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Yousri Belgaroui remains frustrated after finishing second best in the GLORY 34 four-man Middleweight tournament.

Belgaroui fought Israel Adesanya in the tournament final, but would lose by split decision in Denver. The final was a rematch between both men who had fought each other earlier this year in China at Glory of Heroes 4.

Their first fight in China had also resulted in a decision victory for Adesanya and the fall-out on social media between them had more than fuelled the fire for the eventual rematch.

After returning to the Netherlands, Belgaroui aired his frustrations at the controversial decision and at the GLORY Kickboxing rules which he felt weren’t applied appropriately that night.

“I felt I did more to score more. The points were way more but you know, GLORY rules, you can talk about that – who walks forward etc., and that was me as well.”

Undeterred by the controversial decision, Belgaroui is very much focused on continuing to enhance himself as a fighter. However, he believes there is still unfinished business with Adesanya and that they will have a trilogy sooner or later, which he would be more than willing to take after two decision losses to ‘Stylebender’.

“The first time he said it was his worst match ever. This time he also said he had a bad day. Its not about him, he can’t fight me. He doesn’t now how to work with me.

“Already there is fireworks but you know, my plan for him is to knock him out but you know, I just have to find that way. Right now the way that I try to fight is to win you know and I didn’t want to force anything; just win every round and I think I did.”

GLORY 34 took place in Denver which, is known as the ‘mile high city’ because it is exactly one mile above sea level. However, high altitude conditions tend to hinder the sport performance of athletes who haven’t altered their training and overall preparations in-advance, to take into the account the adverse effect of high elevation on the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

Belgaroui had only arrived to Colorado three days before GLORY 34 and was experiencing a bleeding nose on each of those three days before the fight which. He acknowledged that this was due to the ‘thin air’ in the city.

Although both men were respectful of the other’s fighting ability, the sporting rivalry between them shows no sign of cooling down, especially when Belgaouri claimed that Adesanya’s portrays himself to be something that he’s not for the television audience:

“He gave me respect after the match and I thought that’s good and I gave him respect back you know, like men. When the camera came on again, he started talking like a bitch again so you know, I don’t think that’s real. If you want to be real with me, be real. Don’t change like an actor when the camera comes on.”