Being able to overcome adversity against all odds is one of the hallmarks of a champion fighter. Comebacks can take many forms - it can happen in a single fight, or it can take place over the course of a year or career.
Three comebacks stood out for us in 2013’s GLORY calendar. Two were in the course of fights and one was over the course of the year as a whole. All three were the kind of feats that only championship-calibre fighters could achieve.
Peter Aerts vs. Jamal Ben Saddik
GLORY 8 TOKYO
Ben Saddik is enormous, the second-largest heavyweight on the GLORY roster. He is also young, still several years away from his physical prime. In contrast, Aerts entered the ring at 43 years old and in the twilight of a long and glorious career.
On paper this fight would be a passing of the torch. The younger Ben Saddik would take a win over an aged legend and add a big name to his record on the way to mounting his own title contender run. It very nearly happened, but in the end Aerts showed the quality which has kept him at the top for two decades.
Ben Saddik gave Aerts hell in the first round, battering him around the ring. One punch burst Aerts’ ear-drum and caused him to stagger drunkenly from the subsequent loss of balance. A big finish seemed close but Aerts made it to the end of the round and went back to his corner.
Afterwards he said that, while sitting on his stool, he lost his temper and decided “to make it into a street fight”. Ben Saddik could not have had any idea as to what would face him in the second round: Aerts came out like a man possessed, stayed in punching range and just unloaded with everything he had.
Incredibly, Aerts was able to knock Ben Saddik down no less than three times to score a stoppage win under the Three Knockdowns rule. The final knockdown was a knee to the jaw as they stood against the ropes. Ben Saddik went down looking confused. He had every right to be - Aerts had just staged perhaps the most incredible comeback ever seen in kickboxing history.
Tyrone Spong vs. Michael Duut
GLORY 9 NEW YORK Light-Heavyweight Championship Tournament
Having dropped from heavyweight after scoring a big KO win over Remy Bonjasky at GLORY 5 LONDON, Spong entered the GLORY 9 NEW YORK Light-Heavyweight Championship Tournament as the favorite to win it, despite the presence of then #1-ranked Danyo Ilunga in the line-up.
In the event, Spong did go on to win it, but his night almost ended very early. He faced Michael Duut in the quarter-finals and got knocked down in the very first round. It looked like a huge upset was on the cards, but Spong managed to beat the count and get back to his feet.
Duut surged forward looking for the finish - and walked straight onto a big right hand from Spong. It was one of the hardest shots Spong has ever thrown and Duut took it full force. It was his turn to hit the canvas and this time there was no beating the count.
Duut was knocked out and Spong went on to win a decision over Filip Verlinden then stop Ilunga in the final to take the $150,000 prize and the light-heavyweight #1 ranking spot.
Daniel Ghita
2013
The first half of Ghita’s 2013 was a hard one. He started the year by recovering from a head-kick stoppage loss to Semmy Schilt, sustained in the final of the GLORY 4 Heavyweight Grand Slam. In April he went to Istanbul to face bitter rival Gokhan Saki. Beset by personal problems and fighting in front of a hostile crowd, Ghita suffered one of the most one-sided losses of his career.
Questions were asked about his ability to bounce back from these losses. He answered them by scoring crushing knockout victories at GLORY 9 NEW YORK (Brice Guidon) and GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES (Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva) before losing a very close decision to Rico Verhoeven in the final of the Heavyweight Championship Tournament.
Many fans agreed with Ghita that the decision should have gone his way, but such is the fight game. Ghita fought at GLORY 13 TOKYO in December and closed the year in style by doing a demolition job on Errol Zimmerman, scoring a brutal first-round KO in the process.
Close fights can turn on a knife-edge when it comes to judge’s decisions. Ghita suffered some hard times and some bad luck in 2013 but by the end of the year had blasted his way back into the contender conversation. Having come back from adversity, Ghita is on a mission to capture the heavyweight title in 2014.
