IMMAF African Championships 2024

This weekend witnessed the 7^th running of the IMMAF African Championships in Namibia – only the 3^rd country to ever host the event after South Africa (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022) and Angola (2023).

Held at the Hybrid Fitness Center in Windhoek, Namibia, where those in attendance were treated to some great amateur punch-kicky action from the athletes representing 9 African countries, culminating in a record medals haul for Team Angola. 

The rise of Angola as a continental powerhouse has been nothing short of meteoric! Their breakout year in 2022, saw Maurio Silva pick up Angola’s first-ever IMMAF gold medal, with a 1^st round upset finish of South Africa’s Nathanial Komana. South Africa topped the medal’s table that year with 17 in total (including five golds), Angola in second place (13 in total) and Namibia (3 in total) a distant third place. 

That momentum continued through to the 2023 African Championships – a watered down version of previous events that was hosted in Angola – here they topped the medals table with 21 seniors medals followed by Namibia and Congo, with 3 (one gold) and 5 medals respectively.

Looking back at some of the action from the cage this weekend, fans were treated to a number of great bouts punctuated by some historic achievements;

• DRC’s Jeremi Likobele claimed gold, delivering the fastest-ever KO – only five seconds – in the Senior Lightweight final against Angola’s William Bombo. The previous record stood at nine seconds.
• Angola’s Anderson Gouveia made history when he was crowned an IMMAF double division champ – following his 2023 Heavyweight title – when he submitted the DRC’s Herve Zeng in the second round of their Light-Heavyweight final.
• The hometown Namibian were further treated as local sensation Damian Muller became a two-time IMMAF champion following his UD victory over South Africa’s Obakeng Mahura in their senior men’s Flyweight final.

Unfortunately, this writer is unable to update you on the latest IMMAF National and Athlete Rankings as, according to their website, they were last updated in November 2022. This despite the IMMAF website stating that rankings “are updated within the days following each IMMAF World Championships, continental Open Championships or World Cup event”.

By comparison – GAMMA – the other global amateur MMA organisation, last held it’s continental MMA showpeice at the 13^th African Games in Ghana earlier this year where athletes from 11 African nations competed, namely; Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

It is interesting to note that only Egypt and Ghana have sent teams to the most recent IMMAF and GAMMA continental events with the other nations choosing to pin their colours to the mast regarding organisational allegiance. The attendance at these continental events has shown that MMA on the continent is alive, but it begs the question as to how healthy is it particularly when it comes to growth across the continent as well as affording athletes the opportunity to build their competition skill-sets as well as their records. Neither organisation has been able to consistently attract more than 20 percent (11 countries) attendance, showing a clear opportunity for growth and development. Until such time as MMA can fully traverse the continent and offer ‘unhindered access’ to top-level competition, this writer is of the belief that the quadrennial question posed in this article (https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1145757/gamma-president-mma-future-olympics) is still some way off.