Fighters Only : Oktagon 50: Championship double-header set to light up Ostrava

Simon Head

Dec 04, 2023

Oktagon returns to the Ostravar Arena in Ostrava for Oktagon 50, with two title fights set to top a stacked fight card in the Czech Republic.

Headlining the event is a featherweight title clash featuring one of the promotion's top talents. Losene Keita has looked outstanding in his Oktagon career so far, with only injury halting his rise.

Keita captured the Oktagon lightweight title from Ivan Buchinger, and the interim featherweight title with victory over Jakub Tichota. But a leg injury sustained in the opening moments of his featherweight title challenge against Mate Sanikidze at Oktagon 45 saw him lose his undefeated record as he fell to defeat for the first time.

Now, five months after that shock defeat, Keita is back, and he has the featherweight title in his sights once again. But this time he faces a different foe. With Sanikidze vacating the title to make the drop to bantamweight, Germany's No. 3-ranked contender Niko Samsonidse will face Keita for the vacant 145-pound strap.

Samsonidse possesses an impressive 10-2 record, and is perfect at 2-0 under the Oktagon banner. He endered the promotion in April with a unanimous decision victory over Roman Paulus at Oktagon 42, then made a statement with a first-round triangle-choke finish of Nicolae Hantea five months later at Oktagon 46.

Those two wins earned "One Love" a shot at Oktagon featherweight gold, but he'll have to defeat one of the promotion's most dangerous stars to win it.

Paradeiser and Buchinger to run it back

The co-main event will see a huge rematch for the Oktagon lightweight title, as Slovakian stars Ronald Paradeiser and Ivan Buchinger get set to run it back for the vacant 155-pound crown.

Former Cage Warriors lightweight champion Buchinger captured the vacant lightweight title on his Oktagon debut when he submitted Paradeiser with a first-round rear-naked choke at Oktagon 21 in January 2021, but he lost his title to Keita at Oktagon 33 in June 2022. Since then, "Buki" has bounced back with a pair of second-round TKO victories to put himself back in line for a title shot, and he'll be looking to return to the top of the lightweight tree in Ostrava.

Paradeiser is also experiencing a resurgence and, after suffering a loss of his own to Keita in 2022, "Rony" has won four in a row, with his last three victories coming via TKO. His most recent win, a flying-knee finish of UK MMA stalwart Andrew Fisher, catapulted Paradeiser back into title contention, and he'll face his old nemesis Buchinger for championship gold once again on December 9.