OKTAGON star Andreas Michailidis has stated he is fighting for his family in OKTAGON’s welterweight tournament, Tipsport Gamechanger.
The former UFC fighter signed for the European outfit following his release from the premier MMA promotion, jumping straight into the ‘European Champions League of MMA’. He defeated Leandro Silva and Marcel Grabinski to find himself in the semi-finals, two wins away from taking his cut of the €1 million prize pot.
Only four fighters remain from the 16-strong tournament, with OKTAGON 46 this weekend in Frankfurt, Germany declaring the finalists. Michailidis will go up against Louis Glismann in the first semi-final matchup, while the other half sees former welterweight champ David Kozma take on Bojan Velickovic.
In an exclusive interview with Combat Sports UK, the 35-year-old discussed the €300k-or-so prize money for winning the tournament, likely more than he ever earned during his four-fight UFC tenure.
He said: “To say the truth, I also was disappointed because I thought it was going to be €1 million [for winning the tournament], I got tricked also!
“You know, I have a family right now, I have a kid and I wanna take the money for the family. That’s the only thing I’m thinking about. I never was a great life [type of person], buying expensive cars style type [of] guy. That’s all I care about right now.
“And also I wanna win this tournament because it motivates me, being the first one out of 16 guys in Europe right now.”
Michaildis Discusses ‘Unlucky’ UFC Tenure
‘The Spartan’ signed for the UFC in 2020 following three consecutive finishes on the Greek and US regional scene, facing Modestas Bukauskus in his debut at UFC Fight Island 1 in Abu Dhabi. The fight ended with Bukauskus throwing down controversial elbows at the end of round one, causing the end of the fight.
Michailidis then went on to defeat KB Bhullar before being served to Alex Pereira in his first UFC outing where he was knocked out by a flying knee. His final bout with the company ended in defeat to rising welterweight contender Rinat Fakhretdinov, leaving the UFC with a 1-3 record.
On his stint with the UFC, he said: “I think in the UFC I was a little unlucky. If you see my fight with Bukauskus, you see the elbows. If you are an MMA fan it’s different, if you are a Bukauskus fan it’s different again. But if you are an MMA fan, you know what you are looking [for], you know the cage opening, everything. My debut was f*cked up a little bit, a lot!
“After, I come back with a win [against KB Bhullar], after that I fought [Alex] Pereira, nobody knew back then that Pereira was gonna be so tough, I won the first round by the way! If I could take another round the same way, maybe gas him a little bit more, but then he came, we can do nothing about it – he came out of nowhere.
“I am a little bit disappointed with myself if you ask me about the Rinat Fakhretdinov fight, I was not that psychologically there. I could do better in that fight, I had some moments where I take his back, I almost closed the rear-naked [choke] but I wasn’t psychologically good in this fight.”
Andreas Michailidis Full Exclusive Interview
You can watch the full interview with Andreas Michailidis below:
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
