CAPE TOWN - South African mixed martial arts made a major breakthrough into the realm of mainstream sports on Saturday night, when the Extreme Fighting Championship was broadcast on SABC for the first time.
EFC announced its partnership with the SABC in late January, in a deal that will not only see the organization’s 10 scheduled events for 2017 broadcast live but also see match-ups from past events televised every Saturday.
Cairo Howarth, EFC’s president and co-founder, spoke about what the deal could mean for MMA in SA, his earliest memory of martial arts and fighter Michiel Opperman’s recent positive test for a banned substance.
What’s your earliest memory relating to martial arts?
That would be the early martial arts movies that we all (well most boys that I knew) grew up watching, like Karate Kid. Loved that movie!
Have you ever trained in martial arts; and if so, which ones?
When I was a child I did judo and karate, then trained in Muay Thai for quite a few years before training in MMA. For the last few years I have been boxing and training in Muay Thai, which I am really enjoying at the moment
Describe the first time you watched an MMA fight?
I don’t remember the first MMA fight that I ever watched but it must have been online, as back then MMA was not televised in South Africa. We used to watch a lot of MMA online and then started going to the smaller MMA events that were held around the country. What I do remember was when first watching and then training MMA, was realising the advantage grapplers and Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners had over traditional strikers that didn’t have any grappling skill.
MMA wasn’t very popular in SA in the early days of EFC. Why did you believe that it would be big one day?
We did a lot of research as fans of MMA, and then looking into the business side of it. MMA was exploding globally and fighting really is universal, so there was no reason that it wouldn’t be just as popular in Africa as it was going to be in the rest of the world. We believed it was going to grow to be one of the most-watched sports in the world.
What does the deal with SABC mean for EFC and SA MMA in general?
The SABC partnership means that more South Africans will watch MMA and EFC than ever before. With live coverage and over 200 hours of airtime on SABC in 2017 - over 10 times the amount of airtime on free-to-air TV in South Africa in comparison to last year - combined with Kwesé Sports and EFC’s numerous other international TV broadcasters, the EFC brand, athletes get vast amounts of promotion on TV.
Literally hours every week broadcast to millions of fans across South Africa and the world. Approximately 2 million fans watched every EFC event on e.tv in South Africa, and over 9.3 million unique viewers watched EFC on e.tv in 2016. With the massive SABC partnership we expect to grow the viewership significantly, cementing EFC as one of the most watched sport properties on the continent and one of the most-watched MMA organisations in the world. SABC is also supporting EFC with their numerous radio stations, further boosting EFC, its athletes and the sport as a whole.
How often are EFC athletes tested for banned substances?
Numerous EFC athletes are tested at every EFC event by (the) South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDS), plus SAIDS conducts out-of-competition testing on various athletes. The majority, if not all of out-of-competition testing has been conducted on EFC champions.
How many others besides Michiel Opperman have tested positive for banned substances?
I think that between six and 10 EFC athletes in total have tested positive for banned substances. Some of them have since been cleared of any wrongdoing and are currently competing, whereas others are serving suspensions or awaiting hearings.
SAIDS is doing a great job in helping to ensure a fair and safe platform for athletes to compete. We are proud that EFC was the first MMA organisation in the world to officially align with Wada, and we will continue to work with SAIDS and Wada to better the sport.
Flyweight champion Nkazimulo Zulu was hit by a car recently, while jogging in preparation for his title unification bout against interim champion JP Buys. How is "Zulu Boy" doing and when can we expect an announcement on the new date for the Buys fight?
Zulu is doing great. Fortunately he came away from the accident without any broken bones, and we are hoping for a fairly quick recovery. If all goes well then we are planning to put the fight on with Buys in May at EFC 59 at Carnival City.
How has MMA in SA changed since EFC started?
It has become a mainstream sport, certainly with the millions of South Africans who watch it, and the number of people training in combat sports as a whole has exploded in recent years. Just a few years ago, the average person would not likely be familiar with the terms “EFC” and “MMA”, whereas now a vast majority of the population have watched EFC on TV, listened to the athletes being interviewed on radio and read about the events and athletes in the news.
Could we see an EFC event hosted outside SA anytime soon?
Certainly. We are working on many opportunities at the moment to host events outside of South Africa.
What else does the future hold for EFC?
The future is extremely bright for EFC. Although a lot has been achieved and we have seen massive growth since (its) inception, there is still so much more to come.