MMA
OKTAGON 55: Seven finishes before the limit, great stories, great battles and a football atmosphere. Watch the highlights from Stuttgart
The Octagon returned to Germany again, but for the first time in Stuttgart. The tournament promised to be an interesting spectacle, with interesting and familiar names already known to the fans. What did the OKTAGON 55 gala look like?
The Octagon returned to Germany again, but for the first time in Stuttgart. The tournament promised to be an interesting spectacle, with interesting and familiar names already known to the fans. What did the OKTAGON 55 gala look like?
OKTAGON 55 Prelims
The first women’s battle offered a bloodbath
The prelims of OKTAGON 55 offered the first of two women’s battles. Former title challenger Jacinta Austin (5-2) measured her strength against the organization’s new acquisition Karolina Wojcik (11-4). The bout didn’t have a favorite and the evenly matched first round, which was all standing, suggested that we would see an evenly matched battle.
The first five minutes was dominated by the Australian on two of the three judges’ scorecards, but the Pole could have won it. From the second round onwards, however, the fight turned into a one-sided spectacle. Austin quickly got on her opponent’s back on the feet, locked in a body triangle and held on to her opponent’s back until the bell. By then, she was dishing out punches and dominating.
By the third round it was clear that the Pole had to end the fight if she wanted to win. She didn’t make it. On the contrary. Wojcik was taking a lot of hits. On top of that, she landed a hard elbow to the forehead that caused a giant cut and therefore some nasty bleeding. From then on, Austin controlled the fight with complete ease and went on to get her sixth career win.
Taburceanu won for the first time, then challenged Cepa
Ion Taburceanu (6-2) took on his second fight in the organization in Stuttgart. He was originally scheduled to face Zdenek Polivka, but he was unable to fight due to injury. He was replaced at the last minute by Nenad Avramovic (12-9).
The Serbian shined in the RFA, where he defeated Milan Datelinka and David Hosek. The Moldovan, for a change, was far from stopping Vlasto Cep in his first fight. Now he wanted to make amends and score his first win.
He did it. Taburceanu was the favourite and confirmed it from the beginning of the duel. He was better in all aspects. Speed, power, quality, dominance. He resorted to a lot of wrestling and grappling on the mat, which surprised many. But it was a good strategy.
Avramovic refused to go into the third round and the Moldovan scored his first win. In addition, Oktagon asked for the possibility of a rematch with Chep, which would have been a spectacular show.
Szabova as the perfect storm, Oktagon watched the big comeback
It was the summer of 2021 when Lucia Szabova (6-0) made her last fight under MMA rules. Then came an unexpected pregnancy and with it, understandably, a long hiatus. On Saturday, she returned to the organization for the first time in three long years, specifically in MMA and not against a lightweight opponent.
That was the dangerous Roza Gumienna (5-3), who had dealt with Lucie Krajčovič. But she did not upset the Slovakian hope. On the contrary. Szabová was like a machine from the start, she didn’t slow down. She slowly destroyed the Polish puncher physically and mentally. She broke her until she broke her.
Surprisingly, most of the fight took place on the ground, but Silent Killer went there to win. With just 22 seconds left, she landed a successful armbar and Gumienna had to tap out. Szabova thus earned her seventh MMA win.
The first KO of the night was surprisingly delivered by the Brazilian
Although two fights had gone to the limit before this one, neither of them ended in knockouts. That changed this time, however. It was taken care of by underdog and veteran Michael Deiga-Scheck (10-5), who was challenged by up-and-coming Nikolaos Serbezis (8-3).
The Brazilian was not counted on to win, on the contrary. But he has shown several times that he cannot be written off and this time he proved it again. In the first minute he reacted well to his opponent’s attack and knocked him out.
Oktagon found an interesting fighter in him by chance. Deiga-Scheck came to one of the tournaments as a trainer, but ended up fighting. He defeated Radek Roushal on points in the stand-up. He was later defeated by Vladimir Lengal, but otherwise Deiga-Scheck has two MMA wins in the organization.
Heil survived his own death, Montagnac still won
Jorick Montagnac (5-2) jumped into his fight with Sebastian Heil (7-2) as the favorite, but was severely handicapped by his health. According to Ondrej Novotny, he had problems with his knee and wanted to start with a bandage, which didn’t happen in the end.
The Frenchman had a great start to the match. In the first round he ran over his opponent, destroyed him. He won by two points with two judges. He scored two knockdowns. It looked like he was going to get the finish. But Heil showed a resilient chin, driving his rival to desperation.
Gradually Montagnac looked more and more exhausted and Heil tried to tie the fight up and tire the Frenchman by pulling on the canvas, but when he couldn’t, Montagnac kept threatening with hard lefts. The German got almost nothing going on the offensive.
By the third round, Jorick had the fight under control and went on to get an important win.
Bahnik lost controversially, even Novotny disagrees with the result
Jakub Bahnik (9-4) was the favourite, against him the new prospect Wahid Najand (7-2) with a very interesting life story. The Octagon promised a spectacular show from this showdown, a possible fight of the night. But it left a bitter aftertaste.
What the hell, it wasn’t a boring fight. But the outcome is questionable. Jakub Bahník almost knocked out his rival in the first two rounds. Several times. But his opponent escaped from the grave digger’s shovel several times. The only thing that is not in doubt is that he won the third round.
However, the Czech lost on points to the two judges, which was not much understood by promoter Ondrej Novotny, who told Bahnik right in the cage that it was in protest. The fans are of the same opinion, but they praise the attractiveness of the fight.
Besides, the old saying that it is not good to leave the result to the referees was confirmed again. Unfortunately for the Czech fighter.
Main card OKTAGON 55
Octagon rejoices, a new star was born, Rysavy fell
Karol Rysavy (13-6) faced Albanian-German prospect Arijan Topallaj (6-0-1). He went into the fight as the favourite, however, it appears that a second star may be on the way. Indeed, the Albanian Eagle imitated Losene Keita and outpointed the Slovakian in similar style.
However, while Keita stayed in the cage with Rysavy for nearly three minutes in his debut in the organization, Topallaj didn’t even need 40 seconds to take the Slovakian star’s soul.
The difference, however, was that Topallaj had already had one duel in the organization before compared to Keita. The Octagon had already tested him with a battle with Roman Paulus, but the Albanian stopped him in the first round, as he had all his winning fights.
So is a new star born? It’s not out of the question. Topallaj definitely asked for attention with this performance. At 25, he could have a big future ahead of him.
The battle of the heavyweights was ended by an injury
Fans were looking forward to the battle of two German heavyweights. Ruben Wolf (12-12) had so far only shown a hard chin when he endured the nonsense in his duel with Jeremy Kimball, now he wanted to show off against Sebastian Herzberg (4-0).
Wolf was more or less the better opponent in the first round, but it wasn’t enough to win. He was injured during the fight and could not start the second round. That’s why Herzberg celebrated the victory and made a successful debut in the organization.
Cordero is back on a winning streak
It could have been the fight of the night, but instead it was a rather embarrassing spectacle. Brawler Jaime Cordero (4-2) took on Dominic Schober (13-10) and seemed to decide not to fight the fight to the fullest. At least it looked that way.
The German fighter relied on the 1s, but they were tough. He had his hands at his waist for most of the fight, relying on his good eyes and his reflexes. Since the Austrian was rather on the retreat the whole time, it didn’t matter.
Cordero checked out for three rounds, although his style this time wasn’t as attractive as in past duels. However, he admitted after the fight that he had broken his hand again, which excused his performance in which he could definitely have pushed the envelope.
Oktagon veteran Kertész earned a valuable scalp
Máté Kertész (14-7) vs Niklas Stolze (13-6) promised to be a very interesting and mainly evenly matched show. The German fighter, who has UFC experience, was a slight favourite, however, he was expected to have a tough fight with the Hungarian.
It was interesting to see how the longtime stalwart of the Czechoslovakian organization would fare against the UFC veteran. Stolze was the favourite because of his experience in the world, but he stumbled. Kertész basically gave him no chance to win.
Except for one moment. Máté quickly learned that the way to win would be through the ground. There he checked the first round, then the second, ending the fight. It’s worth noting, however, that Niklas almost successfully put him in a kimura, but Kertész was able to get out of the difficult situation perfectly and tightened Stolze himself for a rear-naked choke.
Grizzly fell, Poppeck asked for a title shot
Alexander Poppeck (16-5) and Jeremy Kimball (19-10) faced off in the main preliminary bout of the OKTAGON 55 gala. There was no predicting what we would see in the fight. Grizzly is erratic, often depending on how he sleeps. Ironside is the constant, the steady, calm force.
But in front of a sold out home arena, Poppeck did his best to end the fight, and he did in the first round. He literally punished his opponent for having to change weight classes from welterweight to catchweight at around 96 kilograms.
The fight was over with a minute and a half left in the first round. Kimball looked resigned as Poppeck hit him hard on the ground. The American announced punches to the back of the head after the fight ended, but failed to land with the referee. So he has to bite a hard defeat.
Poppeck understandably asked for another title fight. His last one was against Pavel Langer and he lost narrowly. But it was a battle for the interim title, not the title.
Jungwirth dominated his rematch with Pukac on points
A five-round battle, but not for the title, awaited the mythical Celt and Diamond Chow, who had the expected rematch. The first duel was won by Christian Jungwirth, who caught Robert Pukac in a bad mental state, dismantled the Slovak fighter and mentally destroyed him.
Now, however, Pukac went into the match in a completely different frame of mind and was determined to avenge his defeat to Jungwirth. But from the first round he pulled the short end of the rope and it was clear that the German surprised him with his tactics.
Kelt tried to take the fight to the ground from the start, but the Slovak defended well. The constant pressure, however, prevented Pukac from any offense and he was constantly forced to retreat, defend and counter.
From start to finish, Jungwirth was the one creating the fight and was rewarded for it by the scoring judges. Surprisingly, the puker didn’t take action and didn’t step on the gas even when he knew his only chance to win was to end the fight before the limit. So he lost on points.
Nevertheless, Diamond Chavo earned praise and respect from his opponent. And the German crowd gave him the same appreciation.
Source: Oktagon MMA
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