It’s shaping up to be an interesting fight! Sanikidze complained that he had no opponent, and the champion Lima immediately offered him

The Oktagon is getting more and more abroad and with that, of course, comes foreign champions. One of them is Mate Sanikidze, who decided to retire from featherweight and gave up the title. Now he’s heading to bantamweight and that’s where he can’t find an opponent. But he’s been approached by Felipe Lima, who is the current champion.

Mate Sanikidze is a stalwart of the Oktagon. He first came in at the end of 2021 and has won all four of his fights in the organization since then, giving him a 10:2 record. He is also the only loser of Losene Keita.

Their fight was supposed to be the highlight of the tournament at Prague, but unfortunately Keita was badly injured shortly after the fight started. Their rematch is probably not going to happen, Sanikidze has decided to leave the featherweight division.

He has relinquished the title he held. He won it after defeating Jakub Tichota and then defended it with Keita. He hasn’t helped himself by moving up to another weight class yet, as he is waiting for his opponent.

He has made his displeasure known on social media and has therefore challenged the organisation and the fighters that he would like to appear in Newcastle in January. “Jonas Magard is still eluding me. The only opponent who agrees to fight me is Gustavo Lopez. I thank him for taking the fight, but I think he’s rusty, plus he’s already got what he deserved from my brother and sparring partner Ben.

I want to fight on the Newcastle card against whoever I think will be a great opponent for me. So Oktagon, give me a fight in Newcastle against anyone, even if it’s new blood, I don’t care who it is,” Sanikidze let the public know.

He also mentioned that he’s not opposed to a rematch with Keita, but he would have to go bantamweight, which he probably won’t want to do anymore since he’s more of a lightweight, which is already two weight classes heavier.

However, he has been approached by another champion, namely Felipe Lima, who has only one fight in the organization so far. In it he took on Jonas Magard and would like to defend. “You can come with me. We can do it on February 10 in Germany,” said the Brazilian.

Source: Oktagon MMA, MMA Shorties