Denis Frimpong will do battle at Oktagon 85, which transpires on March 7th, but the initially scheduled Elias Jakobi is out of the bout. Tomáš Cigánik will now be stepping into this one on short notice and when offering up his thoughts on how everything has played out, Frimpong said [viaBowks Talking Bouts],

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m good. It’s obviously been a turbulent last couple of days, but yeah, it’s the fight game. It’s mad because on Monday I actually spoke with my teammates because he had a pull out as well recently. I said to him, “Yeah, I’ve never had someone pull out against me during a camp.” My issue is usually getting guys to sign the contract to begin with for a full camp.”

“But usually when they sign the contract, I don’t know what it says about me, whether I’m just not a scary guy or something. But guys tend to make it to the fight when they sign to fight me. Or maybe it’s because they know I’m going to absolutely abuse them online if they don’t. So yeah, I don’t know. I suppose I jinxed it. So, did that and then yeah, he pulled out literally the next day. Yeah, it is what it is. So, we’ve got a new opponent now. I believe actually a better fight. I believe actually the fight that I wanted beforehand anyway. So yeah, it worked out for the best. God’s the best of planners. So, we have a good fight on our hands, a striker’s delight, a fan friendly fight.”

There can be a certain amount of stress and tumult as well as general uncertainty when an opponent pulls out this close to the fight. But with this replacement opponent being one that he has described in a familiarized fashion, Frimpong stated [viaBowks Talking Bouts],

“Turbulent last forty eight hours or so with them offering me to guys obviously on like 12-13 days notice, guys are saying no. Can’t make the weight, not ready, whatever it is. Then some guy said yes. He had visa issues and then there was a lot going on. They were thinking about moving me to the Poland card five weeks later. I said no, I can’t. I have like family responsibilities that weekend and it was just yeah it was turbulent.”

“Obviously in the meantime I’m still having to like train and like stay in the mindset of I’m still fighting next Saturday. Still have to go and do like a dark sprint session or like still have to go and show up to do my skill sessions knowing that I might not be fighting. So yeah like it puts you in a different headspace. Yeah, I’m happy with how it played out. I’m happy with the opponent. It’s one that’s probably been coming for a long time, me and Thomas [sp???].”

“I think we’ve both fought two of the same opponents. So he fought Peter Gabal [sp???] and he’s fought George Stains [sp???]. I’ve also fought George Shains and Peter Gabal. Yeah, like we fought on the same cards before. He’s fought on the Irish regional scene. I don’t know if you know that, at amateur. He used to live in Ireland. So when I was making my amateur debut, he was like kind of winning titles, amateur titles on the amateur scene in Ireland.”

“So it’s one that’s probably been coming for a long time. Yeah, just now is the right time, I suppose. Both of our records are seven and three officially. We’re both like I’m just ranked. He’s probably just touching near the rankings. It’s a good fight. It’s a good fight.”

Denis Frimpong offered an incredible backstory piece to a situation that the informed could take simply for a short notice bout situation with minimal broader story consideration. When discussing the narrative depth to this one, Frimpong quipped [viaBowks Talking Bouts],

“100%. We have been for a while, like I say, and we’re actually kind of cool. Like he’s one of the guys in the division that I kind of get on with pretty well, and yeah, he’s a gangster, man. Like I can’t actually; like normally I’m the first to chastise my opponents for whatever like I can find. But no, he’s a gangster, bro. To sign the dotted line to fight me today he signed. So what, like 10 days out from the fight. Like not a lot of people are willing to do that. Not a lot of people are willing to sign to fight me on eight weeks notice, let alone 10 days. So yeah, he’s a gangster, man.”

Source: LowKickMMA.com