At sixteen, he walked into a small Muay Thai gym in Cheb for the first time, and after his very first training session he knew tennis and basketball were a thing of the past. More than twenty years later, he is one of the most dangerous men in OKTAGON's light heavyweight division. Daniel "DeeDee" Škvor (11-4) on October 17 returns to the region where he grew up. At the Mattoni Arena in Karlovy Vary, he will face longtime former KSW king Tomasz Narkun. Read the story of a man who worked his way up from a Cheb housing estate to world-class kickboxing and the status of an OKTAGON title contender.

THE KID FROM CHEB WHO LOST HIS FIRST TWO FIGHTS

Growing up, Daniel Škvor played basketball and tennis. Combat sports weren't on TV back then, so he only knew them from videos on the internet. "I started at sixteen in Cheb, where there was a club just a short walk from home. They trained Muay Thai, and it hooked me right from the start," he recalls. Soon he was commuting to training in Mariánské Lázně as well, but after a year and a half came a cold shower. He lost his first two fights.

Giving up was not an option. He moved to Prague, finished hotel school and, to keep enough time for training, took a job as a nightclub bouncer. At the door he learned something that would later help him in the cage more than any technique. "You learn to control yourself, because you have to stay calm. I never had a single conflict, I always settled everything peacefully," he says. Fights outside the gym never appealed to him. "I don't enjoy fighting on the street or beating up someone weaker."

THE WORLD CHAMPION THE PANDEMIC BLEW INTO THE CAGE

His career truly took off at Prague's Hanuman gym. In 2011 he won the IFMA European Cup, and the amateur became a professional who gradually conquered the domestic scene. In September 2017 at the Yangames event, he stopped Stefan Andjelković in the third round and became the WAKO Pro K-1 super heavyweight world champion. His reward was a contract with GLORY, the most prestigious kickboxing organization on the planet, where he faced the world's elite in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Strasbourg. He left kickboxing with 26 wins, 19 of them inside the distance.

Then came the pandemic, and OKTAGON launched its Underground project. Škvor tore through the under-100 kg bracket without a slip and, in the super final in Brno, finished Slovak bracket winner Ivan Bartek in the first round. His professional MMA debut, however, showed him that the cage is not kickboxing in small gloves. Frenchman Oumar Sy choked him out in the second round at OKTAGON 20. "We'll be smarter next time," Škvor said, and he kept his word.

THE HYPOCHONDRIAC WHO TRANSFORMS IN THE CAGE

A run of wins over Ilya Lupinov, Jhonathan Azevedo and Pavol Langer followed, crowned on Prague's Štvanice island. There he dropped Panagiotis Stroumpoulis with a knee after 49 seconds and earned a Performance of the Night bonus. But then came the fall. Jorick Montagnac switched his lights off in 38 seconds at the O2 arena, and Dan Vinni forced him to tap to a heel hook in Liberec. Škvor answered back on the Prague island, where he caught Nermin Hajdarpašić in a guillotine. The kickboxer was learning to choke. That December he beat German veteran Martin Zawada on points, and Zawada retired straight after the fight. In spring 2024 in Birmingham, he took on Irishman Will Fleury. He stepped into the cage with a sore shoulder and was caught in an arm-triangle in the second round.

"Dan is our little hypochondriac. Before a fight he always finds something that's wrong… a bad mattress, a runny nose," says his coach André Reinders with a grin. "He cries a little, but as soon as he steps into the cage, he turns into a killer," he adds. In February 2025, though, it was no runny nose. A day and a half before OKTAGON 67, Škvor ended up in the emergency room in the middle of the night with acute inflammation of the salivary glands. He chose not to tell the doctors he was stepping into the cage on Saturday. There he choked out Antonio Zovak with a standing guillotine in 26 seconds, still the fastest win of his career. "It was kind of a pub guillotine," he joked.

That kicked off a four-fight winning streak. In Karlovy Vary he knocked out Marc Doussis with a left hook, and Doussis had to be carried out of the cage on a stretcher. At Prague's Eden stadium he stopped Lucas Alsina, and at heavyweight he choked out the two-metre-tall Patrick Vespaziani despite twisting his knee in the first round. He became the first man in OKTAGON to make him tap. Away from the cage, he looks for calm on the rocks. "I tell myself, what worse can an opponent do to me than a rock breaking off somewhere or my sling snapping," he says, explaining why climbing helps him in the cage too.

THE TITLE SHOT AN INJURY TOOK AWAY

After the win over Vespaziani, Škvor called for a rematch with Will Fleury. The light heavyweight title fight was set for August 1 on Štvanice. Less than two weeks out, however, he partially tore his pectoral tendon in training. "If it tore completely, it could end my career," he explained. After consulting with doctors he withdrew, and with that he lost his title shot.

When Fleury began suggesting the withdrawal had been arranged, the usually calm Škvor pushed back. "I worked my tail off for three months, cancelled work and put off the biggest payday of my life," he told the Irishman. Now he is back and, at 37, he isn't thinking about the end. "I've signed a new contract with about five fights on it. And I'd like to fight them all," he says.

THE POLISH GIRAFFE WHO CHOKES

The return to Western Bohemia won't be a walk in the park, though. Heading to Karlovy Vary is Tomasz "Żyrafa" Narkun (21-7), one of the best light heavyweights in the history of Polish MMA. From 2015 to 2022 he ruled the KSW light heavyweight division, defended the belt five times and beat Mamed Khalidov twice. He is at his most dangerous on the ground. Fifteen of his wins came by submission, and sixteen of his opponents never made it to the second round. In April, after almost two years away, he made his OKTAGON debut but lost on points to Alexander Poppeck in Szczecin, so he is coming to Karlovy Vary to prove he still belongs at the top. Škvor, meanwhile, has long been more than just a kickboxer: in OKTAGON he has stuffed 26 of 36 takedown attempts. The two also share a common opponent. Narkun stopped Antonio Zovak after 16 seconds, Škvor choked him out in 26. Can the kid from Cheb keep the Polish Giraffe on the feet, or will Narkun drag him to the ground, where he is at home?

OKTAGON 95 returns to Karlovy Vary on October 17! Alongside the main event between Patrik Kincl and Dominik Humburger, Daniel Škvor will be one of the biggest reasons you can't miss it. Witness the cool-headed killer's return to Western Bohemia live from the stands! Get your tickets at the link below.

SZABOVÁ: PRVNÍ NÁVRAT K MMA PO PORODU

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