MMA
Kozma defended again! The prince refuses to retire. Ostrava did not escape the controversy either. How did OKTAGON 32 look like?
Octagon returned to Ostrava. Vítkovice Ostravar arena offered several interesting fights, but there was also a controversial moment, fans whistled a few times. How did the OKTAGON 32 gala evening look like?
Prelims
Chochlíková didn’t allow any surprises, the second fight earned whistles because of the result
The first match of the tournament was won by Monika Chochlíková and Alessandra Pajuelo. The Slovakian champion was the favourite, but the Peruvian fighter did not have too much respect for her. First she tried to measure her strength in the stand-up, but when she found out why the Slovakian is a respected stand-up fighter, she started to drag the fight to the ground.
The second round in particular was mostly played out on the ground, with Pajuelo constantly trying to leverage Chochlik’s leg, but to no avail. The third round then clearly belonged to Chochlíková, who eventually won on points, with all three judges seeing her win.
“It was nerves, I couldn’t get into the fight, I had problems related to the toilet. I thought the defense against takedowns would go better, but hopefully next time it will be better,” Chochlikova was heard saying immediately after the fight.
The second fight offered the return of Jakub Dohnal, who had a tough opponent. Iamik Furtado may not have been the favorite, but he showed in the fight that he definitely has something to offer the Octagon lightweight division. Dohnal spent the entire first round trying to take him down, to no avail.
Halfway through the second round, Dohnal got Furtado’s back standing, but was passive except for the last few seconds. The fans started booing. The third round was a completely different story. Furtado was active and uncompromising in his stance, then showed dominance on the ground. Dohnal looked much worse after the fight.
The result? One scoring judge saw a draw, the other two saw a close 29:28 win for the Czech fighter. The fans immediately started booing, but Dohnal was sporting and great, and so was Furtado.
“It was a terribly difficult fight, Furtado was extremely strong, we were praying for a draw. Give him a chance in the Octagon, he’s a great fighter, he makes great fights,” Dohnal expressed after the fight. Still in the cage immediately after the result was announced, he went to Furtado, obviously sympathizing with him.
Promoter Ondrej Novotny promised afterwards that the fans will definitely see Furtado in the Octagon again.
Heavyweight boredom, Mack’s comeback and Jungwirth the entertainer
This was supposed to be the dark horse fight of the night, but the opposite was true. Kamil Minda was trying to be active, to create, but Tadej Dajcman, apart from hard kicks, with which he properly stamped the feet of the Polish fighter, rather retreated and overly adhered to tactics.
So the crowd booed in this fight too, but did both fighters make something out of it? They didn’t. The fight then ended with a close victory for Dajcman, but it can’t be said that the fans celebrated it very much.
Filip Macek was the first early finish of the tournament, scoring his 19th successful submission of his career. After two minutes and 40 seconds, it was over and Ramon Emilio Martínez will go home empty-handed.
Macek thanked the crowd for their support and admitted that he did not underestimate Martínez, but thanks to his experience from title fights he entered the match without any nerves. This was reflected in his performance and the Czech fighter scored a well-deserved victory.
The last fight of the prelims card also ended in the first round. Christian Jungwirth, who fought two weeks ago, took on Mateusz Strzelczyk in the cage and set a pace right from the start that the Polish fighter couldn’t match. He had several dangerous submission attempts, but came up short against the German despite his clear height advantage.
Jungwirth beat his opponent with hard punches on the ground with a minute to go. He thus got the fans excited for his next fight, which will take place in his home town of Frankfurt, Germany.
Main card
Skvor beats Langer, Grizzly eats Viking, Peñaz goes KO-free for the first time
The main card opened with a welterweight bout between Pavol Langer and Daniel Shkvor. Škvor came into the fight as a great stand-up fighter, but the question was how he would handle the ground skills of his Slovakian opponent. And how did he do? Great. At least in the first two rounds. In the first, although he was on the ground in the bottom position, he was more active. In the second, he was destroying his opponent in the standup.
Langer held on mainly through willpower, but in the third round he found the strength to check Skvor on the ground for almost the entire five minutes. He also got to Skvor’s back in the final minute and the Czech fighter had to defend several choke attempts. He managed it successfully and scored a points win.
The second fight on the main card ended in the first round. Jeremy Kimball was a big favorite and he showed why in the fight. Thomas Narmo couldn’t take advantage of his height advantage and the American fighter kicked his leg so much that the Nordic fighter couldn’t stay on his feet.
“Thank you for letting me be back. I’m so happy to be here to fight. It’s been two and a half years since my last win and I’m enjoying being back. I felt the best I’ve felt in a while, I want to be active, hopefully the next fight will be soon,” Kimball hyped up the fans for his next fight.
Three rounds, three times more or less the same scenario, however for the first time without a KO, this was the fight that featured Matej Peñaz. Giovanni Melillo’s stance was not enough for the Moravian fighter, so he tied the fight on the canvas, trying to take it to the ground, in vain. In the third round, the Italian tried to throw Peňáz off with various gestures, but the Brno native did not let himself get carried away and went on to win on points.
Pudilova won even with a broken arm, Mikulasek lost without tapping out
As it was the case in the previous fight, the whole fight of Lucie Pudilova had a similar course. The Czech fighter was light on her feet, she clearly beat her opponent on the number of punches, Caroline Yariwake, on the other hand, got almost nothing. She didn’t even get a chance to show her great BJJ, she just showed tremendous heart as she lost on points after many hard punches.
After the fight, Pudilova apologized to the fans for apparently breaking her arm during the fight, which meant she could only box once.
Unfortunately, the main preliminary bout of the evening ended in the first round. Václav Mikulasek, meanwhile, entered the fight a little better, even being on the ground with Tomas Bol in top position. However, he couldn’t make anything out of it. Baba Jaga did land some shots, but Melish tried for a kimura several times, and eventually won the fight on it.
Mikulášek didn’t tap, so he was upset. The rules are clear though, Baba Jaga yelled, which is a verbal submission. But he didn’t realize it at the time. Although he was initially disappointed at the loss, in the post-match interview he accepted the loss and acknowledged his mistake. The winner Bolo said that it would have been better if the match had ended differently, but of course he takes the win with all ten hands.
Kozma defended again, Kniz held on for all five rounds
The main event of the night offered the war it promised. David Kozma took on Monster for the second time in his career. The first round was fairly even and mostly fought standing, however Kozma was more dominant in the remaining four rounds, taking the fight to the ground where he was able to keep Monster underneath him.
However, Petr Kníž was more accurate in the stand-up in the second half of the fight. The Pink Panther tactically took advantage of just great ground control. Then in the fifth round he didn’t want to risk getting hit by Monster, so he shortened the distance and tried to take the fight to the ground again. He was able to do that and the fight was already unchecked and he won clearly on points.
“It was an awfully tough fight. I’m at the bottom of my strength again. Peter is a tough guy. It’s unbelievable that he can last five rounds at that age. But I wanted to finish it off, I’m sorry it probably wasn’t a very attractive fight, but I didn’t want to let it get away from me,” the champion was heard saying after the win.
“I wanted to ping David in the stand-up, I hit him a couple of times, I know I did, even though he says I didn’t. I tried to catch him with some number one. Physically he’s better, he’s younger. Unfortunately, it turned out the way it did. Now I need to take a break and think about what’s next. But I’m not done with wrestling,” said Kníže.
Source: Octagon MMA
