Marek Bartl VS Brian Manning

Marek Bartl defeated Brian Manning by TKO (punches) at 3:03 of round one in a middleweight bout on the Oktagon 96 preliminary card at SAP Garden in Munich on October 31, 2026. Referee Kamil Zuziak stopped the contest after Bartl landed the finishing sequence of punches on the grounded Manning. The result was an upset: Manning had entered as the heavy betting favorite, with 83 percent of fan predictions backing the Irish fighter, who had won all six of his professional bouts by stoppage. Bartl's composed finish on the feet and ground closed out the preliminary portion of the card ahead of the OKTAGON welterweight title main event.

Czech veteran Marek Bartl, whose 33 professional appearances speak to durability if not dominance, faces Irish prospect Brian Manning, who has finished all six of his wins and enters this middleweight bout with the kind of action-first mentality that suggests this will not go the distance. Manning's all-stoppage record is the storyline; Bartl's veteran resilience is his only real counter-argument.