Christian Eckerlin suffered a surprise knockout on Saturday evening. Afterwards, he made headlines with a plea for his opponent.
Huge surprise in the Octagon! Superstar Christian Eckerlin was knocked out by Robert Pukac on Saturday evening.
At Oktagon 73, the German went down in the third round in front of 16,000 spectators at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg. The MMA fighter can now forget about his welterweight title ambitions for the time being.
Eckerlin paid respect to the Slovakian while still in the cage. “Unpleasant opponent. Hard hands. Shit, man! But what the hell. I’ll keep going,“ said the 38-year-old after the fight.
Eckerlin: ”That was my mistake“
”I stayed standing after my punches. That was my mistake,“ Eckerlin analyzed shortly after his defeat. ”Robert is a good counter-puncher. He proved that.”
Nevertheless, Pukac was mercilessly booed by the spectators in the arena as he entered the ring. The day before, he had significantly exceeded the required weight of 77.6 kilograms at the weigh-in.
While Eckerlin weighed in at exactly 77.6 kilograms, Pukac was 1.8 kilograms heavier. As a penalty, he had to forfeit 50 percent of his fee, which will be credited to Eckerlin.
Eckerlin demands full fee for Pukac
However, the latter still spoke out in favor of his opponent at the press conference after the match. He said he would prefer not to receive any of his additional fee.
“A request to Oktagon. I already said it in the cage. Robert didn’t make weight, I don’t care about that. He got his punishment. 50 percent of his purse goes to me. But I don’t want a cent of it. That’s my request,“ Eckerlin said after the fight.
”He should get his full fee,“ the 38-year-old finally demanded. ”He put on a great fight, he’s a father, and I know how hard it is to survive in this sport.”
