Oktagon MMA heads to Dortmund with a card stacked full of German talent. At the Weigh-ins on Friday morning, Deniz Ilbay and Max Holzer faced off ahead of their highly-anticipated Main Event. Ilbay, visibly upset with Holzer’s comments about him, pushed “Stifler” when he got close too him.
Deniz Ilbay vs. Max Holzer
Max Holzer laughed off the push, and commented on the Instagram post: “Why did he fly back further than I did while pushing”. Ilbay rarely lets his emotions get the best of him, but Holzer has gotten under the skin of Ilbay. OktagonMMA’s official Instagram account released a video of Ilbay talking about getting in his car and driving to Hannover, where Holzer trains, but his Father stopped him. Holzer laughed about the statement from Ilbay on Instagram: “The guy himself doesn’t know what he wants to be. Fair sportsman but willing gangster who admits his lies.”
Watch the full Weigh Ins here:
Deniz Ilbay comes into this fight with an 8-1 MMA record, riding a 3-fight win streak. Ilbay has only gone to a decision once in his entire career, outside of that fight, all of his wins come by way of a devastating finish. Ilbay finds himself ranked at #7 at Featherweight, and a win over Max Holzer could propel “El Pistolero” into a title fight with Losene Keita. His relationship with his Father, Garip Ilbay, is very well documented. The Ilbay’s navigated successful boxing careers together, and now they look to continue their momentum in MMA.
Max Holzer enters this fight with a 10-0 record, winning 8 of which by finish. In his last outing, he took on Eugen Black-Dell on short notice and won with a dominant Unanimous Decision. Holzer has been calling Ibay out for a long time, with the pair of fighters even having a small altercation at the Oktagon 62 Post-Fight Press Conference, where the two argued back and forth about fighting each other and being respectful.
Both fighters have done so much Media coming into this fight, and at this point, are likely tired of seeing, and talking about each other. The Press conference takes place later today, which means they have to face each other one more time, before the beef can be settled on Saturday night.
