MMA
OKTAGON 50: Two new champions, Keita’s murder and Peñaz’s hard knockout. Watch all the endings
Oktagon returned to Ostrava on Saturday with the jubilee gala evening OKTAGON 50. It offered several attractive battles, two of which were title fights. Losene Keita and Niko Samsonidse fought for the featherweight throne, while in the lightweight division Ivan Buchinger and Ronald Paradeiser fought for a chance to become the new king of the division.
Oktagon returned to Ostrava on Saturday with the jubilee gala evening OKTAGON 50. It offered several attractive battles, two of which were title fights. Losene Keita and Niko Samsonidse fought for the featherweight throne, while in the lightweight division Ivan Buchinger and Ronald Paradeiser fought for a chance to become the new king of the division.
Prelims OKTAGON 50
The first duel of the OKTAGON 50 gala also delivered the first finish
The OKTAGON 50 gala opened with a duel between Michal Konrad and Marco Novak. In a clash of two styles, Konrád was the one who should have wanted to take the fight to the ground, while Novák, on the other hand, is an orthodox stand-up guy who also doesn’t have that much experience with MMA.
After all, the duel with the Czech fighter was only the fourth under MMA rules for the Slovakian puncher. The first round looked like that. Konrad took the fight to the ground after half a minute, quickly got to Novak’s back, but despite his dominant position, he didn’t finish the fight and didn’t threaten Novak too much.
In the final minute, moreover, Novak got up and proved to be the one dishing out the punches in the clinch, pushing his rival to the fence. Round two continued in the same style. With a minute and a half to go, the Slovak landed several knees to Konrad’s body and he went down.
There, Novak left nothing to chance and went for the TKO finish when the referee had to stop the fight. The Slovakian fighter improved his record to 3-1, while Konrad is now 8-11 and notched his third straight loss.
Kotalik and Raska fought a tough battle, stopped by injury
What followed was a battle that was a favourite not only with the bookmakers but also with the fans. It was Ondřej Raška, a native of Ostrava, who measured his strength with Michal Kotalík, who is not having the best years. Kotalík did not weigh in again and so fell into disfavour a little more.
While Raska was looking to shake off one loss, Kotalik had two after his return to the Octagon. Moreover, he didn’t take the last match. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise that he was still returning to the organization. But still.
Rashka and Kotalik delivered an excellent and attractive match. In the first minute there was a tough shootout in which Kotalik had a slight advantage. Raška tied the bout and used wrestling to get the fight under control. He wanted to take his opponent to the ground, but it didn’t last long. However, he had the upper hand in the clinch at the wire.
Kotalik slipped out of it though and tried to start a chaotic shootout, but Rashka wouldn’t allow it and took his opponent down in the middle of the cage with a takedown. He was landing punches, causing damage, but Kotalik survived, got up and the last minute of the round was a stand-up shootout, with neither fighter fighting back and just trading punches.
The second round was more or less similar. There was no ground and pound, and the duel was attractive in the stand-up, and that’s where it ended. Kotalik mis-landed, got hurt and the fight had to be stopped. He scored his third loss in a row. But he has nothing to be ashamed of. He had at least an attractive match and that could help him to get another chance.
Raska improved his record to 10-8, Kotalik is now 6-7.
The battle of the foreigners was dominated by the stalwarts of the organization
A newcomer against a stalwart of the organization. The Octagon has been the home of Máté Kertész since 2018. However, he has lost his last two fights and wanted to make amends. In Ostrava, he welcomed Ammari Diedrick, who jumped into his sixth professional fight.
Diedrick was expected to be a threat, especially in the stand-up department, and that proved to be the case. In particular, his left leg was kicking the Hungarian fighter hard. That’s why Kertész decided to do his own thing. To use wrestling. About halfway through the round, he finally delivered a takedown and dominated there, though he didn’t do much damage.
The second round was the most attractive of all. The whole thing was staged in the standup. The Hungarian did try to deliver a couple of takedowns, but was always unsuccessful. Diedrick continued to kick Kertész’s leg, while Máté focused primarily on the Englishman’s face, and the damage was noticeable on both sides.
In the third round, we could see the stance exchanges early on. But after about a minute and a half, Kertész took the duel to the ground and checked him there. Diedrick defended well, trying to get out of the hopeless position, but unsuccessfully. Moreover, Kertész wanted to control the end of the round with hard punches and so he came away with a well-deserved points win.
Kertész notched his 14th career win, his ninth in the Octagon. Diedrick is now 4-2.
Kuznik surprisingly lost on points
Another darling of the Ostrava crowd, Matěj Kuzník had a duel with Ebrahim Hosseinpour. His score of 7-7 is not exactly magnificent, but he defeated Karol Rysavy, Mark Bartel and last time he lost to Jan Malach.
Kuznik was the favourite, but he has only won two of his last five matches. Last time he was beaten by former champion Mateusz Legierski. So now he wanted to go for the win against an underrated opponent and it was obvious from the start that it was not going to be easy.
Hosseinpour was proficient in the stand-up and although Kuznik delivered an easy takedown after just under a minute or so, his opponent resisted, managed to stand his ground and in turn dominated the rest of the round. In the second round, it looked like a seesaw at the start, but it was the German fighter who was the better man in the stand-up and on the ground.
Hosseinpour had the upper hand in the third round. Mentally and physically. The German controlled Kuznik underneath him on the ground and tried to do as much damage as possible. The home fighter at least tried to catch a submission from the bottom position, but the German expertly defended all attempts and went for the victory on points.
Kuznik takes his second loss in a row as the score changes to 18-9. Hosseinour moves to a positive 7-6 record.
Xavier finished Vinni, then went on to challenge Vemola
A battle to see who will challenge Karlos Vemola? Maybe yes, maybe no. It will all depend on how the Terminator is after his duel with the Pirate and if he wants to risk anything before his rematch with Attila Vegh. However, the challenge is on the table.
That’s because in the welterweight division, Rafael Xavier, who has come close to a title shot once before, and Dan Vinni, who stopped Daniel Skvor on his debut in the organization and wanted to fight for the belt as soon as possible.
Xavier was clear about not letting the fight go to the ground, however Vinni is a nasty opponent. He has experience in boxing without gloves, has excellent jiu-jitsu, and is unreadable. But in the first round, the Brazilian had the upper hand, albeit slightly.
The Englishman rather hinted and tried to upset his opponent, Xavier was patient, waiting for a chance. When it came, he hit it. And in the second round, he mercilessly ended the match.
After the bout, Xavier jumped the cage and headed straight for Vemola. He exchanged a few words with him and clearly asked for the fight and a title shot.
Main Card OKTAGON 50
Wide as the next home fighter to lose at OKTAGON 50
Jan Široký and Stefan Catacoli opened the main card of the OKTAGON 50 gala. It’s worth mentioning that the Ostrava native was originally supposed to fight Hafeni Nafuka, but he couldn’t make it. The Englishman took the match on short-notice.
The underdog was suddenly the favourite and Široký wanted to confirm this role. But things didn’t look good in the first round. Catacoli took Shiroky to the ground, got on his back and tried to put a choke on him for almost the entire five minutes. He was unsuccessful.
But in the second round, the tables more or less turned. Broad was better, stronger. He didn’t get into as good a position as Catacoli did in the previous round, but he was still the dominant fighter and he was landing the punches.
The Englishman started the third five minutes better. He took the fight to the ground, got his opponent’s back again and tried to put the choke on again. Again, unsuccessful. He briefly reversed the position, but it didn’t take long for Catacoli to get the upper hand again. He took the back again and the same scenario repeated itself as a few moments before.
Broad defended well, but of course it wasn’t enough to win. He won the second round, but lost the other two. He is now 13-16, while Catacoli improved to 7-1.
Peñaz delivered an exhibition KO
Almost a little Nordic derby with the Moravian representative. Matej Peňáz is from South Moravia, but he has trained a lot in Sweden, where he spent some time with his partner. His opponent Ole Magnor is from Norway for a change and so there would be an interesting story line
The more crucial one, however, was the form Money would return in after a year off and a serious hand injury. Magnor is also a complex fighter, adept in the stand-up, proficient on the ground. Not an easy opponent after a long enforced layoff, even though the odds said the complete opposite.
In fact, Peñaz was the biggest favorite on the entire card. But he didn’t give it much weight himself. On the contrary. But his opponent tried to surprise him from the start and catch him in his stance. He tested Money’s chin and it held up.
But then it was the Moravian puncher’s turn. After 29 seconds, he delivered an exemplary knockout after a series of punches, including one knee to Magnor’s chin. He improved his record to 8-1, ending seven fights by KO/TKO.
Lengal was no match for Bark in an evenly matched bout
It could have been the fight of the night. It should have been one of a kind. Two excellent stand-up fighters against each other. Vladimir Lengal as another domestic star, Samuel Bark as a conqueror from northern Europe. But would we be in for a stand-up battle? No.
The first round may have been a stand-up round, but for the most part, nothing of substance happened in it. There was more than a minute’s wait for a punch. You could tell that both fighters respected each other. The end of the round was a little more action packed, with Bark getting the upper hand, but it wasn’t great.
In the second round, the pace and stance changed, but not much happened in the stance. There was a lot of wrestling to be seen, with a stand-up exchange here and there. But not much. However, Lengal had the upper hand this time.
The last round followed and it was a bit of a seesaw. Lengal going into it exhausted, Bark looking fresher. Yet early on it was the Moravian fighter who tried to make the fight. Soon, however, the Swede began to turn things around and dominated the second half of the match, doing some heavy damage.
And what about the scorers? Two saw Bark win 29-28, one saw the home star win anyway. Bark now has it 9-2, Lengal 6-3.
The Octagon has a new king in the lightweight division
A rematch between a Slovakian legend and Slovakia’s greatest hope. Last time Ivan Buchinger managed to win, but Rony Paradeiser couldn’t handle the duel in his head. This time it was going to be different. Ronald had moved on a lot in that time and he wanted to show it.
And at least in the first half of the round, it showed. Buchinger was brutal in the standup, and he went to the ground. It almost looked like the fight was about to be stopped. But Buki showed a hard chin, a big heart and held on. In the second half of the round, the fight was more or less even. The Slovakian legend took a breath, tried to take the fight to the ground for a while, clinched and hit his opponent in the stand-up himself.
Anyway, the first round offered the best part of the tournament so far and the fans awaited the second round in anticipation. It was again absolutely insane. Hard punches flew on both sides, Buki tried to land shots from the turn, but Paradeiser had the advantage in the stand-up thanks to his size, which played in his favor.
The third five minutes continued at an excellent pace. Most of it again took place in the stand-up, where we saw some tough exchanges and both fighters inflicted considerable damage on each other. The bigger one though was to Buchinger’s face and that proved fatal as he was unable to continue the fight after the end of the third round when his corner preferred to stop the fight, even though Buki himself wanted to keep fighting.
Thus, Paradeiser made his third title fight and became Oktagon champion for the first time in his career. “I want to thank Ivan, he is a great champion in my heart,” he expressed after winning the title.
Rony now has a record of 18-8. Buki is now 41-9.
Keita brutally finished Samsonidse
A battle of two great talents. While Losene Keita has already managed to become a leading star of the Octagon and a fan favorite, Niko Samsonidse has not yet made his mark on the hearts of the fans. However, he wanted and could change that with a duel with Black Panther.
Samsonidse was seen as an unexpectedly big underdog. The fans didn’t believe me, nor did the bookies. So the pressure was on Keita, who is used to it. Experience from title fights also played in his favour, after all he had already ruled the Octagon at lightweight and won the interim featherweight title.
However, the German fighter decided to show that he would be at least a worthy opponent. In the first round he fought Keita in an evenly matched battle in which he probably had the upper hand. Especially when the fight went to the ground, he was able to control Panther underneath him and even landed a few elbows.
In the second round, however, Keita pretty quickly erased any doubts when he brutally sent Samsonidse to the ground, where he shut him down with another punch, and then landed one more grenade to no avail, even though Samsonidse was completely out of it.
This gave Keita another belt and improved his record to 12-1. Samsonidse lost for the third time in his career and certainly has nothing to be ashamed of. They had to carry him out on a stretcher.
Source: Octagon MMA
