Oktagon Challenge heats up after 2 incredible fights and plenty of house drama, here we recap Episode 3, streaming now.
With the season now in full swing, personalities are starting to come out and tensions are on the rise. The current state of affairs is England are 2-0 up in the challenge, with a 1-1 tie in the fights.
On Episode 2 Team England won a hotly contested graffiti challenge. Thus they got the choice of fight, they chose Jake McHugh to take on Armand Herzceg. The fight was a quick and dominant finish from Armand, bringing the fight score level at 1 a piece.
Going into week 3, could Team Ireland come back and win the challenge? And who would come out dominant in the cage? Find out below
Oktagon Challenge: Lacey’s Castle
The teams were greeted by a knight in shining armour in the shape of Bryan Lacey. Amid looks of confusion with the beautiful Bratislava backdrop, the teams were given their next challenge: to build a castle. As usual, the right to pick the next fight was at stake.
Wearing full medieval armour and carrying their flags. The challenge was in 2 parts: 1. Build their castle the fastest 2. Destroy their opponents. Bryan set the teams on their task and the battle was on!
Team Ireland took the lead, to begin with, however, Team England had a secret weapon: George Staines. George is an avid Lego fan and builds in his free time, so this challenge was a natural fit for his skills. Team England picked up the win with the building and thanks to the goalkeeping heroics of Hascan Gelezi made it 3-0 in the challenges.
With their reward stand-in Team England Coach Martin Stapleton & Akonne Wanliss picked: George Staines v Matthew Elliott
Denis Frimpong Continues to Stir the Pot
Continuing on from his antics in the first and second episodes. Team Ireland Denis Frimpong continued to try to get under the skin of Team England, in particular, the next to fight: George Staines.
Whilst trying to relax and play MarioKart Denis approached George and started to stir the emotions and hit a nerve with George. “Just cos I was insulting your grandad slash grandma slash he she.” Denis chirped at George, George responded with “It sounds like you’re an upset little child. I’ll shut that big mouth up” I
In his one-to-one interview, Denis revealed that this was planned: “I have been making jabs at him since the beginning, and today was the first time I could get him to react. Now I’m really going to go after that thing.” To which George shared the animosity: “If we fight in the semis I’ll smash his face in. There’s nothing that’s gonna stop me.”
Denis has given us another rivalry in which to keep an eye on, but who will he end up fighting and will he even make it to the Semi-Finals?
The Fight: George Staines v Matthew Elliott
House drama aside there was still a fight to get through for both Staines and Elliott. Both fighters had reason to be confident, each have a stellar background. Matthew is a gold medal winner in Judo & Wrestling and team Ireland coach Shem Rock made the game plan clear “We want him on top of George. That’s no secret.”
Team England’s George Staines is a European Champion and has an impressive 16-1 amateur record Coach Martin Stapleton had this to say about George: “The longer this fight goes, the better it goes for George.” While Akonne Wanliss said: “George is a lot bigger than Elliot and he’s going to be able to implement his weight.
The fighters then went into the face-off where Paddy Hoolahan thought he spotted a weakness
Round 1:
Round one started as a high paces standup battle with Elliot landing the cleaner of the shots. Those shots led to Staines looking to initiate the grappling exchanges, after a cage battle where Elliott landed some good strikes the fight went to the floor.
Elliott controlled the majority of the ground exchange and landed some good shots as the fighters scrambled. Elliott then looked to apply the pressure by going for a triangle that eventually turned into a nasty armbar which looked close to finishing Staines. After escaping Staines controlled the last 2 minutes landing good shots and keeping Elliott against the fence.
Round 2:
Staines opened the second round in confident fashion, setting the distance and pace the fight would go at. He hit some great straight right hands as well as a very significant knee, leading to Elliott shooting a takedown.
Staines stuffed the attempt and ended up putting in some nasty strikes from a high position against the cage. At this point, it was evident that Elliott had been cut, possibly from the knees earlier in the round. Staines kept the next 3 minutes in that position and landed heavy strikes on Elliott. The could round ended with Elliott on top after a ground exchange and good takedown from the Irishman, however, Staines managed to muscle out of the bad position and end on top.
Round 3
In the words of Brad Pickett “Let’s just say this, let’s stay on the safe side and say it’s 1-1.” This excellent cornering from Pickett led to Staines coming out and putting a stamp on the final round. Elliott started well with a good combination but Staines quickly initiated the wrestling and tied up Elliott against the fence.
Elliott showed smooth grappling transitions from mount to back all while landing good ground and pound shots. In what was a back-and-forth fight in the first round ended up in a stellar performance from Team England’s George Staines.
The fight went to the judge’s scorecard where George Staines was rewarded with the unanimous decision victory, he was met with elation from his English teammates and received praise from the opposite coach: “What a fight that was, what a fight that was. It was back and forth at times.”
That result sees George go into the Semi-Finals along with Team Englands Beau Gavin and Team Irelands Armand Herzceg.
At Combat Sports UK we’ll bring you exclusive weekly content from Oktagon Challenge so stay tuned for updates!
You can watch Episode 2 in full here:
Featured Image Credits to Channel 4 Sport YouTube Channel
