{"id":55800,"date":"2025-09-30T13:41:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/francis-ngannou-expected-in-kigali-for-pfl-africa-semi-finals\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:35:18","slug":"francis-ngannou-expected-in-kigali-for-pfl-africa-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/francis-ngannou-expected-in-kigali-for-pfl-africa-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou expected in Kigali for PFL Africa semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On October 18, 2025, Kigali\u2019s BK Arena will host the PFL Africa League semi-finals, where some of the continent\u2019s top fighters will compete for a place in the grand finals scheduled for December. <\/p>\n<p>In a video shared on the league\u2019s social media platforms, Francis Ngannou, who serves as Chairman of PFL Africa, confirmed he will be present in Rwanda. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am calling all of you to join us in Kigali at BK Arena on October 18, where Africa\u2019s MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] takes center stage,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cCome witness greatness, watch our warriors rise, and be part of history. Don\u2019t miss it \u2014 be there with us.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A total of 22 fighters will face off across different divisions, including Heavyweight, Bantamweight, Welterweight, and Featherweight. <\/p>\n<p>This marks the first time for Rwanda to host a continental-level mixed martial arts event. Among the featured bouts, James Opio will represent Rwanda, facing Isaac Omeda from Uganda. <\/p>\n<p>The event, being held in Africa for the first time, is organized by the Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA) through the Professional Fighters League Africa.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1041\" height=\"607\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a7_K98C7VzY\" title=\"BK Arena rivals Paris, London and Dallas venues \u2013 PFL Africa GM on Rwanda&#39;s epic transformation\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-95409\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/gh-9.jpg\" alt=\"Renowned mixed martial artist and professional boxer Francis Ngannou is expected in Kigali to participate in the highly anticipated Professional Fighters League Africa (PFL Africa).\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-95408\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/webp\/hk.webp\" alt=\"A total of 22 fighters will face off across different divisions, including Heavyweight, Bantamweight, Welterweight, and Featherweight.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renowned mixed martial artist and professional boxer Francis Ngannou is expected in Kigali to participate in the highly anticipated Professional Fighters League Africa (PFL Africa).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000095407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000095407,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/gh-3.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000095407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55800"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55800"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}