Double gold for Pretoria’s EFC star
Pretoria's EFC star Dricus du Plessis made history on Saturday when he beat his fierce opponent from Britain in the first round of their fight.
The biggest night in Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC) history had a fairy-tale ending for Pretoria’s Dricus Du Plessis on Saturday when he became the first man in the organisation’s history to hold a title in two divisions simultaneously.
The evening’s main event was contested between EFC welterweight champion, Du Plessis, and EFC middleweight and British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) champion, the UK’s Yannick Bahati.
Du Plessis did what many thought was impossible and finished Bahati by brutal guillotine in the first round, obliterating his opponent and stepping into a new era of the organisation.
The battle that was scheduled for five rounds of five minutes each but it lasted only 90 seconds before Du Plessis was able to force Bahati to surrender with the stranglehold to the great joy of the majority of spectators.
The fight drew great attention last week across the Mix Martial Arts world. Bahati, known as a charismatic character, made the social media buzz with its controversial statements and actions. He made himself particularly unpopular with Du Plessis’s supporters when he slapped the local star with an open hand at the press conference and weigh-session two days before the battle.
However, after the battle Bahati was gracious in defeat, and agreed that if Du Plessis wanted to return the favour and meet him in the UK for his BAMMA title, he would be happy to oblige.
* In other fights on Saturday Flyweight champ Nkazimulo Zulu also defended his title, and Igeu Kabesa re-took the featherweight strap.
The UK’s Cal Ellenor made his EFC debut against local favourite Gareth Buirski, and both fought a hard fight to final bell. The judges’ decision caused consternation when they ruled in favour of Buirski (split decision), with most of the crowd convinced the foreigner had done enough to take it.
Sindile Manengela and Barend Nienaber put in two hard rounds of even fighting in their main card opener, until Manengela found the edge in the third, finishing his opponent from Pretoria by rear nake choke.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
