OKTAGON MMA promoters want budding league to mimic success of Champions League, Formula 1

OKTAGON MMA is starting to make a footprint in the combat sports world, and it’s only motivating the two men leading the company to do things bigger and better.

For the first time, OKTAGON MMA got acknowledged as a nominee for “Best Promotion” at the 15th annual World MMA Awards, which is evidence of trends moving in the the right direction.

The organization put on its first event in August 2016, and it’s been a slow build since. There were seven shows in 2017, 10 in 2018, 13 in 2019, 16 in 2020, 12 in 2021, 10 in 2022 and nine in the books already in 2023 going into Saturday’s OKTAGON 47 card, which takes place at Tipos Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia and streams via online pay-per-view.

The focus of OKTAGON MMA, according to promoters Pavol Neruda and Ondrej Novotny, is to deliver European fans a consistent and reliable product. They want to host events in unique venues with high production value, and, naturally, great fights as well.

“The world is starting to recognize what we are doing,” Neruda told MMA Junkie. “It’s amazing. To be nominated at the World MMA Awards, it means a lot to us. We’re excited. It’s a great thing. It’s fulfilling our expectations, but we always move our goals higher and higher. The potential is way bigger.

“Where we want to be, this is just a small piece of it now. We are hungry to be better and be more part of the culture in every country that we are going. It’s nice how it’s going but we are definitely aiming higher.”

There is a belief from the OKTAGON MMA brass that it can fill a gap in the market in the sport. UFC, Bellator and PFL each put on multiple events in Europe per year, but the consistency isn’t always there, and the schedules are constantly in flux.

More European-based promotions such as KSW and Cage Warriors are institutions in the region, as well, but can’t claim to have a stranglehold on the continental market.

OKTAGON MMA plans to take advantage with its approach of not only putting on fight cards, but adding extra flare such as its Tipsport Gamechanger 16-man welterweight tournament that is currently ongoing and will pay the winner 300,000 Euros (roughly $316,000 U.S.), the “OKTAGON Challenge” reality show and more.

“We want to be European MMA Champions League,” Novotny said. “We want to be more present in these countries. We’re not just going to be there once. We’re going to step into a country and be presently there and will do more and more shows with local fighters, with local heroes. We want to give them so much attention that the fans will travel with us like with Formula 1.”