Diego Llamas vs. Justin Houghton R1 1:40
Omari Boyd vs. Mexico Daniel Morales 3R SD
Omar Moreno vs. Casey Greene 4R. One of the best comebacks I've seen in kickboxing. Greene dropped Moreno in the 1st, and though the fight wasn't exactly a walkover because Moreno had more volume and was doing good work with his kicks, Greene was the power puncher & was running away with it on the scorecards, up 20-17 after 2 rounds, mostly due to a big right hand knockdown & the adjustments he made after that. Moreno was doing a good job of mixing his kicks early, but tried to close the distance after his front kick late in the 1st & just got leveled by an overhand right. This knockdown took away a round that would have been Moreno's, Moreno still landing 1 more strike despite Greene's strong push in the final 30 seconds that saw him coming forward & landing another big right. Greene made some good adjustments in the 2nd, waiting to block Moreno's kick then closing the distance & working him over with his punches. Greene has a muay thai background having trained under Ramon Dekkers brother Carlo, and was so far superior on the inside Moreno would usually just try to defend the inside combo, and then step back or circle out to reestablish distance & throw a kick. Greene was increasly just bullying Moreno in the 2nd, keeping the fight in his domain most of the time, & taking advantage. Moreno got one good punch in at the end of the round, but for the most part this was a much more consistent round for Greene than the 1st. Greene continued to pressure for the 1st half of the 3rd, but started to run out of gas. Moreno was doing a little better with the left kick and knee than he had since the early portion, but was generally showing no signs of doing anything miraculous. I'm pretty sure that if Greene just kept coming forward for the last 90 seconds he would have won 30-26, but once he stopped moving his feet, Moreno was able to step in & throw a punch then surprise Greene with a left high kick that sent Greene stumbling, perhaps only staying up because he was able to use his hand on the canvas to regain balance. Greene was really looking weary now, and Moreno proved to be an effective puncher when he could set his own distance & pace. Greene was still firing back, but was a stationary target with ever slowing strikes, and Moreno was just picking him apart now. Moreno stepped in with a knee to the chin, a nice left straight, then a right uppercut that wobbled Greene, prompting a standing 8 count with just 15 seconds left. I really hate standing 8 counts because for the most part they either punish the fighter who is about to win by giving the opponent time to recover or screw over the guy who isn't as badly hurt as the ref might think by giving the opponent an extra point for a knockdown even though they were healthy enough to stay on their feet. In this case, the 8 count essentially ran the clock out on Moreno, as there were only 5 seconds left when the bout restarted. Moreno made his last desperate push, stepping in with a front kick to the face that resulted in one of the craziest I've standing 8 counts I've ever seen, as ref Josh Stewart first ruled that it was a push but then looked at Greene and decided he was too woozy to finish the final second. In this case, what essentially happened is Stewart probably saved Greene from getting finished with the 1st standing 8 count then, in turn, cost him the fight with the 2nd because it would have ended before Moreno got to throw another strike, but now Moreno got an extra point, with the 10-7 round evening the fight at 27-27 and forcing an extra round. The most hilarious thing is there are actually no standing 8 counts allowed under GLORY rules, the exception being the ropes keep you from getting knocked down, which wasn't the case. Despite Stewart's ineptness, it was a totally amazing, perhaps once in a lifetime occurance seeing a guy make up 2 points in the last 15 seconds to force an extra round! Now that Moreno had forced the sudden victory round, you figured he'd win the fight because he had a lot more left in the tank. Greene came out looking fresher than I expected, but that vanished quickly when Moreno beat him to the right hook 30 seconds in. Greene's head wasn't moving anymore and he had no bounce in his step. For that matter, he pretty much just walked straight forward or backwards, so Moreno's connect percentage, particularly on his punches, was ever increasing. Greene managed to will himself forward in the last minute, but couldn't land anything major to swing things back in his favor and was ultimately outstruck 35 to 15 in the decider. There will surely be a number of better fights this year purely for the action, but this is a one of a kind, storybook fight. Very good match.
Glory Lightweight Title: Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs. Christian Baya 5R UD
Heavyweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Guto Inocente vs. Junior Tafa 3R UD
Heavyweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. D'Angelo Marshall R1 0:36
Richard Abraham vs. Malik Watson-Smith 3R UD
Heavyweight Contender Tournament Final: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Junior Tafa R2 0:34
Glory Welterweight Title: Murthel Groenhart vs. Harut Grigorian R1 2:06
Kevin van Heeckeren vs. Bas van der Kroon R1 2:48
Massaro Glunder vs. Victor Pinto 3R UD
Tyjani Beztati vs. Anil Cabri R1 2:17
Mohammed Jaraya vs. Miles Simson 3R. GLORY has aquired another exciting young fighter in former ENFUSION -67kg champ Jaraya, returning from a 2 year reduced to 10 month suspension for assaulting a judge on the conditioned he moved to a more "professional" gym, which tured out to be Colosseum with Beztati & the Wilnis brothers, & now moving up to welterweight. Jaraya tried to come forward all night, negating Simson's reach, but Simson, also making his GLORY debut, stood his ground & got off first, forcing Jaraya to eat a shot if not a combo to get in. The standout aspect of the fight was the workrate both fighters displayed, they were more concerned about their own offense & just kept throwing and throwing. Once Jaraya got inside, both were generally content to stay in close quarters & just slug it out, which was clearly an advantage to Jaraya because when Simson would exit he'd give himself the opportunity to keep Jaraya back momentarily with the teep or use his reach to get a jab in while Jaraya was charging forward. Simson also did some good work stepping in with the right knee or the front kick to the face, but the longer Simson just stayed in the pocket, the more Jaraya broke him down with the left hook to the liver & the inside leg kick. I thought Simson won the 1st round because he was so active, outlanding Jaraya 57-29, but Jaraya has more weight of shot & did do good work to the body & the legs. The crazy pace as well as the type of shot Jaraya was landing repeatedly were clearly swinging the conditioning edge to Jaraya in the 2nd, as he maintained his pop while Simson's shots grew increasingly weaker. Jaraya did a really good job with his left hand, using hooks to the head & body to set up his uppercuts. Simson continued to land good front kicks & step knees in the 3rd when he created the space for himself, but his punches were all arm & he wasn't able to strike any fear in Jaraya or slow him down at all. The scoring didn't show the fight to be all that competitive, but Simson struck 1st & countered well, outlanding Jaraya 130-92 even though he lost every round. Good match.
Alim Nabiev vs. Cedric Doumbe 3R SD
Welterweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Thongchai Sitsongpeenong vs. Alan Scheinson 3R SD
Welterweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Eyevan Danenberg vs. Jimmy Vienot 3R SD
Tomas Mozny vs. Daniel Skvor 3R UD
Welterweight Contender Tournament Final: Eyevan Danenberg vs. Thongchai Sitsongpeenong 3R UD
Badr Hari vs. Hesdy Gerges 3R UD
Zakaria Zouggary vs. Bailey Sugden 3R. The expected action packed match from two of GLORY's most exciting young fighters. These guys really brought it, and weren't afraid to take chances. Zouggary was looking for the high kick from the get go, and was trying high level athletic attacks as usual, landing a jumping switch knee, spinning back kick, even trying a tornado kick like he was Mike Bailey. I thought Zouggary's left high kick should have been scored a knockdown. Bailey was ducking in with a left hand, and it seemed like Zouggary's shin caught him on the chin & caused Sugden to stumble down onto his glove. Zouggary had the speed advantage, and when he had space was too dynamic & diverse for Sugden. Sudgden had the advantage when he could close the distance & use his boxing combos, but he wasn't doing anything to maintain that distace in the 1st & on the outside, other than a couple spinning backfists, he didn't have much for Zouggary. Sugden tried to force a change in the 2nd, just bull charging Zouggary time after time. Zouggary was ready, and was hitting him coming in, which was obviously bad, but just being such a competitive fighter he then refused to give ground to Sugden which was exactly what Sugden needed him to do. This made for an exciting fight as there were some big firefights on the inside with both showing really fast hands, but it also let Sugden into the fight. Zouggary won the 1st round easily, but the 2nd round was very close because of Zouggary's stubbornness, trying to match Sugden in a boxing match rather than staying on the outside & winning with his kicks. Sugden's dad kept trying to get him to throw the body punch, and it landed the few times he actually used it, but he was basically just headhunting. A minute into the 3rd, Zouggary landed 2 good right hands then pushed Sugden down as Sugden stepped inside his left hand, and this time Marcos Rosales ruled it a knockdown. Though the first punch, in particular, was good, it was clear that Sugden was pushing forward & Zouggary gave him a boost with what was essentially an enzui lariat follow through, so Sugden was in disbelief after he popped up. At this point, Zouggary could have just shut it down because he was presumably up 2 points, but he still put up a spinning high kick & engaged in one final wild flurry in the last 10 seconds after eating a right hook. Zouggary definitely won the fight, and while I did give him the 2nd round also, I was still surprised that all 5 judges agreed & had it 30-26 as this was a much more competitive fight than that score suggests. Good match.
Troy Jones vs. Paul Banasiak 3R UD
Anissa Meksen vs. Ashley Nichols 3R UD
Pavel Zhuravlev vs. Myron Dennis 3R UD
Josh Jauncey vs. Stoyan Koprivlenski 3R. One of the closest GLORY fights I've seen. They stood toe to toe with both guys being very active & consistent, pretty much throwing 60+ a round & landing 25+ a round. Jauncey is a guy GLORY has wanted to do big things, but they put him in with competition too elite too fast & he lost to great champions like Giorgio Petrosyan & Sittichai then started having really inconsistent results. He needed a win here coming off the big upset KO defeat to Elvis Gashi, but Koprivlenski has surpassed him in the rankings & was already supposed to get a title shot from winning the GLORY 49 contender tournament, they seem to just be trying to get him some more experience in the meantime as he has 10 fights compared to Sittichai's 150+. Koprivlenski was doing a better job of mixing quadrants with his punches, but Jauncey got into a good grove in the 2nd round of following the head punch with the low kick. I thought Jauncey slightly won the 2nd round anyway, but definitely the thing of note was he opened up a nasty gash just under Koprivlenski's left eyebrow with a right high kick. The other 2 rounds really could have gone either way. Koprivlenski did a better job of pressuring in the 3rd, staying long & backing Jauncey, but Jauncey won the toe to toe exchanges when Koprivlenski wasn't pushing him back with his jabs, so again it was very close overall. Jauncey's edges were head punches & low kicks, while Koprivlenski had the body punches, but overall, Jauncey outlanded Koprivlenski 85-83. Jauncey won a split decision 29-28, 30-27, 28-29, 28-29, 30-27. I'd have been happy with a draw, but these 30-27's were rather unreasonable. Good match.
Mike Lemaire vs. Chris Camozzi 3R UD
Simon Marcus vs. Zack Wells R1 1:03
Glory Featherweight Title Unification Match: Robin van Roosmalen (c) vs. Kevin VanNostrand (ic) 5R. About what you'd expect from a van Roosmalen fight, with VanNostrand competing early but progressively getting worn down by the ceaseless forward pressure & great conditioning of RVR to the point he was just struggling to stay out of the corner. These guys didn't even look like they belonged in the same weight class, with van Roosmalen only coming up to VanNostrand's nose. VanNostrand is traditionally a quick starter, and as long as he could keep using his length & faking unorthodox strikes to keep Robin honest he had a chance. He started effectively faking the step knee or teep then coming forward with the jab. Van Roosmalen was content to stay behind his block & let VanNostrand burn energy, deflecting VanNostrand's combo then applying his own pressure, which meant VanNostrand never got a break, he was either using a lot of energy to attack or struggling to keep himself off the ropes where van Roosmalen could have his way with him. VanNostrand backed van Roosmalen into the ropes with a couple missed step knees then bloodied his nose with a short right hand as van Roosmalen was bouncing back off the ropes. VanNostrand looked to land his spinning attacks, but even though these would theoretically help keep Robin back, Robin instead moved forward so he'd be inside the shot if VanNostrand still bothered to throw it & would throw his own punches while VanNostrand was prone. VanNostrand won the 1st round, but van Roosmalen was okay with that, staying in his face & blocking high while landing low kicks. Already in the 2nd, there was a lot more of VanNostrand striking just to try to keep van Roosmalen back rather than having the energy to launch his own offensive as van Roosmalen continued to chip away with kicks & slow VanNostrand down with pressure. VanNostrand was sucking wind just trying to keep van Roosmalen off him in the 3rd, and with his constant forward pressure game now in full swing, van Roosmalen was mixing a lot more head & body punches into his already effective low kick game. Van Roosmalen was pinning VanNostrand on the ropes more and more, and that allowed him to work his typical left to the liver, right to the head or vice versa punch combos. VanNostrand was stunned by one of the liver hooks midway through the 4th and spent the rest of the round trying to find some space to get a breather, but of course van Roosmalen just followed along & kept beating on him. Van Roosmalen was corning VanNostrand more & more in these late rounds, and was still pushing for the finish in the 5th even though he'd won 3 rounds in a row. He didn't get it, but he hurt VanNostrand with a jumping knee & a few more liver hooks. Even though van Roosmalen totally ran away with the fight, his nowhere to hide style demands relentless attacking from both, so it wasn't getting dull. One judge had it 48-47, the other four had it 49-46. Good match.
Featherweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Victor Pinto vs. Buray Bozaryilmaz 3R MD
Featherweight Contender Tournament Semifinal: Serhiy Adamchuk vs. Azize Hlali 3R UD
Alan Scheinson vs. Anghel Cardos 3R UD
Featherweight Contender Tournament Final: Serhiy Adamchuk vs. Victor Pinto 3R UD. After an entire year of the Superfight Series showing up the main card, GLORY finally made the right move to switch the big matches to the main show & the tournament to the Superfight Series (which now kind of needs to be renamed), but ironically the notable match on the show was the tournament final. The tournament semifinals were both ugly grindy muay thai brawls, but Adamchuk has claimed he's going to be more aggressive to avoid losing close decisions, and was able to deliver his most exciting fight in GLORY here. Adamchuk was attacking fiercely here, bloodying Pinto's mouth early, but Pinto did a good job of subtly deflecting a lot of Adamchuk's punches with his gloves & landing his own counter. Adamchuk pushing forward kept Pinto out of his kicking range & forced him into a boxing match, which was more advantageous for Adamchuk. Round 1 seemed an Adamchuk round, but looked closer when the replays kept showing Pinto doing better on the inside than it appeared live. They started the 2nd with a furious exchange, and when Pinto tried to quickly get out of the pocket to avoid what looked like an Adamchuk middle kick, Adamchuk instead switched to a glorious spinning backfist that completely leveled Pinto. Definitely one of the best spinning backfists I've ever seen in a competitive situation, and props to Pinto for even getting back up. Adamchuk used his knees to back Pinto & try to keep him trapped in the corner, but Pinto wanted none of that & would press forward with his kicks to momentarily reestablish ring position. Pinto has really fast hands & feet, but he didn't quite have enough power to keep Adamchuk off him. Without being able to keep Adamchuk from being willing to absorb or even walk through his blows, he couldn't do enough sticking & moving to win on volume landing & making the opponent miss. Also, Adamchuk is a counter striker by nature, and he knew if they stood toe to toe, even if he took the first shot he could land a more powerful & accurate counter most of the time, so he didn't have to just keep pressing forward the whole fight, he just had to be ready to step forward if Pinto disengaged after his combo. With a 3 point advantage going into the 3rd, Adamchuk took his foot off the gas & mostly screwed around. Pinto thus did better, but it seemed like the judges gave him the round more because he was trying harder to win it than for him actually being successful. Adamchuk got the 29-27 unanimous decision. Good match.
Yousri Belgaroui vs. Dawid Kasperski R2 1:16
Cedric Doumbe vs. Thongchai Sitsongpeenong R1 0:33
Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao vs. Abdellah Ezbiri R2 1:40
Zinedine Hameur-Lain vs. Michael Duut R2 1:14
GLORY Women's Super Bantamweight Title: Anissa Meksen vs. Amel Dehby 5R UD
Jahfarr Wilnis vs. Jamal Ben Saddik 3R UD
Glory Lightweight Title: Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs. Tyjani Beztati 5R UD
Welterweight Qualification Tournament Semifinal: Jamie Bates vs. Tommy King 3R UD
Welterweight Qualification Tournament Semifinal: Mark Timms vs. Dawid Blaszke 3R UD
Elvis Gashi vs. William Goldie-Galloway 3R UD
Marat Grigorian vs. Liu Xu 3R UD
Adam Hatfield vs. Richard Abraham 3R SD
Josh Jauncey vs. Christian Baya 3R SD
Danyo Ilunga vs. Fraser Weightman 3R UD
Chenglong Zhang vs. Adrian Maxim 3R UD
Bailey Sugden vs. Aleksei Ulianov R2 1:10
Glory Welterweight Title: Harut Grigorian vs. Alim Nabiev 5R UD
Glory Heavyweight Title: Rico Verhoeven vs. Mladen Brestovac 5R UD
Jacob Rodriguez vs. Joe Taylor 3R UD
Asa Ten Pow vs. Justin Greskiewicz R1 2:59
Itay Gershon vs. Trevor Ragin R2 0:36
Tiffany van Soest vs. Sofia Olofsson 3R. I found this fight to be closer than van Soest's previous fight with Anissa Meksen, which I thought she clearly won & was particularly surprised she didn't get the decision given you normally have to actually do something to take the title. That wasn't a good stylistic matchup for either, as their footwork & movement mostly negated each other's offense. This was a much more straightforward matchup in that Olofsson was going to pressure the whole fight to try to take van Soest's movement out of the equation. Olofsson is transitioning from muay thai & was consistently able to land the left middle kick, but that was really the only strike she was connecting with in the first two rounds. Van Soest was constantly circling, scoring with her boxing & keeping distance with the front kick now & then. She showed a lot more diversity obviously, but the round was close because she didn't do much to defend or take away Olofsson's middle kick, she just made sure she didn't have openings to follow it up. Olofsson did better in the second because she pushed forward a lot more aggressively, and now that van Soest didn't have the space to easily angle away after taking the single kick, Olofsson was able to get her hands going. Van Soest wobbled Olofsson with a left high kick midway through the 2nd though, and that was the deciding factor in a round that Olofsson outlanded van Soest in & otherwise would have won pretty handily. Van Soest changed her strategy & came forward a lot more in the 3rd, but Olofsson was still coming forward as well, so it would just end up in the clinch, though van Soest did a better job of scoring there with knees. Van Soest did a good job of mixing her punches & scoring with the overhand right, but while she showed more diversity to her attack & her strikes had more on them, she got outworked here, particularly as the fight progressed. I gave van Soest the 1st 2 rounds, and there was definitely a quality over quantity situation going on here, but Olofsson increased her output with each round, outlanding Tiffany 61-38 in the 3rd. I don't know if she could have kept this pace up for another 2 rounds had it been a title fight, but she really came on after getting wobbled in the 2nd, and definitely won the 2nd half of the fight. Van Soest won a 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 split decision. Good match.
Cedric Doumbe vs. Alan Scheinson R2 1:38. Doumbe's first 6 fights in GLORY were all decisions, but now that he's lost two out of the last 3 that went to the scorecards, he's started fighting more aggressively. His 33 second KO over Thongchai at GLORY 53 began to show this new direction, but I still certainly never expected to see Doumbe just standing in front of the opponent & making it an all out brawl. I liked Todd Grisham's description that Doumbe was fighting as though it were a 1 rounder, but even that doesn't begin to convey how offensive minded & arguably reckless this was for Doumbe. Doumbe's aggressive bend was somewhat provoked by the typically horrendous refing of Chris Wagner, who fans & fighters such as Josh Jauncey have been wanting to see fired for years because he tends to call it a knockdown anytime a fighter leaves their feet (not to mention forgetting he can't give standing 8 counts). It took 20 seconds for him to screw up this time on what very clearly was a slip, with a dumbfounded Scheinson never seeming to recover. I'm not saying this lost him the fight by any means, but between this & Doumbe surprising him fighting a high output inside fight rather than being a runner as Scheinson had followed in the footsteps of Nieky Holzken in taunting Doumbe about, Scheinson just never seemed to get his bearings & work his way into the fight. Not to take away from what Doumbe was doing, he did blitz Scheinson & consistently put him on the defensive, which isn't his strength, landing a number of solid shots while still managing to bob his head away from Scheinson's attacks. Scheinson was slipping & sliding like he was on skates, and early in the 2nd round, the same nonsense happened, though this time at least Doumbe connected with a punch before Scheinson lost his footing & went down for the second "knockdown". Bazooka Joe described it as "more of a knockdown than the other one." The more Scheinson got frustrated & felt he had to make something happen because he was down on the scorecards, the more Doumbe used his forward pressure against him, clipping him when he was trying to come in. Doumbe rocked Scheinson with an uppercut then backed him into the ropes with a couple of hooks. Scheinson wasn't in terrible shape, but he couldn't get himself out of the corner. Scheinson was still moving & trying to throw, but couldn't avoid any of Doumbe's shots up the middle, and after the 3rd knee the fight was stopped, another decision Scheinson wasn't pleased about. The stoppage was premature in the sense that Scheinson wasn't hurt super badly & was still trying to fight, but it wasn't a terrible stoppage because he wasn't having success getting out of the corner & kept taking more punishment because of that. Good match.
Elvis Gashi vs. Nick Chasteen 3R UD
Victor Pinto vs. Nate Richardson 3R SD
Junior Tafa vs. Anthony McDonald R1 2:20
Interim Glory Featherweight Title: Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao vs. Kevin VanNostrand 5R SD
Glory Middleweight Title: Alex Pereira vs. Yousri Belgaroui R1 2:28
Ryot Waller vs. Zack Wells R3 0:57
Chris Camozzi vs. John King R2 2:48. Camozzi isn't particularly athletic or technical, so it's not surprising he's decided to move up a weight class to light heavyweight as his chance is to keep things ugly & win a slobberknocker over other fighters who aren't overwhelmingly skilled or conditioned. King got off to a great start because Camozzi was staying in the pocket with his hands low & his chin up, and King was able to follow pretty much whatever with the overhand right as Camozzi's hands dipped even lower after the 1st shot. Even an accidental headbutt to the chin followed by a right hook wasn't slowing King down early, and he continued to dominate this brawl after the restart with all his power punches to Camozzi's open chin. Camozzi started to fight more technically, if anything in this brawl qualifies, kicking the leg & moving a little on the outside & using the clinch on the inside. Camozzi was cut over the right eye & on the right cheek late in the 1st, but Camozzi is used to the altitude fighting out of Colorado, and King was slowing down a lot more having pushed hard for the 1st round finish. Camozzi pressed forward with bombs in the 2nd & used clinch knees once he got inside. He was warned for holding, but he hurt King in the exchange, with King being doubled over while the ref separated them & scolded Camozzi. King never seemed to recover, only able to throw a random wild right hook after this. He was pinned in the corner on the restart, taking some big punches & knees, as he made no effort to clinch or find a way to move out. As Camozzi did earlier, he just tried to slug his way out of trouble. Camozzi was tiring, but still had energy for a spinning backfist, whereas King was fading fast by the second. Camozzi landed another knee to the head after ducking one of King's overhand rights, and King basically just went down from exhaustion with some help from Camozzi's hand on the back of his neck guiding him to the canvas. King did manage to will himself to continue, but was no more than a punching bag after this, struggling to even stand upright despite leaning on the ropes. Camozzi ran out of gas too, but King never moved his feet again & no longer had the will to continue after a second knockdown was called with King doubled over against the ropes. Good match.
Myron Dennis vs. Steve Paprocki R1 1:49
Justin Houghton vs. Troy Sheridan 3R. There's aggressive pressure fighters, but Houghton consistently crosses the line into reckless, closing a lot of distance with wide power punches then trying to finish combos with floating knees. Sheridan's strategy was to stay patient & find the openings for the counter, but while Houghton is a very offense first fighter, he's also a lot better athlete than Sheridan, so picking him apart wasn't as easy as it may have seemed with Houghton beating him to the punch & having the reflexes to evade. Houghton really covers a lot of distance in a short amount of time, and seems to just be gliding out there, leaving his feet regularly but maintaining balance & the ability to adjust if he needs to. While this high risk style leads to exciting fights, obviously it doesn't always work as planned, and sometimes leads to very unusual situations, such as Houghton trying a jumping knee while they were clinching against the ropes but Sheridan tossing him over to the outside (no tope attempt though). Houghton took a left high kick to the neck, but Sheridan just stood in front of him a little too long before starting his left hook, and Houghton was able to get his right cross there a little quicker for the knockdown just before the end of the 1st. Early in the 2nd, Houghton backed Sheridan into the ropes with punches & landed a right straight as Sheridan was on 1 leg trying a front kick that was rightfully called a slip even though it was a clean shot & the ropes kept Sheridan up. Houghton slowed down midway through the 2nd, and Sheridan was able to get his offense going, using the jab to set up the overhand right. Sheridan actually outlanded Houghton 32-24 in this round, but Houghton did enough in the 1st half before fatigue set in to win it. Houghton continued to be a lot more flatfooted in the 3rd, and at this pace Sheridan had the time to take advantage of being the more technical fighter. Sheridan got his low kick going, and although it was late for that, Sheridan was trying to use it as another way to set up the big right hand. Sheridan wasn't leaving his comfort zone to press for the knockout, but Houghton was pretty much just standing in front of him with his hands low slugging it out. Houghton landed some nice rights down the middle, but Sheridan finally clipped him with the overhand right with 45 seconds left. Houghton finally started moving backward after this, but in addition to looking to survive to get the decision, was luring Sheridan in so he could land another right straight. Houghton won a unanimous decision 29-27, 29-27, 30-26. Very good match.
D'Angelo Marshall vs. Antonio Dvorak R1 2:14
Simon Marcus vs. Jason Wilnis 3R. Based on the way the two title matches were scored, it's hard to see how Wilnis didn't win this fight, though in reality, him even getting it on one card was surprising. Though Marcus & Ilunga didn't fight the same exact style, Marcus relying on his movement first to maintain distance & evade while Ilunga relying on his timing to hold his ground & land the counter, the end result was very similar in that the opponent was the aggressor, but they were just stepping forward all night without throwing or especially landing much because the opponent ensured the attacks weren't there for the taking. I felt Wilnis started this fight with more or less the right idea of landing low kicks because Marcus was constantly circling away, but he was only throwing inside kicks & wasn't throwing them with as much conviction as I would have liked. I thought trying to be proactive & cutting Marcus off with the right outside leg kick to Marcus's left leg would have been worth a try because Marcus was mostly circling left & Wilnis was never really able to stop that pattern to create the moment to unleash the aggressive punches he's known for, but before long, Wilnis pretty much abandoned kicking entirely, throwing 109 punches to 19 kicks throughout the fight. Marcus did a great job sticking & moving to control the distance, stopping to push Wilnis back with the front kick &/or the straight punches then going back to making Wilnis chase him. When Wilnis got into mid range, if Marcus didn't go back to extending the range, he would also press forward with a knee & clinch so he was inside Wilnis' power punching range. Marcus had some success using the left knee when Wilnis was chasing him left, but I wanted him to throw his left kick lower, as too many of the left middle kicks were right onto the forearms of Wilnis' high guard without Wilnis ever having to bring it down to actually defend them, so they were neither landing to the body nor actually opening up the high kick by forcing him to drop his guard. Wilnis was basically just headhunting, so his best success came with uppercuts & short hooks since Marcus would move forward to take away his extension. On the restart after a slip late in the 2nd, Marcus knocked Wilnis mouthpiece halfway across the ring with a beautiful front kick to the mouth. This woke Wilnis up a bit & he began to close the distance a lot more aggressively so he could trap Marcus on the ropes & let his hands go, though Marcus landed some good shots here as well. Their last two fights have been 5 rounds, which is an advantage to Wilnis because he's able to more successfully pressure Marcus as Marcus slows down a bit. Wilnis didn't really adjust to the 3 round fight though, and Marcus wasn't getting beat on or really feeling stressed by overwhelming pressure, which helped him to maintain the same level of movement throughout the 3 rounds. Wilnis did carry the sense of urgency we saw at the end of the 2nd into the 3rd round, and he caught Marcus with a right hook at the end of a combination & also landed a nice left uppercut off the jab. Marcus grew more defensive after this, assuming he was up 2 rounds, he concentrated more on not allowing Wilnis to somehow steal the fight than getting his own offense in. This was a Wilnis round, but you felt if he didn't wait until the final seconds of the 2nd to close the distance more aggressively he might have won the fight. Marcus won a split decision 29-28, 28-29, 30-27 to go up 3-1 in the rivalry. Good match.
Massaro Glunder vs. Quade Taranaki 3R UD
Serhiy Adamchuk vs. Anvar Boynazarov 3R UD
Glory Women's Super Bantamweight Title: Anissa Meksen vs. Jady Menezes 5R SD
Glory Light Heavyweight Title: Artem Vakhitov vs. Danyo Ilunga 5R. Another weekend, another series of history altering dreadful decisions. In the previous title match, 95-3 Meksen, who won the title via bad decision, somehow managed to have the title robbed from her by a 28-1 underdog who a judge & Bazooka Joe gave exactly 0 rounds. I thought Menezes won the 2nd, but it was marginal. Now in the main event, Ilunga, who was won of the best fighters in the world at the start of the decade & was still the It's Showtime 95kg champion when the promotion folded & was absorbed by GLORY, wrote one of the best comeback stories in the history of combat sports, turning things around from a 7 fight losing streak that more than doubled the number of losses he had in his entire career & sent him into a brief retirement to win 3 in a row & regain his crown, except despite outlanding Vakhitov in each and every round, being the more powerful striker, & not getting hurt or knocked down, he managed to lose a unanimous decision. I'm not going to say there weren't a lot of reasonably close rounds here after Ilunga ran away with the first, but Ilunga was at his most disciplined best, sticking to the game plan & fighting a consistently effective fight while Vakhitov was nowhere near top form, still trying to avoid using the right hand that he's broke two fights in a row. GLORY was starting to do things better with most shows having 5 judges & a shift to open scoring, but we haven't seen that in the last few shows, and it was a miserable turn for the worse. The consistency in the judges misdeeds is they valued the fighter moving forward even though they were moving forward into a bunch of blows that were way more effective than anything they led with or used once they got inside. Menezes was much more active than Vakhitov, throwing a high volume of somewhat robotic shots once she got inside while taking the much cleaner shots in return after Meksen avoided taking anything cleanly. Ilunga, on the other hand, didn't allow Vakhitov to get any rhythm, using his jab, step knee, and low kick to push Vakhitov back once he got inside. What Ilunga did really well here was let Vakhitov make the first move & then just counter him right away before that move actually had benefits. So you had Vakhitov either closing the distance without throwing, and just getting pushed back because Ilunga would then throw or Vakhitov leading but Ilunga knocking him back with the counters. Vakhitov had a moment midway through the 2nd where he landed a high kick & actually used his right hand for a hook and an uppercut. At the end of the round, he also had a nice left hook to the body then the head & a low kick that Ilunga slipped on. For the most part though, Ilunga just countered Vakhitov whenever he tried to apply the pressure, so Vakhitov was stuck shelling up or trying to use his had movement to avoid, neither of which allowed him to get into any offensive flow. Vakhitov tried to switch to southpaw to capitalize on his left hand & hide his right, but he didn't have the defense & Ilunga started landing much more consistently with his right hooks to the head. Joe had Ilunga pitching a shutout after 3 rounds, with giving Vakhitov the 2nd seemingly being the only other reasonable scoring alternative, but Vakhitov was just never able to maintain the offensive or establish any semblance of consistency to anything he was doing beyond walking forward (only to get pushed right back). Even if it's not an official scoring criteria, you're supposed to be scoring based on who is imposing their will, who is thwarting who, and that was very very obviously Ilunga, who had Vakhitov out of his comfort zone all night. If Vakhitov knocked him down then sure, but otherwise a random good shot, and believe me things like Vakhitov's high kick in the 4th were random, should be no means trump the consistent stiffling attack of Ilunga. Vakhitov had the advantage in the 4th because Ilunga slowed down temporarily after the high kick that cut him above the eye, but we still saw more of the same from Vakhitov, pressuring with his movement but just waiting & waiting to actually throw anything. He probably let Ilunga off the hook here, and Ilunga eventually finished the round with more of what he was doing for the 1st 3 because Vakhitov didn't do anything to change the narrative of the fight. Both fighters conditioning held up & they stepped it up in the 5th. Again, Vakhitov landed a decent shot here or there, but Ilunga just threw so many more that it was hard to see it any other way. Ilunga wasn't nearly as accurate, but he outlanded Vakhitov by 40. As with the DJ vs. Cejudo fight, one guy could have won all 5 rounds, the other could only possibly have won 3 (2, 4, & 5 in this case), so it's hard to imagine the decision going to the guy with only 3 options. Maybe you could see Ilunga only getting a split decision with everyone having it 48-47, but these clowns came up with 49-46, 48-47, 48-47 Vakhitov. Vakhitov has obviously been a very good fighter, but anyone seeing him for the first time tonight would literally have no idea why because Ilunga's immediate countering negated the flow that gives him the confidence & allows him the time & space to be creative & dangerous. Good match.
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Lightwight China Champion 8 Man Quarterfinal
Liu Xu vs. Junchen Zhao 3R SD
Tiehan Xu vs. Chao Wang 3R SD
Li Deng vs. Alimjan Tursun R1 2:51
Lei Feng vs. Wensheng Zhang 3R
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Harry Germain vs. Iskander Usmonov R1 0:40
Jonathan Di Bella vs. Mohamed Lemjerdine 3R UD
Houssam El Kasri vs. Abraham Vidales R1 1:48
Nate Richardson vs. Justin Greskiewicz R1 2:33
Lightweight Qualification Tournament Semifinal: Liu Xu vs. Chao Wang 3R UD
Lightweight Qualification Tournament Semifinal: Wensheng Zhang vs. Li Deng 3R SD
Jia Liu vs. Zaza Sor. Aree 3R UD
Chenchen Li vs. Masaya Kubo 3R UD
Lightweight Qualification Tournament Final: Liu Xu vs. Wensheng Zhang 3R SD
Asa Ten Pow vs. Yuhang Xie 3R SD
Chenglong Zhang vs. Nafi Bilalovski R1 2:43
Khayal Dzhaniev vs. Julio Lobo 3R UD
Cedric de Keirsmaeker vs. Kaiyin Zang 3R SD
Glory Lightweight Title Match: Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs. Marat Grigorian 5R SD
Michael Palandre vs. Mohamed Soumah R2 0:50
Dmitry Menshikov vs. Samuel Dbili R1 2:59
Matej Penaz vs. Mehdi Bouanane 2R
Bruno Chaves vs. Mamadou Lamine Sene 2R
Felipe Micheletti vs. Zinedine Hameur-Lain 1R
Abdellah Ezbiri vs. Victor Pinto R1 1:03
Sofia Olofsson vs. Cindy Silvestre 3R UD
Yousri Belgaroui vs. Yassine Ahaggan R1 1:22
Donegi Abena vs. Stephane Susperregui 3R UD
Cedric Doumbe vs. Jimmy Vienot 3R. I'm still amazed by the continued transformation of Doumbe from a defensive oriented points fighter to a hook & overhand winging bomber. This was his most aggressive performance yet, perhaps because Vienot is a familiar fighter from his country he knows he can beat under the best circumstances, much less when Vienot is a last minute replacement. It will be interesting to see whether Doumbe can come close to this aggression against Harut when they do finally meet, but here he was regularly circling left away from Vienot's weapons - the left knee & high kick - to set up the big overhand right. Doumbe dropped Vienot with a left hook counter to his left hook midway through the 1st, and pressed for the finish, really more often than not in this round as well as the 3rd. Doumbe was really getting wild with left uppercut to overhand right combos, & Vienot stunned him countering a right with a knee, though that didn't quell Doumbe's aggression for long. In addition to being a brawl due to both fighters swinging wildly, the adherence to the rules wasn't exactly top notch, with Vienot using some of his muay thai throws that aren't legal in GLORY, which eventually caused Paul Nicholls to dock him a point in the 3rd. Doumbe was no saint here either, sweeping the leg as well. Doumbe fought like it was a 1 round fight, really just using ferocious punches on the inside, but although he hasn't been known to be a marathon fighter, he was training for 5 rounds & had little trouble throwing haymakers for another 2 rounds. In the 2nd round, it became apparent that there was a method to Doumbe's madness, as when Vienot was able to relax at distance, he picked Doumbe apart with his kicks, so Doumbe really had to keep his foot on the pedal. The 2nd round was the closest of the fight. Vienot was more consistent, but he was more landing than really getting a lot on his blows. Doumbe was less aggressive in this round, using his old movement & angles style more, though he pressed at times, and did a good job down the stretch trying to steal it. Vienot got 4 of the 5 judges so he was still in with a chance to draw & force a 4th round, but Doumbe stunned him with an overhand right to start the 2nd & quickly dropped him with another. After the point was deducted from Vienot, it was really on him to make something happen, but Doumbe was still the one throwing big, if anyone. Doumbe's KO streak was snapped at 2, but not for lack of effort. He won a unanimous decision 30-24, 29-25, 29-25. UD. Good match.
Chommanee Sor Taehiran vs. Ashley Nichols 3R SD
Justin Houghton vs. Vince McGuinness 3R UD
Charles Rodriguez vs. Malik Watson-Smith 2R UD
Asa Ten Pow vs. Niko Tsigaras 3R UD
Kevin VanNostrand vs. Massaro Glunder 3R UD
Omari Boyd vs. Alan Scheinson 3R UD
Chris Camozzi vs. Myron Dennis 3R UD
GLORY Super Bantamweight Title: Jady Menezes vs. Anissa Meksen R2 0:39
GLORY Lightweight Title: Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs. Josh Jauncey 5R UD
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal: Levi Rigters vs. Marciano Bhagwandass R2 2:42
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal: Nordine Mahieddine vs. Antonio Plazibat 4R SD
Glory Welterweight Title: Cedric Doumbe vs. Karim Ghajji R3 1:30
Heavyweight Tournament Final: Levi Rigters vs. Nordine Mahieddine R1 1:49
Glory Heavyweight Championship Eliminator: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Badr Hari R3 0:50
Martin Pacas vs. Muhammed Balli R3 2:23
Luis Tavares vs. Donegi Abena 3R UD
Glory Super Bantamweight Title: Tiffany van Soest vs. Aline Pereira 3R UD
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal: Rico Verhoeven vs. Hesdy Gerges 3R UD
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal: Tarik Khbabez vs. Levi Rigters 3R MD
Glory Welterweight Title: Cedric Doumbe vs. Murthel Groenhart R2 2:52
Glory Light Heavyweight Title: Artem Vakhitov vs. Alex Pereira 5R SD
Heavyweight Tournament Final: Rico Verhoeven vs. Tarik Khbabez R1 3:00
Chris Wunn vs. Ilias Darrazi 3R UD
Michael Boapeah vs. Florian Kroger 3R UD
Dennis Wosik vs. Naoki 3R UD
Stoyan Koprivlenski vs. Guerric Billet 3R UD
Chihk Mousa vs. Rafik Habiat R1 3:00
Cihad Kepenek vs. Nordine Mahieddine R1 2:52
Glory Middleweight Title: Donovan Wisse vs. Juri De Sousa 5R UD
Jamal Ben Saddik vs. Benjamin Adegbuyi R1 2:34