Mosab 'The Jaguar' Amrani tears through Featherweight Contender Tournament

Amsterdam, Netherlands native Mosab 'The Jaguar' Amrani (55-10-4) took just three minutes and 22 seconds to dispatch two opponents in one night, winning the Featherweight Contender Tournament. Nearly 8,000 fans packed the sold-out RAI Amsterdam venue to witness his world-class display of precision striking.

First up was Chibin Lim of South Korea. He and Amrani were 1-1 against each other, with Lim having won a decision in their first encounter and Amrani having won the second by way of stoppage in Azerbaijan earlier this year. This third encounter was therefore both a tournament bout and a rubber match.

Lim has long held the reputation of being South Korea's best featherweight and he is a multi-time national champion in his homeland, which has a high-quality circuit. Amrani did finished him quickly in their Azerbaijan encounter, a body kick in the first round, but there were no guarantees that he could repeat the feat a second time.

It was Lim who opened the scoring. He landed a body kick and followed it up with some good kicks and knees. Amrani returned fire, and the fight was on. But it didn't take long for it to become clear that it was not an even encounter. Amrani knew what he wanted, and around a minute in he found it: a knee to the body which dropped Lim like a stone.

Lim took the referees count and got back to his feet but was clearly hurt. Amrani went in for the kill, knowing what he wanted. As they re-engaged and Lim threw a right hand, Amrani went around it and landed his trademark left hand to the body. Lim actually took a follow-up shot to the head before his liver was able to let his brain know that it was all over.

Once the message got through, Lim went down – hard. It is unlikely he would have beaten the referee's count anyway but under the tournament rules it was irrelevant. Two knockdowns in a tournament fight ends the fight, so the referee immediately waved the bout off.

Amrani went through to meet Maykol Yurk in the final. Yurk, a young Brazilian making his GLORY debut in this tournament, had a quick finish of his own in the semi-finals. His opponent Shane Oblonksy gave his usual gritty performance but struggled to get into the fight. Oblonsky suffered suffered an extremely painful bereavement very recently and it is impossible that it did not affect his training and focus for this fight.

That is not to take away from Yurk. He is relatively green as a professional but showed that he has the skills, heart and fitness to shine on the GLORY stage. Like other Brazilian fighters he doesn't take a backwards step and he proved himself an interesting addition to the featherweight division.

Amrani proved a bridge too far, however. Yurk bounced into the final full of confidence but Amrani quickly showed why he is at the top of the rankings. Spirited fire from Yurk did not dissuade him and he was able to press forwards and get his combination work going. One of those combinations ended on a knee strike to the body, the same one which put Lim down.

Yurk hit the deck. The referee began his count. By “eight”, Yurk was on his feet, but over the next two seconds he failed to give sufficient indication that he was ready and able to continue. The referee decided that Yurk was done, and waved the fight off. Yurk protested - but not too strongly, it must be said - while Amrani celebrated his win.

Amrani now goes forward to face Serhiy Adamchuk for the featherweight championship. “I think it will be a good fight. The championship is everything I want,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “Also I would like to rematch Gabriel Varga. First, my focus is the title but when I faced Varga in Dubai I was not myself, so I want to settle that score also. But first, the title.”