Leon Mynhardt faces off with Sibusiso Mdoko at the EFC 34 weigh-in

Johannesburg (South Africa) – EFC returned to Carnival City for the official weigh-in of EFC 34. The room was filled with tension as 24 of the organisation’s greatest athletes rose to the occasion, backed by a boisterous crowd who packed the room.

The event is headlined by one of the toughest athletes in the world, Leon ‘Iron Lion’ Mynhardt. He will be defending his lightweight title against the organisation’s ultimate finisher in Sibusiso ‘The Monster’ Mdoko, hailing from Cape Town.

“I am not going to do any talking here. I am going to do my talking in the Hexagon,” said Mdoko in a pre-fight interview. He backed up his words with a confident showing in his face-off with the champion.

Mynhardt, showing his love of competition, looked ready for action on stage with an angry grimace on his face. Eventually separating from the face-off, he made clear his intent in a brief pre-fight interview with EFC commentator Dirk Steenekamp.

“I am very excited to fight again. It has been a while,” Mynhardt said. “Everyone knows how much I love to fight!”

Co-headlining the event is the highly anticipated bantamweight title fight between defending champion Demarte ‘The Wolf’ Pena from Angola, and the incredibly dangerous South African, Francois ‘Franaconda’ Groenewald.

EFC 34 presents Pena with his biggest challenge to date, and his first title defence at bantamweight. Meanwhile Groenewald has been on a tear through the bantamweight division to earn his shot at the champion. “After ten fights in the EFC, this is my time.” he said.

Also featured on the main card, former heavyweight champion Andrew van Zyl looked very nonchalant in the face of his challenger Vandam Mbuyi. They are joined on the main card by Champion Dalcha who filled in on single days’ notice to face notorious kickboxer Pete Motaung. Featherweight phenom Tumisang Madiba and Pierre Botha round off the top fights.

Most notably in the Ster-Kinekor prelim bouts, Lourens Botes saw that Sebeko failed to make weight and proceeded to offer a skipping rope to help his opponent. Sebeko did not take this well and aggressively pushed the rope out of Botes’ hands, initially refusing to face-off with him.

Three fighters initially failed to make weight. Lyle Karam and Oumpie Sebeko, who were 0.55kgs and 2kg over respectively and are subject to a financial penalty. Warren Allison was a single kilogram over which he managed to cut within the two-hour cutoff.

EFC 34 weigh-in results were as follows:

Bout 1 : Welterweight bout
Tyron Bester 76.75kg
Lyle Karam 77.50kg

Bout 2 : Welterweight bout
Heinrich Potgieter 76.95kg
Sydney Mokgolo 76.45kg

Bout 3 : Featherweight bout
Sindile Manengela 65.90kg
Mthobisi Buthelezi 66.00kg

Bout 4 : Middleweight bout
Warren Allison 84.00kg
Cameron Meintjies 83.50kg

Bout 5 : Bantamweight bout
Marino Cutendana 60.75kg
Sibulele Swekile 60.40kg

Bout 6 : Bantamweight bout
Oumpie Sebeko 63.10kg
Lourens Botes 60.90kg

Bout 7 : Featherweight bout
Hanru Botha 65.90kg
Nelson Feiteira 66.00kg

Bout 8 : Featherweight bout
Tumisang Madiba 65.00kg
Pierre Botha 65.85kg

Bout 9 : Light heavyweight bout
Champion Dalcha 90.00kg
Pete Motaung 92.75kg

Bout 10 : Heavyweight bout
Andrew van Zyl 115.80kg
Vandam Mbuyi 105.2kg

Bout 11 : Bantamweight title bout
Demarte Pena 60.70kg
Francois Groenewald 60.95kg

Bout 12 : Lightweight title bout
Leon Mynhardt 69.95kg
Sibusio Mdoko 69.85kg

EFC 34: Mynhardt vs. Madge, Pena vs. Groenewald is presented by BetXchange.com, and takes place at the Carnival City Big Top Arena, Johannesburg, on Thursday 2 October 2014. Tickets on sale soon at www.computicket.com. Book your cinema ticket to all fights live and in state of the art digital projection at www.sterkinekor.com. Watch the entire event live, from anywhere on the globe, via online streaming at efcafrica.tv.