Big moment for African MMA as athletes perform on Olympic platform at Africa Games

The 2023 African Games brought to fruition the hopes and dreams of many African MMA athletes as upcoming stars from across the continent showcased their talents on a world-class platform.

The 13th edition of the Quadrennial multi-sport event — organised by the African Union (AU), the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC), and the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) — was launched on March 8th and is currently taking place in three cities, namely Accra, Kumasi, and the Cape Coast, before ending on March 23.

This year's sporting festival served up the opportunity of a lifetime for MMA practitioners who got to represent their respective countries and compete on an Olympic platform for the first time.

Amateur MMA — under the regulation body GAMMA (Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts) — achieved a milestone with the announcement of its participation in the games, considering the quest for MMA to receive International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition and eventually become a mainstay sport at the Olympics in the future.