Last week GLORY announced it will be unlocking its entire event archive so that fans around the world can access every GLORY World Series bout for free, in addition to the other material in our extensive fight library.
The process started last week with GLORY 1 STOCKHOLM and continues this week with fights from GLORY 2 BRUSSELS, which took place in the Belgian capital on October 6 2012.
Here we take a look at one of the key bouts from that card.
At the beginning of 2012 the veteran Murat Direkci (68-16-2, 57 KO's) announced his retirement from competition. But a few months later the GLORY World Series arrived on the scene, with GLORY 1 STOCKHOLM taking place in May.
Direcki was motivated to end his retirement and approach GLORY for a chance to compete. He got that at GLORY 2: BRUSSELS in October, facing the welterweight prospect Nieky Holzken (84-11, 44 KO’s) on the main card of the sophomore event.
Having most of his career at 70kgs (155lbs), Direkci had decided he would no longer be cutting weight. This fight took place at the welterweight limit of 77kgs (170lbs) and allowed Direcki to avoid the gruelling weight cut which had been a factor in his decision to retire at the start of the year.
The fight was Holzken’s debut in GLORY. He was 8-2 since late 2011 and was on a mission to become the top contender at welterweight and to be crowned the division’s first champion in the new organization.
So both fighters had a lot to prove as they went into this bout. It was hard-fought, taking place at close range and with Direcki using every bit of his experience to try and put Holzken on the back foot and neutralize his dangerous boxing.
The fight went two rounds and at times was a brawl, with both of them looking to land the KO blow, which would end it. Today the full video has been released from the GLORY archives and you can watch it for free.
Take a look and see how the GLORY Welterweight Championship picture started to take shape back in October 2012.
