Jan Holzer will make his professional debut at Oktagon 97 in Hannover on 7 November, but he no longer knows for certain who he will fight there. His original opponent, Rastislav Zvara, withdrew with an injury, and Jan Holzer, the younger brother of Max Holzer, is listed as Jan Holzer vs TBD on the welterweight card at the ZAG Arena. One listing site reports that a replacement has already been found, but the promotion has not confirmed it.
Jan Holzer at Oktagon 97: the debut and the changed opponent
The welterweight bout was added to the Oktagon 97 card on 17 September as a three-round main card fight, with Zvara as the opponent. Both men were due to make their pro debuts. Ringside24 reported that Zvara pulled out through injury, and Wikipedia's account of the Oktagon 2026 season describes it as a knee injury. Tapology lists the original bout as cancelled because of the Zvara injury.
Who replaces Zvara is the open question. Our event page still shows Jan Holzer vs TBD. The listing site ufcalendar says the Zvara bout was scrapped on 24 October and that Ján Švagerko, a Slovak also making his debut, was confirmed on 25 October. We could not find that confirmed on Oktagon's own pages or by a second outlet, so treat the name as unconfirmed until the promotion announces it.
Oktagon 97 takes place on Saturday 7 November 2026 at the ZAG Arena in Hannover. The card is headlined by the bantamweight title fight between champion Igor Severino and Max Holzer.
Who is Jan Holzer?
Jan Holzer is a German fighter from Hannover who trains at Fightschool Hannover, according to Tapology. The site lists him with an amateur record of 2-0, and he is a welterweight on this card.
His first appearance on an Oktagon show came on 16 May 2026 at Oktagon 88 in Hannover, the night his brother headlined against Khalid Taha. Jan Holzer stopped Paul Kulze with a first round technical knockout. Tapology counts that fight as amateur, and the outlets covering Oktagon 97 describe the November bout as his pro debut. Our own database currently shows the Kulze fight as a 1-0 record, which is why we describe the 7 November bout as a debut only on the basis of those outlets.
How he relates to Max Holzer's title fight
Jan Holzer is Max Holzer's brother. German Wikipedia's article on Max Holzer says so, and notes that Jan made his Oktagon debut on 16 May 2026.
Max Holzer is unbeaten at 12-0 and is ranked number 2 at featherweight in Oktagon, according to our data. He has won three by knockout or technical knockout, seven by submission and two by decision. His last fight was the first round TKO of Khalid Taha at Oktagon 88. On 7 November he moves down to bantamweight to challenge Severino for the title.
Severino is the Oktagon bantamweight champion with a record of 9-1, 1 NC, and is ranked sixth in the Oktagon pound for pound list. His most recent bout, a title defence against Zhalgas Zhumagulov at Oktagon 89 on 6 June, ended in a no contest in round two. Before that he beat Khurshed Kakhorov by TKO in round five at Oktagon 85 in March.
For Hannover that means two brothers on the same card, one fighting for a title and the other in his first professional bout.
What is known and what is not
Confirmed: Jan Holzer is on the Oktagon 97 card on 7 November in Hannover, in a welterweight bout over three rounds, and Zvara is out through injury.
Not confirmed: the new opponent. The Švagerko report comes from a single listing site, and our event page and the promotion's own event page do not carry the name. Some other listings still show the Holzer vs Zvara pairing because they have not been updated. The card can also change in fight week.
We will update this article when Oktagon names the opponent.
Sources
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This article was generated with AI and may contain errors.