This Friday's SUPERFIGHT SERIES card at GLORY 38 CHICAGO features a number of interesting fights, with top contenders from the welterweight and heavyweight divisions plus veterans and new fighters looking to make their name by taking out fighters higher in the food chain.
In the main event, #1-ranked heavyweight contender Benjamin Adegbuyi faces the Brazil's experienced Anderson 'Braddock' Silva over three rounds. Adegbuyi has twice challenged Rico Verhoeven for the title and come up short but he remains out in front of the other heavyweights as a contender.
Silva challenged Verhoeven at GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY in September last year and learned first-hand just why Verhoeven has been such a dominant champion. But it hasn't put him off and he badly wants to earn another shot at the belt.
Adegbuyi wanted on this card because there are so many Romanians on this card and when we looked for an opponent, Silva was putting his hand up, saying he wanted to try and steal the top contender's shine.
That's going to be a tough challenge. Adegbuyi looked great in the GLORY 35 NICE Heavyweight Contender Tournament and, in a strange twist, he is now training with Verhoeven's coach as well, which is only making him sharper. Silva is tough and experienced but this fight is really a challenge for him I think.
In the card's co-main event, more heavyweights and another Romanian. Chicago's own Maurice Greene welcomes Romania's Catalin Morosanu to the Windy City. It's the debut for Morosanu. We have looked at him for a long time but he had other contracts in place and so we couldn't bring him in until now.
Morosanu has a very crowd-pleasing kind of style, he's always going forward throwing bombs and looking for the knockout. He's six feet tall, which is actually kind of short compared to a lot of our heavyweights, but he is tough and he has big power. If he can get his head on your chest and start throwing those overhand bombs, you have a problem.
Greene has home advantage and also the height and range advantage, but not the same experience that Morosanu has, because Morosanu has fought Europeans almost entirey, and kickboxing is at a higher level in Europe than in the USA. So actually, these two have an interesting balance of advantages and disadvantages, any of which can be the thing which wins them the fight.
I expect to see some big shots and heavy exchanges in this one. Morosanu is looking to impress in his debut and Greene has no intention of losing in his home city. There is fire in the hearts of both fighters for this encounter, it's not just another day in the office to them.
Middle of the card, a welterweight fight between two-time title challenger Murthel Groenhart and 'The Thai Terminator' Thongchai Sitsongpeenong. It's an interesting fight because it is a real style vs. style match. Groenhart is pure Dutch Kickboxing and Thongchai is pure Muay Thai. Both have spent over half their lives training and fighting in their respective arts.
We've seen a lot of Thai fighters cross into kickboxing and succeed, but we've also seen a lot struggle with the different rules and the different pace. So far Thongchai has had just two fights under kickboxing rules, but over 150 under Muay Thai rules. In his GLORY debut he stopped Casey Greene with some really heavy damage and a KO, but Groenhart is a different level.
Groenhart has had some problems with Thai opponents before, including Thongchai's teammate Sittichai, but in his opinion it's too soon for Thongchai to be taking this fight against a top-ranked kickboxer such as himself. A common issue with Groenhart has been mentality – he struggles to focus when it's not a big fight, so it is natural to ask what he classes this fight as in his own mind.
A win for Thongchai would be huge. It would put him right up there in the mix with the top guys of the division. That's what he wants – he called out Nieky Holzken after he stopped Greene – and that's why he will be so fired up. Groenhart needs to recognize that fire and match it. An interesting note: despite being from different disciplines, both are considered knee-strike experts and have stopped multiple opponents with their knees.
In the first two fights of the card, two Polish fighters in the ring to represent for Chicago's enormous Polish community. First in the ring is lightweight Lukasz Plawecki as he faces the returning Niclas Larsen of Denmark, who looked set for big things until a horrendous staph infection sidelined him for two years following a win at GLORY 15 INSTANBUL.
Larsen has a background in Muay Thai and is so tricky. He's a really creative fighter who says his gameplan is always to misdirect the opponent so that he moves the wrong way and opens himself up for damaging shots. Plawecki is a strong opponent, ranked #1 on the Polish circuit, and doesn't see himself falling for those tricks. He's looking to shut Larsen's space down and punish him at close range.
After this fight, Chicago welterweight Daniel Morales takes to the ring to face Pawel Jedrzeczek. Both fighters are looking for their first win in GLORY and have been training hard for this match. Whoever walks out with the loss probably finds himself being invited to go and get more experience on the regional circuit before they get another GLORY call-up and neither of them wants that. This should be a real dogfight to start the card.
Cor Hemmers
GLORY Head of Talent Operations
