Emmanuel Benard and Victoria Uduak emerged as top performers at the Akalaka Mixed Martial Arts event in Abuja on Sunday, winning the men's and women's categories at the 21 Arena, National Council for Arts and Culture. The event, titled 'Battle of Gwarinpa', featured 16 fighters across featherweight, bantamweight, lightweight, and strawweight divisions. In the headline bout, Benard defeated Yakubu "Black Scorpion" Solomon by unanimous decision in the -61kg bantamweight category, a fight later named best of the night. Benard, known as the 'Knockout Machine', credited his win to discipline, strategy, and experience, dedicating the victory to his coach and fans from Lagos. The co-main event saw Victoria 'The Hunter' Uduak defeat Blessing 'Chibok Girl' Shettima via first-round technical knockout in the 65kg featherweight division, earning her best female fighter honours. Other results included Nasirudeen Abdulkareem's first-round TKO win over Sunday George in the 61kg bantamweight class, and Balikis Quadri's second-round rear-naked choke victory against Cynthia Philips in the -53kg strawweight bout. Michael Dawodu stopped Destiny Ekpo in the second round via TKO in the 66kg featherweight match, while Peter Onuh beat Goodluck Opara by first-round TKO in the 67kg featherweight division. Christopher Swande secured a submission win over Cornelius Godpower using a triangle choke in the 60kg bantamweight fight. Joseph James and David Ezekiel ended their 70kg lightweight clash in a draw, both scoring 74 points. Dr Ebere Benard, president of Akalaka and director of the Nigeria Mixed Martial Arts Federation Youth Development, said the event fosters youth discipline and talent development, promoting values like honour and peace.
💡 NaijaBuzz is an AI-assisted news aggregator. This content is curated from third-party sources — NaijaBuzz is not the original publisher and is not responsible for the accuracy of source reporting. The NaijaBuzz Take is AI-assisted editorial opinion only, not established fact. All persons mentioned are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. NaijaBuzz does not endorse the views expressed in source articles.
