Quinton O’Brien aims to hit the ground running when he makes his GLORY debut at next month’s GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS event.
O’Brien, of St. Louis, Missouri, is one of four fighters taking part in an All-American Middleweight Qualification Tournament on the SPIKE TV card, which takes place Friday, August 7 and airs live in the US at 11pm ET/10pm CT.
The tournament winner will progress to the next Middleweight Contender Tournament, a four-man affair which carries a title shot as its main prize. That puts O’Brien potentially four wins from a shot at the middleweight title, currently held by Artem ‘The Lion’ Levin. It’s a timeline he is more than comfortable with.
“Here’s the thing: I already have a full-time career and a set of responsibilities and I am 33 years old. So I want to see how far I can get, soon as I can. It’s not that I am too old to do this or anything, but I am not 25 years old with lots of time to sit around and wait for opportunities,” he says.
“So if I win this and the Contender tournament, absolutely I am ready to step up and fight the champion. Why not? Worst thing that can happen is I am not successful and my normal life goes on.”
O’Brien faces Casey ‘Go’ Greene in one of the evening’s semi-finals. The other bracket has Dustin ‘The Hayak’ Jacoby facing Ariel Sepulveda, making for two GLORY veterans facing two newcomers.
“Everyone is saying that this is Jacoby’s tournament to run away with but I don’t see it like that at all. Any of us can win this on any given night. I feel it’s a very evenly-matched tournament. They all have strengths,” he says.
“Casey Greene has got a motor and a chin. You look at his last performance, he came in on 48 hours’ notice to face Mike Lemaire, gave him a hell of a fight and lost a narrow decision.
“Jacoby has got all that GLORY experience, he has fought everyone they have put in front of him, some big names. He got into GLORY by winning a light-heavyweight tournament a couple years back. Actually I think he entered that on 48 hours’ notice as well and just cleaned house, stopped three guys in one night.
“Then you’ve got Ariel Sepulveda, he’s the dark horse. I fought him under Muay Thai rules and he is very strong, remarkably so. I have fought 30-odd guys all over the world so I know what strong feels like. This guy was STRONG. It wasn’t even in clinch situations, it was stuff like when he would land a hook it would knock me off-balance a bit, because he is so strong he can just push people over with his punches, you know?”
As for his own key strengths, the Missouri man thinks technicality and ring-time are the two factors which make him stand out from the rest. “I have a pretty crisp style. I am halfway between Dutch and Thai styles - I punch more than a Thai and I knee more than a Dutchman,” he laughs.
“I’ve got a lot of experience. I won the nationals three years in a row, in 2013 I won the WKA nationals and the WKA world’s in two categories, kickboxing and Muay Thai. My professional record is only 2-0 but I have got a ton of amateur experience.
“And you have to bear in mind that in Europe where they use the C-Class, B-Class, A-class system, records kind of roll over, a guy’s professional record will usually include all his C- and B-Class fights. If you applied that to my career, my record would be a lot higher. I actually have the most stand-up fighting experience of anybody in this tournament.”
GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS takes place Friday, August 7 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and features Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken facing Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels for the vacant World Welterweight Championship.
