At Oktagon 65, the Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Tournament was wrapped up. The final saw Losene Keita, former Lightweight Champion and current Featherweight Champion, knock out Ronald Paradieser in the 2nd round, to win the tournament.
Not only did Keita win the Tipsport Gamechanger Tournament, but he reclaimed the Lightweight title, became the #1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in Oktagon and won €300,000.
When the tournament was announced, many predicted that Ronald Paradieser and Losene Keita would have their rematch in the final. The pair of talented lightweights were heavy favorites coming into the tournament.
Let’s take a look back at the amazing tournament that took center stage at Oktagon’s events in 2024.
In the openeing round saw Akonne Wanliss knock out bitter rival Sahil Siraj in 40 seconds, Mateusz Legierski submit Mateus Kohout, Predrag Bogdanovic dominate Hafeni Nafuka, Losene Keita narrowly win over former Cage Warriors Champion, Agy Sardari, Acoidan Duque defeat Marcel Grabinski, Mago Machaev brutally knock out Makwan Amirkhani, Rony Paradieser defeat Attila Korkmaz, and Daniel Torres win a decision over Vladimir Lengal.
This opening round took place over 3 different events and 3 different countries.
In the second round of the tournament, Legierski dominated Wanliss, Keita knocked out Bogdanovic, Duque upset Machaev and Paradieser defeat Torres via Unanimous Decision.
As we got closer to the final round, the two favorites were winning, as expected.
The Semi-Final saw Keita win a decision over Legierski, and Paradieser knock out Duque. After Paradieser’s win, Keita entered the cage and the pair of talented lightweights faced off. This set up the highly anticipated rematch between the Paradieser and Keita. Keita won the first meeting in one of the best fighters in Oktagon MMA history.
Paradieser was on an absolute roll, and never looked better, however at Oktagon 65, Keita proved he was the better man. “Black Panther” reclaimed his Champ-Champ status with a brutal elbow to the side of the head, followed up by ground and pound. The now 27-year-old Lightweight immediatly jumped out of the cage to his fans, and had an exchange with Oktagon MMA promoter Ondrej Novotny.
In the Post-Fight press conference, Losene Keita jokingly expressed interest in fighting in the Middleweight Tipsport Gamechanger tournament. There is a little bit of uncertainty with Losene Keita’s future with Oktagon MMA. It is well known that Keita turned down the UFC to stay with Oktagon MMA, however there doesn’t seem to be any big fights in either of the weight-classes that he rules.
