GLORY 36 GERMANY: Sittichai retains title, completes trilogy over Grigorian

Sittichai and Marat Grigorian had already fought twice before tonight's GLORY World Lightweight Championship encounter. Sittichai was the winner in both, by way of decision, and in pre-fight interviews Grigorian said his chief goal in this encounter was not the title but rather to knock Sittichai out.

That was always going to be a tall order. Sittichai is not in the habit of being hit cleanly and the odds of Grigorian being able to replicate the stunning head-kick KO he put on Djime Coulibaly earlier this year were slim.

True to his word Grigorian went after Sittichai early and often. The first two rounds had him pushing the action and moving forward on Sittichai, who was initially content to defend with the odd counter shot thrown back.

A clash of heads opened a cut on Sittichai in the first round but it was on the left side, above the hairline, so not something which would cause an issue. That technically gave first blood to Grigorian but did not faze the Thai champion.

Grigorian's head-hunting was not meeting with much success but his low kicks were; these were the cleanest strikes he landed all night. Sittichai is, like most Thai fighters, a slow starter and he didn't try and match Grigorian's pace initially, instead keeping his output rather conservative as he weighed Grigorian up.

Feeling like he had Grigorian's measure at last Sittichai clicked up a gear and started landing his heavier counters. Grigorian found himself walking onto big left knees and left hands repeatedly, his timing figured out. Even so, it must be said that Sittichai did not give the impression of a fighter going all-out to finish his opponent.

The final round saw Grigorian rally and pour more pressure on but he wasn't able to crack Sittichai's shell. Defensively all but watertight, the Thai was able to fend off most of Grigorian's efforts and maintain his counter-attacking until the final bell rang.

When it did, it seemed the decision was going to be Sittichai's, even though his efforts had been rather conservative for much of the fight. Grigorian had been the busier fighter but had seen much of his output detonate harmlessly on Sittichai's guard rather than scoring the points he needed.

Sittichai def. Marat Grigorian, Majority Decision, R3 (49-46, 48-47, 49-47, 48-47, 48-47)