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World Class Muay Thai/ K1 Fighter Ole Baguio Laursen On His Love For Submission Sports

World Class Muay Thai/ K1 Fighter Ole Baguio Laursen On His Love For Submission Sports

 

 

 

Ole Baguio Laursen is a Danish-Filipino Muay Thai/ K1/ MMA fighter with a world class pedigree in the striking arts. In this interview with BJJ Eastern Europe, Ole talks about his background, his Muay Thai career, his MMA fights with some of the biggest names in the sport (Caol Uno, genki Sudo), his academies in Thailand and the Philippines, and his love for submissions/ ground game:

1. Hi Ole, can you please introduce yourself to the BJJ Community of Eastern Europe? 

Whatsup guys, I’m Ole Baguio Laursen, former muay thai european champion and world champion and winner of tournament on kings birthday in Thailand.
,mostly known for my muay thai/k-1 career but i am also a mixed martial arts fighter and i love the art of submissions. I was just given purple belt but with gi i kinda suck,i hardly ever train in it.
2. Please guide us through your Muay Thai/ Kickboxing journey.

Started in Copenhagen, Denmark when 14, had my first fight 17, became Danish amateur champ ,started fighting pro in Thailand when 20.

3. You jumped in head first into Pro MMA fighting 2 of the best fighters at the time, Caol Uno and Genki Sudo. Why did you decide to face such high caliber opponents for a MMA debut, and how did you feel entering those fights?

Funny, I had decided i was going to start focusing on mma and i had build my own gym in thailand with a cage so i could train how i wanted to train.
I was getting ready for my pro debut in denmark when i was offered to fight genki,funny story is i told them some lies that i had mma experience and a few fights,was hoping that it would help me land the fight because i really wanted to fight Genki.
They then turned me down saying i had too much experience and they were looking for someone easy for him,i then told them the truth that i had no experience and they accepted the fight.i trained my ass of with my friend and at the time trainer ,purple belt Kazuto Senga.
I loved to watch genki and for me there was no doubt in my mind that i wanted to be in the ring with him and do my best.

ole mma

4. What is harder on the body between training for kickboxing/muay thai or MMA?

Ok this is for training and not fighting. I think training mma is tougher,cos its everything, training boxing, wrestling, muay thai , sparring, padwork, rolling hard, wrestling hard. To me mma training is a milion times harder than muay thai training.
but for fighting it’s sometimes different,muay thai and esp k-1 is 2 guys trading blows and kicks,your guaranteed to go home with bruises and aches but mma fight can be 3 rounds of 2 guys trading blows and kicks but often its 3 rounds of grappling and wrestling.

5. How did you start training BJJ? (please tell us about your bjj journey)

It all started when my brother started ordering video tapes from Brazil,vale-tudo and street fighting, cagefights from Russia, extreme fighting championships. We started copying the finishing moves we saw the fighters do.
we would train by our selves.
I had my first and only amateur shootfighting match when i was 18 in Sweden.

6. Please tell us about your academies in Asia.

Although Muay Thai was my career back then i had a love for groundskillz since way back,and i had trained all over thailand and no one wanted to do bjj.
So i decided to build my own gym where i could design my own training and build myself my mma training camp.
in Ubon Ratchathani,Thailand i have legacy gym,this is where i first build my cage and got ready for genki sudo www.legacygym.com most guys are here training muay thai but myself and handful of others train in the cage every day.
i have just build my 2nd gym www.legacygymphilippines.com ,in the Philippines we focus more on Filipino boxing for the use of MMA,we have 2 huge boxing rings,a big octagon,big bag area and an area where we do our strengthening,flip tires,sledgehammer,sprints,pullups and all that.
Pretty much like the gym in Thailand but this gym is 10min from the beach on island voted most beautiful beach destination in the world several times over last 10 years.
In Both gyms I have bjj blackbelts teaching arte suave .

ole mma1

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

Honestly I’ m getting old. I’m 36, have fought almost 20 years now and the focus now is on my boys,they carry the legacy,they are living that same dream i was living and the plan is to keep sharpening the tools,keep taking names,keep fighting for glory and freedom all over the world.

8. If you want to thank somebody or sponsors, feel free

I want to thank groundskillz www.GROUNDSKILLZ.com for always delivering me the best fightshorts/wear,with the durable stretchy materials they are great for k-1,mma,grappling.