Australia’s Jacinta Austin embracing underdog status ahead of title tilt – Fighters Only

The vacant strawweight title is up for grabs in Frankfurt as Oktagon returns to the atmospheric Festhalle with an 11-fight card for Oktagon 46.

Headlining the show in Germany is a battle for the women’s 115-pound title, as Frankfurt’s own Katharina Dalisda takes on Australian contender Jacinta Austin.

Dalisda is riding a four-fight win streak, with her last three wins coming inside the Oktagon MMA cage. Her promotional debut saw her outpoint former UFC veteran Mallory Martin, then she followed up that win with a decision victory over Slovakian Muay Thai striker Monika Chochlikova. Dalisda then underlined her credentials with a third-round TKO finish of Isabella De Padua at Octagon 42 in April.

She’ll take on Australia’s Austin, who heads into the bout with a 5-1 record, and an impressive first-round rear-naked choke finish of Sofiia Bagishvili on her Oktagon debut last time out at Oktagon 44. “The Juggernaut” has plans to become Australia’s latest combat sports star as she attempts to follow in the footsteps of boxing’s IBF women’s bantamweight world champion Ebanie Bridges by capturing a title on foreign soil.

“I think I could (become a big name like Bridges),” Austin said.

“Our main similarity is that we’re tough guns. Aussies are tough – you’ve seen Ebanie fight and you’ve seen me fight – we get in people’s faces and we’re happy to bleed if we can make other people bleed, and we just have a lot of heart when we fight. I think the biggest parallels between me and Ebanie is just our aggression and the heart that we bring into combat.

“I’ve had some great support sent to me so far, especially after my last fight, and if I stay and fight in Europe, I could definitely become a bit of a fan favorite,” she said ahead of the fight.

“I love it (fighting on enemy territory). I feed off it, and off people’s comments saying that I don’t have a chance, or I’m not going to be the champion, or I’m not good enough for what Dalisda has to offer. I feed off it.

“I’ve only had one fight in my professional career where I remember being the betting favorite and I didn’t like the way that made me feel as much as when I’m the underdog.”

Austin also promised to step into the cage and take the fight straight to her opponent in her quest to end the night with championship gold around her waist.

“I’m very aggressive, I like to get up in people’s faces and pressure them and force the fight,” she said.

“Wherever my opponent takes me – cage wrestling or if she’s going to take me down or if we’re gonna strike – I’m strong in all those positions. I have the upper hand over Dalisda in all aspects of MMA. Wherever she takes me I’m gonna have answers.

“You take that one thing they’re good at, and you shut it down, and you don’t allow them to use it. If they can’t use it, their whole plan will fall apart. I think as soon as she can’t land the striking that she’d like to land, the left hand, I think pretty quickly she’s gonna turn to wrestling.”

The fight card also features the two semi-final bouts from the Tipsport Gamechanger welterweight tournament. Former 170-pound champion David “The Pink Panther” Kozma takes on former UFC veteran Bojan Velickovic in the co-main event, while earlier on the card, Danish submission ace Louis Glismann takes on Greek contender Andreas Michailidis.

The fight card also features German Oktagon fan-favorite Christian Jungwirth, whose crowd-pleasing fighting style will be on display again against Greek veteran John Palaiologos.

Oktagon 46: Fight card

MAIN CARD

  • Katharina Dalisda vs. Jacinta Austin – for vacant strawweight title
  • David Kozma vs. Bojan Velickovic – Tipsport Gamechanger semi-final
  • Christian Jungwirth vs. John Palaiologos
  • Louis Glismann vs. Andreas Michailidis – Tipsport Gamechanger semi-final
  • Mohamed Grabinski vs. Leandro Silva
  • Kerim Engizek vs. Matias Juarez

PRELIMINARY CARD

  • Deniz Ilbay vs. Marco Novak
  • Niko Samsonidse vs. Nicolae Hantea
  • Frantisek Fodor vs. Vladimir Sikic
  • Endrit Brajshori vs. Tayo Odunjo
  • Zoran Solaja vs. Daniel Hromek

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