OKTAGON MMA is days away from putting on one of the highest-attended MMA events in history.
With more than 58,000 tickets sold for Saturday’s OKTAGON 62 at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, the budding European-based organization will draw what could be the biggest crowed ever for an all-time MMA fight.
The UFC’s announced attendance record sits at 57,127 for UFC 243, which took place at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia in October 2019 with a Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya middleweight title headliner.
The only higher attendance figured have come out of the now-defunct PRIDE organization in Japan. A hybrid PRIDE/K-1 kickboxing event in August 2002 claims to have more than 91,000 seats filled, while the all-MMA PRIDE Final Conflict 2003 show announced 67,451. There is no formal confirmation of these numbers, however.
OKATAGON MMA promoters Ondrej Novotny and Pavol Neruda claim their figure is entirely authentic, and fans from all over the world have purchased tickets to be on the scene.
“It’s definitely various spots, but most of them are definitely from Frankfurt and the whole of Germany,” Novotny told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “A few thousand coming form Czech Republic and then people who like big events. Not just MMA, but big events, they are coming from all over the world. Around 46 with different kinds of people from business, show business or also fighters and fans.”
Novotny said there are approximately 600 tickets still remaining, and encouraged fans to snatch them up to be part of a historic show. The organization is going all-out to make it a spectacle for both those at the venue and watching from home.
“We have almost 500 different kinds of lights,” Novotny said. “Some crazy fires and fireworks inside the arena. Definitely there’s some special entrances but we don’t want to spoil them before. There will be some superstars from the German rap scene. We’ve got a halftime show with John Newman, who is a crazy DJ who was just in Tomorrowland. He has many hits. It’s going to be really crazy.”
The attempt for OKTAGON MMA to differentiate itself from a production perspective is fully intentional. They want to put on events that can’t be compared to others in the industry, and for a show of this magnitude, the ante was upped event further.
“We will have a special drone which is allowed to fly above the people and it will go into the live stream,” Neruda said. “We have a special 360 degree camera with a VR set. It will be a crazy experience. We also have cameras on the referees that are live. As far as I know we are the only one who is doing it live. You can see it from an action perspective. Plus open scoring. A lot of these elements that make to entertained for the whole night.
“We love it. All the members of OKTAGON team, if you have this passion about something it’s never enough. You are never satisfied. You achieve something, you want more and to make it better and entertain people more. We are always going to events that are musical or another type of entertainment around the world or sports event, we watch what’s going on and try to inspire and bring it to the world of MMA.”
OKTAGON 62, which can be ordered via online pay-per-view from the company website, will feature 11 bouts and three championship fights. There is a local flair to the headliner, with German athletes Christian Eckerlin and Christian Jungwirth fighting for a special “King of Germany” belt.
“The main event is the biggest thing to ever happen on German soil,” Neruda said. “It’s Christian Jungwirth vs. Christian Eckerlin. Two huge stars. Very similar styles of fighter. One is from Frankfurt, and another from Stuttgart. Both used to be pro football players who dreamed on one day playing in a big stadium, and now it turned out the event they will be in a stadium will not be as a football players, but as fighters. We call this title ‘The King of Germany.’ It’s a welterweight fight. It’s going to be crazy. We prepared a special belt.”