Three Title Fights In One Night – Full Review

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Three new champions were crowned at Prague’s o2 arena on Saturday evening as Belgian Losene Keita, Irishman Will Fleury and Norwegian Cecile Bolander all walked away with gold in their respective divisions. Rounding off an incredible year for Europe’s record-breaking mixed martial arts promotion.

The Pound For Pound Number One.

Losene Keita stunned fans as he finished ‘Rony’ Paradeiser in round number two of the Tipsport gamechanger final, walking away three hundred and five thousand euros richer after winning the performance of the night bonus as he entered his twenty-seventh birthday. A second serving of their 2022 bout went the full fifteen-minute distance in a close contest where Keita just pipped each round on all scorecards.

A year of tournament MMA with four fights in nine months was seemingly too much on the body for Paradeiser, who looked a lot more lethargic than the challenger to his throne as he made a desperate attempt to shoot for takedowns, which isn’t a part of his usual game. The birthday boy, Keita, was able to capitalize, and after a huge left hook landed, he wasted no time and jumped on the defending champion with a ground and pound. Giving referee Marc Goddard no other option but to waive the contest.

When speaking on what’s next, the Oktagon MMA pound-for-pound number, one joked, “I’m going up to middleweight for next season gamechanger, I’ll fight Bolander for her title next, I want it all, I’m double champ now, and nobody can stop me!”

Will ‘F**king’ Fleury Becomes Oktagon’s First Irish Champion.

It’s been a very promising year for Irish mixed martial arts, seeing names rise to the cream of the crop, but none more so than Will ‘F**king’ Fleury, who vowed to make a charge for the light heavyweight title and declared war on Karlos Vemola’s back in February when he first signed with the organisation.

Steaming his way through opposition this year, he was allowed to challenge ‘The Terminator’ for his crown and was confident that he would defeat the Czech MMA legend in the first round. Vemola had other plans, and although he was dominated, he showed the heart of a true champion. There was a big moment in the third round when Fleury landed a left knee on the chin of the champion that had him stumbling across the cage and seemingly out on his feet.

Fleury asked the referee to step in to prevent further damage as he followed it up with several kicks that just would not put Vemola down. The Czech superstar was still incredibly pushed forward, and moments later, he had his Irish opponent in a guillotine choke, but he couldn’t apply it with the intent he needed.

Two more brutal rounds ensued, and Fleury remained in control as he pushed through the unbelievable amount of noise created for the hometown fighter. It was an incredible twenty-five minutes of action where Vemola walked away with tremendous amounts of credibility, and Fleury walked away as the new light heavyweight champion.

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Options For The New Champion.

The Irishman looked for what could be next no sooner after the fight had finished. In the cage, a part of team Vemola was Makhmud Muradov, who re-signed with Oktagon MMA earlier this year after going 4-2-1NC in the UFC. The middleweight contender was probably annoyed that his teammate had just been beaten, so he talked his way into a short face-off with Fleury and opened the door to a possible match-up in 2025.

There is also the possibility of moving up to heavyweight as there is a vacant belt there; however, entering the gamechanger tournament at middleweight next year is also on the cards, and Fleury knows that would be the most financially lucrative if that opportunity were to be presented to him.

As well as options on either side of his current division, he is willing to face any challenge to defend his belt. He has intentions of pushing for the first Oktagon MMA show in Ireland. After three fights all on away turf, on his way to becoming king of the 205lb category, he feels he deserves a championship homecoming.

New Women’s Bantamweight Champi0n.

Cecile Bolander was crowned the new women’s bantamweight champion after five gruelling rounds with Lucia Pudilova. Showing her emotion in the cage post-fight, she described the fight game as the toughest sport in the world and how grateful she was to be given the opportunity. The Norwegian was due to fight on the undercard, but an injury to number one ranked Lucia Szabová, forcing her to withdraw from the title fight with Pudilova, allowed Bolander to run it back with Pudilova after their first fight in September.

Mågård Falls Short Against ‘The Hannibal’.

Jonas Mågård lost by a razor-thin split decision against Igor Severino in what proved to be the biggest shock of the evening. Mågård was offered to fight for the bantamweight championship belt against Jack Cartwright in a highly sought-after rematch. Still, with the latter declining multiple times, the Dane wanted to stay active and take another challenge with an international opponent. Speaking with World In Sport post fight he said “It was a close fight, I lost on an opinion I thought I got it[the decision] but it’s my fault for leaving it to the judges. That’s what happens sometimes, he was a good, tough kid[Severino] and I felt like his scramble surprised me a little bit but I surprised myself with my performance and should of pushed for it[the win] more.”