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Van Staden v Cummins for vacant belt

Cape Town - Former EFC lightweight champion Martin van Staden will battle Englishman Joe Cummins for the vacant belt in the promotion’s first event of 2019.

The duo will headline a 12-bout card at EFC 77 at Time Square in Pretoria on March 16.

Van Staden (26-11), who trains at Coach Quan University in Johannesburg, has not fought since losing the strap by a split decision to Alaskan Dave Mazany (17-6-1) in August.

However, the South African knockout artist gets another crack at gold following Mazany’s retirement from professional mixed martial arts in October.

Birmingham-based Cummins (5-1), a former English K1 champ, earned the title fight fresh off dismantling Armand Scheepers (3-2) in a welterweight duel at EFC 75 in Cape Town in November.

The EFC’s final offering for 2018 is also at Time Square this Saturday.

Italian women’s strawweight queen Chiara Penco (4-0) will defend her crown against ‘Polish Assassin’ Karolina Wójcik (3-1) in the headliner.

Before Penco clashes with Wójcik, ex-UFC fighter Ruan Potts (11-6) will take on America’s Jared Vanderaa (7-3) for the interim heavyweight belt in the co-main event.

The EFC 76 main card also features former heavyweight champ Andrew van Zyl (19-4) against Stuart Austin (12-5), welterweight contender Conrad Seabi (6-4) versus Brazilian Jose da Rocha (9-5), and Dallas Jakobi (6-5-1) vs Mark Kamba (2-2).

The prelims include: Roedie Roets (4-0) vs Sindile Manengela (4-5),  Marino Cutendana (5-3) vs Martin de Beer (7-4), Niel du Plessis (2-1) vs Roger Griffin (3-6), Pietie Coxen (5-8) vs Justin Smith (2-0), Billy Oosthuizen (3-0) vs Tumisang Madiba (7-6), Asiashu Tshitamba (1-1) vs Takunda Gorimbo (1-0), Devon Cronje (2-1) vs Orlando Machaba (0-0), and Marcel Els (2-2) vs Jean-Marie Kabeya (0-1).

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