Gerges and Brestovac square off for first time in GLORY 45 co-main

Hesdy Gerges hasn't had the kind of competition this year that he would have wanted. Two cancelled fights with Chi Lewis-Parry meant that thus far, his only fight of 2017 was a decision win over Tomas Hron at GLORY 41 HOLLAND in May.


Hron’s conservative fighting style meant Gerges couldn’t put on the kind of fight that he likes to, but at GLORY 45 AMSTERDAM later this month he will be able to do that because he is fighting Mladen Brestovac. 


The tall, powerful Brestovac is a Croatian southpaw who, like his countryman and training partner Mirko ‘CroCop’, is deadly with the left kick and always looking to finish his fights inside the distance.


Brestovac too has had a slower 2017 than he would have liked. He defended the heavyweight title of Croatian promotion FFC in April but hasn’t competed since. This fight will be his first GLORY bout of the year.


It means that both of these heavyweights are entering the ring extremely hungry to make an impression with their performance, get the win and remind fellow GLORY heavyweights of their presence.


Gerges is the higher ranked of the two, currently occupying the #6 slot, while Brestovac sits just inside the top ten at #9. A win for Brestovac would move him up the ranking and Gerges risks a slide in position if he cannot secure the win for himself.


On paper the two are quite evenly matched: Brestovac is, for a change, the slightly shorter fighter at 6’5” (198cm) versus 6’6” (200cm) for Gerges, though he does tend to weigh a little more than Gerges on fight night. Neither differential is likely to be of any significance on fight night.


Both have faced #1-ranked Benjamin Adegbuyi in GLORY and suffered losses on both occasions. Gerges took Adegbuyi to decision twice while Brestovac was stopped on the first occasion and went the distance on the second.


Unusually for fighters of this level in this weight class, this will be the first time that the two have fought. A first-time encounter between seasoned professional heavyweights is always an interesting event and, as with any heavyweight encounter, things can end in an instant.