Jonas Magard appears to have cemented himself a rematch with Bantamweight champion Felipe Lima, following a unanimous decision victory over Jack Cartwright at OKTAGON 52.
The two Manchester men started the contest as many expected, with Margard swinging first and appearing to rock Cartwright with the very first contact. Cartwright was firing back but it was Manchester Top Team’s Magard that was landing the cleaner of the strikes and controlling the contest. With the open scoring in play, fighters, coaches and fans alike could see that ‘Shark’ had taken the first round on all three scorecards.
It’s been proven before that both men have serious power and the capability to knock their opponents unconscious with one strike but there was a lot made pre fight of whether the former champion would look to take Cartwright to the mat, and that was the case in the second round. After, again, edging it on the feet, Magard then took the fight to the mat successfully. He worked well on the floor and as Cartwright looked to tie the two of them up, Magard got back to his feet and slammed the former Cage Warriors champion on his back.
Cartwright, knowing he was two rounds, had to come out and look for the finish but Magard made it difficult as he took the fight to the mat once more. With extremely good top pressure, sitting tight in Cartwright’s guard and Shark keeping his head tight against Cartwrights to ensure he couldn’t scramble to his feet but referee Marc Goddard felt there was not enough action and brought the action back to its feet. It was too late for Cartwright as he pushed forward, hands down, asking for Magard to meet him in the middle and swing but ‘Shark’ played smart for the remainder of the round and took the unanimous decision victory.
Just 49 days since his last contest, Matej Penaz was back in the OKTAGON cage and proved that the hype around him is extremely well deserved with a second round stoppage over Matthew Bonner in the co-main event.
It was clear with his incredible reach he has, that Penaz would look to keep the fight at range and pick off the former Cage Warriors champion. Bonner did a solid job of trying to get the fight against the cage but the Czech Republic native caught the Next Generation man with a lot of clean shots in the first, with Bonner’s right eye swelling massively towards the end of the round.
As the second round got underway, Bonner was wearing a lot of damage to not only his face but his lead leg too. Penaz continued his relentless pursuit and continued to land some effective strikes and with less than a minute to go landed a huge left hand to the body which dropped Bonner and after a flurry of strikes, the referee had seen enough. With that, Penaz became the first man to ever stop Bonner.
Aaron Aby appears to have secured himself another Flyweight title fight in a decision victory over Christopher Daniel. Aby’s fights are always a rollercoaster and this was no different. After a solid first round, submission specialist Daniel looked to tie up a leg lock but Aby remained calm and managed to work his way out the attempt. It seems as though with that victory, he will get a rematch against Flyweight champion Ellias Garcia.
Stuart Austin joins fellow Brit Aby in locking in a title fight with his win over Adam Palasz. The Heavyweight contest was previewed as being very much a striker vs grappler contest but Austin appeared to be happy to stand with Palasz in the first round. Austin admitted that he was a fan of the open scoring as he saw that Palasz was up at the end of the first but could feel him fading.
An elbow in the second dropped Palasz before Austin tied up a head and arm choke and finished the contest.
Max Holzer added another win to his unbeaten professional record with a second round rear naked choke against Corey Fry in the opening fight of the main card.
The preliminary card also delivered with Denis Frimpong picking up his first official promotional victory against Jan Siroky in the feature preliminary bout. Frimpong had promised that the difference in skill set would override the difference in experience and he was very much correct.
Much taller and longer than Siroky, Frimpong showed his fight IQ picking his shots well and earning a much deserved unanimous decision win.
Elsewhere on the prelim card, Jake McHugh levelled the score with his OKTAGON Challenger foe, Armand Herczeg with a first round rear naked choke as Eduard Kexel finished Rafael Hudson in the same manner.
It was a mixed bag of results for the local fighters, with Daniel Bainbridge remaining undefeated, beating Hamza Dagdeviren with a unanimous decision but his teammate Nathan Haywood fell short, getting submitted by Roman Paulus in the third round of their thoroughly entertaining contest.
