Mirko Cro Cop’s Glory 14 homecoming was soured by a majority decision loss to Dutch-Surinamese kickboxer Remy Bonjasky in his native Zagreb, Croatia. The 39-year old Cro Cop looked sluggish in the affair, and Bonjasky was only marginally better.
Bonjasky won on the scorecards in the end, 29-28, 29-28, 28-28, in a fight where neither guy established much rhythm. The fight played out in fits and stops, with Cro Cop closing the distance and catching many of Bonjasky’s kicks. Bonjasky ultimately landed more shots, but the fight stalled out in the clinch on multiple occasions. The two fighters met 12 years ago at the K-1 Grand Prix in Japan, with Cro Cop winning that one via TKO.
Meanwhile, the fight of the night belonged to the explosive lightweight champion Andy Ristie and Georgian challenger Davit Kiria. Ristie, who upset Giorgio Petrosyan at Glory 12 in New York in November en-route to winning the title over Robin van Roosmalen, dropped Kiria with a left knee in the second round, and was in control for much of the fight.
However, Kiria showed ample heart and hung around into the fifth round. After a good exchange near the center of the ring, Kiria slammed home a right hand and then a couple of follow-ups to force a standing eight-count on the ropes. As they resumed, Kiria dropped Ristie again inside of a minute to go. From there it was academic, as Kiria smelled blood in the water. He attacked Ristie and dropped him a final time with a right hand and a lethal left uppercut.
With the comeback victory, Kiria becomes Glory’s lightweight champion.
In the middleweight tournament that also took place on Saturday night, Armenian Sahak Parparyan defeated Jason Wilnis to advance to the finals against Alex Pereira, who took out former UFC fighter Dustin Jacoby with a first round TKO.
In the finals, Pereira edged Parparyan on the scorecards (29-27, 29-27, 28-28) to win the contender’s tournament.