Edson ‘Pretty Boy’ Machavane aims to be the top MMA fighter in the world
Edson 'Pretty Boy' Machavane hopes to one day become the UFC world champion in mixed martial arts, and he has currently ranked the fourth-best amateur bantamweight fighter in the country.
A local mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter has come off two consecutive wins to go into the year-end on track with his goal of becoming a professional fighter.
Edson ‘Pretty Boy’ Machavane hopes to one day become the UFC world champion in mixed martial arts, and he has currently ranked the fourth-best amateur bantamweight fighter in the country.
The 25-year-old won his last two Alpha MMA fights to extend his record to five wins and three losses.
The Orange Grove resident is Mozambique’s taekwondo champion but he is new to the mixed martial arts scene and combines kickboxing and jiu-jitsu in his style.
“Edson has been in South Africa and living with me since April last year,” explained coach and owner of Highlands North’s SRK Combat and Fitness gym, Gavin Harris.
“It has been like planting a tree, watering and nurturing it until one day I found a plum. Developing Edson as a great fighter has given me a reason to be alive. I was so excited after he won his first three competitive fights with the triangle choke I taught him.”
Machavane has only done mixed martial arts for a year and a half but taekwondo was his first love, something he started out of necessity in 2010.
“My mother passed away and I was drinking and fighting on the streets in Mozambique,” he said.
“I started training in taekwondo and it gave me discipline and direction in my life. Most of the guys who fight are humble and we get on before and after the fights. It’s some people who are arrogant and make the sport look bad, that I don’t like.”
Coach Harris said much like other highly successful fighters, they had used Machavane’s suffering in life to push him to become stronger and better as a person and a fighter.
“Suffering is our petrol, we use it. Pressure makes coal into diamonds and that is what we have done,” Harris said.
Machavane’s next Alpha MMA fight will only be next year.
The pair hopes to keep Pretty Boy at amateur level for a bit longer, to gain further experience, before looking for a sponsor and a title fight that could promote him to a professional level.
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