After Saturday’s gorgeous second-round end over Ronald Paradeiser within the season two finale of the Tipsport gamechanger, ‘Black Panther’ Losene Keita (15-1) grew to become a two-weight champion in Oktagon MMA and confirmed himself as pound-for-pound primary in the complete group.
Heading into his twenty-seventh birthday, because the combat progressed previous midnight, the present featherweight champion, Keita, was made to work for his second win over the now former light-weight champion, Paradeiser, and at first, it appeared as if it might play out equally to the primary version. With each fighters swinging large and trying to mix combos in a chess match of elite putting on the toes, ‘ Rony’ made the primary mistake when he shot for a takedown.
Keita was in a position to capitalize on Paradeiser’s miscalculation, and after an enormous left hook landed, he wasted no time and jumped on the defending champion with a floor and pound. Giving referee Marc Goddard no different possibility however to waive the competition off.
In addition to admitting to the error post-fight, ‘Rony’ additionally confessed he’s now struggling to make the light-weight restrict, and he had pushed his physique to excessive lengths with 4 fights in 9 months. So a transfer as much as welterweight could also be subsequent for the previous 155lb champion. Nonetheless solely twenty-seven years of age, the Slovakian has an enormous fanbase and a very good document of 21-9 with 15 wins and 5 losses underneath the Oktagon MMA banner, so there are nonetheless loads of large fights for him within the rankings.
Oktagon 65: Three Title Fights In One Night time – Full Assessment
What’s Subsequent For The Double Champ?
We have a look at the potential choices at featherweight and at light-weight for Losene Keita…
LIGHTWEIGHT:
Shem Rock (11-1-1) – The Subsequent Era MMA Liverpool fighter was seen because the face of the UK enlargement. After profitable on residence soil earlier this yr in spectacular style over Stefano Cattacoli, he adopted that up with an enormous win at Oktagon 58 inside the house of Slavia Prague FC. That win got here in opposition to Jaroslav Pokorny, with whom he had a long-standing rivalry after their authentic combat was cancelled in November 2023. Pokorny was withdrawn on combat day after Rock landed a kick to the ribs on the weigh-in. Which allegedly precipitated sufficient harm to tug him from the combat regardless of no bodily X-ray proof.
Rock discovered combined martial arts when he went on the run for nearly ten years for against the law he didn’t commit. He has since returned to the UK, been arrested, jailed, acquitted, and fought on Europe’s largest MMA promotion quite a few instances. His talent set is excessive calibre, and in his two fights this yr, he has dispatched each opponents within the first spherical. It took only one minute forty-seven seconds to pressure Cattacoli to faucet at Oktagon 56, and three minutes six seconds to place Pokorny out chilly six weeks later.
Keita and Rock have had backwards and forwards on social media and would each soar on the probability to step into the cage collectively. Two nice talkers who may promote the combat extraordinarily nicely, as they each firmly consider they’re the very best on the Oktagon roster. Keita has had probability to show that, nevertheless, Rock hasn’t. So, may the coaching companion of UFC stars Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann be the most important risk to the double champions crown?
They’re each seen as two of the most well liked skills outdoors of the world’s premier promotion, the UFC, and they’ll doubtless arrive there someday. Each contenders are repeatedly talked about by followers and media when the query is requested: Who’s subsequent for the UFC? However, earlier than they each do inevitably get there it makes excellent sense for them to create one of many largest fights potential outdoors of the final word preventing championship and probably the most important combat in Oktagon MMA.
Agy Sardari (19-5) – The previous Cage Warriors champion gave Keita the hardest combat of his profession throughout this yr’s Tipsport game-changer match and feels he deserves a rematch with the champion. He says there are holes in his recreation, and when responding to World In Sport on the Oktagon 65 press convention after his win over Ognjen Dimić, he stated, “We now have a blueprint for Keita now, and I do know precisely what I’ve to do to beat him subsequent time round. I’ve seen holes in his recreation that I can exploit so I need a shot on the belt, I do know I can beat him.”
Keita responded by saying, “Agy couldn’t even beat me after I had one leg; all people is aware of I used to be carrying an damage within the first combat, so how’s he going to beat me after I’ve acquired two legs totally working?”
FEATHERWEIGHT:
Max Holzer (10-0) – The German arrived within the promotion firstly of the yr with a win over Englishman Corey Fry at Oktagon 52 in Newcastle. He has added three extra wins and is now ranked within the high 5. A combat with Holzer, a preferred fighter within the group and a rising fanbase in his residence nation, might be a very good possibility for Keita.
Mochamed Machaev (15-2) – Constructing a 13-1 document earlier than arriving on the central European promotion, he has now added to that with wins over UFC veteran Makwan Amirkhani and former Cage Warriors title challenger James Hendin. Ranked at quantity two within the 145lb division, he can be one other good possibility and a powerful problem for Keita’s featherweight championship.
Is Keita Prepared For The UFC Now?
In all honesty, sure, a number of stories have revealed that he turned a contract down with numerous different promotions earlier than re-signing with Oktagon in January 2024. The UFC was reportedly a kind of organizations, and with the one blemish on his document due to a foot damage, he’s nonetheless technically unbeaten, which makes him sizzling property and probably the greatest upcoming fighters on the planet. Together with his thrilling type, ‘Black Panther’ constantly produces these holy sh*t moments that Dana White desires underneath his banner.
He holds two championship belts and is pound-for-pound primary within the largest promotion in Europe. Naturally, the world’s largest promotion might be monitoring his state of affairs carefully. When requested on the Oktagon 65 post-fight press convention if he nonetheless needs to ply his commerce there and if he has accomplished what he wished to attain underneath his present promotion, he stated “I don’t know but, let me go residence and loosen up then we are going to speak about that however for now I’m not executed with Oktagon but!”
Which possibility would you wish to see the double champion take subsequent? Tell us within the remark part!
