About GLORY

 1.About GLORY

The GLORY World Series is the world's new Premier Kickboxing league, staging events across the globe. The fight series includes 16 and 8-man tournaments and events with traditional, single bouts. Only the very best Stand up fighters in the world fight in GLORY Kickboxing. In 2012 the price money across two tournaments, the Glory 3 Rome (70kg Slam) and GLORY 4 Tokyo Heavyweight Grand Slam was US$ 1 million.

With television deals spanning every continent and across over 200 countries, GLORY is one of the world's most widely distributed sporting organizations.

Owned and operated by Glory Sports International (GSI), based in Singapore, the organization has offices in the UK,  Holland, Japan, Malaysia and soon in the USA..The organization includes an unprecedented mix of accomplished entrepreneurs and senior level executives from the diverse worlds of finance, sports marketing, television and martial arts fighting.

GSI and the brand “GLORY” were founded in early 2012, and GLORY had 3 events to date (GlORY 1 Sweden, GLORY 2  Brussels, GLORY 3 Rome Slam).

 

2.GLORY Kickboxing BAM!

GLORY Kickboxing is a hybrid stand-up fighting sport. It uses a set of rules which allows all stand-up martial arts such as Karate, Kung-Fu, Taekwondo, Capoeira, Muay Thai and Kickboxing to compete within one ring. The main difference with Muay Thai is that it does not allow elbows, which very often stop a fight because of cuts. It also does not allow clinching for more than 3 seconds or throws as they cut the rhythm of the fight with no added benefits as there is no follow-through to the ground. The knees are allowed, making GLORY Kickboxing different from international kickboxing. The rules were created with the goal of maximizing the excitement of the fights and to make them as complete as possible. A usual fight is made up of 3 rounds of 3 minutes. A title fight is made up of 5 rounds of 3 minutes. In a Grand-Slam tournament, the first fights are a best of 3 rounds of 2 minutes, making the fights even more fast and furious.

GLORY’s roster is composed of most, if not all of the very best stand-up fighters in the world. GLORY has put in place a point system for tournaments and single fights that create an automatic official world ranking for each weight category.

3.History of the sport

-There are many different styles of martial arts. Those that concentrate on remaining standing and hitting the opponent are known as the striking arts and, especially in the US, this method has also come to be known as ‘stand-up fighting’. Until recently the generic term for fights between striking-style martial artists was ‘kickboxing’.

-Since the 1960s there has been an on-going “quest” to determine the most efficient stand-up martial art— creating the most effective style of stand-up fighting. Bruce Lee was the pioneer in challenging the well-established martial arts such as Kung Fu, Karate or Taekwondo, exposing the virtues and limitations of each style. Initially trained in Wing Chun, he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead the use of techniques from various sources, in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do. He also was the first to bring the boxing aspect into the traditional martial arts.

-‘Kickboxing’ is something of a catch-all term that has been used to describe everything from Muay Thai to full-contact karate. But in the modern sense it has come to refer to the competitions staged in a boxing ring, taking place over three rounds of three-minutes duration, between participants wearing shorts and boxing gloves only, and with punches, kicks and knees allowed but clinching, throwing and elbows forbidden.

-This modern style of competition has its roots in karate, which spread around the world following the Second World War, with US servicemen bringing it back home to America with them. Karate competitions took place in the 1960s but they were of the ‘light contact’ variety common at the time.

-In the 1970s there was a movement towards full-contact karate competition between American karate fighters looking to test themselves and their art. Chuck Norris, Benny ‘the Jet’ Urquidez and Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace emerged as some of the frontrunners of the American scene. At the same time, a martial arts movie boom made karate a cool thing and led to a lot of interest across the US.

-This was the birth of what came to be known as ‘kick-boxing’ in the US. The full-contact karate fighters had quickly learned that their conditioning and fighting fitness was poor. They also didn’t have effective punching and so they remedied this by looking at and working with professional boxers, both for the punching skills and as a means of getting fighting fit and conditioned. But the American style had shortcomings. Fighters wore long pants - a hangover from the wearing of the karate gi - and were only permitted to kick above the waist. They did not allow the low-kick to the legs or knee strikes.

-In Japan, the birthplace of karate, the 1960s had also seen a movement towards pushing the boundaries and exploring the realm of full-contact. A pioneer here was Mas Oyama, who had been developing his own hard style. He named his school ‘Kyokoshin Kaikan’, which translates as ‘A society in search of truth’, underlining his desire to find the reality of effective combat methods.

-At the same time, some other Japanese karateka had been taking an interest in Muay Thai, the native fighting art of Thailand, which has a documented history stretching back at least 2,000 years and can lay claim to being the world’s oldest kickboxing system. Muay Thai is a full-contact art and a very, very tough sport. When Japanese karate fighters went against them they had mixed results. In particular they had not encountered low kicks to the thighs or knees to the body or face, and they quickly learned that these were very destructive tools.

-The low-kick made its way into the full-contact karate that was developing in Japan and became a signature move of the Kyokoshin style in particular. With karate schools around the world looking to Japan because of it being the home of karate, this new emphasis on hard style and use of the low kick quickly spread. In the US, this caused a division between what had come to be termed ‘American Kickboxing’ - defined by long pants and kicks above the waist - and ‘Japanese/international kickboxing’, where the participants wore shorts like Thai fighters and were allowed to kick the leg.

-Karate had also spread in Europe during the post-war period and here too there were efforts being made to push the boundaries. Germany, Holland, the UK, Switzerland and France all had strong karate scenes but it was German and Dutch karate students that were instrumental in developing a full-contact karate circuit. Prior to this, most karate competition was not full contact and a lot of dojos did not have a sport or competition focus at all.

-A team of Dutch karateka went to Japan to study karate there and they were impressed with what they learned at a Kyokoshin dojo in the Meijiro district of Tokyo. On returning to their native Amsterdam they founded the Meijiro Gym, named in tribute. Another Dutch martial artist, Thom Harinck, had also discovered this hard Japanese style and founded the Chakuriki Gym around the same time. The two gyms were both based in Amsterdam and had a strong rivalry, producing epic battles that developed their art in the ring. Their style was noted for a heavy emphasis on physical fitness, extensive use of the low kick and a lot of hard contact.

-One of the original Kyokoshin students was Hideyuki Ashihara and he eventually left the organization to start his own, teaching a style based on his own methods and opinions of effectiveness. This was known as Ashihara style and it is the style used by Semmy Schilt, four time winner of the K-1 competition. The K-1 was founded by Kazuyoshi Ishii, a former student of Ashihara’s. He promoted karate tournaments for ten years before founding the K-1 competition.

-The K-1 was designed to test the best fighters of the best stand-up fighting arts against each other and so the K stands for Karate, Kickboxing, Kung-Fu and so on, as many of the striking arts have K in the their title. But it also brought in boxers and strikers from other backgrounds such as Tae Kwon Do. The karate tournament scene had been moving steadily towards kickboxing style over the years and Ishii eventually made the leap complete with K-1, which took place in a boxing ring rather than on a mat. It became the premier league of international kickboxing/stand-up fighting.

-The close links between Japan and Holland became evident via K-1, as many Dutch fighters were trained under instructors who had originally studied the Kyokoshin style and so had contacts with Japanese karate figures such as Ishii. There were two gyms from Amsterdam which were the strongest - Meijiro and Chakuriki. Both were founded in the 1970s.

-Meijiro Gym in particular is considered the foundation of what became Dutch kickboxing. Remy Bonjasky, a three-time winner of the K-1 international Grand Prix, started his training at Meijiro after a friend dared him to accompany him to training. Another fighter who trained there was Johann Vos and he went on to found the Vos Gym, which also became a legendary institution in its own right, producing Ernesto Hoost aka ‘Mr Perfect’, four-time K-1 GP champion.

-Chakuriki Gym is best known for the success of Peter Aerts, who arrived there as a young man with some kickboxing experience and ended up becoming one of the most dominant fighters the sport has ever known, with three K-1 international Grand Prix wins to his name. It was at Chakuriki that a young Badr Hari first made a name for himself, before moving to join Mike’s Gym on the other side of Amsterdam.

-In the 1990s, the Golden Glory team emerged. This was a sophisticated operation which combined management and a network of coaches and fighters into one team. The head coach was Cor Hemmers, a former full-contact karate fighter who had become interested in Muay Thai and had eventually coached his stepson Ramon Dekkers into a world-class Muay Thai fighter who to this day will receive a standing ovation if he walks into a Thailand arena. In December 2012, Ramon Dekkers was named the ambassador to all foreign fighters in Thailand by the King of Thailand himself.

-Hemmers’ gym in the south of Holland was one part of the Golden Glory operation; another was the Ashihara Karate dojo of Semmy Schilt in the north of Holland, and eventually other satellite gyms in Europe were added. The best fighters of these gyms came through to represent Golden Glory in the fighting rings. Among them were Semmy Schilt, Stefan Leko, Ruslan Karaev, Gokhan Saki, Errol Zimmerman. Eventually, Golden Glory became the most dominant team in K-1 history.

-The K-1 competition operated as the premier league of the striking arts for seventeen years but began to suffer a decline from 2007, and it formerly ended in early 2012 with the bankruptcy of its parent company FEG.

-In 2011, French businessman Pierre Andurand entered the picture. A very successful hedge-fund manager, he is a lifelong martial arts fan with a keen interest in kickboxing. He looked into buying the K-1 IP rights and video library. At the same time, sports marketing agency Total Sport Asia headed by Marcus Luer was also doing the same.

-After many discussions, Pierre and Marcus decided instead to create a new premier league of striking arts . The first step was to sign the most successful fighters and biggest names and so they bought out the Golden Glory team and the It’s Showtime organization  and then started signing additional talent from around the world.

-The new organization was called GLORY and the style of fighting referred to as GLORY Kickboxing. This is not because of the Golden Glory buyout, but because GLORY is the central theme of the fighting life and something that all fighters aspire to achieve. It is the principle that underlines the sport.

-2012 saw the company stage four events, of which the year-ending Grand Slam is the biggest. The Grand Slam is a brand-new tournament format unlike anything the fighting world has ever seen. It consists of the world’s best sixteen fighters competing over one night in a knockout tournament to determine which of them is the best of the best. It is the toughest competition in fight sports.

4.Weight categories

GLORY has 6 weight categories. Each of them will see its own annual tournament.

Featherweight (65kg/143lb): Slam Lightweight (70kg/154lb): Grand Slam Welterweight (77kg/170lb): Slam Middleweight (85kg/187lb): Slam Light Heavyweight (95kg/209lb): Slam Heavyweight: above 95kg/209lb: Grand Slam

There are 2 types of tournaments:

8-man tournaments, or Slams

16-man tournaments, or Grand Slams

Each tournament is a one night event, with the winner declared at the end of the night.

5.Events formats

There are 2 types of EVENTS:

-Single fights events, such as GLORY 2 Brussels or GLORY 5 London. There are between 8 and 13 bouts of single fights in different weight categories. Each fight counts for the ranking system.

In order to have a fair and exciting matchmaking, only fighters within 8 ranks can fight each other at any point in time (outside of tournaments). Most fights would have fighters within the top 15 in the world. A few fights would have fighters ranked between 16 and 25 in the world. There would be at least one big main event, and more often than not a title fight in these events.

Tournaments:

World Slams (or eight-man tournaments)

- The Slam is a typical 8-man tournament format, where each fight is of three rounds of three minutes duration. The top 4 fighters are seeded, while the bottom four are randomly placed. There are prizes for the first, second, third and fourth fighters. The winner will get the very prestigious World Slam belt of his weight category.

- The top 8-ranked fighters would fight each other in a one-night elimination tournament. The top 4 would be seeded. The bottom 4 would be randomly placed. Each fight is of three rounds of three minutes. There would also be between 4 and 7 single fights in between, counting for the ranking.

World Grand Slams (or sixteen-man tournaments)

The top 16-ranked fighters would fight each other in a one-night elimination tournament. The top 8 would be seeded. The bottom 8 would be randomly placed. Please see more details in “Tournament formats” section. There would also be between 3 and 5 single fights in between, counting for the ranking.

- Previously the maximum number of fighters in a tournament has been eight, meaning it will commence with quarter-finals and the eventual grand finalists will have fought three times. In a Grand Slam it is sixteen fighters and so it commences with what are known as ‘Final 16’ and the finalists will fight four times in one night.

- Because of this, innovative new rules have been put in place to allow dominant fighters to progress through the tournament faster without risking injury.

- The Final 16, Final 8 (Quarter-finals) and Final 4 (Semi-finals) are subject to a ‘Best of Three’ rule. Under this rule, if an athlete wins the first two rounds, he qualifies for progression to the next stage of the tournament and the third round is not required.

- The Final 16 and Final 8 consist of three rounds of two minutes duration instead of the standard three minutes duration. This means that the action will be fast-paced from the opening second as the fighters hunt for the knockout and progression to the next stage.

- The Final 4 (semi-finals) and the grand final will consist of the standard three rounds of three minutes, although the semi-final can end after two rounds under the Best of Three rule.

- The sixteen fighters in the tournament are the absolute best stand-up fighters on the planet and are drawn from every corner of the earth.

- The top 4 finishers will get prizes.

-The winner will get the prestigious World Grand Slam Champion belt of his weight category.

There are 2 types of BELTS:

The World Champion belt coming from single fights. A title fight would have to be between the #1 ranked fighter and another fighter within the top 5. One of them should have the belt before the fight, except if the title is vacant. The winner would win the belt. In case a belt holder is not in the top 5 anymore, the title would become vacant. A world title fight has five rounds of three minutes with 1 minute rest in between each round. The World Slam Champion and Grand Slam Champion belt. The winner of the tournament would get the belt

6.Point system and how rankings work

GLORY is the only combat sports organisation with a clear point system which generates automatic world rankings for each weight category.

(i) All fights taking place under the auspices of the GLORY World Federation governing body will affect the fighter's position in the official GWF ranking.

The GWF Ranking Committee has compiled a preliminary rankings list taking into account multiple factors. This will be the start-point of the fighter's future movements in the rankings as he competes in GWF sanctioned bouts.

(ii)The GWF Rankings operate on 52 weeks expiry system for 1/3 of the points.

This means that all the points accumulated for wins in GLORY will be removed at a rate of 1/3 every year on the first three anniversaries of the event. It will take 3 years to lose all these points.

This is to keep the ranking system fresh and ensure that active fighters are accorded their proper place. At the same time, inactive fighters to do not unfairly occupy the upper-end of the rankings despite not having any fights for two years or more.

Example - It is December 2nd, 2012 and Fighter A wins 300 points by winning fighter B.

On 2nd December 2013 fighter A will lose 100 points and again and on 2nd December 2014. On 2nd December 2015  he will lose the last 100 points.

GWF Point System:

The GWF Point System has two parts, depending on the match that the fighter is taking part in.

1: Non-tournament fights, including Superfights :

If a higher ranked fighter beats a lower ranked fighter then the higher-ranked fighter will gain points equivalent to 25% of the lower-ranked fighter's points score. The lower-ranked fighter will keep his points as he is the underdog. If the higher ranked fighter wins by KO he will get 35% of the points of the lower ranked fighter.

If a higher-ranked fighter loses to a lower-ranked fighter, then the higher-ranked fighter loses from his points total 25% of the difference in points between himself and the lower ranked fighter. The lower-ranked fighter will see his points total increase by an amount equivalent to 25% of the higher-ranked fighter's points before the loss. If the win is by knockout this percentage increases to 35%.

2: Tournament fights:

Tournament fights supply points in the following order for wins:

World Grand Slam Tournaments (16 fighters)

8th finalists   50 points (8 fighters) Quarter finalists 100 points (4 fighters) Semi finalists   180 points (2 fighters) Finalist           300 points  (1 fighter) Winner            500 points  (1 fighter)

World Slam Tournaments (8 fighters)

Quarter finalists 50 points  (4 fighters) Semi finalists100 points (2 fighters) Finalist         180 points (1 fighter) Winner          300 points (1 fighter)

7.Road to Glory

- There are great fighters all over the world that, for one reason or another, have not had the opportunity to break into the top level of competition. Glory is seeking to discover and develop these untapped resources via the Road to Glory series of events.

- Commencing 2013 in the USA and Japan, these tournaments will invite the brightest prospects in the country. The standout fighters will earn the chance to fight in full GLORY tournaments while those that show promise may earn themselves training contracts that will develop their potential to the full via training with top coaches and sparring partners.

- These tournaments will be televised or streamed and will not only uncover the new talent but will also develop them as characters and future stars in the public eye, creating the next generation of the sport’s superstar fighters. Applications to participate in the Road to Glory series are currently being taken via the GloryWorldSeries.com website.