EFC AFRICA Lightweight Championship
COSTA IOANNOU vs. ADAM SPEECHLY
EFC AFRICA Featherweight Championship
DEMARTE PENA vs. WESLEY HAWKEY
Plus
BERNARDO MIKIXI vs. MAHMOUD HASSAN
GARRETH MCLELLAN vs. DANIE VAN HEERDEN
JP KRUGER vs. MAWANDE VAPI
FRANCOIS KABULU vs. AMR WAHMAN
WENTZEL NEL vs. DENZIL WAIT
TERRENCE GRIESSEL vs. GARETH BUIRSKI
WADE GROTH vs. MARKUS TALJAARD
DAVID BUIRSKI vs. KELVIN MWALE
KOBA IAKOBIDZE vs. ALAIN ILUNGA
ALEX CHEBOUB vs. ASHLEY CALVERT
TSHIKANGU MAKUEBO vs. JAMES LE ROUX
Johannesburg (South Africa) – In 9 days, Costa Ioannou will attempt to defend his EFC AFRICA lightweight title against Adam Speechly. The Greek hero is undefeated at 4-0 and already has one successful title defence behind him.
“Fight preparation has been very good,” says Ioannou. “For the bout with Adam, I’ve completely reworked my training camp and brought in a new dietician. I took this fight at shorter notice than I’m used to, but for the first time I’ve had a full time training camp so I feel strong and fit. I’m also pleased to say that I have no injuries, and that’s a first too! Usually I carry on pushing hard until the last week before the fight but we’ve already tapered off this week and just have a bit of polishing to do before I step into the cage to defend my belt.”
Ioannou is expecting chants of ‘Costa! Costa!’ to give him a mental boost as he faces off against Speechly, but has nothing but respect for his opponent and praises his abilities. “I think Adam is the most technically gifted MMA athlete in any weight division in Africa, full stop. He’s got a very well-rounded game and he’s very durable. He presents an absolute mountain of a challenge, but I’ve been doing my hiking so it’s a mountain I’ll be able to climb! I’m confident that I’ll keep my title because training hard and winning is what I do. I’ve had lots of messages of support and lots of people are amped for the fight. It seems everyone is buying tickets and I hope to see all the fans there!”
EFC AFRICA 14 is presented by MusclePharm and 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.