This Saturday night we have GLORY 35 NICE taking place in the south of France. As usual we have two cards in one night, the Superfight Series card – which airs live on UFC FIGHT PASS around the world – and the numbered card, GLORY 35.
On the Superfight Series card we have some great fights, a mix of established names, local heroes and debuting talent. Let's take a look at the Matchmaking Notes for this card.
Petpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (151-34-2, 25 KO's) takes on Stanislav Renita (12-3, 3 KO's)
We start things off with a match between two debuting fighters. Renita seems like a good puncher and the Thai is a new fighter we scouted recently. He's a very good Thai style fighter but we need to see how he crosses over into kickboxing.
We were talent scouting in Thailand for top fighters around this weight and he was on the radar. We think he can develop over a year or two and become a strong contender. Renita is not well known but he has built up a good reputation and he is due for this GLORY call up, he's a guy with a lot of potential. He's a compact guy, powerful hands, and he comes to fight.
Josh Jauncey (25-7, 14 KO's) vs. Chris Baya (56-5-1, 34 KO's)
Originally Jauncey was to face Dylan Salvador, a very good French fighter we just signed. But then Salvador ran into a problem with the French athletic commission, he couldn't get a license to fight on this card because he competed several weeks ago. They said it was too close. Then we replaced him with Serhiy Adamchuk, but last weekend Adamchuk's brother was sadly killed in Uktraine and he has gone home to be with his family.
So then we turned to Chris Baya, a team mate of Adamchuk's at Mike's Gym in Amsterdam. When we approached him he joked, “What took you so long?”, he thought he would have been called up by GLORY earlier. But for me, he was on the radar but I wanted to see him get more top-level experience.
Now however he gets his chance and if he wins he is right there in the lightweight division, making a big announcement for himself. Actually, win or lose, as long as he performs well he gets another shot. But really you would have to say that Jauncey is the big favorite. He will be too much for Baya I think, especially with Baya coming in on a week's notice.
Jiwaen Lee (13-2, 3 KO's) vs. Amel Dehby (27-0, 11 KO's)
Lee is a new young talent, she's only 19, she came to us via our partners in South Korea where we have a strong television presence. This is her first time in Europe, first time outside South East Asia region actually, and this is a tough test for her.
Dehby is more experienced and is undefeated, hits hard for this weight class. Dehby is the favorite here but credit to Lee for stepping up for such a tough challenge.
Eyevan Danenberg (46-6-2, 22 KO's) vs Karim Benmansour (23-4, 11 KO's)
Danenberg debuted at GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM and had a really good performance against Maxim Suarez. Benmansour fought on that same card against Murthel Groenhart but didn't have a good showing, Groenhart overwhelmed him and dominated him before stopping him in the first round.
Here it's an opportunity for Benmansour to show what he can really do, and a chance for Danenberg to get some momentum going and show that his Amsterdam performance was not just a one-off.
Nordine Mahieddine (18-6, 11 KO's) vs Niclas Wamba (46-7, 21 KO's)
Wamba didn't have a great performance at GLORY 16 DENVER against Jamal Ben Saddik but afterwards he came to me and he was like, “I want to fight heavyweight not super-heavyweight, this was really a super-heavyweight fight!”.
So we find ourselves back in France and he's coming off a win and a chance for a rematch here with Mahieddine, who really wanted to face Wamba again because he had lost to him in 2013. The French promoter arranged this as an interesting match for the locality. It's a fight between two big guys and as always, a heavyweight bout can end in an instant.
GLORY 35 NICE takes place Saturday, November 5 in Nice, France. The Superfight Series card airs live on UFC FIGHT PASS from 2pm ET/Midday PT
