EFC AFRICA 14 - Lightweight and featherweight titles retained

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From EFC Africa:

Johannesburg (South Africa) – EFCAFRICA champions Costa Ioannou and Demarte Pena were able to retain theirtitles and remain undefeated at Africa’s premier mixed martial arts event, EFCAFRICA 14, presented by MusclePharm, on 1 June at Carnival City. The evening’smain card bouts (Mikixi vs. Hassan, Pena vs. Hawkey, Ioannou vs. Speechly) wentout live on e.tv from 22h30 tomillions of viewers around Africa. The event was also available to fans aroundthe world via online streaming.

Angolan featherweight champion Pena fought valiantly for four rounds againstDurban’s Wesley ‘The Young Assassin’ Hawkey. Towards the end of the fight itseemed that Hawkey may be too strong and too aggressive for the champ, but Penamanaged a remarkable grappling feat by taking Hawkey’s back and locking in arear naked choke with just seconds left in the round. Pena’s professional MMArecord now advances to 4 wins, 0 losses.

Lightweight champion Ioannou had to fight all five rounds against challengerAdam ‘The Prodigy’ Speechly. Speechly definitely seemed the fresher of the twoas the bout went to the judges’ score cards, but Ioannou’s ground control andelbow strikes proved enough for his hand to be raised in a unanimous decisionvictory. Ioannou’s professional MMA record now advances to 5 wins, 0 losses.

Garreth ‘Soldierboy’ McLellan made good on his promise to deliver the intensitythat once made him an EFC AFRICA middleweight champion. By defeating Danie vanHeerden in a nerve-wracking contest of wills, McLellan moved one step closer toregaining the title from current champion Jeremy ‘Pitbull’ Smith.

In the heavyweight division, Bernardo ‘Black Panther’ Mikixi’s power-punchingdecimation of Mahmoud Hassan secured a title challenge. Mikixi, the Angolanbehemoth, will face South Africa’s Ruan ‘Fangzz’ Potts in the EFC AFRICAhexagon later in the year to determine who the rightful heavyweight championshould be.

Fight of the Night went to Demarte Pena and Wesley Hawkey for their outstandingchampionship tussle.

Submission of the Night went to Terrence Griessel for his sublime jiu-jitsu andfight-ending guillotine choke.

Full results:

Tez Makuebo defeated James Le Roux byunanimous decision after 3 rounds.
Markus Taljaard defeated Wage Groth by submission (triangle choke) in round 3.
Alain Ilunga defeated Koba Iakobidze by submission (strikes) in round 3.
David Buirski defeated Kelvin Mwale by TKO (ground ‘n pound) in round 1.
Alex Cheboub defeated Ashley Calvert by submission (keylock) in round 2.
JP Kruger defeated Mawande Vapi via submission (rear naked choke) in round 1.
Terrence Griessel defeated Gareth Buirski via submission (guillotine choke) inround 3.
Francois Kabulu defeated Amr Wahman by unanimous decision after 3 rounds.
Wentzel Nel defeated Denzil Wait via TKO (ground ‘n pound) in round 2.
Garreth McLellan defeated Danie van Heerden by submission (rear naked choke) inround 2.
Bernardo Mikixi defeated Mahmoud Hassan by TKO (ground ‘n pound) in round 1.
Demarte Pena defeated Wesley Hawkey via submission (rear naked choke) in round4.
Costa Ioannou defeated Adam Speechly by unanimous decision after 5 rounds.


EFC AFRICA 14 was sponsored by MusclePharm, BetXchange, RDG, 1time Airlines,TapouT, Fighters Only magazine and Carnival City Casino.

EFC AFRICA returns to Carnival City on 27 July for EFC AFRICA 15. Tickets onsale at Computicket www.computicket.comand tickets for the live broadcast to Nu Metro Cinemas available at www.numetro.co.za The threemain card bouts will be broadcast live across Africa on e.tv, starting at 22h30 CAT. Full event streamed liveonline and more information available at www.efcafrica.com