Author: Michael Stets

GLORY fighters hit the scale earlier today at Hotel Campanile Nice Aeroport in Nice, France, for the GLORY 35 card, which takes place on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 at Palais Nikaia.

The five-fight main card will be headlined by a light heavyweight title unification bout as current champion, Artem Vakhitov (16-5) faces interim champion, Zack Mwekassa (14-3). In the co-main event, Pavel Zhuravlev (69-11) takes on Zinedine Hameur Lain (56-13).

The one-night, four-man tournament will take place in the heavyweight division. In the semi-final matchups, Benjamin Adegbuyi (22-4) faces Hedsy Gerges (49-17-1) and Jafarr Wilnis (29-7-1) takes on Mladen Brestovac (49-11-1).

GLORY 35 will air live tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT on ESPN3, with a replay broadcast this Sunday at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT on ESPN2. The GLORY 35 SuperFight Series streams live on UFC Fight Pass at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m.

The weigh results can be viewed below:

GLORY 35  WEIGH-IN RESULTS

Light Heavyweight Title Headline Bout:
Artem Vakhitov (207.5 lb / 94.1 kg) vs. Zack Mwekassa (205.7 lb / 93.3 kg)
Light Heavyweight Co-Headline Bout:
Zinedine Hameur-Lain (208.3 lb / 94.5 kg) vs. Pavel Zhuravlev (205.9 lb / 93.4 kg)
Heavyweight Contender Tournament Bout:
Jahfarr Wilnis (250 lb / 113.4 kg) vs. Mladen Brestovac (253.8 lb / 115.1 kg)
Heavyweight Contender Tournament Bout:
Benjamin Adegbuyi (257.5 lb / 116.8 kg) vs. Hesdy Gerges (240.1 lb / 108.9 kg)

GLORY 35 SUPERFIGHT SERIES WEIGH-IN RESULTS

Heavyweight Bout:
Nicolas Wamba (240.1 lb / 108.9 kg) vs. Nordine Mahieddine (235.2 lb / 106.7 kg)
Welterweight Bout:
Karim Benmansour (169.3 lb / 76.8 kg) vs. Eyevan Danenberg (168.9 lb / 76.6 kg)
Super Bantamweight Bout:
Amel Dehby (122.1 lb / 55.4 kg) vs. Jiwaen Lee (120.2 lb / 54.5 kg)
Lightweight Bout:
Josh Jauncey (153.9 lb / 69.8 kg) vs. Christian Baya (153.7 lb / 69.7 kg)
Featherweight Bout:
Petpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (141.1 lb / 64 kg) vs. Stanislav Renita (142.4 lb / 64.6 kg)
Featherweight Bout:
Cedric Castaigna (142.6 lb / 64.7 kg) vs. Vang Moua (140.9 lb / 63.9 kg)

The lineup for GLORY: COLLISION was finalized on Tuesday (Nov. 1, 2016) as three new fights were announced at the GLORY: COLLISION press conference, which took place at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The four-fight kickboxing card, which is slated for Dec. 10, 2016 at König-Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Germany, is headlined by the highly-anticipated heavyweight main event between GLORY champion, Rico Verhoeven (48-10) and Badr Hari (106-12).

The main event, which is being billed as the biggest heavyweight kickboxing match of all time, was announced back in July and will be a three-round fight.

GLORY welterweight champion, Nieky Holzken will defend his title against Cedric Doumbe. No. 1-ranked heavyweight, Ismael Londt (39-6-1) will take on Jamal Ben Saddik (27-4-0). And the women’s Super-bantamweight tournament final will complete the card.

GLORY: COLLISION will be available via pay-per-view (PPV) and will also broadcast on UFC.TV. Sources close to the promotion informed MMAmania.com that the expected price of the event will be $29.95. GLORY 36 and the GLORY 36 Superfight Series will also be taking place on the same day.

GLORY 36 is expected to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between champion, Sittichai Sitsongpeenong (108-29-5) and No. 1-ranked challenger, Marat Grigorian (46-9-2).

GLORY 35 has a new main event.

Sittichai Sitsongpeenong (108-29-5), the current GLORY lightweight champion, was forced to withdraw from his scheduled headlining bout against Marat Grigorian (46-9-2) on the GLORY 35 fight card, which takes place on Nov. 5, 2016 in Nice, France. The kickboxing promotion announced the news via press release on Wednesday afternoon, saying that fight will now headline GLORY 36 on December 10, 2016 in Oberhausen, Germany.

No reason was given on why Sitsongpeenong was forced to withdraw.

Formerly the GLORY 35 Superfight Series headliner, the light heavyweight title unification fight between light heavyweight champion, Artem Vakhitov (16-5) and interim light heavyweight champion, Zack Mwekassa (14-3-1), will now serve as the new GLORY 35 main event.

Mwekassa is coming off a technical knockout victory over Mourad Bouzidi at GLORY 31 this past June. Vakhitov, meanwhile, has been recovering from an injury after defeating Saulo Cavalari for the title by unanimous decision at GLORY 28 this past March.

GLORY 35  airs live on ESPN3 at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Saturday, Nov. 5, with a replay broadcast on ESPN2 at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT on Sunday, Nov. 6.

The complete five-fight main card for GLORY 35 can be viewed below:

GLORY 35
Light Heavyweight Title Unification Bout: Artem Vakhitov (c) vs. Zack Mwekassa (ic)
Heavyweight Tournament Final Bout: Winner of Bout A vs. Winner of Bout B
Light Heavyweight Co-Headline Bout: Zinedine Hameur-Lain vs. Pavel Zhuravlev
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal Bout B: Jahfarr Wilnis vs. Mladen Brestovac
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal Bout A: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Hesdy Gerges

For more GLORY news and notes click here.

BROOMFIELD Colo.–Robin van Roosmalen (36-6-1) is the new GLORY featherweight champion and his punching power is cause for alarm among the division.

In the main event of the GLORY 34 Superfight Series last night (Fri., Oct. 21, 2016), the former lightweight champion knocked down Gabriel Varga (27-4) twice in the second round inside 1STBANK Center. Van Roosmalen scored a technical knockout (TKO) victory after the fourth round concluded when Varga did not answer the bell for the fifth and conceded defeat.

Varga, who didn’t have a mouth piece in during the opening round, seemed to have some type of issue with his jaw or perhaps his mouth.

“I already saw after the first round that he was busy with his teeth,” van Roosmalen told MMAMania after the bout. “I think I broke his jaw or knocked one of his teeth out or something. I knew it was only a matter of time because I was going to hit him more. After the fourth round I think I rocked him at the end again, so I almost finished him there too.”

Varga looked good in the first round, but van Roosmalen explained he was feeling Varga out.

“In the first round I wanted to test him because he is a crafty fighter,” the Dutch champion explained. “He’s got good punches. I wanted to see what his distance was and his speed and everything.

Van Roosmalen, 27, changed the whole complexion of the fight when he dropped the Canadian with a huge right hand in the beginning of the second frame, sending him down to the canvas.

“I told you before, they can’t handle the power and explosion at this weight,” van Roosmalen said, sitting ringside showing off the featherweight strap. “Everybody thought this weight cut was going to be hard, but I made this weight easy and without doing anything on the morning of the weigh ins.”

Later on in the second, “Pokerface” knocked Varga down for a second time after ripping a punch to the body of the Canadian.

“He has a tall body and I knew after that first knockdown he was focused on his head, so I went to the body,” he said.

The TKO loss was first of Varga’s professional career.

“Somebody has to be the first,” said van Roosmalen, smiling. “I’m happy about it. Nothing bad about him. He’s a great fighter. I’m glad he gave me this chance. I respect him as a fighter.”

After the bout concluded, the newly-crowned champion told Todd Grisham he wants to win the lightweight title back and become a two-division champion. He was asked about that statement.

“I want to be a two-division champ. For me, I think I’m still the Lightweight because I still think they robbed me the last time,” he said, referring to the split-decision loss to Sittichai Sitsongpeenong at GLORY 31. “For me, I’m the two-division reigning belt, but I need a new belt to show everybody else so I can shut them up.”

Will GLORY be okay with him fighting in both divisions?

“I don’t know. I don’t think they have a choice.”

For complete GLORY 34 ‘Holzken vs. Groenhart 3’ results, including play-by-play updates, click here.

The lineup for the GLORY 35 fight card, which takes place at Palais Nikaia in Nice, France, is now complete with the addition of the two semifinal matchups in the night’s heavyweight “Contender” tournament.

Benjamin Adegbuyi (25-4) will face Hesdy Gerges (49-17-1) and Jahfar Wilnis (29-7-1) will square off with Mladen Brestovac (50-11-1). The kickboxing promotion announced the news in a press release on Tuesday (October 11, 2016).

GLORY 35 is headlined by a lightweight title bout between Sittichai Sitsongpeenong (112-29-5) and No.2-ranked contender Marat Grigorian (48-9-2).

Sitsongpeenong won the GLORY Lightweight title via split decision over Robin van Roosmalen at GLORY 31. Grigorian — currently the No. 2-ranked GLORY Lightweight — has won three fights in a row, including a first-round knockout over Djime Coulibaly back at GLORY 30.

In the co-main event, Zinedine Hameur-Lain (56-13) takes on Pavel Zhuravlev (69-11) in a light heavyweight scrap. Hameur-Lain is coming off his GLORY 32 “Contender” tournament victory back in July, where he knocked out Warren Thompson and Ariel Machado in the same night. Meanwhile, Zhuravlev lost to Machado in the opening round of the GLORY 32 tournament.

In the main event of the GLORY 35 Superfight Series, GLORY Light Heavyweight Champion Artem Vakhitov (16-5) will take on GLORY Interim Light Heavyweight Champion Zack Mwekassa (15-3) in a title unification bout.

GLORY 35 Nice airs live on ESPN3 at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Saturday, November 5, 2016, and will replay on ESPN2 at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT on Sunday, November 6.

Leon Edwards clamps down on a rear naked choke and finishes Tumenov! #UFC204 https://t.co/wvlPd2h40P

— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) October 9, 2016

Leon Edwards (12-3) defeated Albert Tumenov (17-4) on the FOX Sports 1 “Prelims” undercard portion of UFC 204 earlier tonight (Sat., Oct. 8, 2016). Roberts locked up a rear-naked choke in the third round for the submission victory inside Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The official time of the stoppage came at 3:01 of round three. Edwards improves to 4-2 in UFC with the victory, his second straight win. Tumenov falls to 5-3 in the UFC Welterweight division and has now dropped two in a row. The full video highlights can be seen above courtesy of UFC.