Come Saturday’s Oktagon 64, heavyweight Lazar Todev gets his chance for revenge.
Todev (11-6) has been booked into a rematch with Hatif Moeil, the man he faced just over a year ago for the Oktagon MMA heavyweight title. The first fight went the distance, and although a unanimous decision for Moeil, many saw Todev winning the fight.
Not surprisingly, Lazar Todev himself is among those who questioned the judges’ decision that night.
“For sure, I’m still thinking I won this fight. I cannot understand how I lose this fight, because you don’t have a point that I lose,” Todev told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “I make more, I bring more damages. That’s why I feel I cannot understand how I lose this fight, and why.”
That said, it’s a fighters life, and one that forces you to roll with the punches, for better or worse. “This is not a good feeling for sure, but this is part of the life,” noted Todev. “We have to be strong, we have to keep going forward. This is part of the game.”
Not a fun part of the game by any stretch of the imagination. Still, Todev bounced back strong. Following the loss to Moeil, he went on to win his next two fights, bringing him back to the title shot. That might have even come sooner, but Moeil was injured, and forced out of his last match-up. The champ has not, in fact, fought since his first go-round with Todev.
MMA of course loves its trilogies, and should he get his revenge this Saturday, Todev is willing to take part in a rubber match. Not that he feels one is truly necessary.
“I’m a fighter, I’m here for fighting. If this is what the people want, okay, we’re gonna give them this fight,” he stated. “But what I actually think, like I say I don’t have a problem with it, but like I say, I won the first fight, I don’t give a f*ck what the judges say. And I’m going to make the second time much, much better. That’s why we don’t need a third fight.”
“But like I said, if the people want to see this fight, okay. No problem.”
Watch our full interview with Oktagon 64’s Lazar Todev above.
