Glory Announces Lineup For 70kg Tournament Starting In May

During today's Glory World Series event, Bas Ruuten, Cor Hemmers and Ramon Dekkers took some time out to make a trip to center ring for an announcement. They announced the lineup and format for the 70kg tournament, which will begin in May.

There will be 16 fighters fighting to qualify for the "Final 8." This is just like the K-1 format except under the "Glory World Series" banner. Names announced to participate in the tournament were:

Giorgio Petrosyan

Dhzabar Askerov

Yoshihiro Sato

Robin Van Roosmalen

Fabio Pinca

Ky Hollenbeck

Nonsai

Alex Vogul

Denis Schneidmiller

Chaz Mulkey

Maxim Vyrovsky

Mohammed El Mir

It's a bit of an odd lineup, considering that four of these fighters, Fabio Pinca, Alex Vogel, Dennis Schneidmiller and Mohmamed El Mir don't even fight fight at 65-67kg and don't even fight at 70kg. Another thing is that most of these fighters aren't considered to be the elite at 70kg. Giorgio Petrosyan, Robin van Roosmalen and Yoshihiro Sato are the three top fighters in the tournament. There's still four more slots to go, it looks like, so we'll see who else they get. I think I might've seen Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong but I couldn't tell as the audio was very bad and the camera didn't pan to the fighters' pictures. Interestingly enough, they've also gotten two Americans in Ky Hollenbeck and Chaz Mulkey.

The prize money for the tournament will be $300 000 USD. Glory will also be holding an 85kg tournament with $300 000 USD on the line and a heavyweight tournament with $400 000 USD on the line some time this year.

http://liverkick.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1400:glory-announces-lineup-for-70kg-tournament-starting-in-may&catid=37:kickboxing

Schilt, Saki, Zimmerman, Kharitonov Slated For Glory's Next Event

Aside from the 70kg tournament announcement made today at the Glory World Series show, they also had some other big news about the next event.

Semmy Schilt, Gokhan Saki, Errol Zimmerman and Sergei Kharitonov will all fight at the next Glory World Series event. No opponents have been anounced yet, but it's nice to see these guys all stay active. The next show is at the end of May so it won't be too long before Schilt, Zimmerman and Kharitonov are back in the ring.

There was a lot of speculation as to what Gokhan Saki would do with his career but as I've said for a while, it appears he's going to keep doing kickboxing. He signed a contract with the new Glory World Series a few months ago. He last fought on January 28 where he was stopped by Badr Hari in the first round at It's Showtime in Leeuwarden.

The inclusion of so many sub 70 kilo fighters is severely disappointing but the inclusion of Petrosyan, Van Roosmalen, and Askerov more than makes up for it. Hope to see JWP or Zambidis take one of the last four slots.

Glory is a new breed promotion, one of my favourites for sure. Glory gives me hope for the future of non Zuffa combat sports.