Cape Town - South Africa’s Muhammad Mall will be the last man standing when he competes in the semi-finals of the Junior Middleweight division at the IMMAF World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, today.
Mall entered the quarter-final stage yesterday and made light work of his opponent when he submitted Romania’s Steaf Mihaila via knee bar in round one of their fight.
The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation World Championships form part of the exciting BRAVE Serbia International Combat Week, which will run until February 18th, when BRAVE CF 69 will cap the fight festival in the Stark Arena.
BRAVE CF 69 will feature an electric nine-fight card headlined by Kyrgyzstan’s Abdisalam Kubanychbken and Dagestan’s Kamil Magomedov, who will throw down for the undisputed BRAVE CF Lightweight title.
Today, Mall will compete against Czech Republic’s Tagir Machmudov in the semi-finals of their division which takes place at 12:48 SAST time.
Yesterday, Mall’s teammate Willie van Rooyen bowed out of the tournament with a unanimous decision loss to Kazakhstan’s Chingis Idrissov in the quarter-finals after a highlight reel finish in the first round when he beat Lebanon's Mohammad Fakhreddine via technical knockout in the first round of their Junior Bantamweight.
The rest of Team South Africa failed to advance after their first bouts, but coach Dwain Meredith believes that his athletes have gained so much from this experience and that it can only stand his athletes in good stead.
“I am very proud of our guys despite the losses some faced. 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 definitely come back stronger,” said coach Meredith.
If you would like to support Muhammad Mall and Team South Africa, you can watch all the action on immaf.tv
All the results up to date:
Juniors
Willie van Rooyen (Bantamweight) beat Mohammad Fakhreddine via TKO in round one.
Willie van Rooyen lost to Kazakhstan’s Chingis Idrissov via in the quarter-finals
Dylan Behrens (Middleweight) lost to Muhammadabdulaziz Shodiboev via unanimous decision.
Muhammad Mall beat Romania’s Steaf Mihaila via knee bar submission in the first round of the quarter-finals.
Seniors
Philani Shabalala (Flyweight) lost to Dmytro Makarov via unanimous decision.
Kelvin Smit (Flyweight) lost to Jorge Perez via armbar submission in round two.
Sipho Mlaba (Bantamweight) lost by unanimous decision to Samir Smaali.
Thimna Mhluali (Featherweight) lost to Alexandrie Rita via a unanimous decision.
Nicolaas Vermaak (Lightweight) lost to George Staines via TKO in round two.
Throne Msibi (Welterweight) lost to Lester Batres via a unanimous decision.
Adebayo Ojewole (Middleweight) lost to Elizio Zua via unanimous decision.
Johan Pfahl (Light Heavyweight) Kristian Hoibo via triangle choke submission in round three.
@JulianKiewietz