Dustin Jacoby blasted his way into GLORY via an incredible performance in the inaugural ‘Road to Glory’ tournament.
The eight-man-one-night ‘Road to Glory’ tournaments were designed to uncover talent for the GLORY World Series. Jacoby came in as a late notice replacement, drove through the night to make the weigh-ins, and then knocked three opponents out in a row to get himself the GLORY contract.
This weekend he makes his middleweight debut in the four-man GLORY Middleweight Contender Tournament. The winner will be declared ‘The Contender’ and will take one of the spots in this year’s World Championship Tournament, with the World Middleweight Title on the line.
In the semi-finals, Jacoby (4-3, 3 KO’s) will face GLORY debutant Alex ‘Po Atan’ Pereira (11-1, 8 KO‘s), a kickboxer and professional boxer that has a string of KO victories to his name.
"I am ready to go toe to toe with him. He is a former boxer with good hands and I like a challenge, I want to test my hands against him. He is long and he has some power on the end of those punches, so I have to be on guard," says Jacoby.
But he has to remember that I am firing back at him as well and that I’m bringing a lot of firepower as well. It’s going to be a good fight. Probably won’t go the distance."
If he secures victory, he will meet the winner of the other semi-final fight, Peter Aerts’ young training partner Jason Wilnis (21-3-1, 6 KO’s) versus former It’s Showtime middleweight champion Sahak Parparyan (40-9-5, 19 KO’s).
"Those two are both good guys and both are solid fighters. I don’t have any particular focus on either of them because I am really just thinking about my first fight and wherever the cards fall after that, so be it," says Jacoby.
"The final fight will be one of will and determination, the best man will win and at the end of the day, I will be the last man standing. That’s the goal and that is the task at hand.
"And the extra motivation on my mind is that the winner of this tournament gets a shot at guys like Artem Levin and Joe Schilling, with the world title on the line. GLORY 14 is the starting point of that journey."
Jacoby has previously stated a desire to face Schilling (16-5, 10 KO’s) and where most fighters declare themselves to be ‘strictly business’, Jacoby is happy to admit that it’s personal.
"Something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t think he carries himself well, I think he’s got an attitude. He’s kind of like a punk to me. There’s certain guys in this sport that I just don’t like," he says.
"Fighting is not ‘who I am’, its what I do. I get along with a lot of people but when I do fight there are certain people you really want to go after and he is one of them.
"We were both in Chicago and just the looks he had on his face… and the stuff he does in the ring, the showboating and whatnot. I would love to be in the ring with him and have him do all that to me, throwing his hands in the air and sticking his chin out. I’d love that."
First of all, Jacoby will have to win this weekend’s Middleweight Contender Tournament. He has spent the last six weeks in the Netherlands working with top Dutch kickboxers as he prepares for the challenge.
"Training is going great, there’s a lot of good guys over here and we are training really hard twice a day. In the morning we have all of the top professionals, so lots of guys who are signed to GLORY or at that level," he says.
"You could sell tickets to the sparring at this gym, seriously. They have a thing called ‘Gehaktdag’ - "Mincemeat Day" - every Wednesday, where its all pros and they spar ten consecutive rounds really hard, basically all-out.
"I’m not kidding, you could literally sell tickets to it. It gets heavy in there. its amazing.”
"I get stuck right in. That’s the only way to get better. These guys are among the best kickboxers in the world and I’m learning from them and from Nicky Hemmers, who is a great coach. The fighters do a great job in the gym and Nicky does a great job directing us."
Anybody familiar with Dutch-style kickboxing will know that there is a huge emphasis on physical conditioning. Dutch-style fighters fully expect to take heavy damage during their fights and train themselves to be able to work through it and secure the victory.
"They definitely emphasize to us you’re only going to go as hard in the fight as you go in practice, so you need to be going hard in practice, sparring hard," says Jacoby.
"You are training to fight and that means dishing out the punishment and taking the punishment also. You have to get used to taking the blows and feeling the pressure when you are on the ropes."
Of course, top-level training is not new to Jacoby. In his MMA days he made it to the UFC via a string of KO victories, but Mixed Martial Arts requires its fighters to train extensively in grappling as well.
As Jacoby sees it, combat sports in general are hard on the body, but the two sports bring slightly different demands.
"Every day I go to the gym for kickboxing I know what kit I need and what I am going to be doing. With MMA, every day is different - you’re working on wrestling, jiu jitsu, MMA rounds and so on," he explains.
"I would say the sparring in kickboxing…. It’s pretty intense. We’re doing a lot of rounds - 25, 30 rounds a week. That is a lot to take in. When I’m training MMA I am not sparring that much.
"Plus there’s the difference in round time - MMA is five-minute rounds which requires more overall cardio but in kickboxing there is constant action, it requires a lot of power and stamina."
This weekend’s tournament is the biggest night of his career and could potentially be the first step on the road to the championship. American viewers can catch the action at 9pm ET/PT on SPIKE TV and the show will also air in more than 150 territories worldwide.
Also on the card is a Lightweight Championship Title Fight between Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie and karate stylist Davit Kiria, plus a heavyweight rematch between living legends Mirko ’CroCop’ Filipovic and Remy Bonjasky.
