Niklas Backstrom on similar path as fellow MMA featherweight Conor McGregor
When Niklas Backstrom walked to the cage in Berlin, Germany, for his UFC debut against Tom Niinimaki on May 31, broadcaster John Gooden said Backstrom is "a versatile performer who is considered by many to be Europe's top 145-pound prospect."
That was quite a statement, but it becomes even more substantial considering Backstrom is in the same division as Conor McGregor, a fellow European featherweight also on the fast track to a championship fight. Since Backstrom's victory over Niinimaki, McGregor has stopped Diego Brandao and Dustin Poirier in the first round and was proclaimed by no less than UFC president Dana White to be one of the UFC's biggest stars.
Backstrom may be no McGregor, but he's earned a spot on the main card of the Fight Night show in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday against Mike Wilkinson precisely because of his promise, White told Yahoo Sports.
"This is a great test for him," White said. "He's 8-0 and is facing Wilkinson, who is 8-1 with four submissions, two knockouts and two decisions. It should be a great fight."
Backstrom was seven years old when he decided he wanted to be a fighter. His older brothers were watching a UFC card and Backstrom said he couldn't believe what he was watching.
His father was an ice hockey coach, and many of his pals were soccer players, but he wanted to be a fighter the first time he laid eyes on a mixed martial arts match.
At the time, there was little in the way of MMA activity in Europe, but that didn't deter the young Backstrom.
"The first fight I saw actually was a UFC fight, and I was completely mesmerized by it," Backstrom said. "I couldn't believe it was real. It was the coolest [stuff] I'd ever seen. There was a mysticism to it for me. It was one grand master against another grand master. It was too cool to be true."
He moved to Stockholm in 2009 to train with the hope of becoming a full-time MMA fighter. In order to support himself, he took a job as sort of a caretaker for inmates at a hospital for the criminally insane.
There were criminals of all sorts in the hospital, but to Backstrom, it was the greatest job he'd ever held.
He played cards, shot pool and played Xbox with the inmates. He was by that point a well-trained professional fighter and didn't have many concerns about danger, even though he said there were many inmates who had committed violent crimes.
"Some of the guys walk around in that job and they puff out their chests a bit, but I was totally cool about being there and it made things easier for me," Backstrom said. "I didn't walk around like I was looking for trouble. I think they could see I was relaxed and not worried and so I had no trouble from them."
So far, his fight career has been a breeze, as well. As a child, he took beatings from his brothers, but watched instructional videos and learned the basics of fighting from those.
He took the Niinimaki fight on short notice, something of a risk since Niinimaki was far more experienced and was highly regarded. Backstrom had only two weeks to prepare for the fight, but he wasn't going to waste the opportunity.
His composure was amazing the week of the fight, despite the fact that he hadn't had a full training camp and knew Niinimaki was very talented.
Backstrom nearly submitted Niinimaki with a guillotine, but ended the fight by landing a crushing knee and then catching the Finn in a slick rear naked choke.
Anyone who doubted Gooden's pre-fight words had to have been convinced.
He's hardly the force of nature that McGregor is, but he's a strong, quietly confident guy who said he'd take a fight against champion Jose Aldo tomorrow if it were offered.
"I'm not in this sport to be considered in the top 10 or top 5, and I am not interested in being No. 2," he said. "I'm here to be the best. It's what I have trained for and it's what I have worked to be for a large part of my life.
"I'm looking to make a statement, but I'm looking to make a statement in every fight. That's what I have done so far every time. I know Mike is a talented guy. He hits with power and he has good cardio and is really going to try to knock me out. But facing a challenge always brings the best out of me and I'm 100 percent ready to show what I can do."
