Some fights to look out for on the Superfight Series are the two heavyweight fights and the ladies fight. The headline fight has Chi Lewis-Parry back in the ring for the first time since GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO. He was supposed to fight at the recent GLORY 30 event in Los Angeles but hurt his hand on the head of UFC champion Daniel Cormier in sparring and had to pull out.
Chi has been training with Cormier and the guys at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose and says his fitness has never been better. He's already got knockout power so if he can bring real super fitness along with that, it can make him a real problem for his opponent. He is facing Maurice 'Moe the Pirate' Greene of Chicago. We last saw him at GLORY 27 CHICAGO where he took a real beating with leg kicks from Anderson 'Braddock' Silva but refused to be finished.
Greene is a big guy and has natural power but Silva showed that his defensive game needs a lot of work. Chi can exploit that and if he's really fit he can keep that pressure up for as long as he needs to. But we've also seen Chi lose by TKO in there as well so he can't afford to take one of Greene's big shots, it might be the end of the night for him right there.
The other heavyweight fight has Silva back in the ring again. He is facing a German newcomer called Gordon Haupt, 'The German Barbarian' as he is called. Silva we know about, he is a GLORY veteran. He spent a long time training with Peter Aerts and Hesdy Gerges, he's really tough and he's got plenty of tricks. He's a really hard leg kicker.
We've been scouting Germany lately as we are looking to stage a live event there soon, so that's where we came across Haupt. New heavyweights are always interesting. He's riding a six-fight win streak, all of them by knockout, but of course not all guys who are the same level as he will be competing against in GLORY. I watched some fights, he has a no-nonsense style, always coming forward to engage and throw bombs. He is not a tactical guy, he is a power-forward guy. He reminds me a bit of Jamal Ben Saddik in his early days.
Xavier Vigney was supposed to fight Silva but has a nagging leg injury so Haupt came in on about four weeks notice. We looked through the possibilities and this guy stood out. Newcomer, decent record, genuine heavyweight and he's from a market we are looking into, so why not give him a chance?
Finally in the women's fight we have a reserve match for the Super Bantamweight Grand Prix which is currently playing out. It may look strange that the Belgian girl Vanessa de Waele has an 0-1 record as a professional but make no mistake, she is a very good kickboxer. Her amateur record is 20-8-1 Â and there isn't a huge difference over here between the rules for professional and amateur.
The Turkish girl Funda is more a Muay Thai stylist so there's a style vs. style element to this fight. I had a good look at her and shows a good level but we need to see how she adapts to kickboxing rules, as with all fighters who cross over from Muay Thai. We've had some good fighters out of Turkey in the last few years and our Turkish television partners are pretty interested in her.
