GLORY is the world's premier kickboxing organization, combining the world's best fighters with some of the most successful financial entrepreneurs and investors that the world has ever seen. From the boxing ring to the boardroom, GLORY is stacked with top-tier talent on a combined mission to take the sport to the next level.
A quick glance at the names on the GLORY roster indicate the quality of combatants to be found fighting in the GLORY ring. The likes of Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky, and Jerome Le Banner need little introduction, being household names in the kickboxing world, while fighters like Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghita, Tyrone Spong and Errol Zimmerman are blasting their way through the competition on their way to achieving superstar status of their own.
And that is just the heavyweights. The 70 kilogram weight class - which, like heavyweight, is a flagship division in the sport - has names such as Giorgio Petrosyan and Albert Kraus shining brightly atop it. Under them, but targeting that number one spot, are rising stars such as Shemsi Beqiri, and Robin Van Roosmalen, a new generation who combine martial arts mastery with the fitness and professionalism of the modern athlete.
It's a strong line-up, as befits the organization’s status as the world's premier league. But that is only half of the talent that makes GLORY such a special company. The other half can be found backstage, in suits rather than shorts and wielding Blackberries rather than boxing gloves. Among them are one of the world's most successful hedge fund investors and a sports marketing executive with a track record of making millions from unique sports properties.
Pierre Andurand, Chairman and majority shareholder of Glory Sports International, is a very successful hedge-fund manager, earning record returns for his clients. Entering the investment world as an oil trader, Andurand's understanding of the market was such that he was among the first to predict oil reaching $100 a barrel. Many rival investors disagreed but when Andurand was proved correct his reputation - and fortune - were massively enhanced.
He graduated into forming his own commodities hedge fund, BlueGold Capital, which returned over 200% in 2008, and from 2008 to 2012 returned over 250% to its investors, the best track-record of any hedge fund during that period. At its peak, BlueGold had $2.5 billion under management. Never before has a person of such ability and financial perception been involved in a major martial arts organization. His decision to enter the world of kickboxing - which he has followed as a fan for many years - has sparked intense interest across the industry and among the international fanbase. He is the majority investor in GSI.
Further investment expertise is provided by Scott Rudmann, an asset manager and graduate of Harvard Business School who has taken a minority share in the company. He has long experience of investing in media circles and it was that which brought him into contact with Marcus Luer, Group CEO of sports marketing agency Total Sport Asia (TSA) and now Managing Director of GSI as well.
Luer complements his colleagues' financial acumen with an unrivalled network of sports and broadcast industry contacts. TSA was instrumental in the successful expansion of WWE, the world's leading professional wrestling organization into the Asian sphere, earning the American company hundreds of millions of dollars via the same expertise which is now being channeled into GLORY. Luer and TSA also invested and have shares in GSI.
Underneath this stellar group of top executives are a team of fighting industry professionals unmatched by any other organization in the sport. The business expertise of the company directors is matched by the industry experience of its backroom personnel. Cor Hemmers, Bas Boon, Martijn De Jong and Simon Rutz were each successful in their own right before becoming part of the GLORY machine.
Rutz was the owner and promoter of "It's Showtime", which grew to be the most successful kickboxing promotion in Europe and had most of the top European fighters on its roster. In mid-2012 GSI bought It's Showtime out for an undisclosed sum and, as part of the deal, Rutz joined the executive arm of the company.
Most of his employees also came over, bringing their years of experience with them. GLORY's production team is now composed of key events professionals from the old It's Showtime and United Glory organizations, and of TSA's own events team. Between them they have produced over 200 shows on five different continents.
Hemmers, Boon and De Jong came into the GLORY organization via their work with the Golden Glory gym, the single most successful team ever to have taken part in the K-1 Grand Prix, which was at the time the sport's top competition. Golden Glory athletes formed the backbone of K-1's roster of talent and were badly affected when the Japanese organization’s finances took a downturn.
At this point the sport of kickboxing was potentially facing dark times - all the top fighters in the sport were on hiatus while they waited to be paid for previous fights and so there were no events being staged. It was at this point that Andurand, a huge kickboxing fan, and Luer, who was looking for a new sports property to replicate his WWE success, first started looking into buying the K-1 brand.
They put a package together but the initially successful negotiations with the K-1 owner FEG broke down, apparently because of a reluctance on their part to see ownership of the brand transferred out of Japan. It was an immensely frustrating development for the investors but they soon demonstrated the kind of initiative that had made them stand-out players in their own industries. It occurred to them that the fighters are more important than the organization so if they were to start their own organization and sign all the currently unemployed stars, kickboxing would once again have a top organization.
Because the Golden Glory team had so many top fighters, the investors reached out to see if they would be interested in taking part in a new organization. They were and, over the course of negotiations, it was determined that Hemmers, Boon and De Jong  - the team's management and personnel - could also be brought over to play a part in the new organization. For them it would mean leaving the team behind and starting a new challenge, transitioning from being part of a team to being part of the sport's leading league.
The new organization needed a name and from the outset all parties were keen on GLORY. The word resonated with the warrior spirit of the sport while at the same time echoing the name of the team that were the first to join it. However, it is important to stress that GLORY and Golden Glory are two separate things - the fighting team remains a separate entity, albeit one with an honored place in the history of the GLORY organization.
Hemmers and Boon spent their whole careers building Golden Glory into a powerhouse. Along the way they each acquired an unrivalled range of contacts and breadth of industry knowledge. Boon, the archetypal manager, and Hemmers, the distinguished trainer, are perhaps the most accomplished double-act in the history of the martial arts.
They agreed to move from Golden Glory to executive roles with the GLORY organization. Hemmers is the official Brand Ambassador, a reflection of his distinguished standing within the sport, but he also fulfils matchmaking and tournament-organizing duties.
Among the talents that Hemmers has developed are Heath Herring, Gilbert Yvel, Alistair Overeem, Stefan Leko, Errol Zimmerman, Gokhan Saki, Marloes Coenen, Sergey Kharitonov and Chalid 'Die Faust' Arrab. Each of them has been the champion of at least one organization and between them they have fought for the UFC, PRIDE FC, K-1 and Strikeforce - the fighting world's premier organizations.
As for Boon, who in his early twenties was staging hugely successful events of his own, he has a contacts book the envy of the industry and a keen eye for new talent. He now employs those skills in the service of GLORY as the organization expands across the world. And Martijn De Jong, MMA and grappling coach to Overeem and the other aforementioned fighters, has experience both as a trainer and as a promoter, having staged shows across Europe and Russia.
Late in 2012 the executive arm of Glory Sports International proved it was as adept at acquiring boardroom talent as it is at acquiring the world's top talent by welcoming Graeme White and Andrew Whitaker to the line-up.
White came on board as Chief Operating Officer for GSI, drawing his past experience with world-class sporting institutions such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions League. He has a wealth of commercial sports expertise which encompasses broadcast, marketing, event operations and the monetizing of various international properties and brands.
Whitaker is a former senior executive with the WWE, the US professional wrestling franchise. He has taken a role as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Directors for GSI and will work towards growing the global presence of the GLORY brand. Together the pair will work towards developing business plans and strategic initiatives to expand the reach and presence of the world's number one kickboxing organization.
And so the executives that form the GLORY infrastructure are a unique mix of top financiers, sports marketing experts and renowned industry figures. Between them they have a vision and a drive that will take the sport to new heights. The partnership has proved so inspirational that when the new owners of K-1 came calling to their long-time legends Peter Aerts - a three-time GP winner - and Jerome Le Banner, they were rejected by both in favor of working with GLORY.
And it didn't stop there - retired icon Remy Bonjasky, himself a three-time winner of the Grand Prix, entered talks with GLORY and after some consideration decided he would emerge for retirement to enter the ring once more. Receiving the seal of approval from such figures was a clear sign to the martial arts world that GLORY was the new home of greatness. Certainly it resonated with Tyrone Spong, one of the hottest properties in the fight world at present. He rejected offers from multiple suitors in favor of committing himself exclusively to the GLORY ring - and so did the 'Savage Samurai' Daniel Ghita, currently the hottest property in the fighting world.
These signings have resonated with fans and the crackle of excitement is in the air worldwide. Once again we will see giants enter the ring to do battle with one another in the kind of epic contests which thrill the eyes and inspire the heart. GLORY tournaments are not just about fighting - they are about spirit and struggle, about meeting challenges with courage and heart. They are a metaphor for life and its daily struggles - small wonder there are so many devoted fans around the world.
If you are a dedicated fan of the sport be assured the best is yet to come - fighting legends and the best of the rising stars have their new home in the GLORY ring. If you are new to the sport, prepare to be blown away. Fighters are the ultimate athlete and theirs is the sport of the future, mixing generations of martial arts tradition with the lights, glitz and glamour of the modern day to make an A-list sporting event with an edge. The stage is set and the world is waiting - it's time for GLORY.