Joe Schilling is heading back to GLORY Kickboxing, as the promotion make a huge splash with their announcement that they will be airing on UFC Fight Pass.
Starting with GLORY SuperFight Series Chicago on Friday, Feb. 26; headlined by Schilling vs. Mike Lemaire, the promotion will air all SFS prelims on UFC Fight Pass.
The main cards for GLORY, such as GLORY 27, which is topped by a middleweight title match between Artem Levin and Simon Marcus, will remain on ESPN2 in the United States.
Despite a split between Schilling and GLORY in late-2015, it’s great to see both parties rekindle their fruitful relationship. There’s no doubt the UFC Fight Pass deal was a major instigator in helping to bring “Stitch ‘Em Up” back to his spiritual home.
To have Schilling as the face of GLORY’s move to UFC Fight Pass makes an incredible amount of sense. For such a long time now, many have touted Schilling as the man with the crossover appeal to help kickboxing and it’s sometimes unsuccessful method of promotion. His character and in-ring ability make him one of the most marketable stars of kickboxing in the past 10 years. Now with the machine of Fight Pass behind him, he can reach the heights that many have always believed he was capable of.
Also, maybe more importantly, UFC Fight Pass has also acquired the license to broadcast the GLORY Sports International video library, which includes all GLORY events, as well as K-1 from 1993-2012 and It’s Showtime – a massive coup for kickboxing fans around the world.
These are libraries; which GLORY have been sitting on for quite some time, and it’s great to see them going to use, especially with the K-1 footage representing such an integral part of history in the sport. Kickboxers such as Badr Hari, Ernesto Hoost, Peter Aerts and Semmy Schilt will now be able to help inspire a whole new generation of fight fans.
Accordingly, all fights from GLORY’s YouTube channel, have been removed.
GLORY SuperFight Series Paris, which takes place March 12, will feature two world championship fights.
Saulo “Cassius Clay” Cavalari (32-2, 19 KO) defends his GLORY Light Heavyweight gold against Artem Vakhitov (15-5, 6 KO) and Featherweight world champion Serhiy Adamchuk (31-5, 14 KO) defends his belt against No.1 contender Mosab “Jaguar” Amrani (55-10-4, 18 KO).
GLORY SuperFight Series Chicago Card
Middleweight Headline Bout: Joe Schilling vs. Mike Lemaire
Heavyweight Co-Headline Bout: Anderson Silva vs. Maurice Greene
Heavyweight Bout: Demoreo Dennis vs. Guto Inocente
Welterweight Bout: Richard Abraham vs. Pawel Jedrzejczyk
Welterweight Bout: Casey Greene vs. Danny Morales
