Johannesburg (South Africa) – A capacity crowd filled Carnival City’s Mardi Gras Theatre for today’s official weigh-in ahead of EFC AFRICA 18 tomorrow, 1 March. Fans got what they were looking for with intense stare-downs, a near fist explosion, spectacular call-outs and a gentlemanly handshake to round it all off. Judging by the intensity of the athletes, the total focus and the energy crackling in the room, tomorrow night’s event is ready to burn.

The event began with a large section of the crowd calling out their support for Ricky ‘The Apocalypse’ Misholas, asking for a title shot for him and baying when he finally made an appearance toward the end of the card.

Only one fighter failed to make weight, light heavyweight Tumelo Maphutha, who came in at 93.7kg and therefore has two hours to drop the weight. (Maphutha has since made weight, coming in at 92.9kg.)

Sparks flew when Ricky Misholas and Sors Grobbelaar squared off against each other, no doubt influenced by Ricky’s vocal audience, with Sors pushing his head hard into his opponents’.

Controversy continued as Tyron ‘The Rush’ Rightford took the stage, opened his gi and sent a sack of loose potatoes spilling to the floor in a clear response to trash talk from David Buirski earlier in the week. The square off was civil, but ominous as The Rush maintained an intense calm.

Brother Gareth Buirski followed, his matchup with Abdul ‘Hollywood’ Hassan having had just as much trash talk traded in the week’s lead up, and the two threated to lay into each other with security needed to hold them apart. If the prelim bouts were looking dangerous, the main card holds fatal promise.

Finally the champion and the contender, Ruan ‘Fangzz’ Potts and Andrew ‘One Gear’ van Zyl, entered the arena. Both made weight and both were happy to shake hands, a gesture in direct contrast to the reality of the biggest heavyweight clash the African continent has ever seen looming over them both.

See a video of the weigh-in event here: http://youtu.be/ZIQb_GSE7SU

EFC AFRICA 18 Weigh-in results:

Broadcast exclusively to Nu Metro cinemas (live at 17:40)

Bout 1 : Bantamweight bout
Charlie Weyer 61kg
Donnovan Wilken 60.65kg

Bout 2 : Lightweight bout
Peter Nyide 69.45kg
Frederich Naumann 69.2kg

Bout 3 : Light Heavyweight bout
Tumelo Maphutha 93.7kg
Chris Du Pont 92kg

Bout 4 : Welterweight bout
David van Schalkwyk 75.3kg
Juan Lubbe 77kg

Bout 5 : Heavyweight bout
Wilhelm Strauss 117kg
Christophe Walravens 109.5kg

Broadcast free and live on efcafrica.tv (live at 20:30 CAT/ 18:30 GMT)
Bout 6 : Light heavyweight bout
Gideon Drotschie 92.4kg
Brendan Groenewald 92.60kg

Broadcast free and live on efcafrica.tv (live at 20:40 CAT/ 18:30 GMT)
Bout 7 : Heavyweight bout
Ricky Misholas 107kg
Sors Grobbelaar 107kg

Bout 8 : Lightweight bout
Dallas Jakobi 69.65kg
Johan van Staden 72kg

Bout 9 : Light heavyweight bout
Jason Culverwell 91.85kg
Danie van Heerden 93kg

Bout 10 : Middleweight bout
JP Kruger 83.5kg
Donovin Hawkey 83.87kg

Bout 11 : Welterweight bout
Tyron Rightford 76.4kg
David Buirski 76.65kg

Bout 12 : Featherweight bout
Abdul Hassan 65.1kg
Gareth Buirski 65.7kg

Bout 13 : Heavyweight championship bout
Ruan Potts 114.94kg
Andrew van Zyl 116.75kg

EFC AFRICA 18, presented by MusclePharm, takes place at the Carnival City Big Top Arena on 1 March 2013. Tickets on sale at Computicket www.computicket.com and tickets for the live broadcast to Nu Metro Cinemas available at www.numetro.com.

Broadcast information and full fight card available at efcafrica.com