Down in 35 seconds

It may have been the shortest fight of his life with Springs’ Francois Groenewald hitting the mat within 35 seconds of the start of his latest bout at EFC21.
Fighting against Gareth Buirski in the featherweight non title bout at Carnival City last Thursday, the Rio Grappling Club’s star’s training was all for nothing when he didn’t even get the chance to show off his moves before Buirski took him down.

Before the start of the fight, Groenewald looked confident, taking his time and getting into focus before stepping into the cage to face Buirski.
The start of the fight had both fighters trying to size each other up, constantly circling to see who would execute the first move.
Groenewald capitalised on this with a powerful left upper kick, sadly missing Buirski.
Buirski retaliated with some fake left shadow punches, but Groenewald maintained a good distance from them.
Groenewald kept the pressure on Buirski trying to corner him on the far side of the cage, then swinging a right kick, catching Buirski unaware.
Buirski maintained his stance despite the lighting fast kick from Groenewald.
Buirski is well known for his brutal overhand right KO of Markus Taljaard and on the night performed a similar feat after counter moving Groenewald’s takedown attempt, dropping him with a right hook and following up with a barrage of punches that left Groenewald stunned.
Groenewald stumbled to get up from the mat to retaliate but it was too late as the Buirski kept rolling with his punches while Groenewald was with his back against the cage.
The referee stopped the fight declaring Buirski the winner.
Suffering another defeat after a long time out of action from an injury last year, Groenewald looked stunned and devastated when he left the cage after the fight.
Speaking to the Addy, Groenewald commented about the fight: “Yeah, a bad slip but he capitalised on my mistake. But hey its fighting anything can happen. I will definitely be back soon.”