Ben Saddik vs Ristea fight preview by unibet

This saturday night, April 5, GLORY will kick-off the Last Heavyweight Standing Tournament with a stacked and action-packed fight card live from the Ahoy in Rotterdam. This event will feature 16 heavyweight bouts and will be headlined by the fight between Jamal Ben Saddik (37-9, 30 KO) and Cristian Ristea (44-25, 13 KO). 

The Goliath made his highly anticipated return in February at GLORY 98 where he defeated Uku Jurjendal (20-10, 16 KO) by KO in the very last second of the third round. It was Jamal’s first appearance in over 2 years inside the GLORY ring and he offered the public an incredible high kick finish against a very tough opponent. He now moves into the Last Heavyweight Standing Tournament in which he is one of the favorites. 

Standing in the Morrocan’s way is the returning Cristian Ristea. The veteran of 70 fights has not entered the GLORY ring since 2023 and his appearance against Nikola Filipovic (11-3, 6 KO). The Gladiator is looking at the biggest opportunity of his career on April 5 and he is ready to seize it. Training under his mentor Benjamin Adegbuyi (35-8, 20 KO), Cristian will benefit from valuable information from Mr. Gentleman who knows Jamal Ben Saddik like few fighters do. 

This fight promises to be a real clash of styles. True to its nickname, Cristian Ristea always comes for a brawl and he constantly moves forwards with his boxing skills to put pressure on his opponents. He will need to disturb Jamal’s rhythm and prevent The Goliath from hurting him at range. The Romanian wants to be elusive and use his speed advantage to make his opponent miss. Perhaps due to the time away from the ring, we’ve seen a more gun-shy version of Jamal at GLORY 98 and Ristea needs to use this to find a way through his guard and make the Goliath uncomfortable. 

Jamal needs to use his jabs and kicks to keep Ristea guessing, punishing the Romanian’s attempt at closing range and making him feel the difference in power between them. He needs to be more active than he was against Uku Jurjendal however as Ristea will likely be slicker on the feet and a more dynamic target than the Estonian was. As always, the Moroccan will look for a big shot to close the deal and we might get another highlight for the ages at GLORY 99. 

This should be a very interesting fight. Ristea’s path to victory relies on a very disciplined and dynamic performance. He needs to compensate for his strength discrepancy with movements and elusiveness while Jamal looks for the finish. Making the Goliath miss will be key for him as he does not want to be on the wrong side of one of Jamal’s heavy strikes.