Pavol Neruda believes Oktagon MMA is the number two promotion in the sport.
On Saturday night, the European giants will head to Štvanice stadium in Prague, Czech Republic, for a blockbuster women’s title clash between Cecilie Bolander and Lucia Szabová, in which the businessman is expecting an armbar finish regardless of who wins.
In addition, the Slovakian is extremely excited to watch Dricus Du Plessis’ teammate, Mark Hulme, fight Czech soldier, Dominik Humburger, in the quarter-finals of the €1,000,000 Tipsport Gamechanger competition.
With Oktagon about to deliver another huge event, the co-owner believes his company is firmly in the number two spot.
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Pavol Neruda says Oktagon is the number two promotion in MMA
Since Oktagon’s inception, the promotion has gone above and beyond to give the fans epic nights
Last year, they broke the attendance record for the sport, with 59,148 spectators packing into the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany.
And now, Pavol Neruda believes the promotion is only second to the UFC.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, he exclaimed: “I would say we’re the number two, if you count ticket sales, the engagement on social media, and the world attendance record for an MMA event that we broke, and the roster we have, if you combine these metrics, I believe it’s number two.
“Some people say number three because PFL has a strong roster, it’s fine, it depends on how you look at it. I believe we are selling big arenas, and that’s more because it shows the interest of fans.
“I’m very happy, we’re talking with Netflix about projects and other big brands. I think that’s really cool. It still feels like it’s the beginning.
“When we broke the record in Frankfurt, we thought about how we can move forward and spread the sport so that more people will be passionate. That’s our mission.”
Pavol Neruda shares the wildest moment of his career when fans nearly rioted
In his time in the MMA business, Neruda has had many crazy experiences.
However, the entrepreneur has one memory that stands out from the pack.
He revealed: “The first tournament in Frankfurt, at the Festhalle, a 9000-people venue, it was our first time in Germany and the first MMA event in Frankfurt — before that it was prohibited.
“It was such a crazy crowd. Christian Eckerlin’s fans were around the cage; they bought 300 VIP tickets. They were big and tough guys and we had no relationship with those people back then.
“There was this critical moment when Christian Eckerlin was hit with an illegal kick, and the referee was checking the camera to see whether it was an illegal kick or not. If not, he would have lost; if yes, the fight continues.
“It took two minutes to consider and the whole venue was on their feet. The tension was over the roof.
“If he’d have lost, they would’ve been like, ‘We’ll show you guys how we’ll handle you’.
“This was crazy. I was so happy when this fight was over. Luckily, Eckerlin won, the whole venue was celebrating. We were heroes too because we’d delivered a nice event.
“But it was so close to being a very different start in Germany.”
