Saulo Cavalari (32-2, 19 KO’s) won the vacant World Light-Heavyweight Championship on Saturday night at the Bellator/GLORY event ‘Dynamite’ and now returns to his native Curitiba, Brazil as a champion.
In doing so he is following in the footsteps of fellow Curitiba fighters such as Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, legends in the world of fighting and former champions of their weight class in PRIDE FC and the UFC respectively.
Having taken possession of the belt by way of a majority decision over African power-puncher Zack ‘The Black Warrior’ Mwekassa (13-2, 12 KO’s), Cavalari says that the strap will be his for a long time to come.
“This belt is going to stay with me for years. Anybody who wants to take it from me is welcome to try. I wish them luck,” he says.
Cavalari brought a 62% finish ratio to the fight with Mwekassa and had also beaten him by way of left head-kick knockout in their first meeting, the final of the GLORY 18 OKLAHOMA light-heavyweight contender tournament.
Their rematch at Dynamite was not expected to go the distance - Mwekassa brought his own 92% finish ratio to the table and has stopped all but one of his opponents in GLORY. In the event, both men landed bombs but neither could find the finish.
“It was a hard fight against a good opponent so I am happy with the win. I would have preferred to win by knockout of course… I wanted to land a head kick like in the first fight, the opposite side of his head this time, but I couldn’t quite get the shot,” Cavalari smiles.
Talk now turns to who Cavalari will make his first defense against. Former champion Gokhan Saki (81-15, 56 KO’s), who had the belt removed from him after not defending it inside the allotted period allowed by the rules, is an obvious choice, but it depends on his being able to work out a new deal with GLORY.
Saki was upset at being stripped of the title and also did not have kind words for either Mwekassa or Cavalari ahead of their fight for the vacant belt, describing them as “B-level” fighters.
“All I hear from Gokhan Saki is blah, blah, blah. I have challenged him many times, all he does is talk. He talked bad about me, said I was a B-class fighter. Well I am the champion now and where is he?” fumes Cavalari.
“He said that I am not good enough to fight with him but I will show him different. If he wants to fight me then we can have that fight - but I don’t know if he really wants it. [In the meantime] anybody GLORY wants to put in front of me, I will fight. It’s all good.”
GLORY’s next event takes place Friday, October 9 at the Magness Center in Denver, Colorado.
GLORY 24 DENVER is headlined by Joe ‘Stitch Em Up’ Schilling taking on Jason ‘Psycho’ Wilnis in a battle of middleweight title contenders. Also on the card is a four-man Heavyweight Contender Tournament which will see the winner go forward to a title shot against Rico ‘The Prince’ Verhoeven. For tickets go to http://bit.ly/GLORY24tix
