Ambang and Morales first met in the semi-finals of the GLORY 27 CHICAGO Welterweight Qualification Tournament, with Ambang winning a decision after three rounds and thereby passing through to the tournament final, where he lost a close decision to Richard Abraham.
Morales subsequently took himself away to the Netherlands to work on his game, signing with Team Colosseum in Utrecht, home of the Wilnis brothers and a sparring center for GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven.
This was an immediate rematch for Morales, who had not fought since Chicago. Ambang had fought and won at GLORY 32 VIRGINIA and, during fight week, seemed almost offended that Morales had requested a rematch with him.
The improvement in Morales' game was immediately apparent once the fight started. His right low kick came out constantly, especially as a counter to Ambang's punches. That counter low kick is a trademark of the Colosseum team – look at any Jason Wilnis fight – and Morales had clearly been drilled in it over and over.
Morales' diligent work with the low kick probably won him the first round, with Ambang being careful with his offensive output. Things heated up considerably in the second, Ambang clicking up several gears and stringing numerous power-shot combinations together. Morales continued scoring and there were some good exchanges, but on power-shots landed Ambang seemed like the winner of the second frame.
Things rested on the third and final frame, and it was close. Ambang had the higher and more varied output but Morales' leg kicks looked to be the most damaging shots thrown by either fighter. It was a tough one to call but the judges were unanimous in their opinion that Ambang had won two of the three rounds, returning scores of 29-28 in his favor.
Morales falls to 0-3 and is still in search of his first win as a professional following a stellar amateur run, but he can take solace from the fact that his game has clearly improved massively following the move to the Netherlands. He may want to take some time to gain experience at the regional tier.
Ambang rises to ## and finally breaks his cycle of alternating wins and losses in GLORY. He is now on a 2-0 run for the first time in the organization.
