by Cor Hemmers
Tonight we have GLORY 35 NICE taking place in the beautiful city of Nice, France. Yesterday we discussed the GLORY 35 SUPERFIGHT SERIES card, which airs live on UFC FIGHT PASS, now we're going to look at the GLORY 35 card.
First, let's take a look at the four-man Heavyweight Contender Tournament which forms the centerpiece of tonight's card. All four of these guys are high-level heavyweights and all of them are capable of beating each other on any given night, so it's a well-balanced line-up.
In the first semi-final we have Mladen Brestovac with Jahfar Wilnis. This is actually a rematch; they fought at GLORY 14 ZAGREB and Brestovac was able to score a knockout by way of left head kick. Wilnis had never been knocked out before and he's very eager to get revenge tonight.
Even outside of the tournament context this an important fight for both guys. Brestovac is ranked #11 right now but if he can beat Wilnis, especially if he can do it by KO, he will take as much as 35% of his points and will shoot up the rankings.
Brestovac feels like he doesn't get enough fights in GLORY and he wants to show people that he belongs here and that he is in the mix. He had a really good performance against Rico Verhoeven earlier this year, I think he surprised a lot of people. He gave Rico some problems in the first round, a southpaw is always tricky.
Wilnis is one of the top five guys in the division right now and he's improved tremendously since that fight with Brestovac. He has been a finalist in two Heavyweight Contender tournaments and lost by controversial decisions both times, so tonight he is looking to put a definitive stamp on things.
The other semi-final is also a rematch, as Benjamin Adegbuyi and Hesdy Gerges meet again. Their first fight was at GLORY 18 OKLAHOMA and was a close-run thing, with Adegbuyi emerging with the decision win after three rounds.
In his last fight for GLORY, Adegbuyi faced Rico Verhoeven at GLORY 26 AMSTERDAM and was unexpectedly knocked out in the first round. I think he was a little surprised by Rico, maybe underestimated him and listened to too much talk that Rico has no KO power. Since then Adegbuyi is on a 3-0 run outside GLORY and now he's back to redeem himself as a title contender.
Gerges has had some losses recently and both have been controversial decisions, there were a lot of complaints from Gerges' supporters. Maybe what he missed was doing damage. He has a high work rate, but if you're not doing big impact then you're not doing damage, and that's the main scoring criteria. His combination work is really impressive and if he can just add more power to that, he is a real threat.
Who's likely to make it to the final? Anyone. This is four really closely matched guys, anyone can make it.
Co-Headline Fight: Pavel Zhuravlev vs. Zinedine Hameur-Lain
This event is in France so we wanted Hameur-Lain on the card. When we looked for an opponent, Zhuravlev was ready to go and it was interesting to me because they were both in the last light-heavyweight contender tournament but didn't fight each other.
Hameur-Lain won the tournament and Zhuravlev, who entered as the favorite, was surprisingly eliminated in the semi-final by late entrant Ariel Machado.
Zhuravlev is a great fighter with a great name who has beat several really good guys, including former GLORY light-heavyweight champion Gokhan Saki. He entered high in the rankings but Machado caught him out I think, he didn't get the chance to show what he is really capable of. All credit to Machado for a great gameplan though.
Zhuravlev has real power but is not as complex as Hameur-Lain in his footwork and angles. If Zhuravlev doesn't stop the fight I can see Hameur-Lain taking the win on reach, footwork and points. It's also worth noting that Hameur-Lain has power as well, which we saw in his incredible KO of Warren Thompson.
The difference between them is that Hameur-Lain's power shots are mixed in with his combination work whereas Zhuravlev is a guy who throws power 100% and goes after it from the opening bell. When you fight him, you know you have to be aware of that and your defense has to be tight. But when Hameur-Lain moves around, mixes his power levels, it sneaks in on you and that surprise element can be more dangerous than pure power.
Also worth noting is that Hameur-Lain already fought guys with power, guys like Zack Mwekasa, so it's not like he cannot handle that. He's showed that he can, and he has showed that he can knock people out. In his last fight Zhuravlev didn't show that he can handle an evasive fighter, so that's a question mark. Zhuravlev is most dangerous when you come forward and stand in with him. But if you don't do that then you make the fight more difficult for him.
Finally, a point of clarification. Whatever happens, Hameur-Lain still has the right to challenge the winner of tonight's title fight. He earned that when he won the Contender tournament, the same as Ismael Londt will be the next heavyweight title challenger once the Rico/Badr special event is out of the way. If Zhuravlev wins, he retains his position in the rankings and goes forward to the next Contender tournament or gets another high rank fight.
World Light-Heavyweight Title Unification Fight: Artem Vakhitov vs. Zack Mwekassa
Vakhitov was supposed to defend the belt against Mwekassa at GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM but he was sidelined with injury so Mwekassa faced Mourad Bouzidi for the interim title. Mwekassa won by way of TKO and so he now faces Vakhitov for a unification fight and the right to be declared the undisputed champion.
It's a tough fight for Mwkeassa, because Vakhitov is one of the most skilled, complete fighters on the roster. He's a good boxer, has tremendous kicks, uses a lot of unorthodox spinning attacks, is good with the knee and throws a lot of body punches, which not that many kickboxers do.
Mwekassa comes from professional boxing and his game is based around that. He's not as complete a kickboxer as Vakhitov but he's developing really quickly from fight to fight. The key thing with Mwekassa is his boxing ability and his savage power. He only needs one shot to end the fight. Or one shot to fold you in half and then another shot to finish things off.
Because he comes from boxing and then added kickboxing, he has developed a slightly unorthodox style. He throws non-traditional combinations, throws kicks when you wouldn't expect them, or in an order you wouldn't expect.
Both fighter have good stamina and should stay fit for the full fight but it depends on the kind of pressure they are under. When you're under heavy pressure you will gas out a lot quicker than the other guy. Whoever can keep the pressure up can gas the other guy over five rounds and take advantage. The longer the fight goes, the more it favors Vakhitov with his varied work, and so I favor either Mwekassa by stoppage or Vakhitov by decision.
