Buchinger: I went in thinking I was going to lose. Before the fight, he was dealing with problems with the Octagon and an offer from RFA. Is he facing the end of his career?

The Octagon has a new champion as of Saturday. He is Losene Keita. The legendary Ivan Buchinger has lost one of his two titles. He has now revealed that he did not enter the fight in a good mood, his head was confused by the offer from a rival organization. In addition, he is facing a long break, or in the worst case scenario, the end of his career.

Ivan Buchinger is one of the greatest legends of the Czechoslovak fight scene. When he came to the Octagon, he clearly dominated two weight classes. But on Saturday, he fell and lost one of his belts.

Before his fight with Losen Keita, he said he was confident in him. He knew where his weaknesses were. In the fight, however, it looked very different. Why? Buchinger talked about it in an interview.

It was known that “Buki” would come into the game with a knee injury. Because of that, he said he was considering not playing. But that wasn’t all. As he admitted, he’s not devastated by the loss.

“I had already started the game knowing that I would lose. I wrote home before the game that I felt terrible. Mentally I was completely pi**. I accepted the loss beforehand and waited for the end,” he said in an interview with Sport.sk.

But besides that, he was consumed by other problems. There were reports in the media that he had a problem with the Oktagon organization. He also confirmed this in the interview.

“When we signed the contract, we agreed that if I’m a double champion, I want more money. I got a raise, but not as much as I wanted. In the meantime, the RFA offered me a practice double. I considered and dealt with things like that, I wasn’t fully focused on the fight,” he revealed.

And now he is facing a very long break. In addition to his injured knee, he is now troubled by a newly injured shoulder. On one of the takedown attempts that Keita defended, he felt and heard that something in his arm had torn. So he began to wonder whether to give up the fight. From that point on, he couldn’t lift his arm.

He will now undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury. Only knee surgery will keep him out of action until February or March. If shoulder surgery is required, a year and a half layoff is realistic.

Buchinger has already had problems with his shoulder once, and after surgery he couldn’t do anything with it for more than six months. If the darkest scenario comes true, Buchinger will be 38 years old in his next fight. So he could be facing the end of his career.

“Maybe it would be for the best, because I’m cut to pieces, but I don’t want to wrap it up yet. I have almost 50 fights under my belt, but I still feel hunger and healthy stress before the fights. I enjoy training, I have a fire in me. Time passes and I’m more vulnerable, but when my body allows it, I still want to fight. I can’t say goodbye with this performance,” added Buki.

Source:: Sport.sk, Oktagon MMA