Tyjani Beztati is seen as one of the brightest prospects in kickboxing today. At just 19 years of age, ‘The Wonderboy’ hopes to get his fourth GLORY win on Saturday over Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai on GLORY 45 in his hometown of Amsterdam.
MMA Plus spoke to Beztati after the weigh-ins, who thinks the time is right to take the step up in competition and fight the current number four of the GLORY lightweight rankings with more than 100 fights on his record.
“I feel great and ready to rock ‘n roll. I’m turning 20 next month, but I feel like everything’s coming together right now. The time is right to fight Sitmonchai,” Beztati says. “We will see what comes after that, but first I have to beat him. The only thing that matters on Saturday is a W, doesn’t matter how I’ll get it.”
Beztati is one of four fighters fight out of The Colosseum on the card. Together with GLORY featherweight champion Robin van Roosmalen, Jason Wilnis and Kevin van Heeckeren, who fights on the undercard, he prepared for the event in Utrecht alongside Jahfarr Wilnis and Muhammed Jaraya, who’ll fight on the same day in Antwerp, Belgium on Enfusion Live 53.
Beztati is confident his team is prepared for Saturday: “We all had tremendous training camps. Everybody is focused on the task at hand. We all trained very hard together for Saturday and pushed each other for fight night. We’re ready, all six of us.”
After September 30 although, Beztati doesn’t know what’s next. The teenager hasn’t made it a secret that he wants to become GLORY champion at lightweight and welterweight but doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
“I planned it all in my head, but I like to keep that to myself for now,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about it because I have to prove myself in the ring first. (A title shot) happens when it happens, so we will see when it does.”
