GLORY World Series have announced that their upcoming event, GLORY 19, which was slated for December 19th in a undisclosed location has been pushed back to February 2015.
GLORY 19 was announced in Oklahoma for December 19th, with a venue to be confirmed, but with the event just over three weeks away, the plug was pulled on one more 2014 adventure.
The kickboxing premier announced on their website, that the event being pushed back to 2015 was due to “logistical issues meant that official confirmation of the date came late,” they added “GLORY felt this would affect its commitment to delivering the high-standard events fans have come to expect and has decided to move the event date.”
GLORY 19 being rescheduled means that it will be the first of ten events CEO Jon Franklin has teased for next year, and will be headlined by a bitter heavyweight world title showdown, as Rico Verhoeven defends his gold against #1 ranked Errol ‘The Bonecrusher’ Zimmerman.
The welterweight contender tournament which includes Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken, Californian karate prodigy Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels, Jonatan Oliveira and Artur Kyshenko is also still expected. Click here to read about what current champion ‘Bazooka Joe’ Valtellini thinks about his potential opponents.
After a busy first half of 2014, where GLORY held five different shows, the rest of the year has been extremely disappointing. GLORY 18 was also pushed back from September to November, and shows internal problems the promotion has faced since Jon J. Franklin was announced as the new CEO in August.
Despite a good showing from GLORY 18 in November, with Robin van Roosmalen winning the lightweight title and Saulo Cavalari besting three top light-heavyweights in the contender tournament, it is a shame that fans will have to wait another three months for more world class kickboxing action.
With two months for GLORY to help create a solid schedule for 2015, as well as working on the signatures of Tyrone Spong and Gokhan Saki, it will be a crucial Holiday period for Franklin, who may start to feel the pressure if 2015 isn’t a major improvement on the latter part of this year.
