Last week the line-up for GLORY 32 VIRGINIA's four-man Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament was revealed. Among the names listed was Pavel 'The Caiman' Zhuravlev (69-10, 25 KO's) of Ukraine. The announcement excited considerable interest among kickboxing fans around the world.
It has also excited interest in the matchmaking department. GLORY's chief matchmaker Cor Hemmers, trainer of multiple world champions in his time as a coach, says he is hugely looking forward to seeing Zhuravlev join the division.
“Pavel Zhuravlev is one of the best light-heavyweights in the world. We have wanted to sign him for a long time but it took a while to work the right deal out. Now we have a deal in place and I am really happy to see him joining the roster. He is going to have an immediate impact I think,” he says.
“And what's really interesting is that he is joining the light-heavyweight division. Like a lot of fighters before GLORY came along, he was often having to fight at heavyweight as that was really the only weight class available to him. But GLORY making light-heavyweight available means he can fight at his more optimum weight.
“If you look at his record he has a lot of wins over big names and he has faced pretty much everyone. And his losses mostly have come at heavyweight, to real natural heavyweights, so obviously you would have to think that fighting at his right weight is going to have benefits for him.”
Zhuravlev's list of wins is impressive and includes Gokhan Saki, Benjamin Adegbuyi, Freddy Kemayao, Sahak Parparyan, Brian Douwes and former GLORY light-heavyweight champion Saulo Cavalari. He rides a seven-fight win streak into GLORY 32 and is 9-1 in his last ten outings, the loss being in a heavyweight rematch with Adegbuyi (they are now 1-1).
In the tournament semi-finals he is matched with a fellow debutant, Ariel Machado of Brazil (48-6, 33 KO's). According to Cor Hemmers, he heard that GLORY was having trouble finding a replacement opponent for Zhuravlev after Cavalari was forced out with visa issues. He heard about the vacancy from Cavalari's team and petitioned for the slot.
“It's a really hard fight for him and the odds are against him for sure, but he's a fighter who has that typical Brazilian all-out aggression and he is really going to try and bring it to Zhuravlev. There were more established names we offered the fight to but they didn't want to face Zhuravlev on three weeks' notice. Machado specifically asked for it, which impressed me.”
The tournament's other bracket has America's Manny Mancha (5-2, 4 KO's) facing off against Zinedine Hameur-Lain of France (54-13, 33 KO's). Mancha is 2-0 in GLORY with one win by KO while Hameur-Lain lost a decision on his debut to Zack Mwekassa at GLORY 29 COPENHAGEN earlier this year.
