Pat Barry faces Mourad Bouzidi at GLORY 20

Pat ‘HD’ Barry (16-6-1, 10 KO’s) will face Mourad ‘The Silent Power’ Bouzidi (76-22-2, 34 KO’s) in a heavyweight contest at GLORY 20: DUBAI.

The two will square off in the co-headline fight of the event, which takes place Friday, April 3 at the Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Barry is best known for his career as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter and his run in the UFC heavyweight division and fights with the likes of Cheick Kongo and Mirko ‘CroCop’ Filipovic, though he started his career as a kickboxer and spent some years based in Amsterdam, Netherlands learning from all-time great Ernesto Hoost.

This will be Barry’s second fight for GLORY. His debut at GLORY 16: DENVER in May 2014 ended with an unexpected first-round KO loss to fellow debutant Zack ‘Black Warrior’ Mwekassa of South Africa (Mwekassa went on to prove his quality by dropping to light-heavyweight and reaching the final of the GLORY 18 Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament in November).

Bouzidi last fought at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL in April 2014, snapping a two-fight losing streak by beating Oklahoman karate stylist Randy ‘Boom Boom’ Blake on points. In his preceding outing, Bouzidi was on the losing side of one of the biggest KO’s ever seen in GLORY, inflicted by Brazil’s Saulo Cavalari.

A long-time training partner of the living legend Peter Aerts, Bouzidi - who is of Tunisian heritage - has racked up a huge amount of experience in the ring, having started fighting at a young age and maintained a very frequent competition schedule. He stands 3-4 in GLORY since debuting with a loss to Gokhan Saki at GLORY 2: BRUSSELS in October 2012 and is 2-2 in his last four fights.

“We are pleased to confirm this fight today. It matches two guys who are big fan favorites - they have a lot of power and they are always looking for the knockout when they fight, but they are also two of the nicest guys in the sport,” says Cor Hemmers, GLORY matchmaker and Head of Talent Operations.

“They both have something of a veteran status and they have had a lot of experience in the highs and lows of the fight game. Right now I think that they both feel like they want to prove a point about where they are in their careers and I think that will make for a heated fight and a well-matched contest.”

GLORY 20: DUBAI is headlined by a World Featherweight Championship fight as Canada’s Gabriel Varga faces off with Mosab ‘The Jaguar’ Amrani over five rounds for the vacant belt. They are the world’s two top kickboxers at 145lbs and it promises to be an epic encounter.

The card is completed by a Middleweight Contender Tournament. Simon ‘Bad Bwoy’ Marcus faces off with Wayne Barrett in one of the semi-final brackets while Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira of Brazil takes on Jason Wilnis of the Netherlands, with the tournament winner going forward to a title shot later in the year.

GLORY 20 will air in the US on Spike TV, in Canada on The Fight Network and in the UK on BT Sports. The show will air in 140 international territories in total, check local listings for broadcast times.