UFC 131: Getting to Know John-Olav Einemo

When it was announced that Norwegian heavyweight John-Olav Einemo had signed with the UFC and then that Einemo would be facing Shane Carwin at UFC 131, there were ripples of interest in the MMA world.  Einemo's match-up with Carwin, of course, was off with the news that Brock Lesnar would be unable to fight against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 131, resulting in Carwin stepping up to face Dos Santos. This set up a bout between Einemo and Dave Herman.  Being a new fan of the sport relative to many of the people who expressed the most interest in the news of Einemo in the UFC, I figured it was a good idea for me to educate myself about this guy and this is what I found out:

1. Einemo has a 6-1 MMA record but hasn't had an MMA fight in over four years.  In an interview with UFC.com, he says he was never retired but that he was taking some time off from the demands of MMA:

"I knew my skills were OK … it wasn’t my level that stopped my career, it was a lot of injury problems and personal stuff, so it was difficult to train professionally and travel all the time," said Einemo, who has competed in countries such as Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Abu Dhabi over the years. "I had a young son to raise so I had more responsibilities and couldn’t just think about myself and wander around the world anymore. I always wanted to come back but there never really was a good opportunity."

2. Five of his six MMA victories were won by submission.  His lone MMA loss was by decision to Fabricio Werdum in 2006 at Pride 31.  This was the only time Einemo had a fight go to the judges, or even past the first round. 

3. Prior to his fight with Werdum, Einemo had taken a three-year break from MMA competition because he was dealing with a flesh-eating bacterial infection in his foot that was the after-effect of a foot operation.  His return on Saturday against Dave Herman will not be the first time the 35-year-old has had to make a comeback after taking significant time off.

4. Einemo is the only man to defeat BJJ superstar Roger Gracie at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championship.  He beat Gracie in 2003 but Gracie avenged the loss by beating Einemo in a superfight in the 2007 ADCC Championships.

5. Despite a background in both wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Einemo wants to be a complete fighter who is not just known for his ground game.

"I want to be complete, I don’t just want to be a ground fighter or a wrestler," he said. "I want to be able to stand with the best guys and go to the ground with the best guys … My chin is good, man. I have never been knocked out, not in a fight, not in practice."

He has been working on his standup at Golden Glory in Holland with his longtime training partners Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi and Sergei Kharitonov.

6. MMA is illegal in Norway so Einemo has to find other places to train.  In an interview with BleacherReport.com, he says,

"No, it [MMA] is illegal in Norway, actually. No martial art that has the intention to win with a knockout is legal in Norway." Einemo voiced his frustration with the situation.

"You know in all the neighbouring countries and all the European Union countries, you can do this sport. Its politics, right?"

He and his teammates have often traveled to Thailand to train Muay Thai and he says of those training trips, "We don’t train with the small Muay Thai guys. No chance. We take our own guys over there."

7. Despite references to him as "Jon Olav", "Jon-Olav", or "John Olav", the correct format for his name is "John-Olav Einemo".

Sources: UFC.com, Sherdog, Bleacher Report