EFC Africa 21 delivered bouts exceeding expectations throughout the card, at Carnival City, on Thursday.
Undefeated featherweight champion Demarte “The Wolf” Pena retained his belt after his opponent, Durban bad boy Abdul “Hollywood” Hassan, failed to appear for the second round.
In addition, George native Sors “Guru” Grobbelaar defeated Bernardo “The Black Panther” Mikixi by TKO in the third round, thereby securing the number one heavyweight contender spot.
The bout between Pena and Hassan was massively hyped and hugely anticipated.
The match-up was preceded by unparalleled smack talk, when Hassan promised to school Pena.
The champion responded that he was looking to hurt the challenger, adding that he would be revealing a new, aggressive incarnation of himself at EFC Africa 21.
The champion delivered a dominant and brutal first round, initially making use of stinging leg kicks before clinching with the challenger, taking him down, and controlling him with brutal ground and pound.
The break between the first and the second rounds revealed torn ankle ligaments for Hassan, forcing him to throw in the towel.
Sors Grobbelaar went head-to-head with Bernardo Mikixi for the right to challenge heavyweight champion Andrew van Zyl, putting on a devastating display.
Many had pegged the fight as a power trial, in which Grobbelaar would have to try to withstand the sheer strength of Mikixi.
Instead, Grobbelaar revealed some steaming power of his own, dropping the Angolan with straight, iron hard punches and viciously timed leg kicks.
In the third round, Grobbelaar succeeded in putting down Mikixi permanently, resulting in the referee diving between them to prevent further damage.
Crowd favourite and former heavyweight champion Ruan Potts made his first re-appearance in the Hexagon since his EFC Africa 18 loss to Andrew van Zyl.
His opponent was Egyptian Mahmoud “Hellboy” Hassan, the man with perhaps the heaviest hands on the continent.
Potts wasted no time in taking Hassan down and applying a heel hook, which ended the fight in a record 37 seconds, securing Potts the submission of the night award.
Francois Groenewald, a renowned BJJ practitioner faced Gareth Buirski at featherweight.
Buirski is well known for his brutal overhand right knockout of Markus Taljaard and, on Thursday, performed a similar feat after stuffing Groenewald’s takedown attempt, dropping him with a right hook and following up with a barrage of punches that left Groenewald stunned.
The fight of the night was awarded to the incredible toe-to-toe slugfest between heavyweights Wilhelm Strauss and Lance Ceronio and submission of the night went to former heavyweight champion Ruan Potts.
Knockout of the night went to the stunning second round head kick delivered by bantamweight Nkazimulo Zulu, in his bout against debutant Lourens Botes.
The full results are:
q Pierre Botha defeated Mawande Mazithambe via submission (arm triangle), 2:16 into round 1.
q Nkazimulo Zulu defeated Lourens Botes via KO, 0:20 into round 2 (KOTN)
q Vandam Mbuyi defeated Mohamed Karim via unanimous decision.
q Johan van Staden defeated Steven Momah via TKO, 2:04 into round 3.
q Dricus du Plessis defeated Tez Makuebo via TKO, 1:18 into round 1.
q Boyd Allen defeated Hanru Botha via submission (RNC), 3:48 into round 1.
q Wilhelm Strauss defeated Lance Ceronio via split decision.
q David Buirski defeated Nicholas Radley via submission (RNC), 3:35 into round 1.
q JC Lamprecht defeated Jason Culverwell via submission (RNC), 3:03 into round 1.
q Gareth Buirski defeated Francois Groenewald via KO, 0:34 into round 1.
q Ruan Potts defeated Mahmoud Hassan via submission (ankle lock), 0:37 into round 1, setting a new EFC AFRICA fastest submission record.
q Sors Grobbelaar defeated Bernardo Mikixi via TKO, 1:00 into round 3.
q Demarte Pena defeated Abdul Hassan via verbal submission (did not answer the bell for the second round).
