Josh Jauncey is predicting his GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM meeting with Anatoly Moiseev to be not only 'Fight of the Night' but 'Fight of the Year'.
The pair are two of the brightest prospects in the lightweight division and both have established themselves as forces to be reckoned with. They have both scored spectacular knockouts in the GLORY ring and now they are looking to score another in Amsterdam.
"We're fighting on the UFC Fight Pass card and I am pretty excited about that, I think that's a great spot to be in in terms of exposure. I can see this being Fight of the Night and even Fight of the Year. This is going to be a really good fight. There's no way that this can be a boring fight,â says Jauncey.
âHe's a good fighter, he's good with that high kick, he's very quick. He has some strengths. But I was supposed to fight him in March and we game-planned for him, there were plenty of weaknesses we saw, so we are going to roll with that same gameplan.
âHe's never been stopped so I can't say that I am going to knock him out, he's only got one loss and that was against Marat Grigorian in his last fight. But I feel like I can stop him, sure. If the opportunity is there I will take it. But for sure it's going to be an exciting fight. He's a guy who won't stay down and I am a guy who won't stay down.â
Moiseev's loss to Marat Grigorian at GLORY 28 PARIS came after he agreed to step up into the Lightweight Contender Tournament on three days' notice. Jauncey got a replacement opponent and won; Moiseev got a best-form Grigorian and had a nightmare.
"Marat seems to intimidate a lot of people because he is so aggressive and he puts a lot of pressure on people. A lot of people don't know how to deal with that pressure, especially when they are pressure fighters themselves. Moiseev looked intimidated from the start." says Jauncey.
"Does that fight give me a model to copy? Every fight potentially gives me a model! But I am very different as a fighter to Marat and I deal with things differently. Moiseev kept getting up and wouldn't give up but you could see he felt like a caged animal in that fight."
GLORY 31 Amsterdam takes place at the RAI Amsterdam on Saturday, June 25. Van Roosmalen and Sittichai headline; the card also features a four-man welterweight contender tournament, with Murthel Groenhart and Yoann Kongolo included in the line-up.
That card airs in the US on ESPN and is preceded by the GLORY 31 'Superfight Series' card airing live on UFC Fight Pass. Jauncey vs. Moiseev will open the card, which is headlined by Zack Mwekassa fighting Mourad Bouzidi for the Interim Light-Heavyweight championship.
