Marcus: “I have the heart and courage advantage”

Artem ‘The Lion’ Levin (50-4-1, 33 KO’s) and his GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO challenger Simon ‘Bad Bwoy’ Marcus (42-2-1, 24 KO’s) have some history.

The two have fought once before, under Muay Thai rules in 2013, with Marcus taking the win after five rounds of fighting. Marcus remained in Muay Thai until June last year when he entered the eight-man LAST MAN STANDING tournament at GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES.

He lost a quarter-final fight to Joe Schilling after being stopped in the dying seconds of a thrilling extra round. Levin won three fights in a row, beating Schilling in the final, to win the vacant world championship.

Since then Levin has commented negatively on Marcus’ kickboxing performances, saying that the Canadian looked “terrible” and opining that he should have taken some time off after being stopped. Marcus answered him by winning the GLORY 20 DUBAI tournament and putting himself into this Friday, May 8 title fight.

“We will see what he has to say when I take the belt from him in San Diego,” says Marcus, offended by what he perceives as genuine disrespect from Levin. “At least I have never cracked in a fight, nobody has ever broken me and made me give up. He can’t say that.”

Marcus also has no time for talk of Levin’s reach and size advantage, nor the fact that he is much more experienced fighting under kickboxing rules. Marcus heavily employs the clinch under Muay Thai rules but its use is restricted in kickboxing, which forces stylistic changes and makes for a faster-paced fight.

“Whether he has height or legs or whatever advantages they say he has, I have a different advantage: who I am as a fighter. He can have those [physical] advantages but I will take the heart advantage and the courage advantage,” he says.

“I have been working on areas that I just wasn’t as comfortable with before, going away from clinching as much and instead working from the outside, punching and kicking. I feel a lot more comfortable with that now that I have had some fights and the practice in the training camps.”

‘Fight math’ generally favors the winner of the first fight when it comes to rematches, but Marcus is reading nothing into the fact that he has a win over Levin already.

“I focus on the fight coming up. It’s not about the [previous] win, it’s about the opportunity and seizing the moment,” he explains.

“I plan to do what I did last time. I know I can do it and I am confident I can do it.”

GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO airs in the US on Spike TV at 11pm ET/10pm CT.

Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels features in the co-main event as he takes on Bellator veteran Justin Baesman and the card is completed by a four-man Heavyweight Qualification Tournament which will see the winner go forward to a spot in the next Heavyweight Contender Tournament and its chance of a world title shot.

Tickets for GLORY 21 are available now at AXS.com and are priced at $46, $71, and $146.