The last few years have not been kind to Makwan Amirkhaniand that trend continued for him on Saturday.
After losing five of the six fights that ended his UFC tenure, Amirkhani moved to European promotion OKTAGON MMA earlier this year. He was knocked out in the third round of his debut, falling to 1-6 overall since October 2010.
Amirkhani (17-11) returned to action at OKTAGON 58 at the GMC Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and although it wasn’t pretty, he managed to excel Attila Korkmaz (15-8) for most of the fight and did well.
Just when it seemed like “Mr. Finland” was on the verge of victory as time ticked down in the third round, Korkmaz caught Amirkhani and threw him to the ground, immediately took his back and locked in a rear naked choke that quickly forced the tap at the 3:37 mark of Round 3 (via X):
It was a devastating result and a huge change of fortunes for Amirkhani, who is now on a four-fight skid and has lost seven of his last eight fights. Korkmaz, in turn, won three of four.