GLORY is in Virginia, USA on Friday, February 6 with GLORY 19 and GLORY Superfight Series 19. Two different cards, one big event.
As usual, before each event we take a look at the thoughts behind the matchmaking on the cards. Here we take a look at the Superfight Series bouts.
Andy Ristie (43-4-1, 23 KO’s) vs. Steve Moxon (38-10-1, 23 KO’s)
Lightweight
Ristie is currently #1 in the contender rankings at lightweight and I think that after his KO wins over Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin van Roosmalen he is probably the most feared fighter in this division right now.
He is really unique in his style, very unorthodox and unpredictable. He is also athletic and explosive, aggressive with plenty of power. He nearly captured the World Lightweight Championship in March but Davit Kiria staged an amazing comeback to win in the final round of their fight.
Ristie came back in his most recent fight with a quick, brutal KO of Ky Hollenbeck. People want to see a rematch with Van Roosmalen, who is now the champion after beating Kiria, and Ristie needs to win this fight with Moxon to keep his #1 spot in the rankings and stay in contention for a title shot rematch with Van Roosmalen.
Moxon’s record includes fights with a lot of big names and he deserves respect. He is a very experienced knockout specialist. As we saw in his fight with the young English prospect Reece McAllister, if Moxon lands one of his bombs there can be a real shocking, spectacular finish.
Both of these guys like to bring the forward pressure and Moxon being the shorter fighter he needs to get inside to do his work. But that could be dangerous because Ristie likes to use his knees and he is good with them, as we saw when he KO’d Andy Kraus in Tokyo in 2013.
Moxon needs to find a way to pressure Ristie, disrupt his flow and take him out of his game, as Kiria was able to do in the final two rounds of their fight last year. It’s a tall order, but that’s the way to create openings and try to finish Ristie.
Xavier Vigney (5-1, 5 KO’s) vs. Everett Sims (6-1, 2 KO’s)
Heavyweight
This is an All-American heavyweight fight between two big guys. Vigney, who won our heavyweight ‘Road to Glory’ tournament, is 255lbs/116kgs and 6’5”/2.03m. He fought at GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES and beat Hyung Man Hyung from Korea but we still felt like he needed more experience before he could become a presence in the GLORY heavyweight ranks.
Now he is back and he is facing Everett Sims, a fellow American with an aggressive style. He’s a southpaw, which makes him tricky and means that Vigney has to be careful about letting those heavy punches come through what is sometimes a very open defense.
Orthodox fighters generally hate southpaws because they are a minority and not everyone has southpaws to train with. The trick is to keep your lead foot on the outside of your opponent’s lead foot in order to keep him in the firing line for your strongest weapons. It is a small battle but a key one.
The experience advantage goes to Vigney, he has fought on a big platform like this before, but Sims somewhat negates that by bringing in that rare southpaw style. With this being a heavyweight fight it could end at any instant - one punch from either man can finish it.
Josh Jauncey (21-4, 10 KO’s) vs. Max Baumert (13-4, 4 KO’s)
Lightweight
Jauncey is one of the new rising stars in GLORY and recently signed a new long-term deal. He won a very impressive debut against the experienced veteran Warren Stevelmans at GLORY 16 DENVER and he followed that with a great performance at GLORY 18 OKLAHOMA in his win over the Korean fighter Noh Jae Gil.
Definitely he can be a future contender, he ticks all the boxes, but he is young and still gaining experience with every fight. He is fast and athletic and we’ve also seen that he hits hard. He is a complete fighter with good hands, kicks and footwork.
Baumert comes from Germany and debuted at GLORY 6 ISTANBUL with a knockout win over Turkish talent Ismael Uzunur. Despite being from Germany his kickboxing is rooted in the Dutch style and that means he is an aggressive forward-pressure fighter who is always looking for the knockout.
He has a professional boxing background - he is 28-6-1 in that sport - as well as his kickboxing career. In kickboxing he has had some mixed results but that is because he has accepted every fight he is offered, no matter the notice period.
Interestingly, Jauncey is a member of Team Souwer - headed by Andy Souwer in Amsterdam - and has trained with Souwer since he was a teenager. Baumert lost to Souwer by stoppage last year and has said that this fight with Jauncey is a way for him to get revenge by taking out Souwer’s bright young protégé.
Baumert hasn’t fought for GLORY since early 2013 so he is way down the rankings. At the same time, he has more experience overall. If he can beat Jauncey he will climb the rankings as much as seven places. If Jauncey can stop him, he will enter the Top Ten for the first time.
Brian Collette (21-3, 18 KO’s) vs. Myron Dennis (18-3, 8 KO’s)
Light-Heavyweight
This is an All-American match between two fighters who are definitely going to be looking for the KO. Collette is actually from Virginia and he is something of a knockout specialist. His head-kick KO of Warren Thompson in his GLORY debut was excellent but then he ran into Zack Mwekassa in the GLORY 18 Contender Tournament and suffered a KO himself.
There’s no shame in that - Mwekassa is also a professional boxer and is one of the hardest-hitting guys in GLORY - but now Collette is looking to get back on track. He’s still developing and in the future could well be among those American fighters who can break through into the top ranks.
Dennis came on our radar when he took part in one of our ‘Road to Glory’ tournaments in 2013. He impressed me by his aggressive fighting style at the time and he has made good progress since then. He is a determined fighter with a Muay Thai background.
I think Collette has the power advantage here but Dennis has a very good chin. This is Collette’s third fight for GLORY so he has the experience advantage as well. On paper he is the favorite but of course a fight is a fight and the win can go either way.
Francois Ambang (12-4, 4 KO’s) vs. Stephen Richards (10-2-1, 2 KO’s)
Welterweight
Ambang blasted his way into a GLORY contract by winning one of our eight-man ‘Road to Glory’ tournaments in 2013. He beat three opponents in one night to get his contract but then in his official GLORY debut he met ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini, who is now the champion at welterweight, and lost by TKO.
Ambang came back from that by stopping Eddie Walker at GLORY 12 and he then faced Raymond Daniels at GLORY 16 DENVER last year. That fight ended in a spectacular KO - fans say it was the best they have seen in GLORY fights - but unluckily for Ambang he was on the receiving side of it.
Now he faces debutant Stephen Richards, who lives in America but fights under the Jamaican flag. Richards is one of the top welterweight fighters on the US Muay Thai circuit and has a traditional Muay Thai base complemented with some good boxing skills.
He is in the later stages of his career but feels he can make a run in GLORY. I recently attended one of his fights live and watched him break down and dominate Brett Hlavacek, himself a runner-up in a Road to Glory tournament. He has good hands and great timing.
Virginia is Ambang’s back yard and he needs to snap this two-fight win streak and get back into the Top Ten - he is at #11 in the rankings so he’s not far off. Richards wants to make a big debut and do it in style, so it will be interesting to see how this fight goes.
