just days after EFC’s first event of 2024 rocked the combat sports world with a monumental title clash, the promotion is thrilled to announce that its card for the highly-anticipated EFC 112 show includes not one, but two championship wars. After previously releasing the news that in a unification bout, Luke Michael will defend his middleweight strap against interim and former champion JP Kruger, the organisation can announce today that the co-main event of this already-stacked night of fights will also feature the featherweight champion Igeu ‘Smiley’ Kabesa being the next athlete aiming for champ-champ status as he battles the imposing Kaleka ‘Block’ Kabanda for the vacant lightweight title in a mouth-watering all-DRC matchup.
After running through the 145lb division like a knife through butter, the greatest wrestler in African MMA moves up the scale to the 155lb roster in an attempt to join fellow future EFC Hall of Famers, Dricus du Plessis and Nkazimulo Zulu in owning buckle-bling in two divisions. But Kabesa must get past countryman Kabanda to join such an historic pantheon. An athletic specimen currently in his sporting prime, Kabanda has proven to be a stumbling ‘Block’ for many standouts of the lightweight roster during the nine prodigious years in which he has competed in the EFC. Initially coming to fight fans attention in his adopted home city of Cape Town with a first-round win over Luke Michael, who ironically defends his 185lb belt against Kruger in the main event, Kabanda has been champing at the bit after a series of unfortunate bout cancellations put the skids on his momentum following a pair of sensational victories. In his last two fights, Kabanda submitted both Guelor Sondi and JT Botha in a manner which immediately propelled him to contender status and booked him a place last December against the champion Tshilomba Mikixi.
Unfortunately Mikixi was unable to compete and now relinquishes his title to be contested between Kabesa and Kabanda, with the agreement that once able to return to competition, he gets an immediate shot at the winner. The only snagging point for Kabanda however, is the dominant and mercurially-talented Kabesa who has just one loss in the past 7 years; a loss that he avenged in style. After defending his featherweight belt against the best athletes from across Europe, South America and Africa, Kabesa is a problem many international combat sports promotions would love to have. A 145lb king who refuses to be knocked-off his perch, courtesy of imperious grappling and a hellacious right hand, EFC matchmakers continue to scour the earth in search of fighters able and willing to provide him with a worthy challenge. But now he wants to rip-up the history books and take the problem out of the promotions hands by making a run at the lightweight division, a 10lb nudge up the scale that will strike a mixture of fear and dismay to a whole new category of fighters who have marvelled for years at ‘Smiley’s dominance at feather. Now two of the Congo’s greatest fighters join a fight card that was already brimming with malevolence and which features a main-event that is equally as thrilling.
After securing the middleweight title in dramatic scenes at EFC 92 over two years ago, Luke ‘Young Gun’ Michael sustained a heinous injury in preparation for his first defence and has since worked tirelessly in his recuperation and recovery to be able to now defend his belt in peak condition. His challenger is former champion and current interim title-holder, JP ‘Tinkerbell’ Kruger, a man equally adept as Michael in kickboxing and boasts an astonishing resumé of submission finishes. With a collective 22 years competing in the EFC together, Michael and Kruger now reach the nadir of their careers in a massive showdown that will finally unify the 185lb title and guarantee the world a nail-biting conclusion to a night of fights, that with the addition of Kabesa vs Kabanda is fast-becoming appointment viewing for sports fans across the globe!
EFC 112 Luke Michael vs JP Kruger Middleweight Championship is presented by World Sports Betting and takes place on Thursday 11th April 2024, live from the Performance Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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