Saulo Cavalari toppled Zack Mwekassa to win the Light-Heavyweight contender tournament, a fitting tribute to his mother, who sadly passed away two years ago. The Brazilian stopped powerhouse Mwekassa in the third round to earn a future Light-Heavyweight title shot against Gokhan Saki.
Mwekassa advanced to the final after knocking out Brian Collette with a powerful left hook 45 seconds into the second round to advance to the final.
Cavalari’s journey saw him score a shock win over top ranked Light-Heavyweight Danyo Ilunga in an extremely dominating performance. Although Ilunga was the heavy favourite the Brazilian put on a technical showcase for the win.
Despite Cavalari going three rounds against Ilunga, he fought smart against Mwekassa, using his leg kicks to keep the deadly African on the back foot. Constant kicks to the lead leg of “The Black Warrior” saw him notably damaged going into the third, where it took the Brazilian 20 second to finish his opponent with a devastating left high kick.
In the Lightweight title main event, Robin van Roosmalen came out on top with a majority win to become the new GLORY champion. It was an extremely close fight against Davit Kiria, but it would be the high volume combinations of the Dutch kickboxer which would see him overcome the Georgian. A left hook dropped van Roosmalen in round three, but it wasn’t enough for Kiria who is now 0-3 against the new Lightweight champion.
Elsewhere, Wayne Barrett fell to a unanimous decision against Jason Wilnis in a frustrating fight for the American. A straight right hand dropped Barrett at the end of the first, and numerous left hooks sent the New Yorker to the ground again in the second round, as Wilnis; against adversity, scored the win to end his two fight slump in the promotion.
It was also announced that GLORY 19 would take place on Friday, Dec. 19, which will be headlined by Heavyweight title fight Rico Verhoeven vs Errol Zimmerman. The event will also include a Welterweight contender tournament for a shot at “Bazooka” Joe Valtellini’s belt, which includes: Nieky Holzken, Raymond Daniels, Artur Kyshenko and Jonatan Oliveira.
Full results are available here.
Photo Saulo Cavalari – Credit – GLORY Sports International
