GLORY Superfight Series 40 comes to you from Copenhagen, Denmark and features the usual mixture of important ranking fights, rising stars and new talents.
Headlining is Richard Abraham (11-4, 4 KO's) of Chicago, USA. He is facing Jamie Bates (24-6) of the UK, who was scouted at a recent 'Road to Glory' show in England.
Abraham has won a lot of fans thanks to his life story and his fighting spirit. He is a great fighter with a great story. He has strong boxing, likes to attack and shows great potential for the future. I think he can be one of the best Americans ever in this sport. I'm proud to note also that he says he was actually inspired to start training by watching me training with my fighter Ramon Dekkers.
Bates is coming out of the UK and we know there is a strong fighting scene there, so even though he hasn't yet fought at the top level that GLORY represents, I think he won't be out of his depth. UK fighters are always tough; Bates is a potential prospect and Abraham is an interesting test for him on the first fight of his two-fight contract.
I don't want to predict a winner and actually it doesn't matter to me so much who wins, so long as they give their best performance. They are both going to be fighting for us more in the future. Performance is everything in GLORY – it's important to us that we always have fighters who are looking to attack.
Another guy who caught my eye at the Road to GLORY UK event was Adrian Maxim. He didn't make it to the tournament final but for me he was one of the best there: very aggressive, a complete set of skills, he made a very exciting fight. So you can see its not only that we look for winners but also for guys who perform and entertain.
Mohamed El Mir (113-22, 33 KO's) used to fight at lightweight but now he has dropped to featherweight and is looking to make an impact there. He is originally from Palestine but came to Denmark as a child and represents both countries when he fights.
He is facing Simon Santana (37-12-1, 12 KO's), who is fighting out of Norway, so that makes this a kind of Scandinavian derby. Sanata is making his debut here and comes in as a local area “wild card” fighter.
El Mir wants to prove himself in this division and wants to chase the title, so he is looking to earn himself a spot in the next upcoming Featherweight Contender Tournament. If he wins here and puts on an impressive performance at the same time, we might well consider him for that tournament spot.
Freddy Kemayo (65-23-1, 45 KO's) is a well-known name, a veteran who has fought everyone you can think of. He was a heavyweight for his entire career but now in the twilight period of it he has dropped to light-heavyweight and is looking to finish with a strong run.
On the other side, a complete contrast. Imad Hadar (19-0, 7 KO's) is just 19 years old and here will be having his first fight against an established “big name” opponent. We scouted Hadar because he is a very talented youngster. He has great footwork, he moves really well, he's a solid prospect for the future. This fight is a classic example of a new talent facing an established veteran.
Josh Jauncey (25-8, 14 KO's) came in as a bright prospect but found himself in the deep end maybe a little too quickly. We want to keep him around the middle of the top ten for now, away from the top three. He's showed heart and spirit and now we want to give him time to develop and show his potential.
Jauncey's fighting spirit and character are demonstrated by how he responded to the offer of fighting Gomez (50-7-2, 29 KO's). He welcomed it. Gomez is a very aggressive, hard-hitting guy who is constantly coming forwards to push the fight. He has got good hands and he is not easy to face but Jauncey is looking forward to it.
One thing I like from Jauncey is how he uses his knees; a lot of guys don't really use them but he uses knees a lot and he is very good with them. Gomez needs to be careful when he is pressing forwards because Jauncey can predict his movement and have him walking onto a surprise knee.
GLORY recently signed some Chinese fighters. Yuhang Xie is one of them. We will be giving them some experience in our ring before we head to China at the end of the year for our first Chinese show.
Xie is an experienced guy, he has fought at a high level, he has kind of a Muay Thai style. Chris Mauceri (7-3, 2 KO's) also has a Muay Thai style and some good experience. He has fought the likes of Kevin Ross before. But he needs his first win in GLORY so he will be coming to Copenhagen hungry.
A final note: on the undercard there is a fight between Abdou Karim Chorr and Youssef Assouik. This would have been on the Superfight Series but we didn't have space for it. I think the winner of this fight establishes a right to a spot on the GLORY roster and will earn himself a contract.
GLORY 40 COPENHAGEN takes place Saturday, April 29th – tickets are available now via http://bit.ly/GLORY40tix
