Michael 'The Blood Diamond' Mathetha is a tall and very unorthodox fighter, with a wide range of unusual kicks. Richard Abraham, shorter and stockier, had some issues with his range and output in the first round, but continually pressed forwards in his usual style to get on the inside and attack.
It was a close first round as both had success at times. Long straight punches worked to Mathetha's advantage while Abraham scored well with uppercuts and low kicks. Having had a few minutes to feel each other out in the first round, things really heated up in the second.
Midway in the second round Mathetha took a push kick to the leg which would turn out to be the decisive blow of the fight. It landed flush on his knee and buckled it backwards. It quickly became apparent that damage had been done – Mathetha's offensive output slowed and he was noticeably having trouble with putting weight on the leg at times.
His face remained impassive though and he continued causing problems with his unorthodox kicks, mostly delivered by his uninjured leg. Abraham either knew the knee was injured or just responded to Mathetha's slowed pace; either way, his ferocity increased and he went after Mathetha with combination after combination.
In the third round Mathetha visibly winced more than once as his knee wobbled underneath him, but he continued gamely attacking and counter-attacking. Abraham's aggression was turned up to maximum in the final frame and Mathetha found himself fighting backwards, working around Abraham's output to land counter-kicks.
Just before the round ended Mathetha tried a rolling somersault kick; Abraham just evaded it and they went to the judge's scorecards. Abraham's offensive output had him ahead in the statistics and in the scoring: the judges returned a unanimous decision in his favor, pushing him to 4-0 in GLORY and maintaining his undefeated run in the promotion.
