The Quarterfinal 2 fight preview of the GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix is powered by Unibet.
This Saturday night, March 9, will see the historic GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix event take place at the GelreDome in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Eight of the best heavyweights on the planet will compete in an eight-man one-night tournament where the winner will walk away with a cool $500,000 prizemoney & the title of Grand Prix Champion.
In what is the most explosive fight of the opening round, Nigeria’s Tariq ‘Cookie’ Osaro (25-3-1, 13 KO) collides with Azerbaijan’s Bahram Rajabzadeh (65-1, 58 KO).
Osaro is the former interim-GLORY heavyweight champ and had a breakout 2023 which saw him qualify for the Grand Prix after winning a four-man tournament, he followed this up with a big KO victory over Antonio Plazibat, and then went the distance with Rico Verhoeven in November.
2023 was also a big year for Rajabzadeh. He returned to GLORY after four years away and won three fights straight, including his own four-man tournament win to qualify for the Grand Prix. What was also impressive about ‘The Golden Wolf’ was his ability to cause chaos and damage to opponents much bigger than him.
Standing a towering six-foot-six and weighing in over 127kg, Osaro is one of the biggest fighters in the tournament while, on the flip side, Rajabzadeh is the smallest entrant at a height of six-foot-one and a weight of 100kg.
These stats are positives for both fighters. Osaro has the size and power to KO anyone, as seen by his 100% KO ratio in GLORY with all wins by way of knockout, while Rajabzadeh has the speed advantage over all the other heavyweights.
Despite his size, Osaro is the most elusive fighters in the Grand Prix and on average only gets hit 4.4 times per minute. This shows how clever he is as a fighter as he knows how to use his frame and footwork to avoid any damaging blows as he hunts for his own killer blows.
However, he has not faced a fighter like Rajabzadeh in GLORY yet. The 32-year-old has more wins and knockouts that anyone else in the tournament and brings such a relentless pace and variety of attacks that brings a challenge to any fighter walking the planet.
One key thing to note is that Osaro had a choice of opponents and he chose Rajabzadeh, this gives an indication of his confidence in winning. We won’t complain though, as it sets up one of the fights of the tournament.
