Oktagon 87: Szabová vs. Fernandes Preview: Full Fight Card Breakdown
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OKTAGON's return to Liberec carries real weight on April 25. The Czech promotion is staging its first event in the city in three years, and they have built the night around one of their most compelling title stories: Lucia Szabová, the reigning OKTAGON bantamweight champion, moving up to flyweight to chase a second belt. The main event is a championship fight with historical implications for the promotion, and the rest of the card delivers Zebaztian Kadestam's OKTAGON debut, Josefine Lindgren Knutsson arriving after her UFC run, and a card full of European talent fighting close to home.
Full Fight Card
| Fight | Weight Class | Card Section |
|---|---|---|
| Lucia Szabová vs. Leidiane Fernandes | Women's Flyweight (Title) | Main Card |
| Dominik Humburger vs. Zebaztian Kadestam | Middleweight | Main Card |
| Vladimír Lengál vs. Ozan Aslaner | Lightweight | Main Card |
| Radek Roušal vs. Samuel Bark | Featherweight | Main Card |
| Jan Malach vs. Stefan Končar | Catchweight (165 lbs) | Main Card |
| Václav Štěpán vs. Firas Daud | Featherweight | Main Card |
| Mateusz Strzelczyk vs. Vojtech Garba | Light Heavyweight | Main Card |
| Alex Hutyra vs. Umut Birdal | Lightweight | Main Card |
| Liam Pitts vs. TBA | Bantamweight | Main Card |
| Josefine Lindgren Knutsson vs. Mileide Simplicio | Strawweight | Main Card |
Main Event: Szabová vs. Fernandes — Women's Flyweight Championship
Lucia Szabová (18-1) is one of the clearest success stories in European MMA right now. The Slovak fighter holds the OKTAGON bantamweight title, has gone through the regional circuit with a level of dominance that makes her record hard to dispute, and earned the promotion's first-ever performance bonus awarded to a female fighter. She is also a Slovak Muay Thai champion. Her striking is technically sound, her clinch work is elite, and she finishes fights consistently at whatever level she has been placed.
Leidiane Fernandes (7-2) from Brazil brings stopping power of her own to this bout. She stopped Brena Cardozo by TKO in October 2025 and does not come in to survive rounds. Fernandes will look to close the distance, disrupt Szabová's rhythm, and find openings inside. The experience gap is significant — 18 professional bouts against 9 — but Fernandes has the physicality and finishing instinct to make this difficult if she can impose her pace.
The flyweight title is vacant. Whoever wins Saturday night becomes the first OKTAGON women's flyweight champion. For Szabová, a win makes her the promotion's first female double champion. That is the historical marker sitting on top of this fight.
Co-Main Event: Humburger vs. Kadestam
Dominik Humburger (11-3) is Czech, trains in the Liberec area, and will have the home crowd behind him. He is a physical, aggressive middleweight whose conditioning — built through Czech Special Forces service — allows him to impose a grueling pace and absorb punishment. His record shows someone who finishes fights and takes the bouts that matter.
Zebaztian Kadestam (13-7) won the ONE Championship welterweight title twice. He is technically proficient on the feet, with championship-level kickboxing pedigree that gives a win over him real meaning outside the OKTAGON bubble. His move to middleweight and decision to compete in the Central European promotion signals a new chapter following mixed recent results on the global circuit. Kadestam's stand-up precision will be the central test for Humburger's ability to close distance against a genuinely dangerous striker with big-fight experience.
Josefine Knutsson's OKTAGON Debut
The strawweight fight between Josefine Lindgren Knutsson (8-1) and Mileide Simplicio (6-3) arrives with a clear backstory. Knutsson entered the UFC as an 8-0 Muay Thai world champion. Her UFC tenure ended without the results the promotion expected, and she was released in 2025. After a planned stint with the GFL did not materialize, OKTAGON became her next platform.
The ability is not in question — Knutsson's kickboxing is world-class and she knows how to use it. Simplicio will press forward and look for takedowns to nullify the striking. If Knutsson performs at the level she is capable of, this is the kind of debut that positions her immediately in the strawweight title conversation.
Other Bouts to Watch
The all-undefeated featherweight clash between Václav Štěpán (4-0) and Firas Daud (5-0) is the fight that gets undercard hype for good reason. Someone's perfect record ends Saturday night. Both men are young, both finish fights, and Czech home-crowd energy in Liberec amplifies those stakes.
Alex Hutyra (3-0) is a 21-year-old submission specialist stepping in at lightweight against heavy-handed German striker Umut Birdal (3-0). Neither has faced the quality they will meet Saturday. That unknown quantity is exactly what makes early-career undefeated matchups worth watching.
Across the full card, Szabová's pursuit of history, Kadestam's arrival in the OKTAGON cage, and Knutsson's post-UFC reset give OKTAGON 87 more narrative weight than a typical regional event. Liberec gets its promotion back after three years, and the card they are receiving is built to justify the return.