EFC39... Where do I begin?
The Grand Arena kinda had it's roof raised as EFC delivered, yet once again, a smashing fight card!! The fighters clearly had a rule of the day, not to leave their fate in the hands of the judges... KO after KO, every single fighter got in the hex, on a mission to be great!!
The official results are as follows:
Bout 1: Quaid Openshaw defeated Didier Nyembwe via TKO in R1
Bout 2: Mamoudou Toure defeated Sizwe Mnikathi via disqualification in R2.
Bout 3: Kaleka Kabanda defeated Mark Moleke via TKO in R1.
Bout 4: Cameron Pritchard defeated Pupanga Tresor via KO in R1.
Bout 5: Joe Cummins defeated Marcel Teniers via TKO in R1.
Bout 6: Mark Hulme defeated Shaun de Lange via unanimous decision.
Bout 7: Sibusiso Mdoko defeated Luke Michael via TKO in R3.
Bout 8: Irshaad Sayed defeated Oumpie Sebeko via unanimous decision.
Bout 9: Champion Dalcha defeated Yannick Bahati via unanimous decision.
Bout 10: Don Madge defeated Regis Muyambo via KO in R1.
Bout 11: Gideon Drotschie defeated Tumelo Maphutha via majority decision.
Bout 12: Andrew van Zyl defeated Brendon Groenewald via KO in R1.
As always, there are fights that make the night one to remember, but on Thursday, we even went the distance of having fights that made us want to forget it ever happened. None the less, here are the reviews:
Bout 3: Kaleka Kabanda vs. Mark Moleke
If you're a Cape Town MMA addict then this wasn't a first for you, but if you're not, Kabanda made it his mission to prove that first impressions last. Moleke came out hard, determined to show Cape Town that he came to fight, but Kabanda was very technical in his striking. At the end of R1, I had declared this, a WAR!! Kabanda attempted to sink in a guillotine on more than one occasion, however, Moleke put his strength to test and refused to tap. By the start of R3, Kabanda had taken things to the ground, where Moleke had given up his back. Kabanda took full advantage with GnP until the ref called it.
Bout 4: Cameron Pritchard vs. Pupanga Tresor
There wasn't really much to say about this fight... I mean, one punch and it was all over. Though I can say that there was more to it than a "lucky" punch. At least from my angle, there was some pretty decent technique pushing through with the power behind that clean right from Pritchard. Oh, and #23seconds got trending on twitter :)
Bout 7: Sibusiso Mdoko vs.Luke Michael
This was quite the fight I'd say. I had expected it to be much of a "stand and trade" kind of fight, however, things don't always go according to plan and we understand that. Michael opened R1 with hard, solid and quick strikes, but the minute Mdoko dropped those punches, Michael was startled. Mdoko, very technically, landing every strike with such precision, used every situation to his advantage; throwing elbows from in guard and timing his shots. Luke managed to get in some GnP in R1, but not enough to put an end to it. Somewhere in R2, Michael stumbles and becomes sloppy, looking almost gassed. Mdoko took full advantage, unloading combinations but Michael refuses to give up- heart like that wins me over every time!! By R3, Mdoko still has enough in his tank to finish the round, but Michaels is so far gone, if not for movement and sloppy countering, the fight would have been long over. Don't misunderstand, Mdoko not fresh enough for another 10 rounds, evident in him moving across the hex, as if to give Michael some recovery time, cute. Mdoko gets back in and finishes up before the end of R3.
Bout 8: Irshaad Sayed vs. Oumpie Sebeko
Both Sayed and Sebeko waste no time getting into this. If you're a social junkie, you'll be fully aware that a lot of smack talk went into this fight... Oh, of course, how could we forget, and an actual smack from Sebeko to Sayed at weigh in as well, but Sayed seemed to settle the score nicely on the night. Sebeko attempted a guillotine early in the fight when Sayed gave up his back, but Sayed resisted, with a reversal and quickly gained control. When Sayed and Sebeko stood to trade, Sebeko delivered solid leg kicks, with Sayed creating a distraction before going for the TD. Sayed quickly gaining control again, and dropping technical knees to Sebeko's ribs. Sayed ends R2 with some GnP, but there isn't enough time to end it all. Well, in all honesty, Sayed most likely just wanted to return Sebeko's weigh in slap... and that he did, going all the way and taking the W by unanimous decision!!
Bout 11: Gideon Drotschie vs. Tumelo Maphutha
To be completely honest, I was deeply saddened by this fight. When asked at the post press conference what had gone wrong, Drotschie said that he had waited for Maputha to engage... and what if Maputha was waiting for Drotschie to engage? Well... I don't know okay, I was honestly really excited to see much more work being done by both fighters. I wasn't expecting a BloodFest, but I definitely wasn't keen on the SnoreFest either :(
Bout 12: Andrew van Zyl vs. Brendon Groenewald
The second quickest KO of the night, in only 32seconds, van Zyl dropped Groenewald and delivered on having "one gear" which was clearly shifted in before this fight. van Zyl reclaimed the HW title and Cape Town loses another champion.
Images courtesy of: RazzWorks Digital Photography
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