stiffest test of his career in the form of the great Ray Sefo. Going down at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 in Las Vegas II on August 12, 2006, Sefo sent Maksutaj to the canvas twice in round one, once in round two and twice again in three, forcing referee Steve Mazzagatti to stop the one-sided beating. He fared no better in his next match when he took on Jörgen Kruth at the K-1 World MAX North European Qualification 2007 in Stockholm on November 24, 2006, as he lost by KO from a knee midway through the opening round. In an attempt to turn his fortunes around, he competed in the K-1 Rules Heavyweight Tournament 2007 in Turkey four-man competition in Istanbul on January 13, 2007, where he faced Kaoklai Kaennorsing, a two-time Rajadamnern Stadium champion renowned for taking fights with much larger opponents and defeating the majority of them, in the semi-finals. Although Maksutaj had the size advantage for the first time in his K-1 career, he was unable to capitalize on this, and lost by unanimous decision after an extension round. He struggled with Kaoklai's classical Thai style throughout and was given two controversial counts, one in round two and another in the extension round, although both of these strikes actually seemed to be low blows. In his next outing on May 19, 2007, he lost by technical knockout against Nathan Corbett, the eventual tournament champion, in the quarter-finals of the K-1 Fighting Network Scandinavian Qualification 2007 in Stockholm. Maksutaj returned to the local circuit to stop his losing streak and took a number of wins including a points victory over Erhan Deniz in Bratislava, Slovakia on September 7, 2007, before returning to K-1 at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Amsterdam on April 26, 2008, to face an up-and-coming Tyrone Spong. He was outclassed by the Surinamese youngster from the start, getting dropped from a knee to the body early in the opening stanza, and knocked down again with punches at the end of the round. The second knockdown did not count as he was saved by the bell, but Spong soon finished him with another knee strike to the body in the second, bringing Maksutaj's losing streak in K-1 to five. In one of his last fights before retiring, he was awarded a disqualification win over Domagoj Ostojić after his Croatian opponent continued to