New conditions, new impulse: Reality show participant Who Survives Adam swaps Kinclo for Kozma. I’m not afraid of Nathan, he says confidently

He has been suffering in training for almost three months, shedding sweat, blood and tears for a single date. On September 17th, Adam Raiter and Nathan Dzaba will face each other in the cage and duke it out under MMA rules. OKTAGON’s reality show Who Will Survive charts their journey.

The episodes make clear what the organisation drew attention to at the beginning of the project, namely that both participants are relatively ordinary men who, although they have a certain sporting background, have had no experience with combat sports before.

“It’s extremely challenging,” comes from the older of the participants, Adam Raiter. He and his opponent were brought together by the same reality show, Survivor, in which they both participated earlier this year. Their turbulent year continues with another challenge that has them literally reaching the bottom of their physical and mental strength. There is an eight-year gap between the two contestants on Who Will Survive.

“I’m maybe a little more sore for my age compared to Nathan. But with age comes mostly experience. I’ve been in a lot of uncomfortable situations, I’ve done huge jumps, backflips, I’ve experienced wartime Ukraine. I’ve always been a courageous freak, always moving forward, never letting anything get him down. Nathan is a kicker, for me he’s a guy I’m definitely not afraid of,” Adam confides.

Adam has no shortage of confidence ahead of the battle that will be the culmination of the project. But of course, that’s what martial arts viewers are used to. “I’m sure I can take more in the cage. I have a lowered pain threshold. I’m a little bigger, more powerful, and I’m definitely not afraid of anything in the cage,” Raiter says.

His determination and great resilience is evidenced by the fact that during the first two months of training, he was also working full time at his company, which made it all the more challenging for him. “I’m tired, but I’m sacrificing everything,” he adds.

Adam and Nathan met face-to-face for the first time since their participation on the island at the OKTAGON tournament in Prague’s Štvanice in July. There was also the first staredown.

“I felt great for the first time in the cage. I enjoyed the attention of the people, even though some of them booed us. I looked them in the eye and felt good. And that’s what the experience is. If I was 26, my knees would be knocking with stage fright. I’m a little sorry that no one on my team told me what to do at staredown. I’m sure Nathan got training from the SFG folks, because he was taught what to do as it got into my head. But he didn’t get to do that. I don’t have a problem with him all the time, but you can sense from him that it’s somehow personal,” Adam says towards the situation that brought them together in the cage.

That situation was a physical fight on the island during which Adam hit Nathan in the head, resulting in Nathan having to leave the reality show later.

Adam originally chose middleweight champion Patrik Kinceloe as his trainer for the entire training, as he will be defending his belt for the first time at the same OKTAGON 35 tournament in Brno.

After a month of preparation Adam evaluated the lessons from the new middleweight king with the words “an amateur’s excursion into professional sport”, but at the turn of the summer months he decided to take a radical step and for the rest of the preparation he moved to the Prague Primmat Gym under another champion, David Kozma.

“I felt very demotivated lately. Patrik is a very strict coach and he really treated me as a professional and ready fighter, which I definitely can’t be after a few weeks of preparation. I went home really beat up and didn’t feel any noticeable improvement. All of that didn’t hurt my psyche. That’s why I decided to change and I must say that Primmat suits me in every way. They have a lot of time for me and are patient with me. David is a super nice guy and literally my role model, so I’m happy,” Raiter concludes.

Source: Oktagon MMA