Zinedine Hameur-Lain (58-15, 37 KO's) made a big impression early in his GLORY appearances and put himself in the title shot conversation when he won a Contender tournament at GLORY 32. But he was then stopped by Pavel Zhuravlev in his next outing at GLORY 35 and that set him back a step.
In the GLORY 38 Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament he reached the final, only to be stopped by Ariel Machado. Ironically, he had stopped the Brazilian in the final of the GLORY 32 tournament, which means we're going to need to see a tie-breaker between them at some point.
Freddy Kemayo (68-24-1, 47 KO's) is a veteran fighter who spent most of his career at heavyweight and faced all the big names. Now in the latter stage of his career he has dropped to light-heavyweight, a better fit for him as he was always one of the smaller heavyweights.
In his GLORY light-heavyweight debut he took on 19-year-old newcomer Imad Hadar and showed the value of all that experience by letting Hadar burn himself out and then pouncing on him to take him out when his gas tank emptied.
Against a fighter who hits as hard as Hameur-Lain however, that's a risky tactic. Shelling up against him just gives him even more opportunities to tee off on you, as Kemayo learned the hard way. Hameur-Lain landed a big right hand early in the fight which rocked Kemayo and had him on the defensive.
From then on it looked like only a matter of time before Hameur-Lain would score another of his big finishes. He poured relentless pressure on Kemayo, who found himself moving backwards constantly with his gloves tight to his head.
When he felt a lull in the storm, Kemayo rallied and launched some heavy blows back at his aggressor. But it quickly became apparent that the lull was merely the eye of the storm, and he was soon back in the thick of it.
Hameur-Lain went back on the attack and suddenly a right hand got through, snapped Kemayo's head back and rocked him. The former heavyweight wobbled and leaned forwards. Quick as a flash, Hameur-Lain was stepping off at an angle and launching a head kick.
Kemayo was actually on the way to the canvas when Hameur-Lain started the kick. When it landed, it made certain he would not be getting up. The referee began a count but quickly realized it would be fruitless to continue it and waved the fight off, adding another huge knockout win to Hameur-Lain's growing highlight reel.
Zinedine Hameur-Lain def. Freddy Kemayo, KO R1, 2.35
