Henry beats Kabesa to win title
The shock was a fitting end to EFC 57 as Scotland international Danny Henry handed Igeu Kabesa his first career loss for the featherweight title.
This was the Africa MMA organisation’s first show of the year, held at Carnival City.
If there’s one word to describe this one, it’s ‘karma’ – and I’m afraid one of these two great athletes had to be on the receiving end of it. Kabesa in this case.
With the win, Henry avenged the only loss of his EFC career, which he suffered against Kabesa, back at EFC 47 to lose what was his title at the time.
The bout started at an electric pace, with the defending champion wasting no time in assuming the role of aggressor. After landing some early shots, Kabesa put his superior wrestling skills on for the world to see, dominating Henry in every aspect.
Henry was visibly rattled, but regained his composure after Kabesa seemed to get too confident. Henry capitalised on the lapse in concentration from the champion and managed to lock in a watertight anaconda choke which left the champion with no option but to tap – disappointingly – in round one.
In the co-main event, heavyweights Elvis Moyo and Mike Vermeulen had to get through each other for a potential shot at Andrew van Zyl’s belt.
Moyo, known for his pure striking power, wasted little time, delivering a devastating TKO to Vermuelen after being dropped early in the first.
Moyo recovered from an early scare to deliver a stunning right hook to Vermeulen’s jaw that sent him to the mat. Moyo sealed the victory by following up with some destructive ground and pound to stop the fight.
His victory lines up what could be one of 2017’s most anticipated rematches for the heavyweight title.
Much had been made of Martin van Staden’s drop to lightweight ahead of EFC 57, with many questioning whether he could maintain his strength.
He proved his doubters wrong with a TKO victory in the second round after surviving an early onslaught from Christian Holley, the EFC debutant representing Spain. Early in the first, Holley seemed to have locked in a choke.
Van Staden did well to escape but remained on the back foot for most of the first round. Holley emerged for the second seemingly deflated after not being able to finish the fight.
The South African capitalised early in the round, landing heavy ground and pound from on top after a clever double-leg take-down which forced Bobby Karagiannidis to stop the bout.
Wessel Mostert maintained his unbeaten record with a devastating TKO over Englishman Tony Mustard inside the first round. After an initial exchange of heavy blows, Mostert opened up out of the clinch to land an elbow over the top, which dropped Mustard.
The local hero quickly rained down shots from top position, leaving referee Wiekus Swart with no option but to call it.
Gordon Roodman got back into the win column with a great display of striking, resulting in a decision victory over Georgi Georgiev.
The Bulgarian Georgiev did well to survive three rounds of pure punishment from Roodman, who has put himself back on the map after possibly the best fight of his professional career.
