Johannesburg (South Africa) – Intensity was at an all-time high at the weigh-in for EFC AFRICA 14, presented by MusclePharm. Carnival City’s Mardi Gras Theatre was packed with mixed martial arts fans shouting support for their favourite athletes during 13 nail-biting stare-downs.

Featherweight champion Demarte Pena and challenger Wesley Hawkey both made weight, then butted heads and had to be pulled apart, promising to settle things in the hexagon tomorrow night.

Lightweight champion Costa Ioannou and challenger Adam Speechly also made weight. Unlike their featherweight counterparts, the lightweights displayed respect for each other as they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries ahead of their bout.

Wentzel Nel and Denzil Wait were all pushes and shoves as they locked eyes. Nel is a former lightweight champ hoping to regain a title at featherweight, while Wait needs a win to ignite his career. Only one hand will be raised in victory tomorrow night and both athletes are clearly feeling the pressure that thousands of live spectators and millions of TV viewers will bring.

At heavyweight, Angola’s Bernardo Mikixi stepped up to Egypt’s Mahmoud Hassan with bad intentions written all over his face, and with good reason, as the winner of this bout will go on to face EFC AFRICA heavyweight champion Ruan Potts later in the year.

Former middleweight champion Garreth ‘Soldierboy’ McLellan was livid as his opponent Danie ‘Pitbull’ van Heerden missed weight by 4kg. If Soldierboy is as aggressive and explosive tomorrow night as he was at weigh-in, MMA fans are in for fireworks!

Alex Cheboub, Denzil Wait and Danie van Heerden did not reach their divisions’ weight allowance and have 2 hours to make weight. Further information on these bouts will be made available ASAP.

Weigh-in results

Bout 1:
James Le Roux 83kg
Tez Makuebo 81.4kg

Bout 2:
Markus Taljaard 69.3kg
Wade Groth 70kg

Bout 3:
Alain Ilunga 66.25kg
Koba Iakobidze 65.85kg

Bout 4:
Kelvin Mwale 76.35kg
David Buirski 76.95kg

Bout 5:
Ashley Calvert 69.45kg
Alex Cheboub 74kg

Bout 6:
Mawande Vapi 82.7kg
JP Kruger 83.4kg

Bout 7:
Terrence Griessel 66.1kg
Gareth Buirski 65.7kg

Bout 8:
Amr Wahman 76.7kg
Francois Kabulu 76.3kg

Bout 9:
Denzil Wait 67kg
Wentzel Nel 65.85kg

Bout 10:
Garreth McLellan 84kg
Danie van Heerden 88.2kg

Bout 11:
Mahmoud Hassan 105.4kg
Bernardo Mikixi 102.9kg

Bout 12 – Featherweight championship bout:
Wesley Hawkey 66kg
Demarte Pena 65.75kg

Bout 13 – Lightweight championship bout:
Adam Speechly 69.3kg
Costa Ioannou 69.85kg (current champion)

EFC AFRICA 14 takes place at the Carnival City Big Top Arena on 1 June. Tickets on sale at Computicket www.computicket.com and tickets for the live broadcast to Nu Metro Cinemas available at www.numetro.co.za. The three main card bouts will be broadcast live across Africa on e.tv, starting at 22h30 CAT. Full event streamed live online.