Will Fleury is the OKTAGON heavyweight champion, and Lazar Todev is the number one contender. The Irishman has defended the heavyweight title twice in six months, and both defences ended inside two rounds: he stopped Martin Buday at 1:40 of round one on 29 Dec 2025 and knocked out Kasim Aras at 1:29 of round two on 20 Jun 2026.
Fleury's only fight since then came one division lower. At Oktagon 92 on 1 Aug 2026 he lost the OKTAGON light heavyweight title to Makhmud Muradov by TKO 19 seconds into round two. He still holds the heavyweight belt, and the heavyweight top ten has barely moved since June.
OKTAGON heavyweight rankings
Will Fleury, 37, is 17-4-0 with one no contest, and 9 of his 17 wins came by finish, a 53 percent finish rate. Behind him the top of the list is a pack of veterans, with Lazar Todev at number one and Aras at number two.
| Rank | Fighter | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | Will Fleury | 17-4-0, 1 NC |
| #1 | Lazar Todev | 15-7-0 |
| #2 | Kasim Aras | 11-6-0 |
| #3 | Martin Buday | 16-4-0 |
| #4 | Adam Pałasz | 10-5-0 |
| #5 | Michał Piwowarski | 7-4-0 |
| #6 | Simon Biyong | 12-7-0 |
| #7 | Patrick Vespaziani | 6-4-0 |
| #8 | Marc Doussis | 10-5-0, 1 NC |
| #9 | Nicolaj Wagner | 5-4-0 |
| #10 | Yevgeny Orlov | 9-2-0 |
Records are from the Pugna MMA database. Yevgeny Orlov stands out on finishing: all nine of his wins came inside the distance, although Simon Biyong stopped him in round one in May 2026.
Lazar Todev, the number one contender
Todev, from Bulgaria, has been the busiest heavyweight on the roster, with three wins in 2026. He stopped Josh Parisian with knees to the body at 4:55 of round two on 31 Jan 2026, beat Buday by decision at Oktagon 89 on 6 Jun 2026, and took another decision over Biyong at Oktagon 96 on 31 Oct 2026. His finish rate is 60 percent, but his last two wins both went the distance.
Todev also knows the champion well. Fleury beat him by decision over five rounds in a heavyweight title fight at Oktagon 68 on 8 Mar 2025.
That history matters for a title shot. Fleury has finished both of his recent title opponents early, and Todev's recent wins have been grinding, point-scoring ones. Whether the promotion sees that as a risk or as proof of durability is its call.
Kasim Aras after the knockout
Aras, 39, has the highest finish rate among the top three challengers at 64 percent, and he earned the June title fight with a first-round knockout of Adam Pałasz and a decision over Biyong in 2025. The knockout loss to Fleury reset the division, and Aras does not wait long for a way back: he headlines Oktagon 99 against American Ty Flores (3-3-0) on 5 Dec 2026, in a bout scheduled for five rounds.
What the last 12 months show
Twelve heavyweight bouts involving the ranked fighters took place in the last 12 months, and ten ended in a finish. That fits a division where the older names finish fights: Pałasz sits at a 90 percent finish rate, and Michał Piwowarski, Patrick Vespaziani, Nicolaj Wagner and Orlov are all at 100 percent.
Several of those finishes came early. Wagner stopped Jackson Ross with punches at 4:13 of round one at Oktagon 91 on 11 Jul 2026, and Marc Doussis submitted Sascha Weinpolter with an arm-triangle choke at 3:22 of the same round on the same card. Biyong stopped Orlov with punches at 3:45 of round one on 16 May 2026. Pałasz beat Vespaziani by TKO at 1:37 of round three on 6 Jun 2026, and on 29 Dec 2025 Daniel Škvor submitted Vespaziani with a guillotine choke at 3:16 of round two.
The only two decisions in that stretch both belong to Todev, which is why his name stands out in a division of finishers.
What is booked
Oktagon 99 at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, on 5 Dec 2026 is the next heavyweight date, and it has three heavyweight bouts. Aras faces Flores in the main event, Vespaziani meets Wagner in the co-main event, and Doussis meets Pałasz. The Pałasz and Doussis fight is the most useful for the ranking: Pałasz is fourth with a 90 percent finish rate, Doussis is eighth with the same figure, and the winner will have a case to move closer to Todev, Aras and Buday.
No heavyweight title fight is booked yet.
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This article was generated with AI and may contain errors.