Kozma escaped from the gravedigger’s shovel, Pirate and Lohore fought an incredible battle, there was no shortage of surprises. What did OKTAGON 40 look like?

Juráček defeated Řeko in the reserve match

In fact, he backed off his style from the retreat and was the more active one from the start, even taking the fight to the ground, but he almost regretted it at the end of the first five minutes. Palaiologos was close to landing a kimura, but Yuracek was able to roll out of it and escape the loss.

In the second and third round Juráček did not commit a similar mistake. He was more careful, but still dominated the fight. He was careful, controlling his opponent on the mat when necessary. In short, a tactically optimally handled fight that could not end any other way than Juracek’s victory on points.

Van Suijdam ran over Uscrt, Velickovic tightened up Surdu

Radovan Uskrt and Melvin Van Suijdam were the first fight between the pyramid participants. The Dutchman was the biggest outsider of the whole tournament, but it was expected that the match could end in the first round. Both fighters know how to finish their opponents.

And the first round showed that it could indeed happen. It was played entirely in the standup, with Ushrt delivering the knockdown and having a slight advantage. However, the next two rounds took a completely different course, with Van Suijdam clearly dominating them. He landed a clean high kick in the second round, from which Úškrt couldn’t recover properly by the end of the fight.

In the third round, the Dutchman was again close to finishing, but Úškrt didn’t give up. He escaped from the choke, but he didn’t come at Van Suijdam again. He calmly controlled the rest of the third round and scored a well-deserved points win.

What followed was a highly anticipated fight between two fighters from the Balkans that ended in the most attractive way possible. Bojan Velickovic went into the fight as the favorite. Ion Surdu had nothing to lose, he could only gain. And he surprised by approaching his much more experienced opponent without too much respect.

Both fighters looked very tough and emphatic in their stance and we almost witnessed a mutual KO when they both managed to send each other down at the same time in the first round. However, Velickovic reacted better and forced a shaken Surdu to tap out in an awkward situation.

Fan favourites fell, Apollo and Kertész were no match for their rivals

The next fight offered a huge surprise. Marcel Grabinski, who replaced John Hathaway and faced Máté Kertész, may not have been the favorite against the Hungarian, but the fight looked different.

He sent Kertész down with a knee to the chin early in the first round and also ended the fight in the first round when he hit the Hungarian with a precise knee right on the chin and although Kertész wanted to continue the fight, he couldn’t defend himself and the referee correctly stopped the fight.

What followed was a battle of two UFC veterans, one of whom has already managed to make a great name for himself in the Octagon and the other who has only just retired from the best MMA organization in the world and recently fell short of current middleweight champion Alex Pereira, for example.

The favourite according to fans and bookmakers was Leandro Silva known as Apollo, however Andreas Michailidis showed from the start that the odds may not always match reality. Both fighters were more cautious in the first round, but the Greek fighter was tougher.

In the second round, Apollo did better, he was the one who tried to create the fight, he even got Michailidis to the ground, but he wasn’t very active in the dominant position. And the third round was just as even, but Michalidis showed more control and more activity, and all three judges saw him win.

Glismann confirmed his role as the favourite, Jungwirth was in charge again

Kalashnik took the fight less than a day before it was scheduled to take place, Glismann, by the way, is the top ranked fighter in the pyramid within the Fight Matrix world rankings. That’s why he was also the favorite against the Moravian fighter with Ukrainian roots.

In the first round things didn’t look bad at all with Kalashnik, Glismann had problems with his wrestling, the home fighter resisted him for a long time. But in the second and third rounds the Danish favourite had a clear advantage, he found a recipe to take Kalashnik to the ground and on the ground he controlled him

Although he won on points, he didn’t have it easy and after the fight he praised Kalashnik for his resilience and for accepting the fight.

A duel between Tata Primera and Christian Jungwirth promised to be an attractive fight, and that’s exactly what we got. Three rounds of posturing, a tough shootout and two huge hearts. Primera did best in the first round, but it was almost a one-sided ride in the next two.

The German fighter proved that his cardio can often be the difference maker in an entire fight, and right now it really was. Gradually kicking Primero’s leg, unleashing longer combinations and holding the center of the cage, he was the one who was making the match and deservedly took the points win.

Pirate and Lohore put on a riveting battle, Kozma narrowly won

Samuel Kristofich and Alex Lohoré also provided one of the most anticipated fights, and a first-class spectacle was expected. The first round didn’t quite live up to expectations as the match was played most of the time on the ground, where the Pirate was in a better position, but wasn’t very active.

But the second round got underway and we got a good fight, with Lohoré having the upper hand. In the second five minutes he sent the Pirate to the ground, but he quickly shook it off and tried to return the same coin to his opponent. But he was not very successful.

The Pirate showed a lot of heart, but gradually his fitness was slipping away, his movement looked more and more uncoordinated and Lohoré went for the win. The Pirate, however, put on a show right to the end and both fighters earned the applause of the whole hall for their incredible fight. Rightfully so.

David Kozma and Lukasz Siwiec provided the last duel of the tournament and Gamechanger. Kozma was the big favorite, but experts warned that he wasn’t going to have an easy time of it, and that proved to be the case.

The first round was cautious, Kozma was slightly better in it, but his activity was not extreme, even on the ground he did not show much. The second round Siwiec was more active, he was wild and frantic in his stance and you could tell that Kozma didn’t like his style at all. After Kozma got the fight to the ground, he wasn’t very active again and Siwiec defended well.

The third round was up and down again and Siwiec even came very close to finishing Kozma. He actually got on his back, locked in a body lock and put on a choke. But Kozma miraculously managed to get out of it, and although tired, he made it through the rest of the round.

The Pink Panther won, but only by split decision. But it’s a big win for him after the loss, he was able to get back on the winning streak and put himself to the test.

Pokorny dominated the battle of the legends

Jan Široký and Jakub Pokorný have had many tough battles in their careers and both are tough guys who will take on pretty much any challenge. And now they face each other. The slight favourite was the Ostrava fighter, but Jubox can never be written off.

And the fight proved it, as Pokorný dominated the fight from the start. Both in stance and on the ground, where the fight didn’t linger as much. Shiroky was shaken up a few times in the fight after Jubox was hit, and then when Pokorny hit him on the ground, you could tell his opponent had had enough.

The referee waved off the bout with the obvious passivity of Shiroky and Pokorny won by TKO in the second round. And deservedly so. He handled the whole fight tactically perfectly and everything worked out for him.

Source: OKTAGON MMA