OKTAGON 96 wrap: Amiran Gogoladze survives a first-round knockdown to beat short-notice Jessin Ayari for the vacant welterweight title

The headliner had already been rearranged. Gogoladze was originally scheduled to face Klinkhammer, who withdrew with an injury days before the event, and Ayari, the German UFC veteran, stepped in on short notice. He came agonisingly close to making the most of it. Ayari hurt Gogoladze in the opening round and put him on the canvas, and for a stretch the heavy favourite looked in serious danger. Gogoladze recovered, settled behind his technical striking and slowly took control; by OKTAGON’s own account, rounds two through four were his, and Ayari could not find a way back in a hard-fought fifth. Gogoladze moves to 19-3 and earned a performance bonus, while Ayari falls to 19-7, and the wait for Germany’s first male OKTAGON champion goes on.

The co-feature carried title implications at heavyweight. Bulgaria’s Lazar Todev, ranked No. 1 in the division, edged power puncher Simon Biyong by split decision, 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29, in a fight billed as one that could decide the next challenger for champion Will Fleury. According to My MMA News, Todev used his post-fight moment to call for a shot at Fleury, who beat him at OKTAGON 68 in March 2025.

The finishes came further down the card. Gökhan Aksu, OKTAGON’s No. 2-ranked lightweight, kept his perfect stoppage record intact by stopping replacement opponent Rene Runge in 1:58 of the first round at a 73-kilogram catchweight, after Runge missed weight by 0.3 kilograms. Aksu’s teammate Endrit Brajshori came through a wild exchange with Christian Mach to finish him with punches from back mount at 4:38 of the first round. Munich’s Michael Deiga-Scheck won a unanimous decision over Lukáš Chotěnovský in front of a home crowd, and Marek Bartl stopped Brian Manning with ground strikes in the first round on the prelims.

It was a card that held together despite losing five bouts to injury in the build-up, and it delivered a champion who earned the belt the hard way. OKTAGON now turns to its milestone 100th event at the O2 Arena in Prague on December 29, where Krzysztof Jotko and Makhmud Muradov unify the middleweight title and the promotion crowns its first Stand and Bang champion.