(PRESS RELEASE) -- Johannesburg, South Africa – The most dangerous man on the continent, heavyweight champion Ruan Potts, clashes with iron-jawed Andrew van Zyl, in the highly anticipated rematch for Africa’s most coveted belt.
The undefeated Potts (5-0), the only man ever to beat van Zyl (9-1) ending his then 7 fight winning streak, has continued his dominance by dispatching of the heavy handed Bernardo Mikixi at EFC AFRICA 16. Since his defeat van Zyl has been on another winning tear, and vows to return the favour to the champion by serving up his first loss, and has made it clear that this rematch will not go the same way as their first encounter.
Plus the Buirski brothers, Gareth and David, clash with Abdul Hassan and Tyron Rightford in significant bouts for the featherweight and welterweight divisions.
Other highly anticipated bouts see JP Kruger face-off with Donavin Hawkey, Jason Culverwell welcome Fraser Opie to the promotion, and former welterweight champion Dallas Jakobi cut to lightweight to battle with former title contender Alex Cheboub.
With the heavyweight championship on the line, another five heavyweight and light heavyweight bouts on the card, plus seven more top match-ups including EFC AFRICA’s first bantamweight clash, this is a night of action not to be missed!
EFC AFRICA 18, presented by MusclePharm, takes place at the Carnival City Big Top Arena on 1 March 2013. Tickets on sale at Computicket www.computicket.com and tickets for the live broadcast to Nu Metro Cinemas available at www.numetro.com.
Broadcast information and full fight card available at efcafrica.com
About EFC AFRICA™ – The Extreme Fighting Championship™ Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, EFC AFRICA™ now produces 10 live Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events annually, all hosted on the African continent. With over 100 athletes exclusively signed to the promotion from across the continent (from Angola, DRC, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and more), EFC AFRICA is the biggest MMA promotion and showcases the toughest athletes on the continent.
EFC AFRICA™ events are broadcast to over 110 countries across the globe on 9 television networks in multiple languages. The live broadcast is available to over 100 million homes, on e.tv, Africa’s largest English speaking TV channel, on Setanta Sports across Africa as well as in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean on FIGHT NOW! TV, America's only 24-hour combat sports and entertainment channel. Live broadcasts of every event are available across Romania on free to air broadcaster Transilvania L!VE. Delayed live events are broadcast throughout Malaysia on MAX MAN TV.
The best bouts from every EFC AFRICA™ event fill up action-packed television episodes broadcast to 50 million homes in the USA on the CSI SPORTS network, throughout Europe and the Middle East on EXTREME SPORTS CHANNEL and across Canada on FIGHT NETWORK as well as in Africa on FOX FX.
The live internet broadcast on EFCAFRICA.com is watched by viewers around the world, and the events are also broadcast live to all NU METRO cinemas across South Africa giving thousands of additional MMA fans a larger than life event experience.
EFC AFRICA™ also boasts a powerful international presence with bouts and promo videos from the latest events being covered heavily by local and international MMA and mainstream sports, entertainment and news media. EFCAFRICA.com, the official website, receives unprecedented unique visitor numbers for an African sports organisation and EFC AFRICA also has a massive and rapidly growing Twitter and Facebook following, proving once again that EFC AFRICA™ is the fastest growing sports brand in Africa.
EFC AFRICA Heavyweight Championship
Ruan Potts vs. Andrew van Zyl
Abdul Hassan vs. Gareth Buirski
Tyron Rightford vs. David Buirski
JP KRUGER vs. Donavin Hawkey
Jason Culverwell vs. Fraser Opie
Dallas Jakobi vs. Alex Cheboub
Ricky Misholas vs. Sors Grobbelaar
Gideon Drotschie vs. Brendon Groenewald
Wilhelm Strauss vs. CHRISTOPHE WALRAVENS
Kelvin Mwale vs. Juan Lubbe
Ian Visser vs. Chris du Pont
Hector Britts vs. FREDERICH NAUMANN
Charlie Weyer vs. DONNOVAN WILKEN