Fight fans might remember Denis Frimpong for his gym challenge against Paddy Pimblett, but the Manchester Top Team fighter has also made a name for himself in Oktagon MMA.
That has him high up on the card at Oktagon 90 in Berlin, Germany this Saturday, in a fight against Niko Samsonidse that could have title implications down the road.
Samsonidse has fought for titles twice before, at featherweight, and is now moving up to 155lbs, where he’ll be greeted by Frimpong (8-3). “Both times, he’s been knocked unconscious,” Frimpong pointed out in a recent interview with Cageside Press.
“It’s a good feeling to be put this high up on the card against such a highly touted guy, one of Germany’s biggest names, highest touted guys, but I just believe that my skillet’s going to be too much for him. And him coming up from featherweight to fight me, I was already a big lightweight, I’m a big lightweight, so it’s going to be problematic for him, I believe.”
Samsonidse might see a long, lanky fighter greeting him at lightweight, and has claimed Frimpong will be surprised by his own strength. In response, Frimpong noted that “my shots might not put you out, but they f*cking hurt, and I’m going to hurt him over a sustained period of time, break him, and he will be the second German-born Georgian this week to get broken, and maybe even quit on his stool as well.”
That, of course, was in reference to Justin Gaethje vs. Ilia Topuria, which happened just the day before our interview with Denis “The Menace” Frimpong.
“I wasn’t too surprised by it. I wasn’t as surprised as a lot of people were,” he said of the UFC’s main event at the White House. Frimpong called it a “cinematic” moment for Gaethje, “in front of the White House, White House lawn, in front of the President, America, all of that. And he didn’t just catch him with a stray shot, he broke him down systematically, and made him quit on his stool. And once again, there’s a lot of like I said, almost movie, almost like it’s written in the moment, this kind of stuff. And I believe that my win this weekend is also written in the moment.”
“Same week as a German-born Georgian gets broken and quits on his stool on the Monday, in the White House, the first event in front of the White House, a guy who came up to lightweight. And I believe that I’m going to be the guy now that comes in, beats a German-born Georgian in a weight class higher than he should be, breaks him on his stool at the first-ever Oktagon event in Berlin. I think it’s written. It’s destined almost.”
Breaking someone might actually be more preferable to Frimpong than knocking them out clean. That’s something he’s discussed with training partners in the gym recently.
“In my opinion for me, it’s definitely more of a rush, more of an adrenaline rush, knocking someone else clean. Boom, then they just fall, it’s almost like slow motion, like you killed them,” he explained. “But also I really enjoy, and I take great satisfaction, maybe it’s the sadist in me but I really take great satisfaction in systematically breaking someone down, making you quit, seeing and feeling the fight go out of them. You see it in someone’s eyes and their face and the way they start moving, or should I say stop moving, because they almost physically quit. They just try to hold onto your leg or something and you’re like ‘okay, I’ve got you now.'”
“It’s almost like drowning a person,” Frimpong later added. “It’s the equivalent of ‘would you prefer to get a clean headshot kill or would you prefer to slowly torture someone to death?’ And I’m definitely more on the torture someone to death side of things.”
In video games only, we hope.
Watch out full interview with Oktagon 90’s Denis Frimpong above. The event takes place this Saturday, June 20, 2026 in Berlin, Germany.
