Levin "The Lion" now king of the Middleweight jungle

Artem Levin is the GLORY World Middleweight Champion.

The Russian maestro claimed the vacant title with a masterful performance in the eight-man tournament at GLORY LAST MAN STANDING, beating three world-class opponents and taking
hardly a scratch.

“I am very happy that I won the tournament. Some people thought that even though I'm ranked number one, I wouldn't win,” he said afterwards.

“The tournament was really tough and all of the opponents were tough, so I'm really happy to win and I have nothing but respect for all the opponents.”

In his first fight of the night he faced the rising Brazilian contender Alex Pereira, winner of the GLORY 14 ZAGREB Middleweignt Contender Tournament.

Pereira, who also boxes professionally, demonstrated plenty of knockout power in that tournament but couldn’t use his reach to land any on Levin, who out-pointed him with ease on the way to a clear unanimous decision.

“I would have to say the first fight was more challenging because I didn't know how the night was going to go so it was a lot of pressure in the first fight. I wanted the first fight to go well,” said Levin.

“All of the fights were really tough, all of the opponents were tough… [it was hard] physically and mentally.”

Levin limped into the post-fight press conference (“My legs are hurting really bad”) but was otherwise unscathed. In the semi-finals Filip Verlinden couldn’t find a way to land on him, Levin’s elusive shucking and jiving keeping him out of harm’s way while he racked the points up.

“He is really frustrating to fight against,” Verlinden said afterwards. “He comes in and you go to hit him but then he just isn’t there. It is really annoying.”

Verlinden had come through a risky fight with Melvin Manhoef to make it to the semi-final. His tactics centered on keeping range and using kicks to counter him as he came in looking to land his power-shots.

When Manhoef was able to get his range things got risky for Verlinden, who was forced to eat some big shots before getting the fight back where he wanted it.

The most memorable moment came at the end of the first round. Manhoef went for a big overhand right in an attempt to knock Verlinden out and ended up leaning right into a head kick which knocked him down and nearly finished his own night for him instead.

Levin’s toughest fight of the evening came in the tournament final. He faced Joe Schilling, who beat him in the final of the GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES tournament and in the process became the first fighter to knock Levin down in a fight since around 2008.

“This was the most pressure, mentally, because it was a rematch with Schilling,” Levin confirmed afterwards.

Schilling’s route to the final was the opposite of Levin’s. He had been through an absolute war with Simon Marcus and traded shots with arch-rival Wayne Barrett. He was already marked on his face and body when he arrived in the ring for the fight with Levin.

The fight with Marcus will certainly make the Fight of the Year nominations for the end of the year. Marcus has two wins over Schilling under Muay Thai rules and went into this fight undefeated, but Schilling is experienced under kickboxing rules, which limit the clinch and disallow elbows.

These two were also among the favorites to win the tournament tonight, which added another layer to the clash.

It resulted in this being the hardest-fought bout of the quarter-finals. It is impossible to fully recount the pace and brutality of it. They didn’t come to score points or even to score a knockout; they came to destroy each other.

Schilling came out of the gate so fast in round one that it looked like a quick finish might be on the cards. Marcus was initially caught out, used to the slower start of Muay Thai fights, but weathered the storm and got into the right gear.

From then on it was just all-out war, punishment being traded back and forth as if this were the only fight these two were having this night. Schilling was on absolute peak form, displaying power, technique, strategy and intelligence in one formidable package.

Marcus was undefeated going into this fight and for good reason. He had to dig deep into his reserves of warrior spirit and fighting knowledge as the fight went on, Schilling rising to the occasion in front of a passionate home crowd.

Schilling’s fire eventually burned Marcus out. Veteran referee John McCarthy felt that Marcus was losing his mouthpiece on purpose in the final round and docked him a point. It proved pivotal - when the bell rang on the final round, the scores resulted in a draw, taking the fight to an extra round.

Momentum favored Schilling, with Marcus bleeding heavily from what seemed to be a broken nose. He went after it with everything he had.

Marcus responded; the dogfight only ended when Marcus walked forward and was met with a Schilling right hook which knocked him out… and knocked the mouthpiece out of his mouth once more.

Schilling then went into his second rematch of the evening, facing Wayne Barrett in the semi-finals. Barrett had beaten newcomer Bogdan Stocia in the quarter-finals, stopping him in the second round as Stoica came in with a flying knee attempt and ate a punch instead.

Schilling and Barrett developed a bitter rivalry over the course of 2013, exacerbated by Los Angeles-based Schilling losing to Barrett in the latter’s native New York at GLORY 12.

No fighter wants a loss but for these two a loss to the other is particularly unbearable. The tension both felt was immediately apparent in the first round. Their footwork was nervous, their attacks hesitant.

Schilling was the first to break the hesitancy of the first round and open the fight up a little, but even then the precision both are known for was little to be found. Scrappy exchanges were the order of the day.

Nerves burned off more in the second round and allowed the two to start finding their shots and setups, though there was still a rushed element to a lot of their work.

Schilling’s forward aggression was sometimes careless, leaving himself open to be scored on. At the same time, he was doing well with timing Barrett’s attacks and finding ways to land counters.

It was a close fight and it went the distance with neither looking particularly close to scoring a definitive finish.

The closeness of the fight was reflected in the judges’ scoring. They returned a split-decision. One had it 29-28 for Barrett, another had it 29-28 for Schilling and the third had it 30-27 for Schilling to send the LA man to the final - and a rematch with Artem Levin.

Joe Schilling vs. Artem Levin

When he entered the ring Schilling was already covered in welts and bruises from his first two fights of the night. Levin, pale and unmarked, did his trademark dance down the catwalk to the ring.

There was more dancing to come. As in his previous fights he shucked and jived his way out of trouble by minute amounts and with inhuman timing. It is worth noting though that Schilling is one of the few fighters who really seems capable of landing on Levin with frequency.

One reason fans love Levin is his unpredictably. He is so unorthodox and his timing is so good that literally anything can happen at any moment. Ninety seconds into the first round Schilling dropped low for a hard straight right to the body; Levin took it and hit a spinning back-fist which dropped Schilling.

That kind of move, akin to something from a movie or video game, is exactly what makes Levin as great as he is. On the flipside, Levin does have a tendency to push his luck with the rules that limit the clinch, much to Schilling’s frustration.

Levin was eventually docked a point for excessive holding and Schilling did his best to capitalize. But with Levin so far ahead on points there was little he could do. In the third he needed the knockout but couldn’t find it; the seconds slipped away and so did Schilling’s chances of a win.

There were tears in the Russian’s eyes when he was announced as the winner and world champion. Schilling too had some emotion going on as the loss sank in. If there is can be any consolation for him, he can at least reflect on the KO of Simon Marcus and the fact that he has proved himself to be beyond doubt a world-class kickboxer.