Creating a giant legacy is precisely what Eire’s first-ever Oktagon MMA champion needs to do after taking the light-heavyweight belt from Czech MMA legend Karlos ‘Terminator’ Vemola at Oktagon 65 final month. We take a look at the a number of potential choices he now has throughout three weight lessons: middleweight, mild heavyweight and heavyweight.
Defending His Mild-Heavyweight Crown.
With quantity one-ranked Karlos Vemola set to face Atilla Vegh in a trilogy bout in June, a rematch with Fleury was by no means on the playing cards, so naturally, you look who’s subsequent in line on the rankings listing. That man is Alexander Poppeck, 32, who fights out of Munich’s prime workforce, holding a 17-5 document and is 4-1-1NC with Oktagon since 2022.
The one defeat beneath the Czech/Slovak banner is a detailed break up resolution loss to Pavol Langer in June 2023, and with Fleury already dispatching him[Langer] in 71 seconds on his solution to the championship, a rematch with the Slovakian doesn’t make sense proper now. In the meantime, the German ‘Ironside’ is subsequent in line and is on the market, with no different struggle booked.
The champion says considered one of his targets for 2025 is to ascertain himself throughout the German fanbase, so this may be the right solution to begin with an intense match-up towards the damaging contender from the capital.
Makhmud Muradov
Muradov is a high-calibre operator who re-signed with Oktagon MMA earlier this yr after going 4-2-1NC within the UFC. The middleweight contender was most likely aggravated that his teammate [Vemola] had simply been overwhelmed at Oktagon 65, so he talked his manner into a brief face-off with Fleury contained in the cage and opened the door to a attainable match-up in 2025.
Fleury is intrigued by the potential struggle realizing the draw that Muradov is, nonetheless, with the load distinction being the difficulty the champion talked about the opportunity of it being a catchweight bout. With that stated, Muradov may doubtlessly speak himself right into a title struggle with Fleury if he’s prepared to maneuver as much as 205lbs and was to press the matter within the type of social media call-outs to observe up on the head-to-head in Prague.
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Heavyweight
The promotion’s sixty-fourth occasion in Munich was all set to be headlined by Hatef Moeil vs Lazar Todev for the heavyweight championship. All the pieces was in place, and all fighters had been sitting on the desk for the pre-fight press convention when, out of nowhere, Moeil launched the title in direction of the challenger in a match of rage. The struggle was subsequentially cancelled, and the champion parted methods with Oktagon MMA, leaving on a bitter word.
That leaves a door open for fighters to problem for the belt, and Fleury put his title into the hat. He needs to grow to be a two-weight champion, whether or not up or down within the weight lessons, and if he sees a chance, the Irishman will pounce.
Going up in weight is way simpler than happening, and if he’s going to make the one beneath the place he presently resides, he would want extra time to do it appropriately and, most significantly, safely. The promotion has declared that Todev will struggle for the vacant belt, however may the challenger be the present 205lb champion? Does Will ‘F***ing’ Fleury have what it takes to move up the mountain to face the fellows with an even bigger bang and way more weight behind them?
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Tipsport gamechanger 2025
Talking after the Oktagon 65 press convention, World in Sport requested the Irishman if all the above choices had been introduced to him on the desk there after which which one he would take. He responded by saying, “The gamechanger is probably the most financially profitable so in the event that they was to inform me that’s 100% open then I’d go and try this. However, the others[options] we’d want to sit down down and have a great chat.”
The newest date for the opening spherical of the event is April twenty sixth, Fleury has declared that’s loads of time for him to achieve the restrict required so is placing himself ahead for the one remaining wildcard sport.
Tipsport Gamechanger Season 3: All You Want To Know.
The European MMA Champions League enters its third season in 2025; this time, the middleweights will take centre stage!
A life-changing prize pot of €1 million might be up for grabs as soon as once more as the largest MMA event on the continent returns for what guarantees to be one other thrilling instalment. The 16-man lineup is suffering from stars as present middleweight champion Kerim Engizek, prime Czech expertise Matěj Peňáz, welterweight title holder Ion Surdu, and promotional newcomer Krzysztof Jotko are all set to compete.
As in earlier years, reserve bouts might be booked so an athlete is able to step up instantly if something occurs to members within the lead-up to their bouts. Moreover, ‘Fortunate Loser’ fan voting will stay so after every spherical, the general public will get to vote for whoever they suppose deserves a second probability to leap again into the bracket later. On the finish of the opening spherical, the eight remaining athletes will draw numbers randomly earlier than deciding who they need to struggle within the quarter-finals later subsequent yr.
“We’re trying ahead to probably the most aggressive yr of the European MMA Champions League to date,” stated OKTAGON MMA co-founder Ondřej Novotný. “Followers can get excited concerning the highest variety of home fighters within the pyramid since we started the challenge and the event will develop to extra occasions, which I can not look forward to!”
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The Tipsport Gamechanger opening spherical matchups will happen throughout three occasions, with eleven nations represented, and are as follows:
OKTAGON 66 in Düsseldorf, Germany, on February 1:
Kerim Engizek (21-4) vs. Anthony Salamone (8-2)
Matěj Peňáz (9-1) vs. David Zawada (19-10)
OKTAGON 67 in Třinec, Czech Republic, on February 22:
Piotr Wawrzyniak (13-6) vs. Marek Mazúch (9-2)
Miloš Petrášek (13-7) vs. Mick Stanton (13-8)
Andreas Michailidis (16-8) vs. Mark Hulme (12-3)
OKTAGON 70 in Karlovy Differ, Czech Republic, on April 26:
Vlasto Čepo (12-3) vs. Erhan Kartal (12-2)
Ion Surdu(16-6) vs. Krzysztof Jotko(25-6)
‘Pirát’ Krištofič (17-6) vs. Wildcard (TBC)
