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OKTAGON MMA (short: OKTAGON) is one of the leading mixed martial arts (MMA) organizations in Europe. It is the only promotion on the continent to regularly stage events across four different countries, selling out the biggest arenas in these territories. Their athletes are well-known sports stars in the region and have helped MMA reach mainstream status across Europe. The promotion has gained international plaudits for showcasing high level talent, for utilising captivating storytelling to get fans invested in the events and for producing an incredible live experience.

The company was founded by Ondřej Novotný and Pavol Neruda in 2016 and the pair still own it today. OKTAGON MMA produces events that showcase 11 weight divisions (eight mens and three womens) and adheres to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. As of April 2024, it has around 200 professional fighters under contract and it has held 70 events.

History
The organization was created in 2016 and was originally based in the Czech Republic/Slovakia when it started filming the reality show OKTAGON Challenge in which 8 fighters (4 from the Czech Republic and 4 from Slovakia) fought in a TV series similar to the reality show ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ for a contract with the organization and €10,000. However, the &#39;challenges&#39; which the participants completed in - away from the sports world they were familiar with - was a unique aspect of the show. The inaugural season of OKTAGON Challenge culminated on December 10, 2016 at the first- ever OKTAGON 1 tournament, which took place in Prague&#39;s Sports Hall Královka. The final of the first series was won by the Slovak fighter cz:Gábor Boráros.

On July 28, 2018, the organization held an event for the second time at Prague&#39;s Štvanice Stadium, named OKTAGON 7. In the main match of this tournament, Michal Martínek faced Daniel Dittrich for the heavyweight title in the organization&#39;s first ever title fight. In the third round, Martínek defeated Dittrich via TKO and became the first ever OKTAGON MMA champion.

At the pre-season press conference OKTAGON Prime Time on February 11, 2019, the organization presented the signing of Czech superstar, Karlos Vémola, and announced that at the end of the year he would fight with former Bellator MMA champion, Attila Végh, in the Czechoslovakian ‘Fight of the Century’.

Later that year on November 9, 2019, at OKTAGON 15 inside O2 Arena, Prague, Attila Végh knocked out Vemola in 2 minutes in an event that set an all-time attendance record for MMA in the country. During the co-main event of the evening, Michal Martinek defended his title against Viktor Pešta via TKO.

On June 4, 2022, OKTAGON MMA staged its first event outside the Czech Republic and Slovakia, inside the sold out Festhalle, Frankfurt in Germany. Losene Keita knocked out Ivan Buchinger in 3 minutes to win the lightweight title in the night’s headliner.

OKTAGON MMA entered the English market for the very first time in November 2023, spearheaded by a broadcast deal with Channel 4 which aired OKTAGON Challenge 7: England vs Ireland, "Stage to the Cage"; and all OKTAGON MMA live events. The OKTAGON Challenge 7: England vs. Ireland final and the "Stage to the Cage" finale featuring Jake Quickenden and Paul Smith both took place at OKTAGON 48 inside AO Arena, Manchester.

Despite only being established in Germany for less than two years, OKTAGON MMA has already held a total of 9 events in the country and is very popular with fans. On March 23, 2024, during the OKTAGON 55 event in Stuttgart, there was an announcement about a massive stadium event, OKTAGON 61, which will take place on October 12 in front of 55,000 people at Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt. As a result of this, OKTAGON MMA will become the only European MMA promotion in history to host two football stadium shows in a year with a combined 90,000 fans anticipated to be in attendance.

OKTAGON MMA cooperates with several different organizations such as FABRIQ MMA, Professional Muay Thai League (PML) and Fight Night Challenges (FNC). They exchange fighters with their promotions and the events are broadcast on OKTAGON-owned streaming platform, OKTAGON TV.

OKTAGON TV
OKTAGON TV is a subscription-based video streaming platform owned by OKTAGON MMA. It showcases live mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai and submission grappling events. OKTAGON TV includes a library of previous OKTAGON MMA events and also features other organizations that cooperate with OKTAGON MMA such as FABRIQ MMA, Professional Muay Thai League (PML), Fight Night Challenges (FNC) and many more.

OKTAGON Challenge
OKTAGON Challenge is a TV show in which 8 fighters (4 from one country and 4 from another country) gets a chance to get a professional contract with the organization and €10,000.

OKTAGON Underground
During the COVID-19 pandemic, OKTAGON MMA came up with the OKTAGON Undreground project which included a series of 7 tournaments in which male and female fighters competed in several weight classes under modified rules. These were exclusively stand up bouts but the fight could be moved to the ground with a takedown. After 3 seconds of active control, the takedown was recognized as successful, and the fight returned to the feet. Submissions were also allowed.

Stage to the Cage
"Stage to the Cage" was a groundbreaking OKTAGON MMA project for entering the UK and Irish market. It was a 12-episode TV series that followed UK reality star, Jake Quickenden, and stand-up comedian, Paul Smith, in their 10-month long journey to becoming MMA fighters. The show was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, DAZN and OKTAGON.TV. The project concluded on November 4th 2023 at OKTAGON 48 in Manchester when fans inside the AO Arena watched Jake Quickenden and Paul Smith make their professional MMA debuts under full unified rules. Quickenden got the best of Smith early on before securing a TKO victory.

Tipsport Gamechanger
The €1 million Tipsport Gamechanger is the biggest project in the history of OKTAGON MMA as well as the most financially rewarding MMA tournament that Europe has ever seen. A total of 16 fighters in the welterweight division (77.1 kg in 2023) and lightweight division (70.3 kg in 2024) faced each other in an elimination pyramid. A €1 million prize pot is divided among the sixteen fighters with the overall winner receiving €300,000. The losing finalist receives €130,000, the losing semi-finalists receive €80,000, the losing quarter-finalists receive €40,000 and the opening round losers receive €15,000. Following each round, fans get their chance to vote for a ‘Lucky Loser’ who then gets the chance to fight in a reserve bout with the possibility of later re-entering the bracket. Due to attracting the best talent in a particular weight class across the continent, the project is also known as the European MMA Champions League.

Past events

 * - limited capacity due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Event locations

 * The following cities have hosted a total of 70 events as of OKTAGON 56 (30.4.2024.)

Czech Republic (total: 43)


 * Brno, Zoner Bobyhall (14)
 * Prague, O2 Arena (7)
 * Prague, Central Tennis Court Štvanice (7)
 * Ostrava, Ostravar Aréna (6)
 * Prague, Reinders MMA Gym (3)
 * Prague, Královka Arena (1)
 * Prague, O2 Universum (1)
 * Liberec, Home Credit Arena (1)
 * Pardubice, Enteria arena (1)
 * Brno, Winning Group Arena (1)
 * Karlovy Vary, Hotel Imperial (1)
 * Prague, Eden Football Stadium (1)

Slovakia (total: 16)


 * Bratislava Ondrej Nepela Arena (6)
 * Bratislava, OFA Bratislava (3)
 * Bratislava, Hant Arena (2)
 * Šamorín, X-Bionic Sphere (2)
 * Košice, Crow Arena (2)
 * Košice, Steel Aréna (1)

Germany (total: 8)


 * Frankfurt, Festhalle (3)
 * Oberhausen, Rudolf Weber-Arena (2)
 * Cologne, Lanxess Arena (1)
 * Stuttgart, Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle (1)
 * Munchen, Audi Dome (1)

United Kingdom (total: 3)


 * England, Manchester, AO Arena (1)
 * England, Newcastle, Utilita Arena (1)
 * England, Birmingham, Resorts World Arena (1)

Heavyweight

 * 120.2 kg

Light Heavyweight

 * 93 kg

Middleweight

 * 83.9 kg

Welterweight

 * 77.1 kg

Lightweight

 * 70.3 kg

Featherweight

 * 65.8 kg

Bantamweight

 * 61.2 kg

Flyweight

 * 56.7 kg

Flyweight

 * 56.7 kg

Strawweight

 * 52.2 kg

Men
As of 29.04.2024.

Women
As of 29.04.2024.

Pound4Pound
On December 8 2023, at OKTAGON TIME Press Conference, OKTAGON managment announced pound-for-pound rankings, decided upon by the world’s media, and OKTAGON MMA promoters. .

As of 4.04.2024.

Women's Strawweight (115 Ib, 52.2 kg)

 * Unless otherwise cited, all records are retrieved from tapology.com.

Awards
In 2023, the organization was nominated in a total of 4 categories (Best Organization, Promoter, Submission of the Year and Comeback of the Year) at the World MMA Awards.

Notable fighters
🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🇸🇰 Slovakia 🇩🇪 Germany 🇺🇸 United States 🇧🇷 Brazil 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 🇵🇱 Poland  Other
 * 🇨🇿 Karlos Vemola
 * 🇨🇿 David Kozma
 * 🇨🇿 Patrik Kincl
 * 🇨🇿 Michal Martinek
 * 🇨🇿 Viktor Pešta
 * 🇨🇿 Filip Macek
 * 🇨🇿 Tereza Bledá
 * 🇨🇿 Matěj Peňáz
 * 🇨🇿 Jakub Tichota
 * 🇸🇰 Attila Végh
 * 🇸🇰 Samuel Krištofič
 * 🇸🇰 Ivan Buchinger
 * 🇸🇰 Ronald Paradeiser
 * 🇸🇰 Ľudovít Klein
 * 🇸🇰 Pavol Langer
 * 🇸🇰 Vlasto Čepo
 * 🇸🇰 Karol Ryšavý
 * 🇸🇰 Lucia Szabová
 * 🇸🇰 Radovan Úškrt
 * 🇩🇪 Stephan Pütz
 * 🇩🇪 David Zawada
 * 🇩🇪 Martin Zawada
 * 🇩🇪 Hatef Moeil
 * 🇩🇪 Katharina Dalisda
 * 🇩🇪 Christian Eckerlin
 * 🇩🇪 Christian Jungwirth
 * 🇺🇸 Virgil Zwicker
 * 🇺🇸 Jeremy Kimball
 * 🇺🇸 Travis Fulton
 * 🇺🇸 Paul Byrne
 * 🇧🇷 Felipe Lima
 * 🇧🇷 Rafael Xavier
 * 🇧🇷 Leandro Silva
 * 🇧🇷 Kaik Brito
 * 🇧🇷 Talita Bernardo
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Scott Askham
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matthew Bonner
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Stuart Austin
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jack Cartwright
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Akonne Wanliss
 * 🇵🇱 Piotr Wawrzyniak
 * 🇵🇱 Mateusz Legierski
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Aaron Aby
 * Jonas Mågård
 * Antun Račić
 * 🇸🇪 Samuel Bark
 * 🇧🇪 Losene Keita
 * Mate Sanikidze
 * Amiran Gogoladze
 * 🇮🇹 Stefano Paternò
 * Andreas Michailidis
 * 🇲🇩 Ion Surdu
 * 🇹🇷 Kerim Engizek
 * Bojan Veličković
 * Aleksandar Ilić
 * 🇧🇬 Lazar Todev
 * 🇫🇷 Jorick Montagnac
 * Shem Rock
 * 🇭🇺 Máté Kertész
 * 🇫🇮 Makwan Amirkhani