Shane Oblonsky (8-2) makes his long-awaited GLORY debut this Saturday night live on SPIKE TV.
The 29-year-old Californian is one of four top prospects taking part in the Featherweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES.
He faces Marcus ‘Baiano’ Vinicius (7-2, 2 KO’s) of Brazil. A native of the Bahia region, which is also the homeland of heavyweight MMA contender Junior Dos Santos, Vinicius last fought in the GLORY 8 TOKYO featherweight tournament, losing out to current world #1 Mosab Amrani.
“I’ve not looked at him, I don’t do any homework like that,” Oblonsky says when asked if he has done much research on his opponent.
“I might take a look at some videos before the fight but the way I look at it, so long as I am training hard and ready to fight I can take anyone on.”
In the other bracket, tournament favorite Gabriel Varga (23-2, 8 KO’s) - a karate fighter turned kickboxer - carries the Canadian flag into battle with the young Muay Thai prodigy Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai (83-21-1, 51 KO’s).
Should Oblonsky get past Vinicius, he will face one of these two. Both are strong opponents, much more experienced than he is, but he relishes the challenge.
“The time is now, you know? This is a great opportunity, this has been my dream my whole life. I don’t care who they put in front of me. This is my dream and I am going to win no matter what.”
Oblonsky has been on the GLORY radar for some time and would have made his debut earlier if not for some scheduling issues. He has a reputation for getting into firefights and preferring to lose a war rather than gain a victory through playing it safe.
“I love to trade shots, I love to mix it up,” he laughs. “I have quick hands and knockout power; I love to put on a good show. I just want to go in there and start swinging - and kicking.”
As a Californian it would not have been hard for Oblonsky to drift into MMA, given that his state is the sport's unofficial homeland in the USA. He didn’t, because he feels MMA would not satisfy him.
“I love the stand-up game so much, I love to trade shots and bang it out. I think it’s more exciting. If you get rocked you don’t get a chance to grab each other, you know?” he explains.
“GLORY has the highest KO ratio in combat sport and there is a reason for that. We are the best strikers from all around the world facing off with each other - who doesn’t want to see that?”
Oblonsky was originally set to face the former WEC champion Miguel Torres in this tournament. Torres, a free agent, had elected to test his stand-up against GLORY’s elite strikers.
It would have been by far the biggest-name opponent of Oblonsky’s professional career, so he was crushed when Torres pulled out several weeks ago.
“I was so excited about that fight… I’ve only just started to use Twitter and I took a quick look at his and he had like 70,000 followers, which is huge,” he says. “I wanted to steal some from him by beating him, ha! That fight would have done a lot for my profile.”
Still, Oblonsky’s profile will receive a big boost if he wins this weekend’s tournament live on SPIKE TV. It will showcase him to millions of fight fans around the world.
GLORY is still in the early stages of its entry into the US market but things are growing with each event and fans are being converted at an exponential rate.
“This isn’t just the new K-1, it’s going to be way bigger than K-1. People are really getting into it and I think it’s going to blow up,” he says.
“And I think it’s great when they see like, a UFC fighter who is supposed to have great stand-up skills and he crosses over the GLORY and gets a reality check,” he adds, referencing Pat Barry’s recent loss in Denver, Colorado.
“GLORY might not be the most popular fight-sport in America yet, but it will be once people start seeing our performances and what this sport is about.”
GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES airs live on SPIKE TV on Saturday June 21 and will be followed immediately afterwards by the GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING pay-per-view event.
That card - which has been described as “the most stacked card in kickboxing history” - has three world titles on the line.
An eight-man middleweight tournament will determine a champion for that division, while Marc De Bonte defends the welterweight title against ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini of Canada.
Headlining the card is a heavyweight title fight between #1-ranked Daniel Ghita and #2-ranked Rico Verhoeven, his former training partner turned bitter rival.
