Simon ‘Bad Bwoy’ Marcus has moved to #1 in the official Middleweight rankings after winning the four-man Middleweight Contender Tournament at GLROY 20 DUBAI.
Marcus beat Wayne Barrett and Jason Wilnis in back-to-back fights to claim victory and with it a title shot at GLORY 21 SAN DIEGO against Artem ‘The Lion’ Levin. He displaces Joe Schilling, who slides down one place to #2.
Jason Wilnis holds steady at #3 while Alex Pereira, who lost to Wilnis in the semi-final, actually rises one place due to the points he earned merely for his tournament participation. Barrett was not so fortunate; GLORY’s point-expiry rule means he lost a fraction of the points earned for the GLORY 12 NEW YORK win over Joe Schilling and that was enough to have him drop one place to #6.
The movement in the rankings means that Filip Verlinden, who did not take part in the tournament, has been the most badly affected. Marcus’ rise and Schilling’s displacement from the top spot means that the former #2 slides two places to #4.
Samir Boukhidos made his GLORY debut with a stoppage win over unranked Russian middleweight Mikhail Chalyhk and resides at #14 in the rankings.
Lightweight
In the main event Robin van Roosmalen retained the World Lightweight Championship after a thrilling five-round war with Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie. Despite being champion Van Roosmalen had gone into the bout as underdog but quickly set about proving his detractors wrong with a masterful performance.
Van Roosmalen remains in the champion’s slot above the rankings but earned 241 points for the win. He also dropped 50, however, also dating back to the GLORY 12 NEW YORK event. Ristie remains in the #1 contender slot, just 24 points ahead of Davit Kiria, and saw 17 of his own points expire at the same time as Van Roosmalen’s.
Russian debutant Anatoly Moiseev could not have made a bigger impact as he starched Germany’s Max Baumert with a head kick less than forty seconds into the first round. That was the fifth-fastest KO in GLORY history and sees Moiseev, who entered the ranks at #16, climb two places to #14.
Featherweight
The co-main event was a Fight of the Year contender as Gabriel Varga and Mosab Amrani went at it over five brutal rounds. Varga was clearly ahead by the later rounds but Amrani’s toughness was incredible to witness and he stayed in the fight throughout.
As the inaugural World Featherweight Champion, Varga now rises to the champion’s slot above the rankings, vacating his #3 slot in the process. Amrani remains at #1 in the contender listings and no doubt it will not be long before he is challenging for the belt a second time.
Light-Heavyweight
Saulo Cavalari fought his way to a title shot over Russia’s Artem Vakhitov in a grueling battle which tested both men to the limit. The victory earned him 37 points and a meeting with light-heavyweight champion Gokhan Saki later this year. Cavalari rises one place to #2.
Vakhitov nevertheless manages to rise one place due to the removal of Tyrone Spong from the rankings. After snapping his shin in a fight with Gokhan Saki at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL, he has elected to concentrate on professional boxing for the immediate future.
Andrei Stoica of Romania was an unexpected big mover in the rankings following GLORY 20 DUBAI but not in a way he wanted. He debuted at GLORY 12 and has been relatively inactive, so the expiry of his points from back then has conspired to drop him a massive four places to #8.
Mourad Bouzidi moved up to #5 by defeating stand-in Dustin Jacoby in a fight that surprisingly went the distance. Under our existing rules, the cross-division fighter is deemed to be worth two-thirds of Bouzidi's strength (334 points) so Bouzidi gained 84 points.
Jacoby is ranked #13 at middleweight and retains his position, his ranking there being unaffected by losing a short-notice fight taken outside his weight class.
Heavyweight
Chi Lewis-Parry could not have made a bigger impression on his GLORY debut, scoring the third-fastest knockout in the organization’s history when he stopped Yongsu Park of South Korea in just 25 seconds.
The win has ‘Real Chopper’ entering the rankings at #15 and has also secured him a spot in next month’s Heavyweight Qualification Tournament, the winner of which will progress to a spot in the next Heavyweight Contender Tournament.
