AKO mixed martial arts championship kicks off in Lagos

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

No fewer than 14 fights took place at the Sol Beach, Oniru, Lagos State.

The tournament was sponsored by Nigeria’s U.S based former UFC  welterweight world champion, Kamaru Usman (Nightmare).

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

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

Another fight decided in the middle weight division, saw Nigeria’s Emmanuel Christian in a loosing effort against Cameroon’s Octavia Ayinda in three straight rounds.

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

A light weight encounter saw two Nigerians duel it out with Richard Mujan using his kickboxing experience record a second round Technical Knockout (TKO) against his compatriot Okuma Mathias.

In the lightweight category, Nigeria’s Jibrin Inua-Baba 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 in the first round of their three-round fight.

The sixth fight of the night saw Nigeria’s Victor Dooga lose against Ananias Mulumba of Democratic Republic of Congo.

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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.

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/Emmanuel Ukoh