No Holds Barred: Mukai Maromo, The Afrikan Assassin

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Maximum Fighting Championship fighter Mukai "The Afrikan Assassin" Maromo (http://twitter.com/AfrikanAssassin).

Originally from Harare, Zimbabwe, and now based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Mukai Maromo will be fighting for the vacant MFC lightweight title this Friday, February 15. His opponent will be Graham Spencer, who defeated him by decision in 2010. Since then, Mukai Maromo, now 8-2, has won five straight fights, while Graham Spencer, 9-1, has also been undefeated.

This fight will be the co-main event of the MFC 36 card which will be held this Friday at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, and televised live on AXS TV.

We spoke with Mukai Maromo by phone Monday.

Mukai Maromo is known more as a striker, having won four of his eight victories by KO or TKO, while Graham Spencer is known more as a grappler, having won four of his nine victories by submission and none by KO or TKO. Although Graham Spencer has never been knocked out, Mukai Maromo is very confident that this will change in their rematch.

"I think it has the makings of a very exciting fight," he said in this interview. He believes that his opponent has never been knocked out because he is mainly a grappler who "has managed to drive his opponents down to the ground and beat them on the top. In that situation it's very hard to get knocked out when you're the one in the top position on the ground."

But he said that it is also because his opponent has not faced a top-level striker. "It's not like he's fought somebody who's landed a couple of hard shots off his chin and taken it and kept on trucking." And he stressed that he is a far improved fighter since their first fight in 2010.

In this rematch, he predicted, "I'm going to put a couple of hands on his chin. If he can take that, I'll put the knee on his chin. If he can take that, I'll put my shin on his chin. With one of those three things landing on it, it's guaranteed to be a knockout." And he added, "He's never been knocked out YET, but I'm definitely coming to do that right now."

We discussed his progress as a fighter since that loss to Graham Spencer. He only started fighting professionally in 2010, at age 27, and took some time to find his bearings. But he said he is now dedicated to becoming "the best" and has also been training at the respected Tristar Gym in Montreal. This is his "new home" and he said he has improved all aspects of his fighting technique since training there.

We also discussed how he became a mixed martial arts fighter, how he would like to help spread and develop MMA in his home country of Zimbabwe and in more of Africa than has it now, the great potential for MMA in Africa, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred at http://nhbnews.podomatic.com/entry/2013-02-13T06_35_35-08_00 and http://archive.org/details/NoHoldsBarredMukaiMaromoTheAfrikanAssassin_320. If one link does not work, please try another.

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The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer by Ian Snow(http://magicpumpkinstudios.com).

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

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"The Martist" with John Perretti (http://johnperretti.com). A "martist" is an artist as well as a martial artist. This is a blog for those who think about fighting, published by John Perretti, the lifelong martial artist and former UFC and Battlecade Extreme Fighting matchmaker. Check out John's writings at http://johnperretti.com (http://johnperretti.com).

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Thanks for sharing this and I think Mukai will win on Friday.

rematch between the 2, spencer is an underrated fighter.....and won the first meeting...mukai's striking is a thing of beauty but has some stamina and tdd problems...well see toss up fight imo

Their first fight was also at a catch weight of 150, which was better for Spencer who sometimes fights at 145. And Mukai trains more seriously now than he did then. But we will see how much of a factor the grappling is in this fight.

Maromo is pretty impressive. I am picking him in this rematch.