PFL is coming to Africa with the launch of PFL Africa and their Championship Series starting in South Africa. They announced this on their social media platforms giving the location and the main and co-main events. The event itself will take place in Cape Town, South Africa in the GrandWest Arena on July 26th. The event will be headlined by middleweight champion Johnny Eblen (16-0) defending against Costello Van Steenis (16-3). And the co-main event will be flyweight champion Dakota Ditcheva (14-0) defending her belt against Sumiko Inaba (8-1).
PFL Africa
The main event does make some sense given Eblen is one of PFL’s more dominant champions. On top of that Van Steenis is Dutch and famously there are many people of Dutch origin in South Africa. It is a little surprising that the PFL have Francis Ngannou signed and as a champion and aren’t having him headline a card in Africa. However, given the recent tragedy surrounding Ngannou it makes sense he’s not on the card. Eblen is undefeated and has impressive wins over Fabian Edwards, Impa Kasanganay, and Gegard Mousasi.
Ditcheva vs Inaba is a solid co-main event with Ditcheva proving to be one of the best and most entertaining women’s fighters around. Ditcheva gets finishes and has very smooth and accurate striking, utilising her range effectively to break down her opponents gradually before getting the finish. Last time out she demolished former UFC title challenger Talia Santos with ease finishing her in 2 rounds. Inaba looks to be a worthy challenge with her own dominance in Bellator and now PFL.
Some other fights have also been made public and unsurprisingly are made up of African talent as it should. PFL for this card have signed several fighters from different countries in Africa. There are 2 heavyweight bouts Jashell Tisha Awa (3-1) vs Justin Clarke (2-0) and Abdoullah Kane (3-0) vs Mohammad Ben Yahia (9-4). A flyweight contest is also taking place Nkosi Ndebele (8-3) vs Mahmoud Atef (5-2) and a featherweight fight Simbarashe Hokonya (5-0) vs Abderrahman Errachidy (4-1).
We shall see how the rest of the card shapes up to be and if this debut in Africa will be a success.
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