GLORY Kickboxing hosts an end-of-year special event on December 10, with Rico Verhoeven and Badr Hari meeting in the headline slot. GLORY: COLLISION is the organization’s biggest card to date and aside from the main event will feature three title bouts, two of which are among the nine have just been announced.
Glory Kickboxing has one last event lined up for 2016, and it looks to be a big one, including not just Glory 36 Germany, and a “Superfight Series” card, but a PPV event as well, where heavyweights Rico Verhoeven and Badr Hari will face off, alongside a welterweight title bout between champion Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken and Cedric Doumbé of France. GLORY: COLLISION will also see the organization crown its first female champion as the Women’s Super-Bantamweight Grand Prix comes to a conclusion.
The Glory 36 card will feature a lightweight title clash between Thailand’s Sittichai Sitsongpeenong (112-29-5, 30 KO’s), defending, and Marat Grigorian (48-9-2, 29 KO’s), from Armenia by way of the Netherlands.
The women’s Super-Bantamweight Grand Prix will start on the Superfight Series card. The tournament has played out across several cards and narrowed a field of 16 down to a final four. They will compete in a four-woman tournament at the start of the COLLISION event before the two semi-final winners meet for a deciding battle towards the end of the night.
In the first of those two semi-final bouts, Muay Thai champion Tiffany “Time Bomb” van Soest (15-2-1, 5 KO’s), who also competes in Invicta FC, meets Canadian challenger Jessica “Thumper” Gladstone (6-6, 2 KO’s). The other semi-final sees 21-year-old Dutch prospect Isis “Fight Queen” Verbeek (9-3, 5 KO’s) take on the undefeated Amel Dehby (28-0, 11 KO’s) of France.
Other bouts now confirmed for COLLISION include the return of former #1 light-heavyweight Danyo “Dibuba” Ilunga (57-10, 44 KO’s). He will face off with Michael “The Dreamcrusher” Duut (39-6, 17 KO’s) in a rematch. Their GLORY 11 CHICAGO meeting ended in the first round when a ligament snapped in Duut’s arm, Ilunga being credited with responsibility and thus awarded a TKO win.
Two of the sport’s top featherweights are also set to meet in a rematch. Mosab “The Jaguar” Amrani (55-11-4, 18 KO’s), currently ranked No. 2 in the division, first faced French-Italian Muay Thai stylist Fabio Pinca (99-25-1, 41 KO’s) in a Muay Thai fight in Bangkok back in 2011. He lost a close decision and will now seek revenge under his more usual kickboxing rules.
There’s also a four-man Lightweight Contender Tournament: former lightweight champion Davit Kiria (23-12, 8 KO’s), a karate stylist who has lately switched to training with Nieky Holzken, faces Russian prospect Anatoly Moiseev (16-1, 4 KO’s) and Thailand’s Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai (83-22-1, 51 KO’s), who previously competed for GLORY at featherweight, faces Albanian-Swiss newcomer Hysni Beqiri, brother for former lightweight contender Shemsi Beqiri.
Two more bouts confirmed are Armenian-Belgian power puncher Harut Grigorian (42-10, 31 KO’s) – no relation to Marat Grigorian, although they do train together – faces German newcomer Danijel Solaja at welterweight and Andrej Bruhl (42-5, 15 KO’s), also fighting out of Germany, faces Dutch-Moroccan debutant Tyjani Beztati (58-2-1, 21 KO’s) at lightweight.
That’s a lot of bouts to be announced in one day, but it’s a big card. GLORY events typically run two cards in one night – a SUPERFIGHT SERIES card which airs on UFC FIGHT PASS and a numbered card which airs on ESPN and other networks worldwide. COLLISION adds one more to that by way of a four-fight PPV card forming the apex of the line-up.
The three cards then look like this (below). It’s a bit of channel-hopping to watch all three but each one has compelling bouts and there is likely to be some heavy leather traded in most of them.
GLORY: COLLISION
(Pay-per-view via Dish, DirecTV, iN DEMAND (in the US) and globally via the UFC.tv digital service at ufc.tv/glorycollision from 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Saturday, Dec. 10, priced at $29.95)
Heavyweight Headline Bout: Rico Verhoeven vs. Badr Hari
Welterweight World Title Bout: Nieky Holzken (c) vs. Cedric Doumbé
Heavyweight Bout: Ismael Londt vs. Jamal Ben Saddik
Super Bantamweight Grand Prix Final Bout: Semifinal A Winner vs. Semifinal B Winner
GLORY 36 SUPERFIGHT SERIES
(UFC Fight Pass at 1:30 p.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. PT on Saturday, Dec. 10)
Light Heavyweight Headline Bout: Danyo Ilunga vs. Michael Duut
Welterweight Co-Headline Bout: Harut Grigorian vs. Danijel Solaja
Super Bantamweight Grand Prix Semifinal B: Tiffany van Soest vs. Jessica Gladstone
Super Bantamweight Grand Prix Semifinal A: Isis Verbeek vs. Amel Dehby
Lightweight Bout: Andrej Bruhl vs. Tyjani Beztati
GLORY 36 GERMANY
(In the USA airs live on ESPN3 at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT on Saturday, Dec. 10)
Lightweight World Title Bout: Sittichai (c) vs. Marat Grigorian
Lightweight Tournament Final Bout: Semifinal A Winner vs. Semifinal B Winner
Featherweight Co-Headline Bout: Mosab Amrani vs. Fabio Pinca
Lightweight Tournament Semifinal B: Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai vs. Hysni Beqiri
Lightweight Tournament Semifinal A: Davit Kiria vs. Anatoly Moiseev