The man who can Moer 'n Boer

The 23-year-old Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Cameron Saaiman better known as MSP or "Most Savage Player" - talks about getting ready to fight next year, hosting the very first Moer 'n Boer MMA and not giving up on his dream of becoming an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion.

- Marizka Coetzer

Saaiman, born and bred in Pretoria, started kickboxing at the age of 12 and joined team CIT at 14 where he has been training and fighting since.

"When I took the sport very seriously I left everything else.

I went to school and the gym to fight. It's all I did and wanted to do which paid off. I was a junior amateur champion and a senior junior champion and was only 18 years old when I was offered my first opportunity to fight in the UFC," he said.

Despite losing a fight earlier this year in March, Saaiman was getting ready to fight again in 2025 with his record standing at nine wins to two losses as a professional fighter.

"Losing a fight wasn't great.

Deciding what to do after you lost was more important than focusing on what's to gain," he said.

While he was busy nursing his injuries from 11 fights in a short period Saaiman and his partner the president of Versus, Jan van der Berg, turned their focus to organising and hosting the first of its kind in Africa, the Moer 'n Boer event in August which attracted over 4 000 spectators.

Saaiman met Van den Berg who is now his business partner when he agreed to drive to Hartbeespoort every day to coach MMA lessons at Van den Berg's home gym.