Championship Rematch Now in the Spotlight.
Amidst the build up to the bantamweight title fight between Musa Sethwape and Shannon van Tonder, who are set to compete for a title which was thought to be vacated, the last reigning champion, King Zulu has refused to relinquish his bantamweight championship and insists that Sethwape and van Tonder compete for an interim championship instead.
After King Zulu won the bantamweight title in a short notice replacement battle against Musa Sethwape he was immediately offered a title defence against van Tonder. Zulu went on to decline the title defence and all others placed in front of him stating that he is not interested in defending at bantamweight and is only interested in going down to fight at flyweight. It was provisionally offered that he would fight the new flyweight champion depending on the outcome of the flyweight title fight between Balelo and Walker at EFC 107.
Due to Zulu declining all bantamweight offers it was decided by the EFC organisation that he would be forced to relinquish his bantamweight title but would be given the opportunity to fight for flyweight gold. It was then that the highly anticipated rematch between ‘Bad News’ Sethwape and ‘The Terror” van Tonder was matched and the winner would claim the vacant bantamweight title. The bout was set for EFC 108 on Thursday 12 October.
Subsequently, King Zulu has messaged the organisation and taken to social media to air his thoughts on the process and let it be known that he is not relinquishing and has confirmed that he will gladly defend his bantamweight title against the winner of Sethwape and van Tonder after he competes for flyweight gold. The decision has been made by EFC management that the bout between Sethwape and van Tonder will now be for the interim bantamweight title.
In an interesting turn of events, the newly crowned flyweight champion, Gift Walker has recently stated that we will not give the opportunity to Zulu to fight for his flyweight title and has expressed intent to defend his strap instead against Tumelo Manyamala who is undefeated with an impressive record of 5-0.
With a number of exciting upcoming contenders in the pipe-line, eyes from around the globe will be watching both divisions intently but the future matchups and title challengers certainly are not secure and while the champions seemingly scoop their challengers from the pot, sometimes it’s best to leave it to them to call the shots.
EFC 108 Sethwape vs van Tonder 2 for the interim bantamweight championship presented by World Sports Betting takes place on Thursday 12 October live from The EFC Performance Institute in JHB, South Africa. Ticket and broadcast info at EFCworldwide.com
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