New York is the city which never sleeps but the stars still come out at night and on Saturday night there were several in attendance for GLORY 12 at Madison Square Garden.
Floyd Mayweather Jr, the undefeated five-division boxing champion, took pride of place at ringside for the evening’s main card.
Mayweather’s rival Manny Pacquiao was fighting Brandon Rios in Macau, China that same night but Mayweather chose to be in New York for the GLORY Lightweight Championship Tournament.
He made the right choice. Of the twelve fights on the GLORY 12 NEW YORK card, seven ended with a KO or TKO. And Mayweather was present to see history made when the almost untouchable Giorgio Petrosyan was knocked out for the first time in his career.
Mayweather’s credits include eight world titles and the lineal championship in three different weight classes. He has been Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year twice and has won the Best Fighter ESPY Award five times.
Also ringside was the former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who flew in from Atlanta just to be there. Holyfield’s record includes wins over Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Riddick Bowe and Larry Holmes.
He retired in 2011 with a 44-10-2 record (one no-contest) and a page in the history books as the only four-time World Heavyweight Champion. Holyfield won the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles in 1990, the WBA and IBF titles in 1993 and the WBA title in 1996 and 2000.
Next to him sat Idris Elba, whose performances as Stringer Bell in the multi-award winning HBO series The Wire revealed him to be one of the great actors of his generation and brought him to Hollywood’s attention.
Elba’s movie credits include Pacific Rim, Prometheus and Long Walk To Freedom, the recent biopic of iconic South African folk hero Nelson Mandela. He is also a successful DJ and musician and has collaborated with artists such as Jay-Z, Fat Joe and Angie Stone.
GLORY 12 NEW YORK was an outstanding event even by the high stands of the Glory World Series. Of seventeen fights, eleven ended in a KO or TKO.
Every fighter on the card did themselves and the sport credit, showing the celebrity attendees and the millions of viewers around the world just why GLORY is the hottest sporting ticket in town.
Fights from the GLORY Superfight Series are released via GloryWorldSeries.com free of charge. All fans have to do is register a free account and they can access an archive of elite kickboxing entertainment on-demand.
GLORY 13 takes place at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday December 21. It features the final ever Japanese fight of the legendary Peter Aerts, who faces GLORY 11 Heavyweight Championship Tournament winner Rico Verhoeven.
