The four-man Middleweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS is an All-American affair which will see the winner go forward to take a spot in the next Middleweight Contender Tournament.
Two GLORY veterans will take on two newcomers to the organization as Dustin ‘The Hayak’ Jacoby (4-6, 3 KO’s) of Colorado faces GLORY debutant Ariel Sepulveda (4-1, 1 KO) of New York in the first of the semi-final brackets while Casey ‘GO’ Greene (2-4, 1 KO’s) of California takes on Quinton O’Brien (2-0) of Missouri in the second.
With the tournament format being a key part of the sport of kickboxing, Qualification Tournaments are designed to give mid-table fighters a chance to gain experience and progress in the rankings before moving up into the higher-level Contender Tournaments and title contention fights.
Jacoby, a UFC and Bellator veteran, has had a particularly tough run in GLORY. He had never fought in professional kickboxing before when he accepted a late call-up to take part in a 2013 ‘Road to Glory’ eight-man tournament.
“If you take Dustin as an example, he came into GLORY after winning a ‘Road to GLORY’ tournament by stopping three opponents in one night. But then he went straight into fighting top international opponents and he’s had some hard losses,” says Cor Hemmers, GLORY matchmaker and Head of Talent Operations.
“He came from MMA, that tournament was his first experience of kickboxing, so maybe we should have let him develop at a lower level a bit more. That’s what we are doing with these Qualification Tournaments - fighters with potential are matched at a more equal level and they can work towards fighting at the higher level instead of finding themselves fighting in world-elite level tournaments right away.
“It makes for a very interesting show because these guys are really fighting to show something about themselves and progress to the next level. You get hard fights, they are really going for it.”
Like Jacoby, Sepulveda is an MMA veteran who switched to stand-up fighting when his trainers noted his penchant for Muay Thai. He describes himself as “a brawler who has had his style polished by his coaches”.
Greene was last seen at GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO, where he lost a narrow decision to Mike Lemaire after taking the fight on short notice. O’Brien comes from a Muay Thai background and has established a reputation for technical excellence.
GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS takes place on Friday, August 7 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and airs in the US live on Spike TV at 11pm ET, 10pm CT.
The main event sees karate master Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels of Los Angeles, California take on the precise power-punching Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken of the Netherlands in a five-round fight for the World Welterweight Championship.
