GLORY 5 set for Feb. 16 in London with Tyrone Spong-Remy Bonjasky main event

The GLORY kickboxing promotion next month teams up with DREAM for a New Year's Eve mega-show in Japan.

But in February, GLORY will return with a card on its own. GLORY 5 is slated for Feb. 16 in London, and veteran heavyweights Tyrone Spong (68-6-1) and Remy Bonjasky (77-14) are set to headline.

Spong earlier this month made his MMA debut with a dominant first-round knockout of Travis Bartlett at World Series of Fighting 1 in Las Vegas.

GLORY 5, announced Monday by promotion officials, will take place at the arena at ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London. Also announced for the card are lightweights Jordan Watson (29-5-1) vs. Steve Moxon (29-4-1) and Liam Harrison (67-13-2) vs. Mosab Amrani (48-7-4).

Tickets for the event are expected to go on sale in November, with pricing levels and an exact on-sale date announced soon.

Spong spent roughly a year training with the Blackzilians squad at Imperial Athletics in Florida in preparation for his crossover from kickboxing to MMA. And against Bartlett, he didn't disappoint. He was a massive favorite of as much as 13-to-1 in the fight, which took place on the main card at WSOF 1 and aired on NBC Sports Network.

Just 40 seconds into the fight, Spong landed a head kick that dropped Barlett, and 30 seconds later continued to try to land the big right roundhouse kick to the head. He also mixed in knees, leg kicks and punches against the veteran of nearly 100 boxing matches.

But after barely breaking a sweat, Spong landed a straight right hand that planted Bartlett, and Spong just turned around and walked away.

As a kick boxer, Spong has won four straight, including a knockout of Peter Aerts in June. His last setback came nearly two years ago against Alistair Overeem in the K-1 World Grand Prix quarterfinals.

Bonjasky owns three K-1 Grand Prix titles and just this past month returned after three years away from the sport due to an eye injury and subsequent surgery. His return was successful as he won a decision against top-ranked Anderson "Braddock" Silva at GLORY 2 in Belgium.

"This is a dream fight that kickboxing fans around the world have been wanting to see for some time," GLORY Managing Director Marcus Luer stated. "Bonjasky is one of the sport's all-time greats, and anybody who watched him fight in Brussels could see immediately that he was as sharp as ever. He had the same dynamic fighting style that earned him tremendous success and acclaim in the sport before he went on hiatus three years ago.

"As for Spong, his speed and technicality are just amazing. He is unbelievably agile for a heavyweight and he makes fighting look like ballet. He also has plenty of power and a real killer instinct, which we saw in his win over Peter Aerts earlier this year. Bonjasky and Spong are two of the most natural athletes the sport of kickboxing has ever seen."

No broadcast details have been announced for GLORY 5, but Luer and GLORY Chairman Pierre Andurand recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio that they expect to have a television deal in place soon, not just for the February show, but for the combined GLORY/DREAM show in December.

The resurgence of DREAM was announced this past month, and soon after it was announced DREAM 18 will be combined with the GLORY 4 Tokyo Heavyweight Grand Slam, which was planned for earlier in the month.

The new show, "DREAM 18 and GLORY 4 Tokyo – New Year's Eve Special," takes place at 4 p.m. (2 a.m. ET) Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, near Tokyo.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/31708/glory-5-set-for-feb-16-in-london-with-tyrone-spong-remy-bonjasky-main-event.mma

Excellent matchup here.

And 3 hours from where I live too. Have to make this one for sure.

Liam Harrison- Mosab Amrani and Jordan Watson on the card is also a huge plus.

Wow. Spong/Bonjasky and Harrison/Amrani are disgustingly good.

Fantastic

GLORY 4 Tokyo Grand Slam Tournament Match-Ups Set

The GLORY 4 Tokyo event is set to take place on December 31st and today marked the day when GLORY broadcast the draws live from Japan. It was a bit of an unorthodox draw with a few fighters in Japan and a few in Holland live via Skype video chat. Raomoru, Fabiano Cyclone and Musashi were in attendance, with Musashi choosing the names out of a jar. The way the draws worked were the first 8 seeds, which are chosen from Glory's rankings, were placed across the board and their opponents were selected randomly out of the jar.

We also heard from Cor Hemmers about the format of the event, which we already know the basics of; the first few rounds of the tournament consist of two minute rounds with an open scoring system. If there is a clear winner after two rounds, that fighter moves on, if not, a third and final deciding round comes into play. In the Finals of the tournament it is full Glory rules; Three three-minute rounds with two extension rounds for all of the (excuse the pun) Glory.

So without further ado, here is the line-up for the GLORY Grand Slam Tournament:

Semmy Schilt vs. Brice Guidon

Rico Verhoeven vs. Sergei Kharitonov

Raomoru vs. Gokhan Saki

Igor Jurkovic vs. Anderson "Braddock" Silva

Filip Verlinden vs. Remy Bonjasky

Jamal Ben Saddick vs. Errol Zimmerman

Mourad Bouzidi vs. Peter Aerts

Fabiano "Cyclone" Aoki vs. Daniel Ghita

http://www.liverkick.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2059:glory-4-tokyo-grand-slam-tournament-match-ups-set&catid=50:glory