MMA
A wedding present for Vemola? Title match for Terminator and Joker opponent the target of criticism
Karlos Vémola will fight for the welterweight title in Štvanice. And that’s with a man who hasn’t even had a single fight in the Octagon, and he’s used to fighting at middleweight and hasn’t fought much at welterweight. Although the organization promotes the duel as a great fight, the criticism is not small and Patrik Kincl, one of the champions of the Oktagon, does not avoid it.
Karlos Vémola will fight for the welterweight title in Štvanice. And that’s with a man who hasn’t even had a single fight in the Octagon, and he’s used to fighting at middleweight and hasn’t fought much at welterweight. Although the organization promotes the duel as a great fight, the criticism is not small and Patrik Kincl, one of the champions of the Oktagon, does not avoid it.
Oktagon announced that Karlos Vémola will fight for the welterweight title next month. He’s even got him an opponent who is promoting himself very well. Aleksandar Ilic isn’t afraid of making confident statements, he has a positive record and he also fought in KSW in Poland.
However, there are a lot of catches. First of all, for example, the fact that other fighters who fight in the welterweight division on a regular basis have claimed the welterweight title. For example, Rafael Xavier or Stephan Pütz, who even accepted the challenge to fight two Terminators.
Moreover, Pütz went for a title shot against Viktor Peseta before his previous win and lost due to the fight being stopped by a doctor, wishing to keep fighting. So he definitely deserved a chance. Xavier apparently wanted more time to prepare. After all, 4 weeks to prepare for a title fight is not a lot.
In addition, Vemola barely fought in the Octagon in a semi-heavyweight bout. After his loss to Attila, he focused on the middleweight division. He then continuously knocked down Viktor Peshta, who eventually dominated the Octagon’s welterweight division, but didn’t accept the fight with him. And then he got injured, so it was no longer an option. Now, Vémola returned to the welterweight division with a win over Pasternak. But should that be enough?
How tough an opponent is Ilitch really?
Aleksandar Ilic boasts a positive record of 13: 4, however two defeats came in two of his previous four fights in KSW Poland. Until then, he had wrestled mainly in Serbia, where he was considered a star.
It’s worth noting that he’s wrestled most of his career at middleweight, where he’s ranked as high as 196 on Fight Matrix, among other rankings. Vemola is ranked 53rd in the welterweight division.
So this is a lighter opponent, even though Ilic was preparing for the PFL season where he wanted to fight at welterweight. In the PFL, among others, the aforementioned Peshta has now lost two duels.
And what are the weaknesses of Ilic? Ground. In Polish KSW, that’s what he ran into. Of course he could have moved on since then, after all he hasn’t fought for over a year. But has he improved enough to last with Vemola? It’s not to be expected.
The reactions are not favorable for Vemola, nor for Octagon
Unfortunately for Vemola and for Oktagon, the broader MMA-watching public is aware of the above facts. That’s why the comments are mainly criticism. According to some Oktagon fans, this is a wedding present for the Terminator, who promised his partner that he would only marry her as champion.
Indeed, the post in which Oktagon announced the match on Facebook received no small amount of mockery in the reactions. Of the roughly 2,200 reactions using the emoji, more than 600 were mocking.
“A guy fighting at welterweight for the first time and going for the title right away, but other quality Oktagon fighters need to build up. Who the f**k is that guy?” one fan responded on Facebook, paraphrasing Vemola’s line directed at Peshta earlier, among other things.
Moreover, this is the most popular comment under the post. The next most popular posts are in a similar vein.
And Patrik Kincl also expressed his criticism at the beginning of the week, when the match had not yet been officially announced. On paper an interesting and skilful fighter with a nice record. Only he fights one weight lower, ranked at the end of the second hundred and for sure a clean stand-up fighter. #NotSurprised.”
Meanwhile, Octagon is otherwise doing a great job and certainly doesn’t deserve similar reactions due to a few missteps. He just needs to stop repeating them all the time. We can only hope that Ilitch puts on a truly great performance and proves he’s no fodder.
Source: Octagon MMA, Patrik Kincl, Facebook, Instagram, Fight Matrix, KSW
