Olli Santalahti is a 24-year-old Finish welterweight prospect currently competing in Cage. Having dropped his first two professional fights, Santalahti has rebounded by winning eights fights in a row. Like many other Finish fighters, Santalahti comes from a wrestling background and looks to grapple in all of his fights.
Strengths
Wrestling
As previously mentioned, Santalahti is primarily a wrestler and has been able to outwrestle all of his opponents so far (from the available fight footage). He has a particularly good initial shot which allows him to shoot from a long way out. From there Santalahti is very good at getting in on the hips of his opponents and ‘turning the corner’ to take them down.
Athleticism
Santalahti’s athleticism and physicality are evident even before you see him fight. Standing at 5”11 with a reach of 75.6 inches, he has a very good frame for a welterweight. His strength comes into play during the wrestling exchanges and will often get him the desired takedown even if the set up was not technically perfect.
Grappling
Santalahti is most comfortable in top position on the ground. From there he looks for different submissions, so far he has recorded four submissions in his career including an extremely rare Suloev Stretch. Santalahti is not lost on his back either. He keeps active with elbows from his guard which prevent his opponents from resting and score him points on the judges’ scorecards. Furthermore, he also likes to look for sweeps in order to gain top position.
Kicks
On the feet, Santalahti utilises a lot of kicks to pepper away at his opponent from a safe distance. Although he does not have any knockouts coming as a result of his kicking game, Santalahti is able to accumulate points and frustrate his opponents. By staying at kicking range, Santalahti minimises the boxing offence of his opponents and can be difficult to hit. This suits his style well as his priority is to get the fight to the ground and not to knock his opponent out standing.
Weaknesses
Boxing
Santalahti’s boxing is more or less non-existent. He does not utilise his reach nearly as well as he could. Up to this point he has been able to get away with using kicks as his main weapon on the feet. However, should he face somebody that will be able to crash the distance and enter boxing range then Santalahti may find himself in a lot of trouble. Luckily for him, a solution could be as simple as adding a good jab to his arsenal which would allow him to utilise a 1-2 boxing combination to diversify his striking.
Ground Control
In his fight against Nathan Jones, Santalahti was able to get takedowns at will but found himself in a lot of scrambles on the ground. At one point in the fight, Jones even took his back which could have lost him the fight. If Santalahti wants to continue with his style of being a stifling wrestler, he should work on his positional control in order to minimise scrambles which give his opponents opportunities to get back up or secure dominant positions of their own.
Stamina
Perhaps as a result of the scramble heavy fight against Nathan Jones, Santalahti was visibly tired in the third round. This led to his takedowns becoming increasingly sloppy and predictable. Although Santalahti was still able to secure several takedowns in the third round, perhaps it was more due to Jones’ pours takedown defence rather than the quality of his takedowns. This could become a serious issue for Santalahti in the future if he is unable to stop his opponent in the earlier rounds.
Future
In his next fight, Santalahti will take on former BAMMA welterweight champion Alex Lohore. On paper, this looks to be his toughest match up yet. Stylistically, however, this is a very winnable fight for Santalahti. Lohore is currently on a 2 fight skid with both losses coming by unanimous decision as a result of a wrestling-heavy approach by his opponents. Santalahti should be able to impose his wrestling and grind out a decision. He does need to be wary of Lohore’s submissions off his back and in scrambles.
In the long term, it will be interesting to see how Santalahti fares against top level wrestlers from America or Russia. On one hand, Santalahti is an impressive athlete with solid takedowns and may be able to out-muscle a lot of fighters. On the other hand, he may eventually run into a superior wrestler who will be able to hold his own in the grappling exchanges and not give Santalahti a fight that he wants.
An area that Santalahti needs to improve if he is to succeed at the highest level is his boxing as right now he is one dimensional in his striking and not particularly dangerous. Overall, Santalahti is an intriguing prospect with great physical gifts and a style that suits him but he also has flaws that need addressing for him to reach his full potential.