Oktagon 54 has lost a fight from its stacked lineup of bouts, with the Tipsport Gamechanger matchup between Akonne Wanliss and Sahil Siraj pulled from the card in Ostrava.
There had been plenty of verbal jousting between Wanliss and Siraj during the lead-up to the fight, which forms part of Oktagon’s €1 million lightweight tournament. Things threated to get out of control when the pair faced off at the official weigh-ins, as a shoving match ensued.
Calmer heads eventually prevailed on that occasion, but tensions reached breaking point after the promotion’s Oktagon Time press conference on Friday.
The event, which saw all of the featured fighters on the card taking part, saw Siraj’s coaches thrown out of the presser after appearing to try to charge the stage following comments from Englishman Wanliss.
Later, when Wanliss exited the room at the end of the event, he was jumped by the two men, with one of them understood to be former UFC lightweight Reza Madadi.
Oktagon MMA
Just hours before doors opened at the Ostravar Arena, Oktagon released a statement on their Instagram page, announcing that the bout between Wanliss and Siraj had been removed from the card and rescheduled for Oktagon 56 in Birmingham on April 20.
“After yesterday’s press conference, an incident occurred between Sahil Siraj’s team and Akonne Wanliss,” the statement began.
“Akonne was assaulted by both coaches while leaving the hall from where they were banned earlier.
“Both coaches have been handed a lifetime ban from OKTAGON MMA events.
“Akonne Wanliss is not 100%, and the incident could affect his performance.
“Sahil Siraj was not involved in the incident, and had no influence in its course.
“Both fighters remain with Tipsport Gamechanger, and the bout will now take place at Oktagon 56 in Birmingham.
“We apologise to all our fans who were present, and to those who were looking forward to seeing the match in Ostrava.”
The incident adds to an already eventful 24 hours ahead of the event, which saw four fighters – three tournament fighters and one reserve – fail to make weight for their respective bouts. Those matchups will all continue, but the loss of Wanliss vs. Siraj now reduces the fight card to 10 fights.
Oktagon MMA
Oktagon 54: Official fight card
MAIN CARD
- Patrik Kincl vs. Piotr Wawrzyniak – for unified middleweight title
- Ronald Paradeiser vs. Attila Korkmaz – Tipsport Gamechanger
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mago Machaev – Tipsport Gamechanger
- Vladimir Lengal vs. Daniel Torres – Tipsport Gamechanger
- Mateusz Legierski vs. Matous Kohout – Tipsport Gamechanger
- Marcel Grabinski vs. Acoidan Duque – Tipsport Gamechanger
Akonne Wanliss vs. Sahil Siraj – Tipsport Gamechanger– bout rescheduled to Oktagon 56- Hafeni Nafuka vs. Predrag Bogdanovic – Tipsport Gamechanger
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Radek Rousal vs. Luke Neale
- Jason Ponet vs. Lukasz Rajewski – Tipsport Gamechanger reserve bout
- Milos Janicic vs. Ebrahim Hosseinpour – Tipsport Gamechanger reserve bout
