The last time Brian Collette and Myron Dennis stood opposite each other, they were also in Virginia and also fighting under the GLORY banner. Their first meeting, at GLORY 19 VIRGINIA, was a war and their second promised to be more of the same.
Collette struggled with shoulder and bicep injury for much of 2015, so his competition appearances were infrequent. Dennis ventured into MMA and secured a spot for himself on a recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC's flagship reality show, so he and Collette were on fairly equal layoffs coming into this one.
Dennis wanted to avenge that GLORY 19 loss while Collette again had the incentive (and pressure) of fighting in his home state. Not only that, but this event was actually taking place in his home city of Norfolk, whereas the prior event had been some miles down the road in Hampton.
Any fears that ring-rust would be a factor soon proved unfounded. The two looked sharper than ever. Collette's boxing – he was a contender for a US Olympic team slot for the 2012 games – was excellent and Dennis' Muay Thai game looked great. Both had plenty of gas in the tank as well; they went at each other at a relentless pace for the duration of the bout.
Dennis had said pre-fight that he considered Collette to be the better technician and said his gameplan would be to make a “dirty” fight which would rob Collette of the chance to make it a clean technical bout. Collette was happy to get in the trenches though and his sharper boxing proved to be a more dominant force anyway. Dennis wasn't completely successful in making the fight into what he wanted.
Most of the first round went in Collette's favor, until Dennis rallied late and took control for the final minute. The second and third rounds were a war in which advantage lay slightly with Collette for the most part, with Dennis remaining a big threat. Late in the third he pressured Collette onto the ropes then unexpectedly dropped into a Saenchai-style cartwheel kick. Collette was just able to roll away a little and take a little force out of it, but it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had it landed flush.
As it was, Collette took a bump but shook it off and actually smiled at Dennis and gave him a glove touch for the attempt. Then they went right back to battering each other as the seconds ticked away. Dennis' late attempt to take Collette out in showstopping style was impressive, but Collette had done more to impress the judges overall and took the unanimous decision.
