Fred remains undefeated

POLOKWANE – After 10 fights – six amateur fights in 2012 and four professional fights in 2013, Frederich “Ninja” Naumann is still undefeated.

Naumann made his debut at Extreme Fighting Championships Africa (EFC) as a professional cage fighter in 2013 and ended the year undefeated. He also won two submissions of the night awards, a submission of the year award and a knock-out of the night award at several fighting events during the year.

His perfomance ensured him a fight against Leon “Iron Lion” Mynhardt, for the lightweight belt and EFC title at Carnival City on February 27.

Naumann has done a lot of skipping, road work, bag work and crossfit in the past few weeks in preparation for this big event to ensure he is fit enough to take on Mynhardt. “I have never seen him get tired so I have to be extremely fit,” he said.

“I believe I have the speed advantage and the skills to dominate his stand-up. I want to attack him with everything I have.”

Naumann said he planned to finish the fight within two rounds. “If I don’t drop him quickly with my fists, I am going to take him down and finish him. That is not a wish, it is my plan and I will do it.”

Naumann told Review he had been following Mynhardt since 2001 and it was an honour to fight him as it gave Naumann the opportunity to test himself against the best of the best.

Naumann first started his mixed martial arts (MMA) training at Guts and Glory MMA club in 2010 after being a kick-boxer since 2001. He was the first Limpopo MMA fighter to sign an 18-month contract with EFC Africa. He said he was a skillful kick-boxer and had to make a few adjustments to adapt to MMA in order to compete successfully. “MMA is a mixture of various fighting arts. I concentrated mostly on wrestling and grappling techniques,” he said.