The official GLORY World Series ranking have been updated following GLORY 16 DENVER.
Heavyweight and Welterweight have seen the most movement due to the Heavyweight Contender Tournament and the Welterweight World Championship title fight taking place on the card, which aired live on SPIKE TV.
Welterweight
Marc De Bonte (+183) won a split-decision over Karapet Karapetyan (-89) to take the Welterweight World Championship home. He now leaves the rankings and is elevated above them to sit in the champion’s slot.
Nieky Holzken remains in the #1 slot as the division’s leading contender and ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini moves up one place to #2, while the unsuccessful challenger Karapetyan drops one place to #3.
The division’s biggest mover is Raymond Daniels (+87) His ‘Knockout of the Century’ win over Francois Ambang (-5) means that he rises four places to #8, cracking the Top Ten for the first time, while Ambang remains steady in the #10 slot.
Valtellini will challenge De Bonte for the title at GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING, which airs on pay-per-view Saturday June 21.
Heavyweight
Errol Zimmerman (+160) blasted his way into the Top 5 by winning the Heavyweight Contender Tournament with two KO victories in one night.
In the semi-final stage he stopped Ben Edwards (+10) in the dying seconds of the first round, then went on to finish Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva (+90) with three knockdowns in the first round of the tournament final.
Silva had endured a hard three-round war with Sergey Kharitonov (+10) to win a close decision and take his spot in the final, so he had taken more damage and burned more energy - a bad combination when facing a proven killer like Zimmerman.
Zimmerman now rises four places to the #5 slot and will take a spot in the division’s next Heavyweight Championship Tournament. He has also called for rematches with Daniel Ghita and Rico Verhoeven.
Silva holds steady in the #4 slot while Edwards drops two places to #8 and Kharitonov drops two places to #9.
Rising at heavyweight are Jamal Ben Saddik (+76), who dispatched Nicolas Wamba (0) to snap a three-fight losing streak and take the #13 position, and Benjamim Adegbuyi (+48), who finished Daniel Sam (0) to rise one place to #7.
Pat ‘HD’ Barry made his GLORY debut at this event but was not successful, losing by KO to Zack Mwekassa in the first round. He enters the rankings at #16 and can expect to face a fighter coming off a loss in his next outing.
Light-Heavyweight
Mwekassa debuted at heavyweight but, weighing in at 214lbs, it was clear that he could easily make the 209lb weight limit for Light-Heavyweight.
He has talked to GLORY matchmakers and agreed that he is best suited to that weight, so he enters at #11 and sits just four points below #10 occupant Michael Duut.
Other movement at Light-Heavyweight sees Artem Vakihitov (+119) climb three places to #6. He is now 3-0 in GLORY after his one-sided win over Croatia’s Igor Jurkovic (-8), who drops one place to #9.
Middleweight
There are no changes in the Middleweight division. Artem Levin (+34) retains the #1 slot after his win over debutant Robert Thomas, who stays steady at #11.
Had Levin lost to Thomas that would have been to his detriment and would have seen Thomas shoot up the rankings. Instead everybody holds steady as six of the current Top Ten await the carnage of June’s LAST MAN STANDING eight-man tournament.
That tournament will also include two GLORY newcomers, Melvin Manhoef and Simon Marcus, both of whom will be officially ranked after the tournament concludes.
Lightweight
The GLORY SUPERFIGHT SERIES 16 card, which took place before the evening’s main card saw Josh Jauncey make his debut.
While the young Canadian is a GLORY newcomer he has some serious firepower in his corner, being a member of Team Souwer and having former world #1 Andy Souwer as his lead corner man.
Jauncey came through a tricky first round and survived a knockdown to eventually dominate the veteran Warren Stevelmans, who was going through hell in the extra fourth round.
Stevelmans (-21) drops four places to #2 following the decision loss while Jauncey slots into the 155lb rankings at #17.
Note: GLORY ranking points are subject to a ‘Lifetime Rule’, similar to the one used in international tennis. Points lose 1/3 of their value every year. This ensures that inactive fighters do not continue to occupy the top of the ranks year after year.
Karapetyan and Levin both fought at GLORY 7 MILAN in April last year and the points they earned there now lose 1/3 of their value.
Levin scored +87 for his win at GLORY 16 but his overall total also drops -50 due to expiry, while Karapetyan was -69 for the loss to the lower-ranked De Bonte at GLORY 16 but also loses -20 from his overall total due to expiry on his GLORY 7 points.
