OKTAGON 97 takes place this Saturday, November 7, at the ZAG Arena in Hannover, Germany, with bantamweight champion Igor Severino defending his title against unbeaten local Max Holzer in a five-round main event. The promotion announced a 12-fight card, and on November 4 it confirmed a late change in the prelims.
The main event
Severino, the Brazilian known as "The Hannibal", is the OKTAGON bantamweight champion and is ranked No. 4 in the promotion's men's pound-for-pound list in our database. He beat Khurshed Kakhorov by TKO in round 5 at OKTAGON 85 in March to win the belt. His first defense, against Zhalgas Zhumagulov at OKTAGON 89 in June, ended in a no contest in round 2. According to UFCalendar, that was the result of an accidental groin punch.
Holzer, 24, is 12-0 and, according to OKTAGON, 6-0 inside the promotion. He is moving down from featherweight for the first time, and OKTAGON says he has seven submission wins. In May in Hannover he finished UFC veteran Khalid Taha with a knee to the body in round 1 and earned a Performance of the Night bonus, then called out Severino, per OKTAGON's own feature. Holzer moved to Hannover at age 10 and trains at Fightschool Hannover.
The rest of the card
Main card, per OKTAGON's announcement:
- Gjoni Palokaj vs. Zafar Mohsen, featherweight. Palokaj is 13-4 and ranked No. 4 at 145 pounds in our data. He lost by first-round knockout to Mochamed Machaev in a title fight at OKTAGON 91 in July. Mohsen is 15-4.
- Ozan Aslaner vs. Denis Frimpong, 72 kg catchweight. Frimpong is 8-4 and lost by first-round knockout to Niko Samsonidse in June.
- Justin Detzel vs. Kacper Frątczak, middleweight. Both are 3-0.
- Karol Ryšavý vs. Samuel Bark, featherweight.
- Daniel Makin vs. Petr Bartoněk, welterweight.
The prelims include Haci Akseker vs. Jonatan Kujawa, Jan Holzer vs. Ján Švagerko, Islam Djabrailov vs. Kenji Bortoluzzi and Josefine Lindgren Knutsson vs. Yasmin Guimarães. Kathrin Haberle vs. Thais Vasconcelos is the announced free prelim.
Late changes
OKTAGON said on X that Abdul Karim Badakhshi is injured and out. Mohammed Walid (8-6), whom the promotion calls a "dangerous finisher", steps in on short notice to face Matheus Severino (15-5) at bantamweight. The bout was originally booked at flyweight. Earlier, according to UFCalendar, Rastislav Zvara withdrew from his fight with Jan Holzer on October 24 and Švagerko replaced him the next day.
OKTAGON.TV's event page currently lists a different name opposite Haberle. OKTAGON has not announced a change, so Haberle vs. Vasconcelos remains the announced bout.
How to watch
The event starts at 6 p.m. CET (5 p.m. GMT), according to the arena listing and DAZN. The title fight is the last of the night, so it will start well after that. OKTAGON.TV offers pay-per-view worldwide, with RTL+ in German-speaking markets and TVP Sport in Poland. DAZN says the event is free on its platform in eligible territories, but not in Germany, Brazil, the Czech Republic and several other countries. The weigh-ins and press conference are on Friday, November 6.
Sources
In this story
This article was generated with AI and may contain errors.