At 66, life begins – and at 61, Karl Painer’s second MMA spring begins! After an eleven-year break, the Styrian cage veteran will return to the Octagon on Friday during the Cage Fight Series on Lake Schwarzl. Krone+ subscribers (our offers here) can watch all preliminary and selected main fights in the livestream from 6 p.m. He reveals why the old man will be “flashing” the event in the video above.
Gemma in the boxes. No, not a request below the belt. The letters on Karl Painer’s training shirt invite you to visit the bar “Kist’n” in Graz, where the 61-year-old still works as security.
After decades in the international security industry, Painer has a lot to say. “Not everything is suitable for young people,” he grins between his sparring rounds in the Champions Gym.
Shoe theft during club holidays
“There were certainly many funny anecdotes. For example, a guest on a club holiday in Tunisia once complained to me that he had lost his Hugo Boss shoes. A week later he found her – at the feet of the local security chief…
Of course, not everything was always funny: “I was attacked with clubs and knives, my cheekbone was broken, a bursa was torn. I have suffered many wounds, but thank God never life-threatening ones.”
Painer includes a lot of this in the book ‘Shit Bouncer! The truth about an industry owned by the king of bouncers. As a self-defense trainer, he also wrote about defense techniques and proper behavior during terrorist and amok attacks. He recently published ‘Tat Weapon Messer’, a self-help guide to knife attacks. “It is extremely topical, because these are increasing year after year and are becoming more and more brutal!”
“Become real science”
It’s brutal inside the Octagon, too, where Prainer is climbing back into contention after an 11-year hiatus without any focused MMA training. “I just have an itch, I want to know it again,” says the cage returner, who finds himself in a completely new era of mixed martial arts. “The techniques have been developed enormously. The sport has become a real science, partly fueled by the multi-billion dollar UFC organization!”
The MMA ‘grandpa’ is certainly impressing his much younger training partners in the gym. “They are very proud of me. “When I score goals, the young people always become very ambitious,” Painer winks.
How can he beat his opponent Sladjan Dobras (Bos), who is more than 20 years younger than him, in the battle in the CFS preliminaries? “He’s sensitive to low kicks, so I want to make it difficult for him with kicks to the thighs.” What would a large local fan base, who only knows their veteran as “The Flash”, know? “Because I won my first fight in 2000 by knockout after just 7 seconds. Everyone remembers that!”
Live weigh-in on Thursday
If you want to know if Painer is still “the old man”, you can watch all preliminary and selected main fights of the Cage Fight Series on Friday in the livestream on krone.at. As a Krone+ subscriber (our offers here) you will experience the best cage promotion from 6 p.m.!
All “Krone” users can participate in the weigh-in and comparison of the athletes on Thursday. It will be broadcast live from 7 p.m.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
