GLORY hopes to recreate the magic of last year’s match of the year.
Following his whirlwind contender tournament win on GLORY 45, MMA Plus has learned GLORY wants to put Michael Duut up against Danyo Ilunga for the third time on GLORY Redemption in Rotterdam on December 9. The organisation is also targeting a match between Zakaria Zouggary and Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao on the same date.
It’s unknown on which of the three portions of the event both fights are intended for.
Duut set the record for the fastest ever GLORY contender tournament victory in history on Saturday. “The Dreamcrusher” only needed 48 seconds to capture his first Ramon Dekkers memorial trophy by knocking out Dragos Zubco and Manny Mancha.
Mosab Amrani was the previous holder of that record, when he won the Glory 26 featherweight contender tournament by beating Lim Chi-bin and Maykol Yurk in a combined 203 seconds back in December 2015.
After the event, GLORY matchmaker Cor Hemmers praised Duut on his performance and expressed his desire to create a redo of the fight that the 27-year-old Dutchman and Ilunga had last year on GLORY Collision in Oberhausen, Germany, which was voted GLORY fight of the year 2016.
“Duut will fight on December 9 in Ahoy Rotterdam,” Hemmers said. “We call that the evening of the redemption and we like to give Duut vs. Ilunga back to the fans. Duut is always spectacular. He always wants to take a risk and throw punches that can knock you out. We’re happy that he’s fully on track again.”
Ilunga has been winless since April 2015. The Congolese-German lost seven fights in a row, which includes the loss in his rematch against Duut. After that, “Dibuba” was also beaten by Ariel Machado and Stéphane Susperregui.
Hemmers also mentioned the intentions to put a fight between Zouggary and Kiatmookao together.
“Double Z” scored his second GLORY win on Saturday by beating Massao Glunder via unanimous decision. Last May the 23-year-old debuted in GLORY with a win over Yetkin Özkul in a potential match of the year 2017 candidate.
MMA Plus reached out to Zouggary, who’s from Rotterdam, after GLORY 45 and said he hasn’t had any contact with Hemmers since his victory over Glunder.
Kiatmookao is currently scheduled to compete in two weeks against Lei Xie on GLORY 46 in Ghanzou, China. The catchweight bout (68 kg) is part of the SuperFight Series portion of GLORY’s debut in China.
“The Professor” is currently ranked second in the GLORY featherweight rankings. The muay thai specialist lost his most recent GLORY bout in May, when he came up short against Robin van Roosmalen in a title fight for the GLORY featherweight championship by majority decision.
GLORY officially announced their year-ends event of 2017 on GLORY 45, which promises to become one of the most exciting cards the organisation has ever produced. Heavyweight kingpin Rico Verhoeven will put up his belt against Jamal Ben Saddik in the main event of the event in Rotterdam in a rematch over six years in the making.
Yousri Belgaroui fights for the middleweight strap on the same date against the winner of the upcoming title fight between champion Simon Marcus and Alex Pereira, who’ll fight each other on GLORY 46. “The Baby Faced Assassin” earned this opportunity by beating former champion Jason Wilnis via TKO due to a cut in the main event of the GLORY 45 SuperFight Series.
Former welterweight champion Nieky Holzken, who had to cancel his bout on Saturday’s event due to injuries, is also scheduled to compete on this event. An opponent for “The Natural” has not yet been named.
Former Team Slamm training partners Ismael Londt, who’s also from Rotterdam, and D’Angelo Marshall, who’s from Amsterdam, will headline the GLORY 49 Superfight Series and a potential number #1 contender bout between lightweights Marat Grigorian and Christian Baya is currently announced as the lone bout on GLORY 49.
