In Frankfurt, an MMA fight evening will take place in a Bundesliga stadium for the first time. The crowd of 59,000 spectators means a record, many Germans win their fights. The once disreputable sport is now on its way into the mainstream in this country.
At 8:16 p.m. “Stifler” rolls into the spotlight on an e-scooter. Saturday evening, Frankfurt Bundesliga stadium, sold out house. In the middle circle, where football games usually kick off, there is now a round wire mesh cage. He is the target of “Stifler”, the nom de guerre of a young man whose real name is Max Holzer and who was given the name of the frivolous high school macho from the “American Pie” series as a nickname because of his crude humor. The song “Crushed in a Talahon” blares from the loudspeaker system as he marches in, and the hall shakes at his cheeky performance.
Holzer is a mixed martial arts fighter, his opponent is waiting at the front of the cage and 59,000 people are cheering him on. The evening is not only the chance of a lifetime for the previously unbeaten 22-year-old. But also for his sport in Germany.
For the first time a mixed martial arts event in Germany is taking place in a stadium. It was organized by the Czech Oktagon League and is its 62nd event. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is, in a sense, the decathlon of combat sports – disciplines from boxing to judo to wrestling, united under one set of rules. The sport became internationally known through the “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (UFC), which was founded in the USA in 1993 and remains the undisputed market leader in the sport today. The fights are a billion-dollar business and have created large fan communities around the world over the past 20 years – although not in Germany.
World record, in Germany of all places – what irony
Here the sport was considered disreputable: too brutal. Word has now gotten around that the sport is no more dangerous than boxing, that it is more like physical chess than stupid bar brawls, and that it can give at-risk young people support in life. Today, celebrities can be photographed at fight nights; in Frankfurt, for example, soccer world champion Lukas Podolski carries the title belt into the cage before the main fight.
The UFC tried to gain a foothold in Germany for the first time in 2009. The strong country between the Rhine and the Oder with its more than 80 million inhabitants was considered a potentially lucrative market – but it turned out to be extremely stubborn. The Germans had a hard time with this new sport, the media wrote it down, often without any substance. The market leader UFC also failed to fill halls.
At the first event in 2009, the Lanxess Arena in Cologne was around half full, at later events in Oberhausen, Berlin and Hamburg the situation was usually similar, and many of the tickets purchased were often given out for free. American fighters sat in their hotels with 100 free tickets and asked in a foreign country if anyone knew anyone who might want to give them as a gift.
You have to know that in order to be able to understand how much it was a sign of changing times when Oktagon came to the Lanxess Arena in Cologne in November 2023 – and sold it out. Around 20,000 tickets then – and a whopping 59,000 now. Unthinkable just a few years ago. In terms of viewership, Oktagon even surpasses the UFC’s largest events in Canada or Australia by a few thousand fans. In Germany of all places. What irony.
A second point that would have been unthinkable a few years ago: the RTL logo is emblazoned on the floor in the middle of the cage. With this event – apparently as a kind of test run – the Cologne broadcaster is entering the scene for the first time and is showing the event on its streaming platform “RTL+”. Here, too, context on the meaning: broadcasting MMA fights was a gauntlet in Germany for years.
Sport1, then still called DSF, tried it around 2010, broadcast UFC fights, and promptly found itself in the sights of the Bavarian State Center for New Media. The Munich broadcaster had to remove the UFC fights from the program, after which they sometimes eked out a niche existence on the league’s streaming platform and sometimes on the Maxdome video platform.
The fact that a renowned broadcaster like RTL is now trying out this sport is an important benchmark on the way to the mainstream. The people of Cologne apparently see potential in an important target group: young men.
Some fighters are accompanied to the cage by Roman legionnaires
This can also be seen in Frankfurt: a Bundeswehr attack helicopter is parked outside the stadium, and next to it you can test yourself in fitness challenges in front of soldiers in full combat gear. Inside, during breaks in the fighting, there is advertising for a hair transplant clinic and Ridley Scott’s soon-to-be-launched historical ham Gladiator II. Some fighters are accompanied to the cage by actors dressed as Roman legionnaires. Here, apparently the message is, you can still just be a man.
And the intended target group is apparently being reached. The tickets, which easily cost several hundred euros for good seats, have all been sold.
Also unusual: that it is not the UFC that achieves this success. But Oktagon, a league that was only founded in 2016 as a crazy idea by two Czechs. Pavol Neruda and Ondrej Novotny quit their jobs, took on debt and a lot of personal risk – and succeeded. Oktagon is now one of the most respected addresses in European MMA. And as of this weekend, world record holder.
Whether mixed martial arts enters a new era with the major event in Germany ultimately depends – as developments in other countries suggest – above all on whether German fighters fight successfully: on the emergence of driving forces that will support the sport with clout and charisma pull up. So far, no one has managed to do it the way Conor McGregor did in Ireland.
But from a German perspective, things are currently looking better than ever on this front. A few days before the event in Frankfurt, Islam Dulatov, Düsseldorfer and former Versace model, made the leap into the UFC in Las Vegas. In Frankfurt, the Germans Max Coga, Kerim Engizek and Niko Samsonidze, among others, won their fights. And Max Holzer alias Stifler – he dominates his opponent and technically knocks him out in the second round. The stadium shakes, probably because people know: A few more performances like this in front of a backdrop like theirs, and a new one has emerged in Germany Sport established itself in the mainstream.
