Episode 7 of Oktagon Challenge: England vs. Ireland revealed Denis "The Menace" Frimpong will face "Saint" George Staines in the final of the tournament, set to take place at Oktagon 48, on November 4 at the AO Arena, Manchester.
The episode opened with Denis Frimpong and Beau Gavin receiving their well-earned appreciation following the fight of the series on last week’s episode, with Bryan Lacey announcing Frimpong was the first athlete to earn his place in the Oktagon Challenge final with a unanimous decision victory.
The episode also featured the second semi-final bout between George Staines and Armand Herczeg. The bout began with Staines offering a touch of gloves but Herczeg opted for a leg kick followed by a stiff jab which snapped Staines’ head back. The Englishman then shot in and successfully got the bout to the mat 10 seconds into the round and after a short scramble ended up in half guard.
Following his dismantling of Herczeg’s teammate Matthew Elliott in the Quarter-Finals, the Team Ireland coaches knew how dangerous "Saint" can be on the floor and instantly called for their man to get a full closed guard and look for elbows from the bottom.
The next minute of the fight largely saw Staines slowly working away on the floor until he had Herczeg up against the fence. Once happy with the position, the Team England prospect backed up to his feet and looked to land a big right over the top of Armand’s guard but the Irishman turned away from the incoming shot and ultimately gave up his back.
Staines pounced on the opportunity and once secure, started chipping away with shots, systematically working through his positioning. Herczeg tried desperately to shake Staines from his back but in doing so, ended up rolling into the centre of the cage. With just under 2:15 minutes left on the clock, Staines locked up a tight rear naked choke and the tap came just seconds later.
Following the contest, Frimpong & Staines faced off in the cage. The two have had several back-and-forths throughout the series, stemming from Frimpong trying to get under Staines’ skin in the athletes' house by talking about Staines' family. Both men had their say on the final matchup, with Frimpong believing, “I will make him want to finish me, and I will finish him.” Staines, meanwhile, sees this as an opportunity to claim the 25,000 Euro contract. He said: “I can’t wait for that date, it is going to be fun. Everything I have been saying will come to fruition.”
There was some drama leading into the second semi-final bout. For the first time in this series an athlete missed weight, with Staines coming in at 71.05kg. He was given two hours to lose the extra 200 grams he was over by.
With just five minutes of the allotted time remaining, Staines returned and came in well within the 70.8kg limit, tipping the scales at 70.45kg.
It wouldn’t be an episode of Challenge Series without Team Ireland causing mischief and this week was no different. The night before the fight, Matthew Elliott collected up a colony of ants & decided to place them in Staines’ & Jake McHugh’s bed.
Eagle-eyed fans would have noticed a bout between Aaron MacDonald and Hascen Gelezi has been added to the official Oktagon 48 poster. The episode showed the origins of the bout, with MacDonald and Gelezi engaging in some verbal jousting before agreeing to the bout.
