Jamie Bates will headline the GLORY 40 SuperFight Series against Richard Abraham in what will be Bates’s GLORY debut, having won the main event at the recent ‘Road to Glory UK‘ against, ISKA world champion, Kev Ward.
Abraham is coming back from a close decision loss to Antoine Pinto at GLORY 38 and will be raring to go with his offensive and high-octane style which, never fails to entertain and is always threatening.
However, Bates has evolved in recent years with his kickboxing style. Long gone are the days of his ‘do or die’ attitude in the ring which, saw him lose some thrilling close fights to the likes of, former Enfusion champion, Andrew Tate and GLORY welterweight, Yoann Kongolo by stoppages (that literally came out of nowhere).
The British kickboxer’s in-and-out approach has been frustrating recent opponents and provided he remains disciplined enough with his smart kickboxing approach, we have a very interesting clash of styles between Abraham and Bates but will the magnitude of finally making it to the ‘promise land’ of world kickboxing, tempt Bates into going hell for leather with another heavy-handed fighter?
Bates is the taller of the two by a couple of inches but Abraham’s relentless work ethic will be a hard night’s work (for most on their GLORY debuts), especially to keep at range for all three rounds. However, the English gentleman’s smiles and personable charm should not fool anyone when it comes to fighting. Bates has been kickboxing for most of his life and the 27-year-old has an unofficial kickboxing record of over 100 fights since his childhood.
Aside to Bates, Chris Mauceri makes his return after nine months out with injury
Chris Mauceri returns to GLORY Kickboxing action after nine months of overcoming a very troublesome rib injury which, had hampered him in his last two outings against, Giga Chizgade at GLORY 32 and Ilias Bulaid in last year’s K-1 World GP.
Mauceri takes on Chinese kickboxer, Yuhang Xie, in the opening bout of Saturday’s SuperFight Series card in Copenhagen. Xie might not be as well known or easily YouTube-able as Lion Fight veteran, Mauceri. However, GLORY matchmaker, Cor Hemmers, had complimented Xie for his strong Muay Thai style of fighting. So, how the GLORY debutant will do against the aggressive American should make for a lively affair to start the main card.
One of four preliminaries prior to the official SuperFight Series will feature, WKN European champion, Abdou Karim Chorr vs. Yoursseif Assouiek. The two will be fighting for a GLORY contract with Chorr making a return to the GLORY ring after an impressive debut.
Interestingly, Assouiek has been a training partner of Niclas Larsen who, co-headlines the main card against Yod Sitmonchai, and according to Larsen, Assoiek is a very capable and talented Kickboxer. However, Chorr is coming off an emphatic second round KO victory over former Yokkao champion, Sanny Dahlbeck, four months ago.
Josh Jauncey returns against the highly experienced Antonio Gomez which, could very well see the winner secure a place in a forthcoming 4-man lightweight contender tournament (to be officially confirmed) and 19-year-old Imad Hadar makes his GLORY debut against seasoned veteran Freddy Kemayo. Don’t be surprised to see some ‘Moroccan Magic’ (as Enfusion commentator Vinny Shoreman would say) cause a potential upset against the French Kickboxer for whom, anything but a convincing win, might not impress the majority of casual fans watching.
Danish Kickboxer, Mohammed El Mir drops from lightweight to featherweight and fights Simon Santana who, has half of El Mir’s +100 fight record.
