Fans celebrate dominant cage show
Christian Eckerlin – King of Frankfurt! King of Germany?
By Michael Bauer, Frankfurt
May 5, 2024, 2:40 a.m
Eintracht rules in football in Frankfurt, and Christian Eckerlin rules in martial arts. The German shows in front of his home crowd why he is one of the big stars in the German MMA scene. In a few months, he wants to take the national crown again in his hometown – in front of a record crowd.
Frankfurt celebrates its king: At the MMA event Oktagon 57 in the Main metropolis, local hero Christian Eckerlin won his fight against the Czech Miroslav Brož by technical knockout in the second round. 10,000 fans in the festival hall celebrated the Frankfurter frenetically – the biggest highlight was an announcement after the fight.
Many spectators were just waiting for the local hero.
(Photo: Octagon MMA)
From the point of view of many of the German’s fans, the duel with the Czech, who has been unbeaten for four years, went exactly according to plan: Eckerlin relied on his agility and dodged many of Brož’s wild punches, worked a lot with the jab and constantly attacked his opponent. As soon as the 37-year-old delivered a combination of punches, the Czech immediately went forward again.
When another combination from Eckerlin shook the Czech in round two, he took down his guard and shouted demandingly at his opponent. Here, too, Eckerlin scored again. Ultimately, however, it was a successful takedown that ushered in the Frankfurter’s victory. Eckerlin took Brož to the ground and landed a flurry of elbow strikes. The Czech’s guard didn’t last long and after two clean hits from the German, the referee stepped in and ended the fight.
After the fight there was an announcement of a duel that many have been waiting for for a long time. Christian Eckerlin will meet Christian Jungwirth from Stuttgart. The two German crowd favorites will meet on October 12th in Frankfurt’s Waldstadion in front of 55,000 spectators. The fight is being advertised as “King of Germany”, both Eckerlin and Jungwirth emphasized in the interview after the fight that they wanted to take the crown in October. And since both are frenetic supporters of the clubs Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart, parallels to football are also drawn.
Doussis goes against Langer KO
But other fighters from Germany were also able to present themselves in the cage. Ruhrpott fighter Marc Doussis faced ex-interim champion Pavol Langer in the light heavyweight division. The Slovakian is considered particularly tough, but in his last fight he received a punch after just a few seconds that sent him to the ground. He was much more resistant to Doussis. The German sometimes worked the Slovakian with violent punch combinations and caused his opponent to stagger several times. Langer escaped into the clinch and was able to collect himself again.
When Doussis was able to free himself from the clinch situation towards the end of the first round, Langer went for a knee strike and hit right in the temple. Doussis wobbled at first, but Langer landed a few follow-up punches and the 34-year-old went down. Despite a strong performance, the German ended up with a knockout defeat.
Berlin fighter Nezhad surprises and challenges
Farbod Iran Nezhad celebrates his victory.
(Photo: Octagon MMA)
With the former featherweight champion Mate Sanikidze, the Berlin-based Farbod Iran Nezhad had a particularly strong opponent for his debut at Oktagon MMA. Sanikidze went down to bantamweight for the fight – a weight class below his usual fighting weight. The change didn’t seem to go well with the Georgian. Nezhad from the Spitfire Gym delivered a flawless masterful performance in grappling – and as soon as the wrestling started, he was a force, Sanikidze had no chance. The Georgian seemed helpless at times. And so Nezhad got takedowns in all three rounds and worked his opponent on the ground with punches. In the end there was a dominant points victory for the Berliner.
“We trained like that for two months: fake two or three punches and then do the takedown,” the 33-year-old told ntv.de after the fight. He was surprised that Sanikidze was able to defend himself so well against it. Nezhad already has his next opponent in mind: He wants to fight against bantamweight champion Felipe Lima. “I fought against him four years ago, but I had Corona. After five minutes I was exhausted.” Nezhad said it wouldn’t work out that way if they met again.
Holzer starts to leapfrog – and wins
With only two weeks of preparation time, Max Holzer from Fightschool Hannover wanted to make short work of Eemil Kurhela. But the Finn proved to be a tough guy in the first lap. Holzer kept looking for the clinch on the cage fence, but Kurhela defended cleanly and landed crashing hooks during the liberation actions that shook the 22-year-old German really hard. Towards the end of the first round, Holzer was able to wrestle his opponent to the ground, and the Finn got into the dominant position in the final seconds thanks to an improper submission hold. In the end there was an even round.
Holzer didn’t want to change anything about the recipe in the second five minutes. He kept looking for the clinch, but Kurhela held on bravely. Instead of wrestling his opponent to the ground, the Hanoverian climbed onto his back while standing and started to choke – a sensational and rather untypical move. Kurhela could no longer shake off his opponent, the grip had an effect and the Finn had to tap out.
“I was always good at leapfrogging at school,” commented Holzer on the strange action in an interview with ntv.de. “I knew he could do something and knew the risks I was taking in taking the fight at such short notice. I trusted my fitness and followed the game plan to the end.”