An almighty reshuffling of the welterweight division will take place inside SAP Garden, Munich.
On Halloween night, when Amiran Gogoladze and Felix Klinkhammer will vie it out for the vacant belt, two additional important bouts go down at OKTAGON 96. UFC veteran, Jessin Ayari (19-6), will lock horns with the man known as ‘Dracula’, Ion Surdu (17-8), and former champion, Ronald Paradeiser (23-11), meets rising German star, Tyrone Pfeifer (8-1), on Saturday, October 31, in a series of ‘welter wars’.
Ayari has shared the cage with the likes of Kerim Engizek, Abus Magomedov and Darren Till over his seventeen-year career. He arrived in OKTAGON last year and finished Andreas Stahl before submitting Niklas Stolze three months later. If the 34-year-old can pick up his fourth straight victory over a former title holder in Munich, he may be the undeniable next contender for the belt.
Surdu is one of the most unique characters on the European scene and is a terrifying striker. The biggest win of his career came when he knocked out recent viral star, Kaik Brito, with a spectacular head kick to claim the welterweight championship. ‘Dracula’ is looking to bounce back into the win column on an evening where he will be as scary as ever when the vampires and werewolves come out to play!
Paradeiser was previously pound-for-pound number one in the organisation and moved up to welterweight last year. Since debuting in the division, he stopped both Bojan Veličković and Geraldo Neto but was on the receiving end of a shock submission in June. At OKTAGON 96, ‘Rony’ is intent on proving that he is still one of the best on the continent and wants to continue progressing towards a title shot.
Pfeifer has been a breakout star in Germany over the past six months, going 2-0 in the promotion. The 27-year-old finished Marek Bartl by TKO at OKTAGON 85 and quickly after, stopped Niklas Stolze with a highlight-reel knockout in just 22 seconds. Paradeiser represents the toughest test of his career to date and if he is able to get his hand raised again, he will enter the upper echelons of the rankings.
Elsewhere on the card, Lazar Todev and Simon Biyong collide in a heavyweight earthquake and Henrique Madureira takes on Daniel Schordje at featherweight.
