The African Knockout (AKO) is a pan-African professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion, serving the Nigerian and African audience. AKO was founded in October 2020 in Lagos, Nigeria and, in 2021, the first African-born UFC World Champion, Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman joined the company.[1]
The promotion started off in 2020 as an MMA talent reality TV Show called "African Knockout", becoming the first non-scripted sports reality show on Netflix in the process. The promotion continued with a series of fight events titled "FaceOff" Fight Nights in 2022, before ultimately launching the “AKO Championship” in 2023,[2] with 5 weight divisions gathering athletes from 14 countries across Africa. AKO is governed by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.
The African KnockOut (AKO) Show Season 1 was launched in November 2020 on DStv SuperSport and GoTv Channels, and was promoted as the first-ever Nigerian MMA show and then became the first non-scripted reality show in Netflix history. The show featured 14 amateur fighters from all over Nigeria divided into two teams “White Wolves” and “Team Steal”. For 9 weeks, the fighters lived together in a closed training camp in Landmark, Lagos, and were documented going through martial arts training, team challenges, as well as sharing personal stories. The show was hosted by Okey Bakassi and had appearances from a number of celebrities such as comedian Basket Mouth, rapper MI Abaga and others in the camp.[3]
The show's theme song, eponymously titled African Knockout was produced by Chocolate City and performed by musician MI Abaga.[4] The Season 1 Grand Finale took place in December 2020 at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, where Ndidi "The Rage" Alonu became the ultimate winner of the Show, with Daniel "The Big Shark" Emeka and Segun "The Machine Gun Shegz" Ogunnoiki serving as first and second runner-up respectively.[5]
