Reigning two-division champion Will Fleury, who currently holds the promotion’s titles at both heavyweight and light heavyweight, will put his heavyweight title on the line at OKTAGON 81 in Prague, Czechia, where he takes on former UFC heavyweight contender, and ex-OKTAGON heavyweight champion, Martin Buday.
It’s a huge fight for the promotion, as Buday returns to OKTAGON after his surprise release by the UFC, despite his 7-1 record in the Octagon and active three-fight win streak. The Slovakian slugger previously captured the OKTAGON heavyweight title at OKTAGON 25 back in the summer of 2021, with his championship victory earning him a spot on Dana White’s Contender Series. Buday took that chance, stopped Lorenzo Hood in the first round, and earned a UFC contract.
Buday performed well in the UFC, defeating Chris Barnett, Lukasz Brzeski and Jake Collier by decision, then finishing Josh Parisian via first-round Kimura.
Buday then suffered his lone UFC defeat – and only the second of his career – as he was stopped in the second round by Shamil Gaziev at UFC 296. But he bounced back well from that setback to claim a hat-trick of decision victories over former champion Andrei Arlovski, Uran Satybaldiev and BJJ phenom Marcus Buchecha.
The UFC then surprisingly released Buday, and he returned to OKTAGON, where conversations immediately began to start about a potential title bout between former champ Buday and reigning champ Fleury.
Since joining OKTAGON, Fleury has made a meteoric rise to become a two-weight champion. His debut in the promotion saw him submit former K-1 striker Daniel Skvor in a light heavyweight bout in Birmingham, then he knocked out former interim light heavyweight champion Pavol Langer in front of 60,000 fans at OKTAGON 62 in Frankfurt.
That victory put Fleury in a position to call out then-205-pound champion Karlos Vemola, and Fleury got his wish with a title fight against “The Terminator” at OKTAGON 65. After five hard-fought rounds, Fleury ended with his hand raised in victory as he claimed a shutout win on the scorecards to capture the light heavyweight title.
Not content with holding just one belt, Fleury then turned his attention to the heavyweight title and, after the heavyweight belt was left vacant following the departure of Hatef Moeil, Fleury outbattled Bulgarian contender Lazar Todev to capture the heavyweight crown and become a simultaneous two-division champion.
Now Fleury will put the heavyweight belt on the line against Buday at OKTAGON’s annual end-of-year show at The O2 Arena in Prague.
OKTAGON 81: Confirmed fights
- Will Fleury vs Martin Buday – for OKTAGON heavyweight title
- Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs David Dvorak – for OKTAGON flyweight title
- Patrik Kincl vs Robert Pukac
- Ondrej Raska vs Pavel Toth
- Kaik Brito vs Amiran Gogoladze
- Jonas Magard vs Elvis Silva
