Tournament of The early & middle Pleistocene Eastern African Big 9

Tournament of The early & middle Pleistocene Eastern African Big 9

Of all the continents, Africa is essentially the only place in today's world, that still maintains as the stronghold of Pleistocene-level megafauna. During the Pleistocene however, Africa was even more remarkable in abundance and variety of megafauna with its native animals being quite a bit larger and stronger than modern day counterparts. One of most conspicuous examples of that is recently discovered middle Pleistocene Eastern African Natodomeri lion whose size greatly exceeded that of the modern lion, being in all respects comparable to the earlier Eurasian cave lion and the American lion. This shows many species of the lion lineage across the world, during the period, whether it be spelaea, atrox or the true leo, almost evenly matched in terms of size. Such dimensions of hypercarnivores(carnivores that consume meat almost exclusively) could be possible because of much greater biomass of mega herbivores than at present, with animals such as the giant buffalo and giant short necked giraffe being flourishing at the time.

In this occasion, I select for the new tournament, 9 different Eastern African megafauna that I believe deserve to be considered as some of the most fearsome animals during the early and the middle Pleistocene periods. Since the size of each animal differs considerably, this is made as a team tournament(except for Elephas recki, one of super sized fossil proboscideans) with the amount of members varying with each team. I haven't made any detailed rules but all contenders are expected to fight in perfectly cooperative and aggressive manner, with the strong intention of battling till the very end.

The reck elephant seems to me the absolute favorite here.

The main focus here is just for fun but also for learning about the animals with emphasis being put on analyzing and comparing abilities and characteristics of each contender, nothing more. 
Ofcourse, to merely touch upon one face off or two that you think the most interesting would be perfectly fine.
 
Having said that, this contains rather traditionally controversial vs. elements such as big cats vs. bears or lions vs. buffaloes, and accordingly, may become somehow offensive or annoying to some people. If that is indeed the case, feel free to let me know, I'll then erase this post.

*Each body mass figure represents the average but the ones for the Natodomeri lion and the giant buffalo, since I can't be certain, are merely of my speculation.

:Contenders:

'African short faced bear coalition'
Agriotherium africanus *3 
2 males (540 kgs *2) + 1 female (300 kgs)


'Northern White rhino mates'
Ceratotherium simum cottoni *2
1 male (2.3 t) + 1 female (1.5 t)


'The Reck elephant'
Elephas recki
1 male (10 t)


'River Swellers' (Giant hippo + Nile crocodile)
Hippopotamus gorgops + Crocodylus niloticus
1 male (3.5 t)                          1 male (500 kgs)


'Pride of Scimitar tooths'
Homotherium latidens *5
2 males (185 kgs *2) + 3 females (130 kgs *3)


'Natodomeri lion nomads'
Panthera leo sensu lato *4
4 males (350 kgs *4) 


'Giant African buffalo bulls'
Pelorovis (Syncerus) antiquus *2 
2 males (1.2 t *2)


'Giant short necked giraffe bulls'
Sivatherium maurisium *2 
2 males (1.2 t *2)

:Match ups:

Battle 1
River Swellers (1 male giant Hippo + 1 male Nile crocodile) vs. Natodomeri lion nomads (4 males)
 

Battle 2
Giant African buffalo bulls (2 males) vs. Pride of Scimitar tooths (2 males + 3 females)


Battle 3
The Reck elephant (1 male) vs. Giant short necked giraffe bulls (2 males)


Battle 4
African short faced bear coalition (2 males + 1 female) vs. Northern White rhino mates (1 male + 1 female)


Semi Final 1
Winners of 1 vs. Winners of 2

Semi Final 2
Winner(s) of 3 vs. Winners of 4


Final