight were when I won over him the day after in the open division in the semifinals with the guillotine. It felt really good to get the revenge of course. The rest of the fights I won on submission in around 1-2 minutes.

Please tell us about your fascinations for your viking ancestors and your love of meat.

Haha! Yeah. It just fascinates me with the way the Vikings were thinking about battle, and that to die on the battlefield was the most glorious thing. I guess the Viking gods was with me in London.

I really should not eat so much meat as I do, and I sometimes joke with my friends saying that I am going to be a vegetarian. They never believe me though… I don’t know why I love it so much; I guess it’s also in my blood from my Viking ancestors.

Actually I eat a lot more meat nowadays than before. I used to eat a lot of oatmeal (half a kilogram per day or so) but when I moved to Jönköping I also got a new elite coach; Jonas Jonason, that really believes in that we in the north should eat a lot of meat and fat, rather than a lot of carbohydrates, and I did not really complain about changing to eat more meat. So now I eat around 1 kg of meat every day, a lot of eggs, peanut butter, but also a lot of fruits and also a lot of vegetables.

It’s kind of a funny story actually. When I was studying in the south of Brazil in 2011, I ate on an “all you can eat” restaurant every day, and they actually raised their prices just for me at that restaurant. When I went back in 2013 to have some lectures as a teacher, there are rumors that the owner of the restaurant almost started crying.

The same thing happened when I after the studies visited Checkmat and Leo Vieira in São Paulo. All of a sudden I had to pay double if I wanted to take an extra plate of food. So Leo suggested I should use the tray instead.

It’s also were I got the quite unknown nickname Sulley (from Monsters Inc). When I was training there Leo thought I looked like the snow monster Yeti, but one of his kids apparently had just saw Monsters Inc, and when he saw me in my blue gi he therefore called me Sulley.

Tommy loves meat

What is next for you and your team in 2013/2014?

We have a couple of Swedish competitions here in 2013. The biggest of them is Swedish Open the 16-17th of November, last year it was +700 competitors and it’s ranked as the biggest competition in Scandinavia.

We were also thinking about going to München, but decided to not go. So the next big international competition is in January, which of course is the Europeans. Then we have the World Jiu-Jitsu pro trials in London, and after that Nordic, Danish, maybe Pan Ams, and then Worlds.

If you want to thank somebody or sponsors, feel free

I would like first of thank my old academy, Halmstad BJJ; for building the foundation of who I am today, and then thank my new academy, JJK Samurai, for supporting me in my Jiu-Jitsu carrier. I would also like to thank the brown belt Andreas Gustafsson, who I live together with. He is like a brother to me.

And of course I would like to thank my sponsors;
Kimonos & sign-up fees – MOKAHardware.com
Supplements – mmsports.se
Building me into a machine – Elitecoach Jonas Jonason – Athleticinnovationgroup.se
Gym – Nordicwellness.se
Floatingsessions – maarithurri.com
Headphones – Urbanista.com
Mouthguards – Tandskydd.com

Thanks Tommy and all the best!

Thank you BJJEE, it is an honor to be interviewed by you guys.