Cape Town – This year’s IMMAF Championships did not yield the desired results for African teams, with only two athletes medalling at the biggest amateur mixed martial arts event.
Angola’s Super Heavyweight Helder Manuel and South Africa’s Junior Middleweight Muhammad Mall were the only Africans to make the podium at this year’s International Mixed Martial Arts Federation Championships, which took place in Belgrade, Serbia.
Manuel secured the silver medal after losing out to Kazakhstan’s Rassul Khatayev via foot lock in the first round of their finals match. Mall lost via TKO to the Czech Republic’s Tagir Machmudov before receiving the bronze medal
Manuel soaked up the moment and felt honored to be able to represent the Mother Land.
“It feels great to be able to do something not just for Angola, but for all of Africa,” said the Super Heavyweight after the medal ceremony.
Heading into the Champs, Team South Africa was brimming with confidence with a handful of African and National champions, including Philani Shabalala (National and African champion), Nicolaas Vermaak (Silver medalist at the African championship), and Thimna Mhluali (National champion) who were all set to build on the platform the youth team built, at the IMMAF Youth Championships in Abu Dhabi last year.
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At last year’s IMMAF tournament, Nuha Shah won gold after winning her Youth B (48kg) division. Kaitlyn van Wyk (Youth B – 57 kg) and Kiara Willemse (Youth C – 48 kg) secured bronze medals in their respective divisions. Minette Kruger filled her bag with silver after coming second in the Featherweight division (65.8 kg).
But this year would be a big learning curve for Team South Africa.
“I am very proud of our guys despite the losses some faced at this year’s Worlds. The competition level is extremely high, and not one of our fighters dropped the ball in any way. We had two or three tough decisions, and almost all our fights went to the third round. We will learn from this and come back stronger,” said coach Meredith of Team SA – ranked 10th out of 77 teams heading into the tournament last week.
The IMMAF Championships formed part of the BRAVE Serbia International Combat Week, which concludes today with BRAVE CF 69 in the Stark Arena. Brave Combat Federation will open its 2023 account with a six-fight card that will be headlined by Kyrgyzstan’s Abdisalam Kubanychbek and Kamil Magomedov, who will compete for the undisputed Lightweight title.
@JulianKiewietz
