Last week we looked at the thinking behind the matchmaking and line-up for the Featherweight Contender Tournament taking place at GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES.
Now we take a look at the other fights on the card. They are both very important fights for their participants though, as we shall find out, for very different reasons.
This event airs live and free on SPIKE TV. We then move to pay-per-view for the GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING event, which has an incredible three world titles on the line.
In the co-headline bout for GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES we have California lightweight Ky Hollenbeck facing recent title challenger Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie.
Then in the main event, the legendary Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic makes his US kickboxing debut in a rematch with Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller of New York. Miller is out for revenge; he has an issue with how their 2012 fight played out.
Andy “The Machine” Ristie (41-4-1, 21 KO’s) vs. Ky Hollenbeck (46-3-0, 23 KO’s)
Hollenbeck has really rise up the rankings over the past year. He came back from a long injury layoff to take a short-notice fight with former world #1 Albert Kraus at GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES in September and dominated him.
He followed that with another dominating win over the veteran Warren Stevelmans at GLORY 12 NEW YORK and now he finds himself facing the #2-ranked Ristie, who came very close to winning the world title in March.
A win here would put Hollenbeck into a title shot, no question. But it is going to be a tough fight I think. Ristie is one of the most dangerous guys in the division. If you look at what he did to Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin Van Roosmalen, knocking them both out in the same night, that says it all.
It looked like he was going to stop Davit Kiria early in their GLORY 14 ZAGREB title fight but Kiria held on and managed to come back in the fifth round when Ristie ran out of steam. Ristie says that was “an expensive lesson”.
Both these guys have unorthodox styles. Ristie hits from weird angles and his combinations flow in unusual sequences, which can throw an opponent’s timing and defensive positioning off. Hollenbeck has a good spinning back-fist and he has knocked people out with it, it comes from nowhere, and he is also one of the most physically strong fighters in the weight class.
Back in his time as a welterweight Hollenbeck faced Nieky Holzken and afterwards Holzken remarked that he felt Hollenbeck had the skills and the power needed to become a champion. He’s the home fighter so the crowd will be behind him. Can he beat Ristie and take a step closer to bringing the lightweight title to the USA or does The Machine claim another victim?
Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (22-1-0, 9 KO’s) vs. Mirko CroCop (22-8-0, 12 KO’s)
Originally CroCop was set to face Sergey Kharitonov but then the Russian had to pull out because of a hand injury. Miller heard we were looking for a replacement and he put himself forward immediately; he believes he has a score to settle with CroCop.
They fought back in 2012 at a K-1 event in Croatia. It was a one-night tournament and Miller lost a decision to CroCop in the quarter-final stage. He was furious about it; he claims he was head butted repeatedly in the fight and that the judges were against him.
The event was promoted by CroCop’s manager and it was staged in Zagreb so you can see how Miller could feel the odds were stacked against him for getting a fair deal. He has wanted a rematch ever since and he’s told CroCop this fight “is personal”.
Miller is pursuing a professional boxing career now; he is coming back to kickboxing just for this one fight so I think that shows just how much he wants it. CroCop is very experienced but in the first fight Miller was able to block a lot of his kicks and now his own boxing skills are even more progressed than they were.
Now that they are fighting under GLORY rules, the heavy clinching which spoiled parts of the first fight won’t be allowed. The referee will require constant action and that will require a high workrate from both guys.
Miller won’t show CroCop the same respect he did in their first fight and I think CroCop will feel he has to go for a KO because the longer the fight goes, the more it favors the younger Miller. I think we will see a knockout in this fight, either by punches from Miller or a head-kick from CroCop.
GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES takes place Saturday June 21 and airs live on SPIKE TV in the US from 8pm ET.
It will be followed by GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING, which airs on pay-per-view - priced at $34.95 - and features three world titles on the line.
For full details of both events, click here
