Jason Wilnis (29-6-1) sure didn’t get off to a great start last night (Fri., Sept. 9, 2016) in the headlining bout of the GLORY 33 Superfight Series, but he overcame his early mistakes and overwhelmed “Bad Bwoy” Simon Marcus (44-3-2) with punches in the third round to become the new GLORY middleweight champion.
Wilnis, 25, defeated Marcus by technical knockout (three knockdowns) inside Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, NJ, in a rematch from their first encounter in the middleweight “Contender” tournament final at GLORY 20 Dubai back in April of 2015, where Marcus won by split decision.
The official time of the stoppage came at 1:14 of Round 3.
The first round was all Marcus has he continuously landed body kicks and knees to the body of Wilnis, who couldn’t seem to get going. There was controversy toward the end of the second round as the Dutch middleweight was awarded a knockdown from referee Justin Greskiewicz. Wilnis was landing several clean blows on Marcus, who was showboating in the corner, but he did not appear to be hurt. It was without a doubt a highly questionable decision to award a knockdown for Wilnis at that point. Plus, there are no standing eight counts under GLORY rules.
Once the third round began, it was clear that Marcus was angry and frustrated with the controversial knockdown and he began to fight way too emotionally and was charging forward recklessly, which would lead to his demise.
Wilnis tagged Marcus with punches, which sent him stumbling across the ring where he fell to a knee for the first knockdown. The Canadian veteran would beat the count and once the action resumed, Wilnis came on fast and furious and clipped him again. Once Marcus began to wobble, referee Greskiewicz stepped in to administer a count for the second knockdown of the round. Marcus beat that count also, and when the action continued on he got hit by a left hook, which put him on wobbly legs for the third time in the round and referee Greskiewicz stepped into wave the bout off for good.
“F***ng amazing!” Wilnis exclaimed when Todd Grisham asked him how it felt to win the GLORY middleweight title during the post-fight interview.
Sensational win for Wilnis, who had he won by decision would’ve had an asterisk placed on the win due to the controversial knockdown in round two. He removed that from the equation by beating the brakes off of one of the best middleweights on the planet in the third round to close the show. Wilnis improves to 6-4 in GLORY competition and has now won three straight.
Horrible loss for Marcus, who let his emotions get the best of him due to the controversial knockdown after having such an outstanding start to the five-round title fight. He falls to 4-2-1 in GLORY.
For complete GLORY 33 ‘Verhoeven vs. SIlva’ results, including play-by-play updates, click here.