OKTAGON
Oktagon was born from a series of previous combat sports events organized mainly in Italy since 1989, the main one being the Kickboxing mania cycle, tournament first took up ample space on Italian and international national TVs, and is considered the "father" of Oktagon. The name of the event derives from the fact that the first tournament was characterized by eight athletes from different disciplines.
The first event took place in 1996 in Milan and was characterized by a free fight tournament, a primitive version of the MMA with boxing gloves: the tournament was won by the British Lee Hasdell who defeated the American Scott Dobbs in a series pupil of Dan Inosanto, the Italian athlete Paolo Di Clemente and in the final the Dutchman Andre Mannaart. Held at the Assago Forum for over twenty years, in the presence of 16,000 spectators. Broadcasted on television, various television networks that broadcast the event: Italy 1, Italy 2, Dahlia TV, Rai Sport 1, DMAX and Spike.
The proposed disciplines are mainly kickboxing with K-1 or FightCode and muay thai regulations, but MMA also found space right away. Some of the most important combat sports athletes on the planet took part in the Oktagon events such as Rob Kaman, Andre Mannaart, Paolo Biotti, Ramon Dekkers, André Panza, Giorgio Petrosyan, Andy Souwer, Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong, Sak Kaoponlek, Artur Kyshenko, Pedro Rizzo , Valentijn Overeem, Dzhabar Askerov, Cosmo Alexandre, Karapet Karapetyan, Rico Verhoeven, Artëm Levin, Sahak Parparyan, Davit Kiria, Robin Van Roosmalen, Murthel Groenhart, Armen Petrosyan, Pavel Zhuravlev, Paul Daley.
Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce, Donatella Versace, Chris Penn, Don Wilson, Randi Ingerman, Giorgio Pasotti, Guido Meda, Michelle Hunziker, Mario Balotelli appeared among the 14,000 spectators present.
