Jonas “The Shark” Mågård, a Danish MMA bantamweight standout, has officially joined SlotsFighter as a brand ambassador. At 33 years old, he holds reigns as a champion in multiple organizations, and holds the record as the longest-reigning bantamweight champion in OKTAGON MMA history (629 days from 2021 to 2023).
As of this announcement, he holds an impressive 18–7 professional record. Mågård has finished nearly half of his wins by submission.
“He’s powerful and full of potential. Denmark doesn’t have many truly big MMA stars. I’d be thrilled to join forces with his team and watch Jonas climb back to the top of OKTAGON bantamweights”
– said “BAZARA 0” founder Danik Vesnenok about the partnership.
Jonas Mågård began his professional MMA career in 2014. Mågård lost three of his first four pro bouts — which may have deterred any other fighter, but never “The Shark”. Jonas went on a tear in subsequent years, winning 11 of his next 12 fights. This 11–1 victory run from 2016 onward culminated in Nordic Prospect of the Year honors in 2020.
Mågård’s major breakout came in late 2020 on one of Europe’s bigger stages. After racking up wins on the UK circuit (including a shutout decision over previously-undefeated Liam Gittins at Cage Warriors 112), the Danish fighter set his sights on Poland’s Fight Exclusive Night promotion. There, at FEN 31 in Łódź, he challenged for the bantamweight title. Mågård beat local favorite Sebastian Romanowski over five rounds and a moment of controversy when a premature stoppage was waved off, to claim the FEN Bantamweight Championship. It was the first major title of his career, achieved at age 28.
After Poland, Mågård set his sights on an even bigger stage: OKTAGON MMA. In November of 2021, Jonas squared off against Filip Macek at OKTAGON Prime 4 and won a unanimous decision to capture the OKTAGON Bantamweight Championship. That win made him a two-promotion titleholder.
Mågård defended his belt until 2023; he stopped former UFC fighter Gustavo Lopez for a second-round TKO victory at OKTAGON 41. Even after his title run ended, the Danish star put together another win streak, defeating the likes of former Cage Warriors champion Jack Cartwright and Canadian veteran and one-time Bellator title challenger Josh Hill in consecutive outings.
But to get to know him better than just his stats, we caught “The Shark” for an interview!
Your next fight is looking to be in December later this year — and you’re shooting for an important one!
Yes, I hope for December. They have a big card at the O₂ Arena — 22,000 people. I would like to get my title back there. That would be beautiful.
I was the OKTAGON champion for a long time. I defended my belt, then I lost it and the belt got vacated about two years ago. I’ve been wanting to fight for it, but there’s a lot of… time-consuming politics. In short: two guys that I fought are gonna fight for the belt, and I’m gonna fight the winner of these two.
The thing about OKTAGON, but bantamweight in general, is that it’s very hard to promote and make the fights. But I’m good at promoting myself. These two guys who are fighting for the belt now, they’re not even high on the card because people only care about the bantamweights when I’m fighting. [laughs]
What is it about the bantamweights that makes it so difficult to promote?
I think there’s not too many in our weight class, and a lot of these guys are just boring. The fights themselves are exciting, yes, but it’s all about having people invested. I like to put a bit of a show on, I like to go online and talk. People want either to see me win or they want to see me lose — I’m fine with either, as long as they’re watching.
I feel like fighting is the closest you can come to being your true human self, like an animal. What a massive range of emotion that must be, and an execution of your full body and mind.
100%. It’s the purest thing. There’s nothing you can hide. With MMA especially — you cannot blame anybody else because you’re standing there in your underwear with two gloves on. There’s not a team player you can hide behind. It’s all about you.
I had this experience fighting in front of 20,000 people — it was a title fight and I knocked this guy out. My adrenaline was through the roof. Then I came home afterwards and it was so weird — you’ve just been in front of a 20,000 people crowd, won, got the belt, and then you come home. So unreal. It was like two worlds.
Every fighter’s whole life is built on a date. One date, one fight night. At the end of fight camp, you don’t want anything to do with MMA. You’re tired, you hate it. But after the fight you trained for, a week later, you’re like, “Okay, I want to fight again.”
Hey, you sound like a guy who’s never gonna retire!
Oh, I’m gonna keep doing it until I drop. I actually had this talk with my very good friend Lerone Murphy — he’s ranked #6 in the UFC now. We’re about the same age, he’s one year older than me. The thought about not fighting is horrible to think about. It’s horrible.
I’ve been obsessed with MMA since I had my first amateur fight. Everything came after training, everything had to fit in with the training. I don’t have an education or anything beside this.
When I started, MMA was not big in Denmark. So to be where I am today is because I put MMA first every time. I see a lot of talented guys, way more talented than me, but they don’t seem to be as obsessed.
I’m on holiday now — but I only go on vacation because of my family. I don’t want a vacation. I just want to be in the gym and get better. You do have to be very selfish at the end of the day. Your body is your tool and you have to constantly keep yourself in use.
Men’s mental health is interesting when it comes to combat sports; it’s considered a very masculine sport overall. Do you cry? Honest question. When’s the last time you cried?
Wow. I don’t remember the last time I cried. You get broken by the work of it a little bit, and lose touch with your own feelings. You build layers, and layers, and layers — because you need them.
I’d say sometimes in the morning, if I watch some emotional little clip on Instagram. [laughs] Mornings are when something can get to me. But it’s about the same with pain — you don’t even feel the same pain anymore. All this training builds us up into animals in a way, like you said.
When you started out, you had a pretty unfortunate streak, which can be discouraging. You flipped that around completely. Is that why you’re “The Shark”? Many species of sharks always keep swimming, even when they’re sleeping, or else they’ll die. That’s what you essentially did in the beginning.
Of course, when I was in it, it was very hard. Everybody knew. I moved to Copenhagen when I was 18, 19, to fully pursue MMA and get the best training. That was my whole identity: fighting. So when I was 1–3, it was difficult. I would talk to new people, and that’s always the icebreaker: “What’s your record?” The reason I lost was because, in Denmark at that time, they didn’t really know how to match fights, so the guys I was matched with were way out of my league.
But I would not be without it because it built my character. Even though I lost three fights in a row, I just kept going. I was very stubborn. I think my talent is to keep going. That time taught me I’ll never go back to it.
The best are always doubting themselves. I know I can get better. On game day, you’re all confidence. But building up to that, it’s only about the doubt. Why would I be in the gym 2-3 times a day if I thought I was the best in the world? You’re always in competition — with yourself.
I always try to imagine what it’s actually like to have that tally over your head. I think you do need to lose. That “undefeated” pressure must be interesting otherwise. Is retirement something that scares you overall?
They say that athletes die two times. When you quit the sport, when you retire, that’s like a death — an ego death maybe. It’s your whole identity. Everybody knows you as a fighter. That’s how you look at yourself as well. And then there’s when you really die.
It’s gonna be very hard for me to quit. Easy for people to say, “Oh, he should have stopped when he was at the top!” But a lot of times, that’s not what we’re doing it for. We don’t do it for being on the top. We do it because we have to do it. It’s inside us, we’re fighters. We have to fight.
I respect the fighters who can retire at their peak, like GSP and Khabib. You have to surround yourself with good people to be able to do that.
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