AKO mixed martial arts championship kicks off in style in Lagos

By Babatunde Ogunrinde

The maiden edition of African Knockout (AKO), Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) championship kicked off on Friday night in Lagos as fighters wowed spectators.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 14 fights held at the Sol Beach, in Oniru.

The tournament was sponsored by Kamaru Usman (Nightmare), Nigeria’s U.S based Ultimate Fighters Champions (UFC), a former MMA world champion.

NAN reports that Emmanuel Nworie of Nigeria set the ball rolling in the first fight of the night crushing the hard fighting Mukiiri Lawrence of Uganda.

He got the job done in three straight rounds, unanimous decision by the three judges, to earn him a famous victory.

Nworie’s takedowns and and hard punches, well delivered to Lawrence’s face and body, earned him the decision by the three judges.

Nworie comfortably cruised into victory in their light weight encounter as Lawrence had no answer to his takedowns and hard punches.

In another fight decided in the middle weight division, Cameroon’s Octavia Ayinda defeated Nigeria’s Emmanuel Christian in three straight rounds.

Ayinda’s brilliance in takedowns kept Christian pinned down for several minutes and easily gave the Cameroonian a comfortable victory.

In another fight, Richard Mujan, Nigerian, with his kickboxing experience was way too much for his opponent, Okuma Mathias, a fellow Nigerian, in their light weight encounter.

Mujan recorded a second round Technical Knockout (TKO) with well delivered kicks to the face and body of his opponent, and without a doubt, he was the fans’ favourite.

In another international duel, Nigeria’s Jibrin Inua-Baba fighting in the lightweight category needed three rounds of hard punching, takedowns and strong locks to crush his Togolese opponent.

Inua-Baba recorded a 30-28, 29-27 and 30-27 unanimous decision to see out Armandou Bamikey.

His victory earned several applause from the fans at the arena as he brilliantly dealt with his opponent and made him look ordinary.

Meanwhile, in an all women’s bantam weight division, Jane Osigwe defeated Esther Ayodele with a quick first round TKO following submission by Ayodele.

The centre referee called off the fight and pronounced Osigwe winner in the first round of their three-round fight.

In the sixth fight of the night, Nigeria’s Victor Dooga was rather unlucky as he met a more powerful opponent in Ananias Mulumba of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mulumba recorded a first round TKO by way of submission to defeat Dooga.

In another battle of wits, Jean Dos Santos of Republic of Benin was more clinical as he beat Ghana’s Richard Ansiedu in their feather weight clash.

Dos Dantos recorded his victory after he pinned Ansiedu to the ground and made him tap-out and gave Dos Santos victory.

NAN reports that Dos Santos’s victory made him the seventh African Champion of the 14 fights of the night.

Usman, the promoter of the fights, said the motive of the “All Africa” championship was to bring together the best mixed martial arts fighters from across the continent to compete for the title of African Champion.

He said the goal was also to unlock global partnerships that would create jobs and opportunities for young African athletes by developing a thriving MMA scene in Africa.

“Our goal is to promote MMA in Africa and provide a platform for young fighters to showcase their skills on a global stage.

“We are committed to empowering African fighters by providing them with the necessary resources to succeed,” he said.

(NAN)