MMA

Vémola is the king and he is the welterweight champion! Stvanice offered fantastic fights. How did OKTAGON 34 look like?

The most beautiful tournament of the year is over. OKTAGON 34 offered several attractive matches. Welterweight has a new champion, lightweight king Losene Keita may know his next opponent. How did the gala evening at Prague’s Štvanice look like?

Published

2 years ago

24. 7. 2022

Pavel Langr

Prelims

Pipek made it to the pros, Holota won in an action-packed battle

The whole tournament started with a battle between Simeon Kapuya, one of the fighters from the German Oktagon Challenge, and Martin Pipek, who was making his first appearance in a professional fight. The Czech fighter was the favourite and he confirmed his role.

In the first round he managed to win by TKO. He took Kapuya to the ground, where he made him feel the hardness of his punches. Afterwards, he stated that he would like to face more fighters from the German Octagon Challenge, eventually moving on to opponents from the domestic scene.

Neither bout made it to the second round at the event. Vaclav Holota took on Max Handanagic and was able to come away with the win. Holota had the upper hand in all aspects, both standing and on the ground.

Holota twice triangulated his opponent, but neither time was it successful. In the end, Handanagic lost on a rear-naked choke with about half a minute left in the round.

Holm dominated the girls’ war, Macek put on a fantastic performance

Sweden’s Cornelia Holm and Poland’s Roza Gumienna provided the only women’s fight of the entire tournament. A duel of two styles was expected and the fans got it in a not so attractive fight. Holm as a groundskeeper trying to assert her style. Gumienna as a great stand-up fighter.

The Pole was able to hit Holm uncomfortably and hard several times, but the Swede was able to win on points with all three judges thanks to her activity, creating the fight by constantly moving forward, and successfully taking the fight to the ground several times where she dominated.

In the next bout, two-time title challenger Filip Macek was back in action, proving once again that he is a fantastically complex fighter. His opponent was Mikael Silander, who among other things defeated Tomas Deák, the conqueror of Macek from one of his title fights.

Macek took his opponent apart in the stance, he was incredibly creative. He tried different kicks, knees. In the end, he won on a submission, taking his opponent down with an anaconda choke in the first round. After that, he asked for a title shot. Rightfully so.

Kotalik and Konrad were no match for their opponents, Shkvor sent a knee from hell

Michal Kotalik made a big comeback at the Štvanici Arena. It was here that he had his last MMA fight before going to prison four years ago. That’s when he lost to the legendary Martin Šolc.

And unfortunately, he lost now. He got off to a great start and could have scored a quick KO, but Ole Magnor showed great stamina and will. And once the fight went to the ground, Kotalik had his work cut out for him. He survived several submission attempts. He had to survive the end of the first round under Magnor, who was in full mount.

By the second round, he was tired. Plus, Magnor hit him well twice quickly. Kotalik then attempted a takedown, signing his verdict. The Norwegian clearly had the upper hand there and beat the Czech fighter on a rear-naked choke.

The next fight was a little shorter. Canadian David Moon absolutely did not let Michal Konrad do anything and won the fight in the first round. Moon was dangerous in the standup. He not only defended Konrad’s takedown attempts, but he was the one who got the dominant position both times. And it was on the ground that Konrad ended the fight as Moon overwhelmed him with his punches on the ground.

The prelims card concluded with a hell of a first-round knee from Daniel Skvor, who defeated Panagiotis Stroumpoulis.

Main Card

Shiroky defeated Fiala again, Paulus dominated the talent battle

The main card opened with a very interesting battle. A rematch between two men who have fought in the past. In 2017, Jan Široký won, but later the fight was declared a “no contest”. Now, Tomas Fiala has a rematch.

He started it very well, after a few seconds he hit Široky perfectly. But he recovered and in the end he was the more dominant and better in the exhausting battle. He also put on a show for the fans with some great takedowns. At one point, he took Fiala all the way across the cage, and he also used one hand to encourage the crowd to cheer. Finally, in the third round, he defeated a tired Fiala by TKO.

The battle of the talents offered a showdown between Dawid Kareta and Roman Paulus. It was expected to be an evenly matched battle and we got it. The match was more or less all staged. The Polish talent scored more significant strikes, even delivered one successful takedown, but it was not enough to win. In fact, two judges saw Paulus winning on points.

Great performance by Kertész, Kohout lost to the former champion

Hungarian fighter Máté Kertész took on a very tough opponent after a close loss to Bojan Velickovic. Vladislav Kanchev is famous for his hard punches, he also faced Velickovic, whom he lost to on points. And Kertész also recognized his qualities, and after the first punch he had to choose a clear tactic – wrestling.

Kertész tried to torture the Bulgarian on the ground, which he finally succeeded. But it wasn’t easy, Kanchev was strong and showed that he is no stranger to wrestling. However, he was not enough for the Hungarian fighter and lost by unanimous points.

The main preliminary bout was not among the most attractive fights, yet it was highly anticipated. Mateusz Legierski as a former lightweight champion took on Mateusz Kohout. Both are excellent stand-up fighters, however, the Polish fighter used his better ground skills and eventually defeated Kohout on a rear-naked choke.

What’s next? A fight with champion Losen Keita, of course. But Legierski says it’s all about the money. So maybe we’ll actually get to see it.

A title fight? A one-sided affair

The main event ended as expected. Although Aleksandar Ilic promised to defend all takedowns, as well as hyping up the fans that he could win and that he would be Terminator’s toughest opponent, he didn’t keep his words.

Karlos Vémola came into the fight as the king. He even had his own throne. And that’s what it looked like in the match. Ilic may have believed in his stance for a while, but once the Terminator was able to get to him, it was basically over.

In fact, Vemola was able to throw Ilitch to the ground, where he proceeded to downright abuse him. Ilic looked like that, too. After less than four minutes, the Olomouc native forced Joker to tap out and became the welterweight champion. In December, he would like to fight Patrik Kinclo for the middleweight title.