The City of Cape Town, KNOX Hydrate and the EFC on Monday formally announced the launch of the KNOX Legacy Series, a world-class mixed martial arts event set to take place at GrandWest on 26 February 2026.
KNOX is co-founded by UFC superstar Dricus du Plessis.
The event will see Cape Town’s best MMA athletes take on elite challengers from across the globe, bringing a true international showdown to one of the world’s most iconic cities.
Speaking at the event, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis expressed the City’s support for hosting major global sporting events:
“I have seen why Dricus is a champion, and it’s because he does not give up, this has been a long time in the making and been a passion and a vision of his for a couple of years now and it has been so awesome to see how determined he has been to make this happen. We are very privileged that this is going to be hosted in Cape Town.
"When it became clear that it was going to be overwhelmingly expensive to try have a UFC sanctioned event, Dricus was still determined that we were going to bring an MMA event to Cape Town and he was determined to see it through.
KEEN TO BRING EVENTS TO CAPE TOWN
"Cape Town is super excited to host this event along with Knox and the EFC. We are always keen to bring more events down to Cape Town, especially global sporting events like this one.
"There is a huge fan base in Cape Town, we know there will be big support for the event in the city and we know it will be broadcast nationally and internationally. This will help us significantly in showing that Cape Town can host a UFC title bout with Dricus in the future.”
Du Plessis shared a few words and his vision for the series:
“Amazing to be here, amazing to be back! Sitting here feels almost like it was when I was back in the EFC. It’s incredible how it went full circle. What I want to speak about is what this event represents. Not about only the fights or the fighters and how amazing that’s going to be... For me it was a vision.
"From the first day I started mixed martial arts and decided I’m going to do this professionally I’ve never had another job in my life.
All of us that are here in South Africa know about this sport because the EFC gave us all that platform to make it happen. That’s why we partnered with them. They started MMA on the African continent and took it to that level.”
SOUTH AFRICAN CARD:
Luke Michael, Faeez Jacobs, Terence Balelo, Tumelo Manyamala and Adrian Sanchez, with their international opponents to be revealed soon.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, 26 February 2026
Venue: GrandWest Arena, Cape Town