EFC 55 produced one of the greatest fights yet staged when Demarte Pena and Irshaad Sayed took to the hexagon to fight for the bantamweight title.
In front of a sold-out crowd, Pena managed to hold onto his crown after the judges finally handed down a unanimous decision in his favour of Pena, sparking immediate calls for a rematch from Sayed’s supporters.
EFC 55 took place at Grand West on Friday, November 11.
Both men fought through a gruelling five rounds, the first three of which were filled with excellent striking. Pena and Sayed played a tactical standing game, landing consistently and using a dazzling array of punches, kicks and elbows. All expected Pena to take Sayed down early, but it was only in the fourth that the Angolan shot in for the first time and began a ground assault that would push him ahead on points.
While the main event sizzled with potential, the co-main event between lightweight champion Dave Mazany and former champion Leon Mynhardt exploded into a full-scale war.
Both landed thudding punches from the start, mesmerising the crowd with a brutal display of mixed martial arts. Mynhardt, wary of the quick submission that lost him his title to Mazany the last time out, kept his distance and filled the space with punishing strikes, which the American happily absorbed and returned.
By the third round Mynhardt was a mask of blood. Although landing consistently, he was unable to match Mazany’s outstanding skill set, and one take-down too many led to a TKO stoppage on the back of hard ground and pound.
Former heavyweight champions Ruan Potts and Brendon Groenewald preceded the lightweights. Groenewald attacked early, bloodying Potts in the first round with heavy punches and elbows, but fell victim to exhaustion in the second, and tapped to a rear-naked choke.
Francois Groenewald made his case for a shot at the bantamweight title with a first-round submission of Durban’s Baldwin Mdlalose. The Durbanite let loose with some dangerous striking in the first round, but Groenewald’s astute ground game kept him ahead. He took the win by standing guillotine in the first.
Former welterweight champion Dino Bagattin opened the night’s main card. After over a year out of action he entered the hexagon to face Port Elizabeth’s devastating Cameron Pritchard.
Bagattin fired off some punches early, but was soon overwhelmed by the ground game of Pritchard, who took him to the canvas and kept him there for the first round. The second saw the same, but this time Bagattin couldn’t ride the pressure and tapped to a rear-naked choke.
Fight of the night was awarded to Dave Mazany vs Leon Mynhardt. Performance bonuses were awarded to Cameron Pritchard, Sylveste Chipfumbu, Ruan Potts, Regis Muyambo and Gary Joshua.
All eyes now turn to EFC 56: Du Plessis vs Fadipe, Bahati vs Buirski, and Kabesa vs Botha. It takes place on Friday, December 9 at Carnival City.
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