English lightweight prospect Akonne Wanliss has been handed a shot at European MMA glory after being included in the lineup for Oktagon MMA’s Tipsport Gamechanger tournament for 2024.
Wanliss, who has fought just twice under the Oktagon banner, has one win and one no contest to his name. His promotional debut saw him claim a 127-second TKO finish of Giogi Gogotchuri at Oktagon 45 in Stvanice, Prague, but his second appearance ended prematurely after a flying knee caught opponent Jakub Bahnik below the belt, rendering him unable to continue.
Despite that disappointment, Wanliss made sure to make the most of his appearance on home soil, and arrived at the post-fight press conference dressed as The Joker and held court with a series of responses that lasted far longer than his 25-second fight. The Team Renegade fighter also featured as a coach on Oktagon Challenge: England vs. Ireland in 2023.
Oktagon MMA
Now, after impressing with his skills inside the cage, and a larger-than-life personality outside it, Wanliss will take on the best lightweights Oktagon has to offer in the promotion’s €1 million tournament, which will kick off in Ostrava on March 2.
Backed by the tournament’s sponsor, Czech sportsbook Tipsport, the inaugural Tipsport Gamechanger saw Oktagon’s top 16 welterweight fighters enter into a bracketed year-long tournament that ended in December with the finale, where Serbia’s Bojan Velickovic defeated Greece’s Andreas Michailidis for the tournament title and the €300,000 first prize. The remainder of the prize pot was distributed among the other competitors, based on their progression through the brackets.
The tournament gave the promotion a 12-month showcase for their 170-pound division, and gave them a narrative to help sell their fighters, and their shows, to a wider audience. Fans might not know all of the names at the start of the tournament, but through good storytelling, coupled with the natural narrative of an evolving tournament, fans became more invested in the action as the competition progressed.
By the time the promotion had landed for its debut event in the UK, the Gamechanger had firmly established itself as a home-run success for the promotion, and Oktagon co-founders Pavol Neruda and Ondrej Novotny confirmed to me that the format would return in 2024, with the 155-pound lightweight division set to feature.
Oktagon MMA
Since then, the first 12 names have been confirmed for the tournament, with Wanliss included among the first batch of competitors. Heading the list is Slovakia’s newly-crowned lightweight champion Ronald Paradeiser, who defeated former nemesis and ex-champion Ivan Buchinger to capture the belt. Joining Paradeiser and Wanliss in the lineup is a murderers row of European lightweight talent, including Czech striker Vladimir Lengal, Germany’s Marcel Grabinski (who competed in the welterweight tournament last year) and Konrad Dyrschka, plus Austria’s Daniel Torres and Mochamed Machaev.
Also set for tournament action are Finland’s former UFC featherweight Makwan Amirkhani, Serbia’s Predrag Bogdanovic and Oktagon’s inaugural lightweight champion, Poland’s Mateusz Legierski, Spain’s Acoidan Duque and Montenegro’s Milos Janicic. Six more names will be confirmed in due course.
The tournament will kick off with a bang in Ostrava, Czech Republic, where the Ostravar Arena will play host to all eight first-round tournament matchups on a huge night on March 2.
Oktagon MMA
Tipsport Gamechanger 2024: Confirmed fighters
- Makwan Amirkhani (17-9) — Finland
- Predrag Bogdanovic (15-1) — Serbia
- Acoidan Duque (19-4) — Spain
- Konrad Dyrschka (16-2) — Germany
- Marcel Grabinski (23-9) — Germany
- Milos Janicic (16-3) — Montenegro
- Mateusz Legierski (10-1) — Poland
- Vladimir Lengal (6-3) — Czech Republic
- Mochamed Machaev (13-1) — Austria
- Ronald Paradeiser (18-8) — Slovakia
- Daniel Torres (14-5) — Austria
- Akonne Wanliss (7-2) — England
