Keita: I don’t believe Sanikidze is really hurt. I didn’t want to complicate the match with Tichota and I didn’t want to hurt him too much

Losene Keita showed his class again. He no longer owns just one belt, but two. In addition to the lightweight, he now holds the featherweight title, even though he is currently a provisional. At the press conference he spoke about his opponent and the rightful champion.

Mate Sanikidze vs. Losene Keita. The champion against the champion. This was to be the main draw of the Bratislava OKTAGON 42 tournament. But two weeks before the tournament, the Georgian fighter got injured and had to look for an opponent.

The Czech talent Jakub Tichota, who lost to Sanikidze on points in a close and attractive battle in December, got his chance. A big chance for the twenty-three year old fighter and the biggest challenge of his career so far.

Keita was a big favourite and the fight looked like it. Nevertheless, Tichota deserved a lot of respect and admiration not only from his opponent, but also from promoter Ondrej Novotny. He fought most of the fight with a broken collarbone.

The Czech lasted until the fourth round, when the referee stopped the fight. Could the fight have ended sooner? “I think so, but I didn’t want to hurt him too much. I didn’t want to take any risks. I know I can do three rounds and five rounds. I’m just going for the win, that’s all I care about,” Keita said at the press conference.

Silence often fell to the ground after hard punches from Keita, hoping to lure Black Panther into places where he could be the worse. “If it’s easy for me in a fight, why would I make it harder for myself?” he explained his refusal to let go of his opponent on the ground.

And although there was apparently a new rival for Keita at the press conference when Shem Rock got into a verbal shootout with him, the two-time champion didn’t forget about his original opponent Sanikidze.

“I don’t believe Sanikidze is really hurt. A person can be hurt, but from what we’ve seen… He didn’t train. My trainers told me he didn’t want to fight me and then all of a sudden he got hurt. Of course that could be the case, but I don’t believe him,” the champion let it be heard.

Source: Octagon MMA