Buchinger after defeat: I felt I still had it in me, but my team decided to end the fight despite my insistence

Ivan Buchinger fell in the title fight with Ronald Paradeiser on Saturday before midnight. The latter showed a marked improvement over their first match and hit Buchinger several times in the first half. The fight had to be stopped by the referee and the experienced fighter has now sent a message to the fans.

Ivan Buchinger has fought Ronald Paradeiser in the past. Back then in early 2021, Buchinger was the better man, choking out his fellow Slovakian to become the lightweight champion.

Less than three years later, it was rematch time and this time the younger Paradeiser was the favourite, having moved on properly, while for Buchinger it is understandable that age is not unstoppable and coming back from injuries is not easy.

Buchinger cashed in hard in the first round, went down hard as well. It almost looked like the fight would be over soon. But Buki showed a hard chin and a big heart and held his ground. In the second half of the round, the fight was more or less even.

The Slovakian legend took a breath, tried to take the fight to the ground for a while, clinched and hit his opponent in the stand-up himself. The second round was again absolutely insane. Hard punches flew on both sides, Buki tried shots from the turn, but Paradeiser had the advantage in the stand-up thanks to his size playing in his favor.

The third five minutes continued at an excellent pace. Most of it again took place in the stand-up, where we saw some tough exchanges and both fighters inflicted considerable damage on each other. The bigger one though was to Buchinger’s face and that proved fatal as he was unable to continue the fight after the end of the third round when his corner preferred to stop the fight, even though Buki himself wanted to keep fighting.

Buchinger sent a message to the fans

“It didn’t work out yesterday. Unfortunately, my lip injury didn’t allow me to continue the match. I felt I still had it in me, but my team decided to stop the fight despite my insistence.

The doctors checked me out and other than the lacerations on my cheek, which they stitched up, I’m fine. I’ll keep going because I know that losing is part of life and is just a lesson to keep going and getting better. Thank you to everyone who cheered and supported me,” he wrote on Instagram.

And what is his future in the Octagon? “He matters, he has a special place in our hearts. He can choose, if he wants, he can go to Gamechanger, which we discussed. He can stay in 66… he can do whatever he wants,” said Ondrej Novotny at the press conference.

Source: Instagram, Oktagon MMA