Despite only being in the MMA game for a few years, Deniz Ilbay has drawn quite the support. His non-stop style has led to a finish in all but one of his fights and has prompted Oktagon to put him on their very biggest cards.
He’ll be in front of another huge crowd this weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany. That honor he earned by putting on a show back on the ‘Bigger than Ever’ card back in October. A first round KO of Michael Deiga-Scheck and the subsequent crowd reaction made it necessary to put ‘El Pistolero’ on the next German card.
“It was crazy after I finished him, and I jumped on the cage. I hear the crowd, and I looked around, and I was thinking, man, this is really bigger than ever,” Ilbay explained. “After I watched the last couple of fights and the stadium was, the lights was shut down and everything, it was a crazy feeling.”
Now ranked #10 in the Oktagon featherweight division, Ilbay is ready to make noise in 2025. The Oktagon brass is ready to give him the opportunity, starting with a fight against #7 Vladimir Lengal.
When speaking about the crowd’s support and the opportunities he’s getting, Ilbay says it speaks to the type of fight he bring and how people always want to see more.
“Yeah, I mean, it speaks for myself, you know?” he said. “So I’m a guy who always brings action, and people love action.”
That action that he brings has draw such strong reactions that his kids have begun to ask questions about his career. While his youngster might inflate things just a bit, he gets the gist of it.
“It’s a nice feeling when I watch the videos with my kids, and my oldest son always says, wow, dad, there are so many people who are cheering for you, that’s crazy. And you are, are you a famous person?” Ilbay said. “And I said, no, daddy is not famous person, but the people like daddy.”
You can catch Ilbay’s fight with Vladimir Lengal as part of the Oktagon 66 main card. The card takes place at 12:00pm EST this Saturday on Oktagon pay-per-view.
And you can catch the entire audio of this interview on the latest episode of TTP. The interview begins at 22:05.
