Top African MMA Promotions to Follow

MMA, short for mixed martial arts, is a rapidly growing sport all over the world. This seemingly new sport takes inspiration from several oriental and modern fighting styles – allowing for contests under a set of unified rules.

In MMA competitions, you’d see karate kicks, wrestling takedowns, jiujitsu scrambles and a bit of boxing.

Popularized by the UFC, MMA has reached millions of fans and in the process created superstars like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey and Georges St-Pierre.

Africa has had its share of fighters and champions within the UFC. “The 3 three kings” – Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and Francis Ngannou have all held UFC titles.

Newer names such as Dricus Du Plessis, Cody Saimann, Sodiq Yusuf, Abdul Razak Alhassan and several others continue to represent Africa at the world’s biggest stages of competitive fighting.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the major professional MMA organizations in the African continent.

Extreme fighting championship (EFC)

Founded in 2009, South African-based EFC is by far Africa’s largest mixed martial arts organization.

The company has produced a large number of talent, some of who are currently in the UFC. Currently EFC bosts of 120 fighters on their roster.

Dricus Du Plessis, Manon Fiorot, Cameron Saimaan, Themba Gorimbo and Dalcha Lungiambula have all fought for EFC.

Other notable fighters include: Don Madge, Jared Vanderaa, JP Buys, Danny Henry, Cyril Asker, Gareth Mcllelan, Ruan Potts

Most of EFC’s events are modelled after the UFC. Their live events have a similar format, except that the fight takes place in the EFC hexagon (and not an octagon).

The EFC also has a reality TV show called ‘The Fighter’ with two seasons so far.

EFC also has a performance institute (PI) to support its fighters.

African Knockout (AKO)

African Knockout (AKO) is a predominantly Nigerian MMA organization. The promotion is owned by Kamaru Usman (UFC Welterweight Champion).

The brand is positioning itself as a platform to hone African talent for the global stage with several male and female fighter under their roster.

AKO has a Netflix reality show, which aired in 2021.

African Fighting Championship (AFC)

AFC is another MMA league based in Africa. The promotion has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
AFC began putting on fights in 2018, primarily exhibition bouts, and currently holds a few fight nights every year.

African Warriors Fighting Championship

AWFC promotes the traditional martial art of Dambe.

Dambe is a native fighting sport popular in West African African countries.

Each Dambe fighter has one hand wrapped in a cloth (aka the spear hand) while the other hand is unwrapped (the shield hand).

Dambe competitions typically take place in a sand pit with most fights ending in a brutal knockouts.

In Dambe, a fighter can only strike with the wrapped hand. Each contest lasts for 15 minutes (3 x 5 minutes).

A winner is declared when one renders his opponent unconscious, a fighter is unable to defend themselves or by judges decision.

Local Fight Night Entertainment (LFNE)

LFNE is a Kenyan organization with the mission to showcase local fighting talent.

Many fighters in the promotion seek to follow in the likes of Adesanya and Usman, and punch their name in the big ticket organizations.

Muqatel MMA

Muqatel is an MMA organization with most of its fighter from East Africa.

The promotion doubles as a training school for athletes and individuals looking to learn various martial arts.