MMA
An undignified end to a beautiful evening. It’s a travesty, Vémola, who beat Marpo, let himself be heard. How was OKTAGON Underground?
Social event of the year. That’s how the promoters promoted the OKTAGON UNDERGROUND tournament, which featured fighter Karlos Vémola and rapper Marpo in the main event. With the exception of two fights, it was a gala evening of boxing. What did the tournament look like?
Social event of the year. That’s how the promoters promoted the OKTAGON UNDERGROUND tournament, which featured fighter Karlos Vémola and rapper Marpo in the main event. With the exception of two fights, it was a gala evening of boxing. What did the tournament look like?
Prelims
A great start in the form of underground fights
The entrance to the tournament was very fast. Melvin Mané took on giant Adam Kosut under the rules of Oktagon Underground and it was all over in the first round. Mané landed some hard punches and Kosut went down. He didn’t get up during the count and it was over.
While the second bout didn’t end in a knockout, it was indeed a spectacle. The talented Ludek Gregus challenged the star Italian Alessio Malatesta and put on an outstanding performance. He was dominant in three rounds, and in the second round he even got his opponent to count twice and saved the Italian’s life at the end of the round. A win on points, but quite clear.
Let’s go to the boxing!
In the first boxing match of the tournament, stand-up legend Milan Pales took on MMA fighter Jakub Bahnik. The whole fight was at a good pace, especially Pales was faster and more accurate in all rounds, hitting several dangerous uppercuts. Bahnik hit a couple of them as well, but Pales got the unanimous points victory.
The next fight was between two friends and stand-up stars who know each other very well. Vladimir Lengal took on Michael Krcmar for the second time under the Oktagon banner and wanted to avenge his defeat from the duel under Underground rules.
Krcmar’s style gave Lengal problems, he was able to block most of the punches with his cover. So Lengal tried to forge through Krčmar, opening up and trying to lure him to the offensive, which eventually bore fruit as we saw round three and four see one shootout after another. Everyone had to enjoy a show like that! In the end, Lengal won a unanimous decision on points.
Lucie Sedláčková and Milena Koleva provided the only professional boxing match of the tournament. Koleva took the bout at the last minute, and she is a world elite boxer at her weight, with a noticeable weight advantage when the bout was two weights higher than Sedlacek’s fight.
The Czech relied on quick movement and frequency of punches and gradually began to dismantle her opponent. The sixth round was dramatic though, Koleva felt she didn’t have the fight in her hands and threatened with hard punches, helped of course by her weight advantage, but Sedlacek stopped her opponent’s best round. Thanks to that she scored a points victory and took a very valuable scalp.
Main card
The main card opened in style just like the prelims. In fact, Leandro Apollo Silva went into action, taking on Mark Mazuch. The Brazilian put on an unbelievable show in the first round, a great performance, he put a proper mark on Mazuch’s face. But in the second round everything was erased when the Slovakian fighter sent him into dreamland with a hard shot and won on a clean KO.
The next fight wrote a spectacular story when Michal Kotalik was introduced to the fans for the first time since his release from prison, challenging Vaclav Mikulasek. It was uncertain how Kotalik would fare, but he put on a very good performance, but it wasn’t enough to win. Mikulasek won on points and praised his opponent after the match.
A battle of experience and youth, a fight between a legend and a great prospect. Both performed by the Slovakian. This was the fight between Vladimir Moravcik and Ronald Paradeiser. And it was evenly matched, both fighters showed that they are great fighters. However, the fight was won unanimously on points by the more experienced one, Moravcik, who nevertheless said after the fight that he would have understood if Paradeiser had won.
“Sivak is fantastic.” One sentence from the mouth of Ondrej Novotny practically sums up the entire fight between Vaclav Sivak and Octagon champion Jonas Magarde.
Magard had a lot of confidence in Sivak, but it was a one-goal fight. And that was by Sivak. He pressed in all the rounds, not letting the Dane do anything, but never once sending him into the count. Still, he clearly won on points.
A fight between two pirates? Samuel Kristofich, known as The Pirate, took on Milos Petrasek, who chose the soundtrack from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise as his entrance music. It was going to be a heated battle and we got it. From the beginning neither of the fighters addressed tactics or any strategies. Both went into the ring with a clear goal – to finish the other.
Surprisingly, neither of them succeeded, although both of them landed some hard punches and both of them showed a lot of fatigue. And the result? Surprisingly a draw, although the Pirate had the upper hand. One referee saw the Pirate win, the other saw Petrasek win and the third saw a draw. So the total points were the same for both.
The unworthy highlight of the evening?
What everyone had been waiting for for four long years became a reality. Karlos Vémola took on the rapper Marp in a boxing match. It was not expected that the Terminator would learn how to box, but it was still expected that he would win.
And both did. The Terminator really didn’t put on much of a boxing performance, but his pressure kept Marpo in the corner and he kept covering him with punch after punch. Marpo was mostly trying to defend, and when he got some space, he used it to land hard punches, of which he landed several. However, to no effect.
Marpo was well prepared, he held out a lot. In the fourth round, however, the referee waved the fight off without counting Marpo out and without any warning that the fight was in danger of being stopped. And what did Vemola say? Right after the end, he said it was a sham.
As soon as Vémola was announced as the winner, the O2 arena roared. However, he himself said into the microphone that he disagreed and that Marpo was tough as nails. He also admitted that Marpo’s punches could really shake him up and he said he was even dizzy. He then urged the audience to support Marpo instead of booing, which is what happened once he got his hands on the microphone.
Source: Octagon MMA
