Monday, 20 May 2013 02:24

GLORY 8 Tokyo takes place on May 3 in Tokyo, Japan at the Ariake Coliseum and features GLORY's one night, eight man tournament at 65kg, as well as some super fights which include Peter Aerts vs. Jamal Ben Saddik and Albert Kraus vs. Andy Ristie.

Before GLORY 8 starts, a Road to GLORY Japan portion of the event will take place, featuring a four man tournament at 85kg. GLORY 4 participant Toshio Matsumoto fights Magnum Sakai in one semi final, while RISE champion Kengo Shimizu fights Yuki Niimura in the other semi final.

Also on the Road to GLORY portion will be some super fights. At 60kg, Yuji Takeuchi fights Tatsuya Inaishi. At 70kg, Hirono Yu fights Ryoji and at 55kg, RISE bantamweight champion Dyki will fight a to be announced opponent.

Monday, 20 May 2013 02:24

With GLORY 6 Istanbul over, the steady stream of GLORY events continues with GLORY 7 Milan, taking place in Milan, Italy on April 20 with a card headlined by Giorgio Petrosyan taking on Hafid El Boustati.

With the rest of the card under the main event, this might be even better than GLORY 5 and 6 on paper. Right before the main event is the lone heavyweight fight on the card, between two young fighters in different positions, Jhonata Diniz and Rico Verhoeven. Diniz's coming out party was his spirited loss to Daniel Ghita at the GLORY Grand Slam on New Year's Eve and he's still seen as an up and coming fighter. Rico Verhoeven, while also still being very young at almost 24 years of age, has established himself as one of the better heavyweight fighters who has made big strides in the past year.

The next fight sees GLORY #1 ranked 85kg fighter Artem Levin fight GLORY's #3 ranked 85kg fighter Sahak Parparyan. This will be Levin's first fight at 85kg, while Sahak has been one of the top fighters at the weight for a few years now. At 77kg, Karapet Karapetyan, coming off a very close loss to GLORY's #1 ranked 77kg fighter Alexander Stetsurenko, faces the Italian veteran Roberto Cocco.

The lone 95kg bout on the event sees Australia's Steve McKinnon fight Serbia's Nenad Pagonis. McKinnon is ranked #3 in GLORY's 95kg ranking while Pagonis is at #5 there.

Three 70kg fights take place on the card. LiverKick #2 ranked Murthel Groenhart fights our #3 Robin van Roosmalen. Yury Bessmertny comes down to 70kg and fights LiverKick #9 ranked and GLORY #3 ranked Davit Kiria. Chingiz Allazov gets his first shot at the big stage against Marat Grigorian.

The card gets started off with a 65kg match-up between Sergio Wielzen and Kaopon Lek, the 1995 Fighter of the Year in Thailand and former Lumpinee champion who is still going strong.

The past few GLORY cards have had some last minute changes with injuries and such, so stay tuned for any news regarding fight card changes.

70kg: Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Hafid El Boustati

HW: Rico Verhoeven vs. Jhonata Diniz

85kg: Artem Levin vs. Sahak Parparyan

77kg: Karapet Karapetyan vs. Roberto Cocco

95kg: Steve McKinnon vs. Nenad Pagonis

70kg: Murthel Groenhart vs. Robin van Roosmalen

70kg: Yury Bessmertny vs. Davit Kiria

70kg: Chingiz Allazov vs. Marat Grigorian

65kg: Sergio Wielzen vs. Kaopon Lek

Monday, 20 May 2013 02:24

Today at Glory 6 Istanbul two of the top Heavyweights in the world, Daniel Ghita and Gokhan Saki, stepped into the ring for the second time in a rematch that we've been waiting for since 2010 and did not disappoint. There was a lot riding on this fight as the winner is promised a shot at Semmy Schilt and his GLORY Heavyweight Championship with both men looking to be top contenders.

The fight started out a little rough, as Gokhan Saki caught a kick from Ghita, backed him up and threw him to the mat with a sweep. Usually a sweep is inconsequential, but in this case, Ghita landed hard, looking to be injured. According to Glory's official rules, leg sweeps and trips are illegal moves and should thusly be counted as such. Instead, referee Joop Ubeda counted it as a down as Ghita took a while to get to his feet and Ghita never looked the same after that.

Round two saw Gokhan Saki swarm Ghita, throwing big shots while Ghita was doing a good job of defending and countering. That all changed when Saki found an opening and hit what might have been the most amazing, impressive combination that you could imagine as he landed twelve huge shots to the sturdy head of Daniel Ghita, finally dropping him on the twelfth shot. Ghita fought back to his feet, but a right and left put him down for the count again. It looked like Ghita would stay down, but he once again beat the count only for Saki to land another barrage and Joop Ubeda stepped in, calling the fight.

It was a huge, impressive win for Saki with a lot on the line. We now get to see the rematch from Glory 4 Tokyo and to see if Sem Schilt can hold onto his GLORY Heavyweight Championship. The fight is rumored to go down this summer, possibly in New York. Check out the GIF of the finish, courtesy of ZombieProphet.

Monday, 20 May 2013 02:24

GLORY 6 Istanbul goes down today from the Ulker Sports Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, featuring a main event of the long-awaited rematch between Daniel Ghita and Gokhan Saki. We'll be providing live results as they happen here in this post.

You can watch the event live here on LiverKick for $20 USD by clicking here. The event starts at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT in North America. Full fight card here.

We'll be on Twitter providing live updates as they happen at @rianscalia and @LiverKickdotcom.

Prelims

Masoud Minaei def. Burak Ugur by TKO

Kenan Gunaydin def. Zurab Khistani by KO

Samet Keser def. Muzaffer Gimici by KO

Orhan Karalioglu def. Cleber Argente Alves

Jahfarr Wilnis def. Ogoz Ovguer by TKO

MMA: Vitaly Bigdash def. Ertan Balaban by Submission (Kneebar)

Main Card

Dongsu Kim def. Naoki Yasuda by unanimous decision.

Max Baumert def. Ismail Uzuner by KO (High Kick) in Round 1.

Joseph Valtellini def. Murat Direkci by TKO (Towel) in Round 3.

Andy Ristie def. Alessandro Campagna by unanimous decision.

Nieky Holzken def. Karim Ghajji by TKO (Cut) in an extra round.

Marc de Bonte def. L'houcine "Aussie" Ouzgni by KO (Knee) in Round 1.

Filip Verlinden def. Lucian Danilencu by unanimous decision.

Mourad Bouzidi def. Fabiano Cyclone by TKO (Towel) in Round 2.

Gokhan Saki def. Daniel Ghita by TKO (Referee Stoppage) in Round 2.

Monday, 20 May 2013 02:24

As advertised, the first installment of the SUPERKOMBAT 2013 World Grand Prix kicks off today in Oradea, Romania, featuring the return of Bogdan Stoica, Benjamin Adegbuyi, Alexandru Lungu, and the first  round of the Superkombat tournament. You can watch the event on PPV here for $5, and be entered to win a three day trip to Superkombat's next event. 

Liverkick has you covered with live updates and results. The fights are scheduled to kick off at 3 PM EST. 

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Reserve Fight: Vladimir Toktasynov def. Chris Cooper by Decision

Semifinal 1: Muamer Tufekcic def. Corrie Robins by TKO in Rd. 2

Semifinal 2: Jairzinho Rozenstriuk def. Nikolaj Falin by Decision (Extra Round)

Superfight: Benjamin Adegbuyi def. Mohamed Bellezar by TKO (Injury) in Rd. 1 

Superfight: Bogdan Stoica def. Romano Romasco by KO in Rd. 2

Superfight: Jason Dutton def. Alexandru Lungu by Disqualification 

Final: Muamer Tufekcic def. Jairzinho Rozenstriuk by Decision