Toti is to host its first-ever cage fight event.
The Africa Fight League (AFL), aptly titled ‘AFL Donnerdag’ takes place on Thursday, 10 July at Toti Civic Centre.
The driving force behind bringing the event to Toti is Morné Swanepoel, the owner of the CombatCoaching.Com gym in the CBD and a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) representative in KZN, who was assisted by Mark Delafield, an amateur MMA representative.
“We have been planning this for a long time,” said Morne. “It was first discussed at the beginning of the year and finally decided on at the last AFL event in April.
My passion is training and coaching and not so much in promoting tournaments. I do however, feel that Toti deserves a professional tournament, as we have a lot of fans who support our local fighters at other major events. Toti supporters even drive up to Johannesburg to support local EFC Africa fighters. So this will be a golden opportunity to give back to the fans and also expose the rest of the community to the fastest growing sport in the world.”
Twelve fights are planned for the night, of which half will feature local Toti fighters in action. There are two fights Toti fans should get excited about. One is in the junior section (16 to 18-years-old) where Morne’s son Bradley, who is the current SA champ, will be in action against the top contender in his divison.
The second one will be the main fight for the night. This will be a pro AM title fight, where local fighter Cameron Meintjies will contest for the middleweight belt.
“Home ground will be an advantage for these local fighters, but only if the locals come in their masses and support. Having the crowd behind you lifts the level of any sportsman,” said Morne.
“We hope the night will be a sell-out. There will be VIP tables available cage side and normal seating on the gallery, stage and outer areas. We are looking at bringing in a crowd of just under 1,000.
This will be history in making – the very first national MMA tournament in Toti. Everyone has seen EFC Africa on SuperSport and you see a lot of people wearing the shirts in public. Now is the opportunity to go and watch a live event right here at home.
The important thing is this is for locals and it’s a professional production.
The athletes who compete are some of the top amateurs in the country, who are knocking on the doors to compete at the biggest event on the continent, EFC Africa.
These events are exciting, full of action and a great vibe and even more so when the masses get behind the local boys.”
The goal is to host at least two of these events in Toti every year, so hopefully Toti MMA fans come out in their droves to support to ensure this can happen.
