Don't miss the inaugural PFL Africa event at GrandWest Arena

The Professional Fighting League (PFL) has finally landed on African soil, and it’s hitting big. Come Saturday, July 19, Cape Town’s GrandWest Arena will host the continent’s first-ever global MMA extravaganza under the PFL banner.

This isn’t just a victory for Capetonians, it’s a pivotal win for all of Mzansi and Africa at large.  

PFL Africa is a premier MMA showcase and proudly so: it features South African talents like Justin Clarke, Nkosi Ndebele and Shannon van Tonder, to name a few, and who have earned spots in the PFL Africa Tournament lineup. These three warriors will open the night in the eight‑man first-round brackets billed for both Heavyweight and Bantamweight divisions.

Capetonian and one of the best martial artists to ever come out of Mzansi, Don Madge spent a large chunk of his career in the PFL where he was able to strut it out with some of the best fighters in the world. The likes of Madge making waves in the promotions albeit on US soil, paved way for many fighters from the country to make similar moves.  

Though he hung up his gloves around a year ago, after making it to the semi-finals of 2024 PFL Welterweight, his global performances showed what South African fighters could achieve abroad.

With Nkosi Ndebele signed and set to hit the cage in Cape Town this July, South Africa’s MMA stars are stepping confidently into the PFL spotlight.

However, the debut is just the start, PFL Africa 2 will soon follow in Johannesburg in August and that one is expected to introduce Welterweight and Featherweight tournaments to the fold. 

Yet for now, it’s about GrandWest’s inaugural MMA night on Saturday.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the evening’s PFL Champions Series card will headline with a blockbuster Middleweight World Championship clash: undefeated champ Johnny “Pressure” Eblen (16–0) takes on Costello van Steenis (16–3)  

Featherweight firepower comes from former Bellator champ AJ “Mercenary” McKee (22–2) against Russia’s Akhmed Magomedov (11–1), while Dakota “Dangerous” Ditcheva (14–0) squares off with Sumiko “Lady Samurai” Inaba (8–1) in a women’s flyweight war expected to rock the GrandWest cage.