GLORY Superfight Series cards are where fighters compete to earn the points which will push them up the rankings, new talent looks to make its mark and new contenders begin to emerge. They are usually a mix of established names and debuting or newer fighters who are looking to make their names,
The Superfight Series card taking place in Oklahoma on Friday November 7 is no different. At one end it has a heavyweight contender fight, at the other it has the debut of two fighters who have dominated the American amateur circuit and are now looking to step up onto the sport’s biggest platform.
In this latest installment of the regular Matchmaker’s Notes feature we take a look at the thought process behind the matches on the Superfight Series card. In the second part of the Matchmaker’s Notes for GLORY 18, we will look at the thinking behind the matches on the main card, which airs in the US on Spike TV.
Hesdy Gerges (44-13-1) (Egypt) vs. Benjamin Adegbuyi (17-2-0) (Romania)
Heavyweight (+231lbs/105kg)
This is an important fight. Errol Zimmerman won the recent Heavyweight Contender Tournament and will be the next guy to challenge Rico Verhoeven for the world title. Whoever wins that fight will probably then face the winner of this fight, so this is something of a contender-elimination bout.
Adegbuyi is a guy who has been marked out as a possible contender by pretty much everyone who has been watching him. He has had good performances in GLORY with two stoppage victories but those fights have been in the middle and lower tiers of the rankings. He’s not faced the hardest opposition yet.
Gerges has fought some of the top guys in the sport and he is more experienced at this level. He hasn’t always had the results he wanted but he seems to be in a good position right now as far as his training camp is concerned. He moved from Chakuriki to Vos Gym when Thom Harinck retired and he says it has been a benefit to his game.
Gerges is fully skilled. He has punches, kicks and knees plus a tremendous physical condition. He can go hard for all three rounds if he needs to. He is a very tough test for Adegbuyi and if Adegbuyi wins then he will enter the Top 5 of the rankings. Gerges is on a three-fight win streak so if he wins against Adegbuyi and extends that win streak to four consecutive fights, it places him firmly in the contender conversation.
Josh Jauncey (20-4-0) (Canada) vs Noh Jae Gil (30-12-0) (South Korea)
Lightweight (155lbs/70kg)
South Korea has produced some great fighters over the years. Their guys are always very tough and will never ever give up. Noh is experienced, he has had many more fights at the top level than Jauncey has. He has won national titles in Korea and was the K-1 Asia Max 2008 Finalist.
He’s got power in his punches and he throws good boxing combinations. If I was going to highlight any weakness I see in him, it would be that he doesn’t defend low kicks well. I don’t know if that is a hole in his game or if he doesn’t take low kicks seriously. It may be that he has been fighting guys who aren’t hard kickers, but that won’t be the case in GLORY.
Jauncey debuted for us in Denver earlier this year against the veteran Warren Stevelmans and we were impressed with his performance. He faced a much more experienced opponent and he really brought the fight to him. Jauncey has been trained by his father from a young age and since his teens he has regularly traveled to Amsterdam for training.
He used to train at Meijiro Gym in Amsterdam a lot and it was there he formed a relationship with Andy Souwer which led to him being drafted onto Team Souwer. The UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo also trains with those guys, so Jauncey benefits from being surrounded by people who have fought on the biggest stage.
Jauncey did get knocked down by Stevelmans early in their fight but that was possibly loss of concentration due to a combination of nerves and excitement. He’s more well-rounded than Noh but he can’t afford to let Noh let go with clean boxing combinations.
Randy Blake (34-4-0) (USA) vs. Warren Thomson (9-3-1) (USA)
Light-Heavyweight (209lbs/95kg)
Blake is the hometown fighter, he is from Oklahoma so no doubt he will have the crowd support. He comes from a karate background originally. I think people underestimate his boxing though. He has really good punching power, especially in his straight-right.
Thompson made his debut at GLORY 12 NEW YORK in November last year with a fight against Brian Collette. He lost by head-kick KO but that doesn’t mean he isn’t skilled. In fact he is both skilled and confident. He comes from the Muay Thai team which retired UFC middleweight Brian Stann did his training with and he’s also lately been working with guys from Meijiro Gym in Amsterdam.
Some people may remember him also from season eleven of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. He’s fought at a high level in MMA and in Muay Thai, including fights in Thailand and elsewhere around the world. He has a lot of good experience.
Blake is on a two-fight losing streak; his confidence needs to be high for this fight though. Thompson is also coming off a loss and so now he has the chance to prove that he belongs at this level. I think that the loser of this fight probably leaves GLORY and goes back to the regional circuit to gain more experience before getting another call-up.
Robert Thomas (Canada) (6-1-0) vs. Mike Lemaire (USA) (13-1-0)
Middleweight (187lbs/85kg)
Middleweight champion Artem Levin was owed a fight on his contract prior to taking part in the LAST MAN STANDING tournament in June. All the top middleweights were booked and the only fighter who was available and interesting was Robert Thomas. He had been doing big things in Canada so we were going to give him a fight anyway, we just hadn’t planned on it being against the world #1.
Thomas jumped at the chance though and he surprised everyone with his performance. He wasn’t afraid of Levin or overcome with nerves or anything. He lost a decision but he showed that he has got nice Muay Thai skills and at just 21 years old he is definitely an interesting fighter for the future. He’s already faced the division’s top fighter so this time he has an opponent from his own position in the rankings.
Lemaire has fought for GLORY several times and is one spot below Thomas in the ranks. He was born in France but raised in the USA and that is who he represents when he fights, so we have a US vs. Canada match here. Lemaire lost to Warren Barrett at GLORY 9 but looked good in his decision win over Dustin Jacoby at GLORY 17.
Both of these guys come from Muay Thai and they are having to learn that you need to start a lot quicker in GLORY kickboxing than you do in their other sport. This fight should be interesting, they both have some tricks. Thomas is younger but more decorated - he was the 2013 Thai-Boxing Association of America champion.
Ian Alexander (12-6-0) (USA) vs. Omari Boyd (31-3-0) (USA)
Welterweight (170lbs/77kg)
On each GLORY card now we are going to try and start the night with a match between two guys who have been successful on the amateur circuit, are about to turn professional and who we think have good potential for the future. Kickboxing is not as established as MMA in America right now so guys have less opportunity to get the kind of experience that fighters can get in Europe. So we are going to use this opening slot to try and bridge the gap a little.
These are two of the higher-level amateurs on the US circuit and we think they have a future as professionals. They have won numerous amateur titles between them and Alexander has already fought on the local undercard to our show in Chicago last year. He won a decision with a mix of power and intelligent strategy.
Boyd has been on fire, fighting all over the USA and basically running out of opponents. Last year he went to Italy as part of a team coached by Eric Haycraft, one of our talent scouts in the US, and he took the gold medal in his weight bracket. He is a very aggressive, forward-pressure kind of guy and we like to see that in GLORY. This match will put Alexander’s technical ability up against Boyd’s aggression.
