Fans have voted Niclas Larsen the Best New Talent in the official GLORY Half-Year Awards.
The Danish lightweight took pole position in packed field, beating fellow contenders such as Alex Pereira and Gabriel Varga.
Runner-up was Benjamin Adegbuyi, the Romanian heavyweight (17-2, 1 KO’s). His two stoppage wins in GLORY have excited the fans and set him on the path to contender status.
Larsen (40-7-1, 20 KO’s) stopped the explosive Steve Moxon in impressive fashion at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL earlier this year. His tricky style and knockout power mark him out as one to watch; Larsen is now expected to force himself into the contender pack in 2015.
It probably didn’t hurt that he had also taken Andy Ristie the distance in his previous GLORY appearance, though that fell outside the consideration period for the half-year awards. Ristie’s decision win over Larsen was followed by KO victories over Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin van Roosmalen.
“Niclas Larsen is a great new talent, really exciting. He has a good style and he looks to be a fighter who will emerge as a contender in his weight class over the coming year,” says Cor Hemmers, GLORY matchmaker and Head of Talent Operations.
“In the runner-up place, Adegbuyi is also making his presence felt in the heavyweight contender conversation. Even the world champion Rico Verhoeven has said Adegbuyi is a likely future title challenger.
“Voting was close and there was little to choose between the other three fighters nominated in the list. Alex Pereira (14-2, 9 KO’s), Gabriel Varga (25-2, 8 KO’s) and Zack Mwekassa (11-1, 10 KO’s) are all top talents and have bright futures in front of them.
“In Varga’s case, he already won the Featherweight Contender Tournament in June so goes forward to a title shot next.
“He could well become the second Canadian champion in GLORY, which is really interesting when you consider that, one year ago, people talked as if North American kickboxing was no threat at all to the Europeans. Things are changing rapidly in the kickboxing world.”
