OKTAGON 49: Moeil the new heavyweight champion, Engizek slow to claim title shot, Kalashnik falls. A look at the key moments of the tournament

The Oktagon 49 gala is over. The tournament in Cologne, Germany offered some quick finishes, as well as wins for the underdogs. Bettors were able to tear up the slips in a big way, but thanks to that, we can say without a doubt that the tournament was a real success.

Prelims

First match and a quick finish

The Oktagon 49 gala night was kicked off by a fight between Germany’s Finn Griessmann and Slovakia’s Lukas Elias. In the first round we could see a takedown attempt from Elias, but he failed to get it.

He certainly didn’t have to be sad. Hard punches alternated with kicks on both sides and one of them was accurate. He hit the chin at 2:39, Griessmann went down and that’s where Elias was able to finish him in his Octagon debut.

A victorious pro debut

Ivan Klevets and Jake McHugh provided the second match. The former is originally from Ukraine, but trains in the Czech Republic under veteran Petr Knizhet, who fell in his RFA bout last weekend.

Klevets took his opponent to the ground after less than half a minute and showed throughout the first round that he was the physically stronger fighter in the bout. However, it was the Brit who was able to get on his back in the last minute of the first round, causing him no small amount of trouble.

The second round we saw McHugh build on the ground fight to end the first round and he caught Klevets well between the legs for a triangle choke. In the end, only his head was left there and the Ukrainian fighter went to sleep. With that, MgHugh notched his first professional win.

Ending on anaconda choke

The second Slovakian representative was Roman Paulus, who challenged Arijan Topallaj. Paulus was a relatively big favourite, but he couldn’t confirm this role. The heavier Topallaj quickly took the fight into his own hands and went for the finish.

He caught Paulus under the neck and used an anaconda choke technique to force him to tap out. He scored his fifth win in professional MMA and is still undefeated. However, he will move up to lightweight where he will have an easier time dropping.

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Montagnac’s controlled win on points

Jorick Montagnac and Steve MacDonald catered for the next fight in the card. This time we didn’t see an early finish, and the end of the third round was not to the fans’ liking, so much so that both fighters received loud boos.

The Frenchman beat the Canadian without any trouble and the sight of MacDonald’s right leg was not a pleasant one as it played with several colours after many kicks. The judges were clear on that, Montagnac won 3:0 on points.

A match full of twists and turns

Konrad Dyrschka and Thiago Silva finished off the prelims. Silva was able to get his opponent to the ground quickly and had Dyrschka on his back. He was comfortable giving him punch after punch.

It didn’t give the German fighter much trouble, but he couldn’t get out. At the end of the first round, Dyrschka was able to fight back, but the Brazilian was able to surprise him and nearly finished him. That didn’t happen and it was on to the second round.

It didn’t offer much, there was poise to be seen but not a higher punch count. The start of the third round was the opposite, there was no holding back and Dyrschka came close to a KO punch but the Brazilian countered and saved himself.

He then caught his opponent’s leg and suddenly he was on top. Eventually, though, he let Dyrschka go and he landed punch after punch from top position. He won the third round without any problems and thanks to that he could finally enjoy the victory on points.

Main Card

The evenly matched battle ended on points

The main card of the Oktagon 49 tournament was loaded with two fighters we haven’t seen in the organization before. Germany’s Cihad Akipa, undefeated so far, took on Britain’s Matthew Bonner, but the latter is more experienced than the former.

He proved that in the first round, holding his opponent down and hitting him several times. The shootout in the second round did not decide the winner and it was on to the third round. Bonner was able to hit Akipa accurately early on and it looked like he was going for the finish.

But the German was able to recover and eventually got to a points decision. Even that wasn’t enough, though, and the winner was Bonner, who dealt him the first defeat of his pro MMA career.

The only Czech on the Octagon 49 card fell

Andrei Kalasnik, as the alter ego of Vagabond, took on Niklas Stoltz, who last fought under the UFC banner. The only Czech on the card hit his opponent several times, but Stolze looked like he might not even feel it.

Instead, he took advantage of the loophole and hit Kalasnik hard. He immediately fell helplessly to the netting and later to the ground. The referee correctly stopped the fight, although Kalasnik was angry. But after watching the footage of the fight, he will surely understand the situation.

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An attractive chop ended in a knockdown

Denis Ilbay had the home crowd cheering as he came in, but as soon as he entered the cage he switched to the role of killer. Corey Fry took plenty of shots from him and must have been surprised himself at the way his opponent flew into him.

But Fry himself also managed to hit Ilbay a few times and eventually took him down. He was excellent there and although Ilbay was able to defend himself, he eventually had to tap out and scored a knockdown that left the crowd completely silent.

Engizek asked for a title shot

Kerim Engizek, who hadn’t lost in nine years, was the biggest favourite on the entire card. But the reason for the odds is the opponent Adam Horvath, who jumped in at the last minute instead of Ahmed Sami, who didn’t get a visa.

The candidate for the next title challenger saw off his opponent’s attacks and, as expected, went on to win the first round, sending Horvath down with a hard shot where the referee had to intervene.

Engizek may well have claimed a middleweight title fight with this win. But he probably needs one more win to get there, with his next fight scheduled for the Oberhausen tournament in February.

The crowd favorite fell on points

The darling of the German crowd went into the fight with Apollo Silva as the underdog, but he tried to be active. He lost the first round on the ground and although he got up in the second, the Brazilian took him down again, this time with a hard punch.

In the third round the roles reversed and it was Eckerlin who took his opponent to the ground. The final minute offered a stand-up shootout in which Eckerlin took one punch and Apollo saw the fight to a points decision.

Unsurprisingly, he ended up being the winner, which was not taken lightly by the fans in the arena. Eckerlin put on a good performance, but it just wasn’t enough this time.

The Octagon has a new champion

Hatef Moeil and Lazar Todev fought for the heavyweight championship belt of the Oktagon MMA organization. The former was the favourite, but the first round didn’t show us much. Both were cautious and didn’t want to rush anything.

The second round was more active, but again very evenly matched. We watched a stand-up battle and although some of the punches were hard, they didn’t go exactly where they needed to.

In the third round, Moeil tried to pick up the pace and hit Todev several times. He didn’t just fight back either though, he was able to catch Hatef off guard for a while with one low kick.

The Bulgarian must have realised that he was not leading on points and needed to work harder in the fourth round. But he was still not active and rather waited for Moeil to make a mistake.

He did so at the end of the penultimate round, and with a kick to the leg he made Moeil nervous again. He didn’t look so good on the feet and this was Todev’s chance to reverse the result.

Moeil didn’t give up though and he hit Todev several times. He survived his attack, but his own eye was swollen enough afterwards to worry about the doctor’s termination.

The referee didn’t want to interfere in their fight and let the fight go to a points decision. There was a lot of tension, but in the end Moeil was the winner and the new heavyweight champion 3: 0 on points.

Source: Oktagon MMA