Alexander Trans, leader of the Scandinavian team in Copa Podio’s Vikings vs Cabras da Peste series, gave us his thoughts on last weekend’s event. Trans will move to Brazil soon as part of his move to GF Team, where he will train for his battle with Braulio Estima later this year. 

FloGrappling: How did you feel watching the Vikings last weekend at Copa Podio? 

Alexander Trans: I was really impressed by their performance. I was especially impressed with Espen Mathiesen, who did a very intelligent and technical fight against an extremely tough opponent in Yan 'Pica-Pau'. 

Tommy's fight was also very exciting, and Ida completely dominated her opponent, so it was great.

The Viking team got two wins and a draw. That means you have 7 points in the team challenge, and the Cabras da Peste have 1 point. How do you feel about this advantage going into the next meeting in July? 

For me personally it doesn't change anything in my strategy for the fight. I'll try to be as aggressive as possible searching for the submission, especially since it's only one 10 minute fight, so I know I won't get tired or have to conserve my energy for other fights like I'm used to in tournaments. Also, the primary goal is of course always to win, but in an event like this, the athletes owe it to the organizers, sponsors, fans and everyone involved in the event to be as exciting as possible.

But it's great for our team that we had a good result in the first part of the challenge, and I'm confident that we'll manage to win it.

The next battle will be in July and you will face Braulio Estima. Tell us, how has your rehab been going since your knee surgery? Will you ready by then? 

My rehab has been excellent, my strength, balance and flexibility is actually a bit better than before the injury, and my knee is close to being 100 % as well. I already started doing some light training last week, just slowly getting back to drilling and sparring, and in the beginning of February I'll start training hard again.

I'm really looking forward to my fight in July, I'm really happy to be fighting in Copa Podio for the first time, I've always wanted to fight in this event and it's great to see all the things they are doing to make our sport grow. I'm also very excited about this fight against Braulio, I've always enjoyed watching him fight and I respect him a lot, I'm sure it's going to be a great fight! You can be sure that I'll be 100 % and in the best shape of my life on July 9.

You're moving to Brazil soon and you'll be training at GF Team in Rio. You must be very excited. What do you think this move means for your career?

I think it will be the best decision of my career to move to GF Team. I trained with Ricardo Evangelista and Igor Silva in Abu Dhabi and they are great friends of mine, but I haven't had the chance to train with the rest of the team yet because of my injury, so I'm really looking forward to start working with them in a few weeks!

I hope that now that I'll be focusing 100% on training and competing, not having to work or teach 40 hours a week like I've been doing for the last two years, and training with a great team like GF Team, I'll be able to get to the next level in my career, and achieve the results that I've been close to, but haven't managed yet. So I'm just really grateful for everything that is happening in my life right now, and I can't wait to step onto the mat in Argentina on July 9!