Swedish fighter Samuel Ericsson knocks out Tarek Khelifi after heated encounter outside the ring

December 28, 2022

Swedish fighter Samuel Ericsson earned a surprising technical knock-out (TKO) win over his Algerian opponent Tarek Khelifi in the Karate Combat ring following a heated encounter.

A video of Ericsson meeting Khelifi at what appears to be a hotel lobby immediately went viral days before their match at the Karate Combat pit on Dec. 17. The video garnered between 10,000 to 11,000 views after it was uploaded on several social media platforms, including Reddit, YouTube and Instagram.

The clip shows the two fighters having an intense exchange before their upcoming fight.

While the videos uploaded to Reddit and YouTube show the two fighters in the midst of their heated exchange, the clip shared by Khelifi on his Instagram shows Ericsson waiting in the lobby and briefly shaking his hand prior.

Although the exchange was not entirely audible as Khelifi was speaking a non-English language, one report stated that the taller man tells Ericsson in the video, “I’ll break your face. I am at your home, everywhere. You aren’t ready.”

Responding to the trash talk, Ericsson says, “I’ll see you Saturday.”

Ericsson, a social media influencer whose follower base of over 660,000 includes Joe Rogan and MMA fighter Connor McGregor, met Khelifi in the ring in a three-round lightweight match-up.

The fight ended with the Swedish fighter winning against Khelifi with a TKO after the latter suffered a severely twisted ankle injury, resulting in the referee ending the match.

Watch the full-length fight below:

Originally born in South Korea before being adopted in Sweden, Ericsson started his martial arts journey in taekwondo at 7 years old. Besides being a martial artist, Ericsson also has a show in Sweden called “How Do You Train?”

Several Reddit users took jabs at Khelifi for his trash-talking prior to the fight, with one person writing, “Ah it looks like someone’s mouth wrote a check their ass couldn’t cash.”

“God voice over says, ‘And, he was indeed *not * ready to see him on Saturday,’” another user commented.

“I think if I were a pro fighter, I’d just keep my damned mouth shut in the lead-up to a fight. Getting knocked out AND looking like an assh*le is one too many negatives, lol,” another person wrote.

After Ericsson’s recent explosive match, Karate Combat President Adam Kovacs reportedly assured fans that the Swedish fighter will return for more fights as he is hungry to compete.

Despite their heated exchange before their match, Ericsson and Khelifi eventually hugged it out and showed each other respect after the fight.

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