EFC takes fights to new level

These are inflationary times for South African sport - falling attendances and a squeeze on sponsorship having taken hold - but one organisation bucking the trend is the Extreme Fighting Championship mixed martial arts brand.

Tonight, EFC hosts its 34th event at Carnival City and the fighters are familiar, but the organisation is new. The EFC Africa label has been buried in favour of EFC Worldwide and with it the once iron-clad rule of contracting African fighters exclusively.

Such is the expansion of EFC that it is broadcast in 110 countries with more than 120 fighters competing in seven weight divisions. This reach has led to foreign fighters banging down EFC's door. It has relented and will now match its ambitions and sign internationals.

The big drawcard tonight is bantamweight Demarte Pena, the SA-based Angolan who is the EFC's pound-for-pound king.

The grandson of former Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, Pena is unbeaten in his three-and-a-half years as a professional.

The latest to try his luck is Francois Groenewald, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert who has a habit of ending fights early. "I'm going to go in for the finish," says the confident 29-year-old from Springs.

For all his bravado, he has not fought someone with the skill or power of Pena. Even by East Rand standards, he could be in for a hard night.

The other title on offer is at lightweight, in which champion Leon Mynhardt, a former kick-boxing pro with two defeats of Don Madge on his CV, defends against Cape Town's Sibusiso Mdoko.

Look out, too, for old favourite and former heavyweight champion Andrew van Zyl, a teacher and rugby coach at Parktown Boys, who fights big Vandam Mbuyi, the entertaining dreadnought from the DRC.