Octagon champion Sanikidze spoke about his injury. He is also sorry for the promoters who helped him a lot

The tournament in Bratislava lost its main match. Mate Sanikidze was supposed to defend his belt against Losene Keita, but the Georgian champion injured his shoulder and will not be able to start in less than two weeks. What was his message to his fans?

Before the tournament in Ostrava in March, we saw a big shootout between Georgian Mate Sanikidze and Belgian Losene Keita at the press conference.

The two were supposed to face each other at the end of April at the Oktagon 42 tournament in Bratislava, but their title fight will not happen. At least not on this date.

Sanikidze injured his shoulder shortly before the tournament and the injury will not allow him to start so soon. A replacement for the current champion is being sought.

“I am very devastated and heartbroken to write that I am out of my first title defence on 29 April… I injured my shoulder during training, which forced me to withdraw from the most exciting match in Europe and my first ever main event..

From my opponent’s point of view I know what it’s like to lose an opponent a few weeks before a fight, but unfortunately MMA is full of injuries and unfortunate events. You never know what will happen and when, we’ve seen it many times in MMA and in much bigger fights..

I apologize to the fans, especially to the promoters Ondrej and Pal, because you all helped me a lot when I was struggling and did everything for me and now that I’m out of the picture it’s killing me even more because I know everyone was waiting to see the fight.

When I’m better and ready to go, that game will happen because it has to happen. Thank you all for the support and love,” he said to his fans via social media.

Ronald Paradeiser, who would like to go lightweight with Keita, has applied for the chance. The Belgian, however, flatly rejected it as it is a different weight class.

He has given a lot to his preparation for the featherweight division and would be taking an unnecessary risk if he decided at the last minute to defend the lightweight belt. So it’s a question of who Octagon will eventually find for him for Bratislava.

Source: Mate Sanikidze Facebook