DUUT vs ILUNGA: TO SETTLE DIFFERENCES

Remy Bonjasky’s student and protégé Danyo Ilunga was until recently ranked #1 in the world at light-heavyweight.

But he lost that spot when he got stopped by Tyrone Spong in the GLORY 9 tournament final. However, Ilunga disputes the stoppage and is also not impressed that he has been demoted to #2 by a fighter who, before the tournament, was at heavyweight.

“Yeah I think that was a really bad decision. We could have made a good fight but instead we had this stoppage, which was something to do with the new rule about ‘no standing eight count’. It doesn’t matter anyway - Tyrone did hit me, yes, but I was not knocked out,” Ilunga says.

“I don’t want to predict who would have won the fight if I had been allowed to continue but yes, I could have knocked Tyrone out for sure. Never mind. It will be different next time.

“And also, Tyrone wasn’t a light-heavyweight until that tournament. Suddenly he drops down, wins three fights and he is #1? For the last three years I have been fighting at this weight to be #1 and now after three fights its Tyrone? This doesn’t make sense to me.”

Michael Duut, who will face Ilunga on Saturday night at GLORY 11 CHICAGO, doesn’t think much of Ilunga’s complaints.

“It was a good stoppage, I don’t know what he is crying about. They told us at the rules meeting that there would be no standing eight count anyway so he knew that,” the 23-year-old Meijiro Gym fighter says.

“Anyway, he could never hope to beat Tyrone, not in his dreams. If he fights Tyrone 100 times he will lose 100 times. But if Spong fights me, I have the power to knock him out. Danyo cannot beat me either, and he knows it. I am going to knock him out, I promise you.”

Duut was also part of the GLORY 9 tournament line-up. He faced Spong in the quarter-finals and dropped him in the first round. It looked like an upset win was on the cards. Then Spong beat the count, Duut rushed in to finish him off - and walked straight on to a right hand which knocked him out.

“I think Tyrone was very lucky that night and I was stupid. I could have won that fight by knockout if I had just been a little more patient,” Duut says.

“When I knocked him down I wanted to finish him, I should have stayed off and used my jab and waited for the opening to knock him out. Instead I ran in at him and he knocked me out - he had his eyes closed when he threw the punch, ha!

“Ah I’m over it now, its in the past. I learned a good lesson from it. For me, Spong is the real #1 in the world for sure, I agree with this ranking position. Maybe Danyo is crying about it because he knows he doesn’t have the power to knock Spong out but I do.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. Ilunga is #2 now and soon he will be #3. I am going to take his place. On Saturday night I am going to knock him out. I promise you, I will knock him out.”

Duut’s promise gets a shake of the head from Ilunga.  “He’s pretty good, he’s a strong opponent and he does have a hard punch. But he has a weakness with it - I think he goes too far sometimes. He wants to knock everybody out and sometimes that works against him.”

Will it work against him against Ilunga on Saturday night? The former #1 is saying nothing. He just smiles and says, “We’ll see.”

 GLORY 11 CHICAGO takes place this Saturday at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The event airs live on Spike TV in the USA and in over 170 territories around the world. Fights from the GLORY Superfight Series are also taking place on this event. They will air via GloryWorldSeries.com at a later date.