Six main card athletes faced-off at the World Sports Betting Arena for the first time ahead of Wednesday’s weigh-in and Thursday’s EFC 122 fight night.
With bantamweight champion Faeez ‘Troublemaker’ Jacobs engaging in a war of words with his challenger, Sibusiso Sovendle, and the heavyweight title-holder Anthony ‘Big’ Morel squaring up to his EFC 122 main-event adversary, Elvis Moyo, the tension in the arena was palpable, with various heated exchanges portending a fight week of high-drama and thunderous action.
For his first title defence, Morel is wasting no time, hitting the stage straight from the airport and calmly laying out his plan in front of the media at Tuesday’s pre-fight conference.
“I’m the third Frenchman to hold an EFC belt, and there aren’t many fighters from Réunion Island, so I feel the pressure,” he said. “But my only desire is getting into that Hexagon.
“My opponent is a powerful puncher but he doesn’t have a complete game, he’s just a striker,” claimed the champion to which Moyo had an immediate reply – “He can bring his own arsenal, I’ll bring mine. I’m a specialist and he knows it’s inevitable that I’m going to hit him hard! “What he does after that doesn’t bother me.”
Another huge favourite at WSB and in the co-main event slot, is the mercurial champion Jacobs, who talked of the disrespect he felt throughout the event build-up from the underdog challenger Sovendle.
He said: “We used to get along well and then he suddenly switched it up so I’m going to teach him the lesson he needs to learn and pat him on the shoulder and send him on his way.”
Amongst several fiery back-and-forth retorts, Sovendle replied, “It’s my time, my prime. I respect him but this is the fighting game. I never disrespected him, it’s just business. I look up to him but he’s in the way of my dreams and this is the new generation.”
With the number one contendership in the women’s strawweight division on the line between Uganda’s Rebecca ‘Warrior’ Amongi and South African Ceiligh ‘Smiley Savage’ Niedermayr, it was the former who screamed into the face of her foe on stage to which Niedermayr made not a flinch.
It was immediately evident that Amongi is fired up, with the Ugandan saying, “I’m ready for her, our fight last year was cancelled so I hope she’s ready because I’m going to knock her out in the first round.”
Niedermayr, meanwhile, immediately fired back, saying: “It really excites me to hear she’s coming prepared. I’m looking for violence. I’m looking for blood. I hope that she and the paramedics are ready.”
EFC Matchmaker Graeme Carmell was taken aback by the intensity of the press conference – “I didn’t know these guys had so much beef, Faeez always brings the intensity but Sibu understands now what he needs to do to beat the champ. As for Morel and Moyo, we need heavyweights and big men smashing the hell out of each other – that headliner is insane while the women have been preparing so hard for their fight, that’s why it’s for the divisional contendership.”
With Mzwandile Hlongwa taking on Siyakudumisa Nomvemve and Vince Bembe facing Asiashu Tshitamba to round off the main card following eight powerful prelims, 26 of the continent’s best fighters are primed to deliver fireworks in the Hexagon this Thursday.
