{"id":653554,"date":"2026-05-06T15:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653554\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:21:12","slug":"irish-heavyweight-superstar-set-to-headline-historic-european-mma-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653554\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish heavyweight superstar set to headline historic European MMA card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oktagon 90 takes place in Berlin on June 20th.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Will Fleury in action.\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Will-Fleury-in-action.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Will Fleury in action.\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Will Fleury in action.(Image: (Photo by Cooper Neill\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Irish MMA superstar Will Fleury returns to action on June 20th when he headlines Oktagon 20 in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The 37-year-old from Tipperary faces one of the toughest tests of his career when he defends his heavyweight World championship against Kasim Aras at the Uber Arena in Berlin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Fleury has been on a tear since sigining with OKTAGON a number of years ago, winning the light-heavyweight and heavyweight title with the promotion. He has been in negotioations with the organisation over a new contract and has now put pen to paper on a new six-fight deal that will see him remain with the European based MMA company for the forseeable future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8216;I\u2019m delighted to finally get the new deal with OKTAGON sorted. I had good offers from elsewhere but ultimately, I felt OKTAGON are growing faster and doing bigger events than anyone else in MMA at the moment,&#8221; said the Irishman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It\u2019s a six-fight deal and as long as I continue to dominate the way I have been, I\u2019ll be in a good position financially and promotionally after I\u2019ve fought those six fights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I think people are massively underestimating Aras and how dangerous he is. He\u2019s a strong wrestler with a powerful overhand and a huge neck so he\u2019ll be a difficult guy to knock out. But there\u2019s no better man than Will Fleury to get that done. So yeah, I\u2019m going with a third round KO!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Richie Smullen\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Richie_Smullen_tapology.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Richie Smullen \" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Richie Smullen <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Elsewhere on the card, veteran Richie Smullen will return to featherweight as he looks to get back to winning ways against Zafar Mohsen: &#8216;I&#8217;m looking forward to fighting back down at featherweight and climbing the rankings. Realistically, I&#8217;m only maybe two wins away from competing for the belt. My upcoming opponent, Mohsen, has fought an old team mate of mine in his OKTAGON debut but other than that, I don&#8217;t really think much about him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;He looks physically strong so I&#8217;ll be looking to put the pressure on early to make him tired and then submit him in the later rounds. It&#8217;s good to have other Irish fighters on the card but I&#8217;m there for my fight and that&#8217;s my main focus. Beating Mohsen and climbing the rankings is all I&#8217;ve got on my mind&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=b1ea692a-d5b9-4239-b4e4-d4296e9f32c1&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oktagon 90 takes place in Berlin on June 20th. Will Fleury in action.(Image: (Photo by Cooper Neill\/Getty Images))&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-653554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}