OKTAGON 52 will go ahead tonight at the Utilita Arena, Newcastle as the promotion continue their expansion into the United Kingdom. The fight night will feature 10 bouts, with a few potentially deciding who will be next in line for a title shot in numerous divisions.
Fight week can always prove to be difficult for promotions and this has somewhat been the case for OKTAGON, with freak injuries and missed weights all playing a part as they closed in on fight night.
The rough road for the promotion started as Shoaib Yousaf withdrew from his bout during fight week after a freak injury, in which he tore his pec whilst hitting pads, led to him being unable to compete. Rafael Hudson has stepped up on just a few days notice to face Eduard Kexel in a 154lbs bout. Hudson will be looking to bounce back to winning ways following a loss against Nazarbek Alimzhanov in May of last year. He has a tough night ahead as Kexel will want to add another notch on his already impressive five fight win streak.
The weigh-ins didn’t go ahead without a couple of hiccups. Both Roman Paulus and Max Holzer initially missed weight for their bouts against Nathan Haywood & Cory Fry respectively. Both men were fined a percentage of their purse, and came to agreements with their opponents to ensure both bouts remained on the card.
The pre-fight press conference delivered one of the longest faceoffs in recent memory. When Pavol brought Jack Cartwright and Jonas Magard together for their final stare down, neither man wanted to look away first which led to the two staring at each other for almost two and a half minutes.
The undercard press conference played host to some tension when OKTAGON Challenge Alumni Armand Herczeg & Jake McHugh faced off. The two first met on the challenger series in a contest which saw Herczeg rendering McHugh unconscious with a tight guillotine seconds into the contest. As they came face to face for the final time, Herczeg produced a picture of the finish from behind his back, asking McHugh if he would sign it. McHugh declined the signature and the atmosphere between the two certainly changed following the image.
Denis ‘The Menace’ Frimpong believes that the disparity in skillset between himself and Jan Široký will more than make up for the disparity in experience when the two meet in a Lightweight contest. Siroky has competed 26 more times than Frimpong in professional MMA, with the latter only making the walk three times so far. However, Frimpong told the media that the records don’t mean anything on fight night and that he believes his skills far and above his opponent’s.
Full OKTAGON 52 card:
Main Event
#1 Bantamweight Contender Bout
Jonas Mågård (15-6) vs. Jack Cartwright (11-1)
Co-Main Event
Middleweight
Mat?j Pe?áz (8-1) vs. Matthew Bonner (16-9-1)
Flyweight
Aaron Aby (15-8-1) vs. Christopher Daniel (9-3-1)
Heavyweight
Adam Pa?asz (9-2) vs. Stuart Austin (17-8)
Featherweight
Corey Fry (6-1) vs. Max Holzer (6-0)
Preliminary Card
Lightweight
Jan Široký (13-16, 1NC) vs. Denis Frimpong (1-2)
Bantamweight
Roman Paulus (8-4) vs. Nathan Haywood (3-1)
Catchweight (70kg/154lbs)
Eduard Kexel (9-1) vs. Rafael Hudson (8-6)
Featherweight
Jake McHugh (1-0) vs. Armand Herczeg (0-1)
Catchweight (62kg/137lbs)
Daniel Bainbridge (2-0) vs. Hamza Dagdeviren (1-1)
