The long-awaited show will take place this Saturday, October 12, in three days. Do you feel ready?
We feel ready. Of course, but with a lot of tension that can really be cut. Yesterday we broke the world record for the number of tickets sold. That was our limit. The realization that we are doing the biggest tournament in the world is very gratifying. It’s brutal. We feel that something special will happen on Saturday, but at the same time it is twice as big as our summer show in Prague’s Eden. Even a little more than twice as big. There are many more things that can go wrong. One small mistake can turn into a huge problem. As everything gets bigger, it gets more complicated.
Is it possible to prepare well for a show at the sixth largest stadium in Germany with the experience of the much smaller Prague stadium?
For example, some costs are huge this time. We have six thousand VIP seats. The price for VIP catering alone is more than half a million euros (over 12 million crowns). By that I mean that some things really surprise us. We calculated it, we made budgets in advance, but this thing still seems completely crazy to us, as well as the next high item, security.
Otherwise, we have been to that stadium several times over the last two years to see and get to know each other. But something interesting happened to us. For two months we sent all requests for a contact person there and got no answers. But the event was approaching, it was September and less than a month until the tournament, and we still didn’t have a lot of things resolved. We had a phone call with management about it and there we found out that our contact employee did not forward it. He just ignored us. Everything about the contractors, the construction, but it was just very bizarre. Such things also happen, and I wouldn’t expect it on the German side.
You had two minor matches in England that didn’t quite go your way. When did you decide to organize a show of such dimensions in Germany?
We went to Germany earlier than to England. But when we started our project at the beginning, our goal was to get it to Prague’s O2 arena. Back then, the sport was unknown, and even a little hated. The show in this arena sounded like a complete utopia. After a year and a half I was already thinking: “Let’s go out!” We already had it in our heads that Germany could be the first destination. Ondra (Novotný) and I first flew to Frankfurt in 2020 to find out the situation there.
I remember a poster appeared somewhere and because of that we noticed that we were starting to have competition. That boosted our egos, it was actually a driving force in a way. That’s when we contacted Festhalle Frankfurt at the beginning of December and they gave us a date for June. After which we had to build a German team, film a reality show, do a proper promo and prepare everything. That was such a big trigger. We knew that the train could not be stopped.
Photo: Octagon MMA
Oktagon MMA has become a world record holder this year, when its attendance will surpass even UFC, whose biggest event reached just over fifty-seven thousand spectators.
How do Germans react to an originally Czech show that tries to push its way into their environment?
They generally liked the sport. Having their two homegrown stars on the show is a huge draw for them now. If they were some two strangers, it just wouldn’t work. In addition, one is directly from Frankfurt and he is a darling there. In addition, RTL also broadcasts the match (German private TV station)which is also a big deal. So it becomes more of a German thing, which was our intention. We knew that if we went into it too much under the Czech or Slovak flag, the people there would not like it. It doesn’t work to be international either, you just have to act in German.
Do you know how many Czechs will arrive for the match in Frankfurt?
Ninety-five percent of our visitors will be Germans, but I know that a lot of Czechs and Slovaks will also arrive.
And the other side? How do the MMA stars there perceive you?
A lot of people here think that the Octagon is in every country and we somehow beat everyone else there. Actually, it’s not like that. There is only KSW in Europe (mixed martial arts organization) in Poland, but otherwise there is no big organization here. Moreover, MMA is nowhere as popular as in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.
It is only now being born in Germany. So we came to the stars and they already looked at us in the sense: Well… Octagon, we know, we know. And they liked our shows, so that was cool. But it was still clear that they didn’t really understand us. When we shot the first season of the reality show there, we had to explain to them why they should perform there. We knew they would become stars thanks to that show. We beat them over the head and they couldn’t handle that size.
I was honestly afraid that Ondra and I, two guys from the east, wouldn’t accept us. Fortunately, they are quite willing to consume something that someone else brings there from outside. Perhaps the biggest fans of wrestling are in Germany.
So what exactly will attendees of Saturday’s show in Frankfurt see?
It’s going to be big. There will be fire, fireworks, there will be a drone flying over the audience, which will be broadcast live. Of course, we will have an opening and a half time show. John Newman is going to be there, which is a huge name. A British singer whose song has a billion views on YouTube. We also have prepared unique appearances of some fighters. It will actually be a fight for the title of the King of Germany, we will present a special “King of Germany” belt, it will be completely different in color. And not only that, there will be a lot.
Photo: Octagon MMA
The organization is associated with Karlos Vémola (on the left in the photo), with whom he still has big plans.
Do you still have anywhere to move?
Certainly. There are two levels where we would like to go. The first is that you can go to an even bigger hall. We see that it works. This is Germany’s sixth largest hall, so we have five more to go. The other is to make the match bigger in terms of its reach, its size, not only within Germany, but also in Europe. I can imagine that 10 million Germans will watch the match and another four million people in Europe because it will be big and people will live for it. Where it will take place will no longer be so important. For me, this is the meta where you can move. People will go to the show for three days like a festival.
What are you planning in the near future in the Czech Republic and Slovakia?
A big tournament awaits us in Bratislava (November 9). That will be a kind of Czech-Slovak trampled card. At the end of the year, there will be a traditional tournament in the O2 arena, where the title match between Lucia Szabová and Lucie Pudilová will take place. This is a big highlight for me. We might even add one complete bomb there, and something with Karlos Vémola is also on the way. So this tournament will be a blast, a great climax to a season where we were the only ones in the world to sell out two football stadiums and break the world record. And we will also announce the end of the trilogy between Karlos Vémola and Attila Vegh, that will be next year and it will be spectacular.
Actor and MMA fighter Jakub Štáfek: When you get into the cage, it’s endless
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