EFC weigh-in on target for great event

The first EFC AFRICA event of 2014 kicked off with a bang at the official weigh-in at Carnival City yesterday February 26. All 26 of the continent’s most dangerous combat athletes faced each other across the scale, in anticipation of a massively stacked card at tomorrow night’s event.

Frederich Naumann, the evening’s headlining lightweight title challenger, had the crowd screaming as he stood on the scale. Naumann is undefeated and the recipient of a record four performance of the night awards in 2013. He has vowed to finish the champion, Leon Mynhardt, in two rounds, and re-affirmed this today.

“I’m going to let the hands and feet go until the job is done,” he said.

“I don’t think talking works in a fight,” replied the champion a moment later, “prove it.”

Inaugural bantamweight contenders, Nkazimulo Zulu and Charlie Weyer, both hit their marks. Being former teammates they had a smile for each other at their face-off. Zulu had previously stated that he has no fear of Weyer, after dropping him in sparring on three occasions, which would have been on both of their minds.

The meeting of the legendary Donavin Hawkey, the most experienced athlete in the EFC AFRICA Hexagon, and the young former K1 world champion Dricus du Plessis, was a standout moment.

“Donavin is a legend, and this fight is going to make me a legend,” the young Du Plessis had stated previously. The man’s respect showed when he shook the veteran’s hand, as well as his intent when he refused to break the gaze of Hawkey.

The DRC’s monolith, Vandam Mbuyi, faces Cape Town’s Jiu-Jitsu expert Brendon Groenewald tomorrow night, a shot at the vacant heavyweight title his reward should he win. As always, the crowd went wild when the smiling, dangerous giant hit the scale.

Further down the card’s standout engagements were the hotly anticipated matchups between icons Gareth Buirski and Wesley Hawkey, the double debut of teammates Keron Davies and Mark Hulme and the debut of popular Johannesburg bad boy Chaz Wasserman.

All athletes made weight.

EFC AFRICA 27 Weigh-in results were as follows:

Bout 1 : Bantamweight bout

Donnovan Wilken 61.00kg

Baldwin Mdlalose 60.90 kg

Bout 2 : Welterweight bout

Josh Muller 76.90kg

Mark Hulme 76.70kg

Bout 3 : Middleweight bout

Keron Davies 84.10kg

Booto Guylain 81.00kg

Bout 4 : Welterweight bout

Themba Gorimbo 75.55kg

Chaz Wasserman 76.20kg

Bout 5 : Bantamweight bout

Cedric Doyle 61.00kg

Boney Bukaka 60.30kg

Bout 6 : Bantamweight bout

Francois Groenewald 60.00kg

Pierre Botha 61.00kg

Bout 7 : Lightweight bout

Alexander Cheboub 69.90kg

David van Schalkwyk 70.00kg

Bout 8 : Featherweight bout

Wesley Hawkey 66.00kg

Gareth Buirski 65.00kg

Bout 9 : Heavyweight bout

Vandam Mbuyi 108.00kg

Brendon Groenewald 109.85kg

Bout 10 : Light heavyweight bout

Fraser Opie 92.69kg

Tumelo Maphutha 92.05kg

Bout 11 : Middleweight bout

Donavin Hawkey 83.75kg

Dricus du Plessis 84.00kg

Bout 12 : Bantamweight championship bout

Nkazimulo Zulu 59.85kg

Charlie Weyer 60.60kg

Bout 13: Lightweight championship bout

Leon Mynhardt 69.65kg

Frederich Naumann 69.55kg