Friday’s OKTAGON 45 at Prague’s Štvanica promised a great spectacle and did not fall short of expectations. Although it was not completely sold out, the vast majority of the stadium was filled and we saw great duels and a famous atmosphere. How was the tournament?
Prelims
Polka surprisingly dominated the match
The first match of Friday’s Oktagon 45 tournament offered a surprise for the fans. It was known that Roza Gumienna would start, but we only learned the name of her opponent when she entered the cage.
Fans speculated about the return of Lucie Szabová or Sandra Mašková, but Slovakian legend Lucia Krajčovič finally played against Polka. She went into action after three and a half years. Unfortunately, the break was reflected in the match.
Gumienna was dangerous in her stance, then she found that she could take the Slovakian to the ground and she had a clear script for the rest of the match. However, she pleased by the fact that she rather helped herself to the takedowns and did not focus only on them.
In all three rounds, the Pole was better and deservedly won on points. Krajčovič threatened her more or less only twice, elbows from a spin. It is said that even her partner Vlasto Čepo did not know that she was fighting.
Roušal made his debut in MMA
Two premieres in the Octagon. Radek Roušal for the first time in an MMA match, Armand Herczeg for the first time in a professional match and on the ground of a Czechoslovak organization. The Moravian fighter with a controversial past was the favorite and received huge support from the audience at Štvanice.
The first round was the most attractive, both fighters were still getting to know each other, but Roušal was more precise and tougher in his stance, which is why Herczeg tried desperately to take the fight to the ground. However, Ruchy prepared himself well and defended several submission attempts throughout the match.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get an early finish, but the Moravian fighter did a great job and deservedly won on points. The surprise, however, was the fact that one referee saw Herczeg winning.
Knockout of the year and a quick end to Baby Jaga
The last two duels of the prelims card offered the first two finishes and the first one in particular was absolutely phenomenal. He was taken care of by Jaime Cordero, who needed only 22 seconds to knock out Gabriel Török with a kick to the head. The German took the match on short notice, the Slovak was supposed to fight Zbyňek Vlček.
Then Václav Mikulášek lost his winning streak. After 55 seconds, Ole Magnor ended it with a rear-naked choke, which, on the other hand, broke the streak of two defeats in a row.
Main tab
Primera lost a win, Úškrt won for the first time outside the first round
The first match of the main card promised to be an attractive spectacle. Ranař Radovan Úškrt competed with the Spanish fighter Tato Primera. It was clear that the Slovak fighter was going for another knockout, and the Spaniard tried to prevent him from doing so with clear tactics.
Although Primera himself isn’t bad in attitude, he used his wrestling from the start, pulling Uschter on the wire and trying to get him to the ground. He managed to do that a few times and dominated the match.
But he was unlucky. A few seconds before the end of the second round, Úštrak gave him an illegal kick, but even before that he caused a large laceration on the top of his head. Promoter Ondřej Novotný specified that it was an arterial bleeding and thus the duel had to be ended.
It is worth noting that Úškrt, outside of the illegal strike, dealt Primera a few punches after the end of the first round, with the Spaniard clearly dominating the end of the first round.
Primera talked about retaliation, Úškrt did not immediately agree to it. The fans saw off the Spanish sympathizer with applause and Úškrt scored his first win outside the first round.
The controversial Shem Rock eliminated the King of the North
Shem Rock has been stirring up passions since he entered the Octagon, many fans can’t think of his name, and fighters in his weight class aren’t much different. Even before the first match, he was insulting everyone, but in the first match he could not win, only drew.
Jan Malach opposed him in Prague’s Štvanice. But the native of Liverpool caused problems even before the weigh-in, when he tackled Vladimir Lengál. Malach called him human waste, he was all the more motivated to win.
But then two minutes and eight seconds were enough and it was all over. Although Štvanice chased Malach for the win, Rock put on a confident and commanding performance, kicking Malach well in the ribs, following up with a takedown and delivering a rear-naked choke on the ground.
No one can doubt Rock’s performance this time. However, he apparently did not gain many fans, as he immediately provoked the fans after the win.
Surda defeated Kertész, he has his second loss in a row
The third duel of the main card offered a fight between two foreign fighters who won many Czechoslovak fans. The Hungarian Máté Kertész is already a regular in the Octagon, Ion Surda impressed when he lost to Bojan Veličkovič in the Tipsport Gamechanger.
It was clear that Surdu was great in stance, but his wrestling was to be tested by Kertész, who was looking to get back on a winning streak after being knocked out for the first time in the Octagon. But Surdu showed comprehensiveness and did well in the match.
He had the upper hand against Kertész in stance, he defended takedowns brilliantly. The Hungarian got into a dominant position on the ground only after a mistake by Surdu in the second round, otherwise Kertész was helpless during takedowns.
In addition, Surdu landed a couple of great punches in the match, after which he was close to being knocked out, but Kertész confirmed that he definitely cannot be knocked out every match. In the end, however, the Hungarian lost on points, all the judges saw the Moldovan fighter win.
Kertész is on two straight losses for the first time in the Octagon, Surdu has shown that he will be a big problem for the entire welterweight division.
Lengál performed a sensational turn and avenged his friend
His friend Radek Roušal already had the win in his pocket, he himself was yet to avenge it. In the past, Deiga Scheck just stepped on Roušal, and now Vladimír Lengál was waiting for him, who just talked about the Brazilian fighter.
The match was short but beautiful. At 2:49 it was over, while Lengál managed to survive a critical moment in the form of a hard kick to the ribs, after which he had to breathe for a while.
In addition, Scheck wanted to take advantage of a well-struck kick and exerted enormous pressure, but Lengál stopped and then went on the offensive. He unleashed a flurry of hard punches, shaking the Brazilian and then hitting more and more. Scheck was unable to defend himself, but something still held him on his feet.
Lengál had to deliver the final blow with his knee. It almost reminded me of the legendary duel between Rocky and Ivan Drago in the movie Rocky 4.
Pirate finished for the first time, Bryczek challenges Kincl
The main preliminary match of the evening offered a duel for the post of middleweight title challenger. Samuel Krištofič and Robert Bryczek competed in it. The Polish striker was a slight favorite and it was a big question whether he would be the first to finish the Slovak.
We didn’t wait too long for an answer. Actually, we got it already in the first minute when Bryczek hit the Pirate on the chin, he went to the ground and the Polish fighter hit him there so much that the referee had to intervene and end the match.
Bryczek has scored his fifth straight first round finish and is on a great streak. Finally, the champion Patrik Kincl himself came to the cage behind him and there was a staredown and words of praise. According to Kincl, he is happy that he will have to work hard and that Bryczek will be a challenge for him.
Magard lost, bantam has a new king
The only title match on Friday’s schedule. Jonas Magard, as the longest reigning Octagon champion, defended his belt, according to the odds, his opponent was an unexpectedly big outsider, Felipe Lima, who had a crush on the Danish Shark for a long time.
In Scandinavia, the Brazilians are respected, and it became clear why in the first round. Not only was he able to keep up with Magard, but he gave him the most problems of any of his opponents in the Octagon to date. Surprisingly, not only on the ground, but also in the attitude.
Behind the scenes, there was a lot of speculation that Magard did not want to fight Lima. After all, Lima was not even the first choice, Antun Račič was supposed to fight in Štvanice. And if the Brazilian was an adequate opponent in the first round, he was able to solidly dominate in the second.
In it, he took Magard to the ground and didn’t let anything go. He was trying for submissions, throwing punches. Shark had to withstand a lot of pressure. Lima was active, the Dane could defend himself as much as possible, he couldn’t even think about the offensive. But he survived the second round.
However, the third five-minute period offered Magard’s recovery, even if it wasn’t any kind of dominance on his part. After all, during one of the takedowns, Lima took him on the shoulder and threw him to the ground. Magard had more pressure, he surprisingly took Lima to the ground, compared to the Brazilian in the second round, he delivered only a minimum of punches.
On the contrary, he himself had a lot to do at the end of the given round, Lima hit an elbow, tried a submission and delivered a few more hard blows that the Dane must have felt.
The first round of the Champions almost offered an unfortunate ending. Lima started it brilliantly, once he was on the ground with Magard, he committed illegal kicks and the Dane had a lot to do to break it up. Lim was eventually deducted a point.
If that didn’t happen and Magard couldn’t continue, the Shark would remain the champion. Otherwise, Lima might have won the round for himself without a dropped point, even though it was relatively even.
In the last five minutes, Lima wanted to make up for the loss of points and intended to win them for himself. He did not allow Magard anything in him. He took him to the ground and did not let him go. He definitely won the round, he tried to end the match and not leave the result up to the referees, but he didn’t succeed.
In the end, however, it didn’t have to bother him, because despite the dropped point, he was able to win quite clearly with all the judges. The Octagon thus has a new champion and Felipe Lima achieved a valuable success.
Source: Octagon MMA, Instagram
2023-07-28 22:01:06
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