Glory 9 Review

Contributor: Lucas Bourdon

Glory made its US debut on Saturday night and the card delivered some great kickboxing action. Tyrone Spong made $200,000 in less than 10 minutes of ring time and is undoubtedly the big winner of the night. He got up from a knockdown at the hands of Michael Duut only to knock him out when the Dutch prospect came in overaggressively for the kill. It was a fight reminiscent of Jérôme Le Banner vs Ray Sefo in the glory days of K-1 and as exciting as 30 seconds of kickboxing  can be. He dominated Filip Verlinden for three rounds in the semi-final and then only had to land one punch on fellow finalist Danyo Ilunga to prompt the referee to prematurely stop the fight. It was an unfortunately anticlimatic ending to an otherwise great night of fights and I can only hope that this card isn’t solely remembered for it.

Daniel Ghita needed to make a statement after two knockout losses and DAMN DID HE MAKE ONE. He beat Brice Guidon from pillar to post and brutally knocked him out with a devastating left hook 49 seconds into the first round. He probably needs another fight before he can get another fight with Schilt or Saki and one of the other heavyweight winners of the night sounds good. Rico Verhoeven looked good in avenging his loss to Errol Zimmerman but at 24 I think he should be kept away from elite fighters a bit longer, making Anderson Silva, who easily beat Daniel Sam, the best opponent in my opinion (unless, of course, they can make a fight with Spong happen but it’s not really clear what the King of the Ring of the ring intends to do after his second MMA fight in august).

In the quarter finals Steve McKinnon was once again on the wrong end of a close decision that a lot of people felt like he deserved to get. It’s a tough blow for the 36 year-old Australian as the tournament was his opportunity to make an impact on the international scene after spending the majority of his career on the Australian scene. On the other side of the bracket, Dustin Jacoby won his rematch with Brian Collette by (deserved) split decision, and even managed to surprisingly win the first round against Danyo Ilunga in the semi final before Ilunga capitalized on his weakness to low kicks in the next two rounds to earn his spot in the final. While it should be noted that Ilunga was coming off of a tough quarter final fight with Mourad Bouzidi, Jacoby is making the most of his unexpected kickboxing career. At 25, while he’s highly unlikely to ever give real trouble to the elite, a bit of improvement combined with his gameness could make him a dangerous opponent for low to mid-tier fighters.

Prospects Wayne Barrett and Joseph Valtelini were both impressive in their respective fights. In only his second pro fight annihilated Road to Glory tournament winner Mike Lemaire and knocked him out in the second round, giving him his first defeat. The win established his status as probably the best prospect to come out of the US in years. Valtelini was also facing a Road to Glory tournament winner in François Ambang and destroyed his lead leg with low kicks, completely neutralizing him and stopping him in the third to improve his record to 9-1 (8 KOs).

Overall, despite the referee mistake in the final, the event was a success for Glory and bodes well for the future of kickboxing in the US.

-Lucas can be reached @lucas_bourdon.