04/05/2024
Author: František Kokoška
Who will pass next?PHOTO: OCTAGON MMA
Oktagon started another series of its reality show Project Y in Germany, in which ordinary girls and women can become MMA fighters. Out of more than five hundred entries, the last four semi-finalists are left, who will perform in front of the audience for the first time on Saturday at the Frankfurt Festhalle.
Over 500 girls and women applied for the German version of Project Y, from which the judges selected the best twelve for the casting, in which they met the Octagon strawweight champion Katharina Dalisda. The renowned fighter sparred with the participants in boxing and kicking, while at other stations, ambitious women improved their wrestling skills.
“I thought she was a crazy woman, I would say a complete machine. And it really was,” one of the participants in the Oktagon video program shared her impressions of meeting Dalisda.
Based on trainings and observations, the jury narrowed down the selection of participants to six, from which the semi-final four finally crystallized.
“It was very difficult to choose the four forwards. Each of you offered us a different talent, many of you showed very good physical performances, the rest of us were very impressed with the mindset. It took a long time to decide on four of you,” said the former UFC fighter Pascal Krauss, who took care of training and the selection of wrestlers.
But it is clear before Saturday’s Octagon 57 tournament in Frankfurt. Sandra Peterhoff and Laura Kirtzel will face each other in bantamweight, and Haifa Reso and Erika Tomm will form the other pair.
“I think that on this journey I will become a new person, a better person. My goal is to show people that they can do it, that they just need discipline and will,” declared Reso, who even gave up her job and moved to Düsseldorf for MMA . The refugee from Syria will challenge Erika Tomm, who has extensive experience in kickboxing and modeling, in her first big fight.
“I feel good training and I can’t imagine anything better than people yelling at me and saying ‘go fight, go fight,'” Tomm explained during Project Y. According to the odds, the fight between these two wrestlers should offer a completely balanced battle.
The second duel, on the other hand, should have the favorite in twenty-four-year-old Laura Kirtzel, who will face Sandra Peterhoff, who is a year older. “I’m not some girl next door. I’ve heard several times here that I could apply to Germany, which is looking for a top model. But that’s not what I want. I have passion, discipline, I’m an athlete. And the time has come to live like that again,” declared Peterhoff belligerently in Octagon’s video.
The semi-finalists will now compete in front of a packed audience for a place in the final itself and their chance to enter professional MMA.
The German version of Project Y follows on from the Czech one, which in 2019 was mastered by the then only nineteen-year-old Ivana Hašková. In the semi-finals, she met Kateřina Klinderová, known as Kundosaki, as well as Eva Borodáčová and Petra Betthyany.
Who will take over Germany’s Projekt Y and what will her future be in MMA? The first hint will come from Saturday’s tournament in Frankfurt.
