Fast facts
- Division: Bantamweight (135 lbs)
- Record: 10-1 (1 NC)
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Team/gym: Not listed in available records
- Notable wins: Jhonata Silva (TKO, Round 2, Dana White’s Contender Series), Jonas Mågård (split decision, Oktagon 65)
- Titles: Oktagon Bantamweight Champion (current), former Jungle Fight Flyweight Champion
In 2024, Igor Severino walked out for his Oktagon debut wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask. Plenty of fighters would have spent that walk trying to make people forget. Severino chose to wear the joke on his face, which tells you something about a kid who was 21 years old and had just watched his UFC career end after one fight.
He’s 23 now, the Oktagon bantamweight champion, and on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, he headlines Oktagon 97 at the ZAG Arena in Hannover, Germany, against Max Holzer, who is 12-0 and fighting in front of his own people.
The kid from the Brazilian regionals
Severino was born April 21, 2003. Between 2018 and 2022 he worked the Brazilian regional circuit and came out of it 7-0, which means he was taking professional fights at an age when most people are still figuring out their class schedule. Along the way he won the Jungle Fight flyweight title, a belt with real history in Brazil and a decent indicator of who’s coming next.
That run earned him a spot on Season 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series. On Sept. 19, 2023, in Week 7, he stopped Jhonata Silva by TKO in Round 2 and got the contract. Twenty years old, unbeaten, signed to the UFC. The hard part looked finished.
March 23, 2024
It wasn’t. His UFC debut came against André Lima at UFC on ESPN 53, and it ended with a disqualification after Severino bit Lima on the arm. Lima showed off the mark afterward, and the photos traveled fast. Joe Rogan called him an animal during the wave of criticism that followed. The UFC released him.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission handed down its penalty on June 25, 2024: a nine-month suspension and a $2,000 fine, with eligibility to return on Dec. 23, 2024. That’s the one loss on his record, and for a while it was the only thing anyone knew about him.
I’ll say plainly what I think. Biting an opponent is indefensible, and the UFC was within its rights to cut him. But the internet’s instinct is to freeze a person at their worst moment, and a 20-year-old with an otherwise clean, unbeaten record deserved to be judged on more than one terrible decision. Oktagon apparently felt the same.
The second chance
On April 27, 2024, barely a month after the Lima fight, reports surfaced that Severino had signed with Oktagon. Oktagon co-founder Pavol Neruda told Bloody Elbow that the promotion saw Severino’s situation as a unique one and that it believes in giving fighters second chances.
“That was a chance where he was free on the market and we jumped on this opportunity because we believed that it was a one of a kind situation that happened with his last fight in the UFC and I think it was true,” Neruda said. “We were right. He’s super nice and a polite guy since then.”
He came back four days after Christmas, just after his suspension window closed, facing Jonas Mågård at Oktagon 65 on Dec. 29, 2024. He won a split decision. Nobody’s highlight reel, but after nine months on the shelf and a year of being a punchline, a close win over a real opponent was exactly what he needed.
Then came the stretch that would have broken a lot of fighters’ patience. Oktagon booked him against Jack Cartwright for the vacant bantamweight title on April 26, 2025, at Oktagon 70. Cartwright got hurt. The fight was moved to Aug. 9, 2025, at Oktagon 74, and Cartwright withdrew again with another injury. Elvis Batista da Silva stepped in, and that bout fell apart too, with public records unclear on which fighter was injured. Next up was Khurshed Kakhorov at Oktagon 78 on Oct. 18, 2025. Kakhorov came in at 135.8 pounds, 0.8 over, meaning only Severino could win the belt, and then Kakhorov pulled out before the event for health issues. Four title-fight bookings, zero title fights.
Severino did eventually get the belt, and Combat Press notes he has yet to lose inside the Oktagon cage. His record since leaving the UFC stands at 2-0 with one no contest. That no contest came at Oktagon 89 on June 6, 2026, against Zhalgas Zhumagulov, another fighter who passed through the UFC, and it ended on a groin strike. Cageside Press put it bluntly, writing that Severino has rehabbed his image in Oktagon after once being the butt of numerous jokes.
What we actually know about how he fights
The honest answer is that the public record on Severino’s style is thin, and I’d rather tell you that than invent a scouting report. What the record does show: he finishes when the opening appears, as he did against Silva, and he can grind through 15 close minutes, as he did against Mågård. He started his career as a flyweight champion and now holds gold at 135, so he’s carrying his game up a division as he grows into his frame. He’s 10-1, and the one is a disqualification.
He’s also never been allowed to settle into a rhythm. A cancelled fight costs a fighter more than a paycheck. It costs a full camp, a weight cut, and the strange emotional crash of being ready for a fight that isn’t coming. He’s absorbed four of those and the groin-strike no contest, and he keeps showing up.
Holzer, at home
Which brings us to Hannover. Holzer is 24, unbeaten through 12 pro fights, and Bloody Elbow describes him as a featherweight, so Severino is defending against a man coming down from the weight class above. Combat Press calls Holzer one of Germany’s most promising fighters and one of Oktagon’s fastest-rising talents.
Neruda admitted to Bloody Elbow that the two are probably the most talented young fighters on the roster. Most promoters would keep that pair apart and let both records stay shiny a while longer. Neruda went the other way.
“I’m also a fan and I have the same feelings,” he said. “I’m super excited about this fight and we love to put these kinds of matchups together when there is so much at stake.”
Respect to him for that. Two young, unbeaten-in-the-promotion fighters meeting while both are hungry is how a division should work, and it’s a lot more interesting than building a prospect on soft matchups until he collapses the first time someone pushes back.
Whether the UFC ever calls again is anyone’s guess, and nothing in the public record suggests it’s on the table. For now, Severino’s whole world is the Oktagon cage, a hostile German crowd, and a 12-0 opponent who’d love to be the first man to beat him there. The card streams on OKTAGON.tv, with the event starting at 5 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. ET. The kid who walked out in a Hannibal mask will walk out this time with a belt.
