Professional Fighters League begins ticket sale ahead of Africa debut.

The launch which will take place a week before its originally July 26, 2025 schedule. The debut night will be held at the Grand Arena in GrandWest in Cape Town, South Africa.

It will be animated by the participation of 18 top African athletes entering the SmartCage with streaming set to reach the league’s extensive coverage zone which includes 190 countries through 20 leading media partners.

Ahead of the much-awaited debut, PFL Africa announced this week that the sale of tickets was launched on Thursday May 22. The announcement further cemented the ground for the league to make more MMA history on the African continent as it continues its much-applauded world-wide expansion.

Nana Djantou among trailblazers 

The Cape Town showdown will be fronted by several MMA sensations from across the African continent and beyond. 

Notable among the athletes that will be featuring in the July 19 showdown will be Cameroon’s Maxwell Djantou Nana. 

The former world champion in sambo will be up against French star, Mikel Groguhe in the first round of the heavyweight category. 

The fight will serve as the co-main event of the heavyweight series at the Grand Arena night series.

Per PFL Africa, the night will be headlined by South African sensation, Nkosi Ndebele who will face Mahmoud Atef of Egypt in what is expected to be an exciting bantamweight semifinal fight.

The middleweight world championship main event will have the United States’ Johnny Eblen taking on 32-year-old Dutch fighter, Costello Van Steenis while women’s flyweight co-main event will be animated by the match between dreaded Englishwoman, Dakota Ditcheva and Sumiko Inaba of the United States.

The Cape Town event is expected to be bold step in the PFL’s expansion project globally.

PFL Africa stated that in its press release this week that “32 fighters representing 15 African nations will compete across the four PFL Africa divisions in 2025, as the league embarks on a continent-wide journey to crown the first-ever PFL Africa Champions.”

It stated that: “the inaugural PFL Africa will also set the scene and precede a PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai card, bringing the world’s best MMA talents to Africa,”.

The organisation added that the “inaugural PFL Africa Tournament will feature eight-man brackets in each weight class, starting with the Heavyweight and Bantamweight divisions”.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3454 of Saturday May 24, 2025