Antoine Pinto makes the transition from Muay Thai to GLORY Kickboxing rules and will make his debut this weekend against Chicago native Richard Abraham (11-3) at Glory 38.
After six months of preparation at the Pinto Fight Studio in Bangkok, Thailand he will step into the Glory ring against Abraham who will undoubtedly have plenty of hometown support and is also riding a four-fight win streak but in Pinto he faces a man who has by far the greater experience of the two, boasting a record of, 130-36-1.
Having made the switch from Muay Thai to kickboxing in search of a new challenge after a number of years fighting for Thai Fight promotions and winning multiple championships along the way the 26-year old is in confident mood ahead of his clash but is not underestimating his opponent.
“I’m not overlooking this guy, I’m gone be ready, I’m training really, really hard, it doesn’t matter who I’m fighting. I’ve gotta thank GLORY that they putting me up against a guy that I think is not the hardest. I’ve seen him fight in GLORY and he’s undefeated which is amazing you know, I don’t think any other fighter is still undefeated been doing what he’s done, you know it’s great. No disrespect to what he’s been doing and what he’s doing right now and I’m sure he’s training really, really hard. Like you said, some of the western fighters they don’t have as much experience in the ring but these years into hard training make them really good.”
Abraham is coming off wins against Mike Mathetha, Francois Ambang, Casey Greene and Pawel Jedrzejczyk but did suffer a decision loss to Lion Fight’s super-welterweight champion, Jo Nattawut at Lion Fight 20, prior to joining GLORY.
However, there is an obvious gulf in the calibre of opponents the American has faced in recent years compared to Pinto’s who’s extensive CV has seen the France born, Thailand raised fighter lose just two of his previous 24 fight’s; with one of those two defeats coming at the hands of former Lumpinee stadium champion, Saiyok Pumpanmuang. Taking such facts into account, it becomes much clearer as to why Pinto is in confident mood of winning on Friday night.
“So I can’t overlook the fact that I’m sure he’s gonna be ready, I’m sure he knows who I am and he’s been watching my tapes but at the end of the day, you gotta be confident in your skills. Like I said, I’m pretty sure faced pretty much everything, everyone, every style, every kind of fighter, I’ve faced them all. So no matter what he does, it’s gonna be nothing new to me. No matter what he does, I’ll find a way to adapt and take the win.”
Click here to listen and download the full podcast with Antoine Pinto.
