Bad news, Buchinger will not fight Kozma! Who will replace him and what does the champion say about his new opponent?

A very sad news was published by Oktagon on Tuesday evening. Ivan Buchinger was injured and will not be able to fight David Kozma for his third belt. Who will replace him?

Ivan Buchinger got the chance of a lifetime to make history, he could have been the champion of three weight classes. But in the end, it won’t happen. At least not this year.

David Kozma’s challenger was injured while preparing for the fight. According to Ondrej Novotny, one of the reasons for the injury may be the fact that the Slovak legend was training with heavier fighters.

In addition, the Oktagon promoter revealed on the MMA Flight Around the World podcast that it is likely that Buchinger may not get another chance to win a third belt.

After all, the Welterweight division is pretty stacked and there are plenty of people interested in fighting the champion Kozma.

And who will replace Buchinger? The new challenger to Kozma will be Bojan Velickovic, a UFC veteran and one of the best welterweight fighters in the Octagon. In the past, he was able to defeat Jiri Prochazka.

Kozma believes that Velickovic will be a tougher opponent than Buchinger, as he is heavier in weight, and has also fought at middleweight in the past.

For the longest reigning Octagon champion, the fact that he has been preparing for the ground game will also be troublesome, while the Serbian is more of a stand-up guy.

“The road could lead through physical conditioning. He wasn’t preparing for a five-round fight and, like with Apollo, I could play it on heart and physicality. We are yet to discuss the strategy,” Kozma let it be known.

Source: Octagon MMA, MMA Around the World