Schilling has no kind words for Jacoby ahead of Middleweight Contender T...

GLORY’s first ever Middleweight Championship Tournament winner Joe ‘Stitch ‘Em Up’ Schilling will be paying close attention to Saturday’s GLORY 14 ZAGREB event.

The main card hosts a four-man Middleweight Contender Tournament, with the winner earning a place in this year’s Middleweight Championship Tournament, with the World Middleweight Title on the line.

The tournament line-up is Sahak Parparyan (40-9-5, 19 KO’s) vs. Jason Wilnis (21-3-1, 6 KO’s) and Alex Pereira (11-1, 8 KO’s) vs. Dustin Jacoby (4-3, 3 KO’s).

“My favorite for the tournament would be Sahak, I think he is a higher caliber than the others. I am a fan of his. He comes to fight, he’s from Mike’s Gym, I really like that style that they bring and the heart they fight with. I think he is one of the top guys,” says Schilling.

“The fight with him and Wilnis will determine the outcome of the tournament but it depends how banged up they get as they both have that hard-nosed, bang-it-out style. I give that fight to Sahak.

“Then in the other bracket you’ve got Pereira. He is like 6’5” and a former boxer with a huge reach. I think he will beat Jacoby - pretty easily - and then meet Sahak in the final.

“I think Sahak is about 6’0” so the final is going to be a match of power versus Pereira’s height and reach. I think Sahak will win but it depends how banged up he is from the first fight.”

Jacoby is Schilling’s fellow American and is making his middleweight debut in this tournament. But Schilling doesn’t have a lot of support to offer him, probably because Jacoby has already expressed dislike for Schilling and a desire to fight him.

“I didn’t even know who Dustin Jacoby was until he started talking about me, then I looked him up. I thought it was a little pathetic actually but I am kind of getting used to it. Since I won that tournament I have a target on my back,” says Schilling.

“But if I was a few days out from fighting in the Middleweight Contender Tournament with the guys who are in that tournament, the last guy I would be thinking or talking about would be Joe Schilling.

“He did it before his last fight in Japan as well, brought my name up. He lost that fight too so he should probably focus more on guys he is about to fight rather than me.”

In his latest interview, talking about his drop to middleweight from light-heavyweight and his training in the Netherlands, Jacoby mentioned that Schilling “just rubs me the wrong way” and that he disliked him because “I don’t think he carries himself well, I think he’s got an attitude.”

Schilling finds it confusing.

“I thought it was odd that he said it was personal because I literally don’t know who he is!” he says. “I generally pay attention to guys that are top five and he was like , #15 at light-heavyweight?

“I looked him up after he first mentioned me. I wasn’t impressed with his fights in GLORY or for the UFC or World Series of Fighting. I think it’s a sad attempt to call me out and get some publicity really.

“But if he makes it into the top five then I would love to fight him, sure. But I really don’t know anything about him, I don’t know why he’s got this focus on me.”

GLORY 14 ZAGREB takes place today, Saturday March 8, and will air in the US on SPIKE TV at 9pm ET / 8pm CT.

The card features a World Lightweight Championship fight between Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie and Davit Kiria plus a heavyweight rematch between Mirko ‘CroCop’ Filipovic and Remy Bonjasky, the latter out for revenge in his retirement fight.