A dream was realized on Friday, Aug. 25. The GLORY welterweight championship has long eluded Murthel Groenhart but at GLORY 44 in Hoffman Estates, Ill., he pipped Cédric Doumbé to finally claim the crown.
Groenhart and Doumbé rocked Sears Centre Arena in a back-and-forth affair, with the judges scoring the bout a split decision win for the Dutch-Surinamese fighter.
This marked the third attempt by “The Predator” to claim the belt, after two previously unsuccessful tries against then champion, Nieky Holzken.
.@MurthelG has finally claimed the GLORY welterweight title that's eluded him throughout his illustrious career! #GLORY44 #andNEW pic.twitter.com/C9OeLf5vAF
— GLORY Kickboxing (@GLORY_WS) August 26, 2017
In the GLORY Welterweight Contender Tournament, Harut Grigorian defeated both Karim Benmansour and Antoine Pinto to earn a future chance at the GLORY title. With the main event’s outcome, a heated return bout is now likely between Grigorian and Groenhart, as predicted by Harut prior to the fight.
In June Groenhart defeated Grigorian in Paris, knocking out the Armenian fighter whilst his back was turned. This caused a chain of events which saw two fans jump the barricade and attack Groenhart.
On the GLORY SuperFight Series portion of the card, Tiffany van Soest successfully defended her women’s super-bantamweight title, whilst Michal Turynski took a controversial decision over Cătălin Moroșanu.
Below are the full results from GLORY 44, as reported by CombatPress.
GLORY 44 Results:
GLORY Welterweight title: Murthel Groenhart def. Cédric Doumbé via Decision (Split) (48-47, 47-48, 49-46)
Welterweight Contender Tournament Final: Harut Grigorian def. Antoine Pinto via Decision (Unanimous) (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Middleweight: Richard Abraham def. Daniel Morales via Decision (Unanimous) (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Welterweight Contender Tournament Semi-Final B: Antoine Pinto def. Zach Bunnel via Decision (Unanimous) (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Welterweight Contender Tournament Semi-Final A: Harut Grigorian def. Karim Benmansour via Decision (Unanimous) (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
GLORY 44: SuperFight Series Results:
GLORY Super-Bantamweight Title: Tiffany van Soest def. Meryem Uslu via TKO (referee stoppage) (Round 4 – 0:36)
Heavyweight: Michal Turynski def. Cătălin Moroșanu via Decision (Split) (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
Middleweight: Dustin Jacoby def. Sean Choice via TKO (referee stoppage) (Round 1 – 2:18)
Middleweight: Robert Thomas def. Warren Thompson via knockout (Round 3 – 2:36)
Lightweight: Nate Richardson def. Rafal Dudek via Decision (Unanimous) (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Featherweight: Victor Pinto def. Adrian Maxim via Decision (Split) (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
