Australia and New Zealand are famous for their love of sports and, in particular, sports with a high degree of physicality.
It is no coincidence that two of the most popular sports in Oceania - which encompasses Australia and New Zealand - are Rugby and Australian-Rules Football, games for which toughness is mandatory and constant heavy impact is the order of the day.
In total, the four Antipodeans making up GLORY’s unofficial ‘Team Oceania’ contingent have scored 113 KO’s from 158 wins - that’s an incredible 71% finish rate.
These guys come to bang and they all feature on our next two cards. Corbett, Moxon and Adesanya are fighting at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL on Saturday April 12 while Edwards is fighting at GLORY 16 DENVER on Saturday May 3.
Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett (57-5, 45 KO’s)
Light-Heavyweight (209lbs/95kg)
The nickname says it all - Corbett is a fighter who has a well-deserved reputation for going to war in his fights, most of which end with his opponent mangled and him victorious. For years dominant on the native Australian circuit, Corbett has also fought and beaten many top international names.
Billed as a Muay Thai stylist - he has long fought under Muay Thai rules - Corbett’s original background was karate.
The Japanese art has a very specific mindset in which each strike thrown is required to be as damaging as possible. Corbett brought that idea with him when he switched to Muay Thai and as a result, his is a modified version of the Thai art.
He has dispensed with the various techniques, which are used to stall an opponent, keep him at bay or just score points. Corbett’s training focuses only on these techniques designed to do maximum damage. For example, he never uses the push-kick but his low- and body-kick techniques are ferocious.
Corbett did suffer a setback when he faced Tyrone ‘King of the Ring’ Spong in a highly anticipated grudge rematch at GLORY 11 CHICAGO in October. Their first fight ended in a controversial No Contest. This rematch ended with Spong blasting Corbett out of the fight with a killer left hook.
At GLORY 15 ISTANBUL on April 12, Corbett will take one of the four spots in the Light-Heavyweight World Championship Tournament. The winner of the tournament will be crowned the GLORY Light-Heavyweight World Champion.
Spong is in the line-up and they could possibly meet in the final - at 1-1 against each other, the pair would be fighting for legacy as well as the championship belt and the cash grand prize.
‘Stone Cold’ Steve Moxon (34-6-1, 23 KO’s)
Lightweight (70kgs/154lbs)
Moxon’s nickname is a reference to his killer instinct, but he could just as easily be nicknamed TNT. Short and stocky, Moxon is packed with explosive power and has bombs in both hands. When they detonate, people fall over.
At GLORY 11 CHICAGO he finished the young Muay Thai prodigy Reece McAllister with a crushing third-round right hook, which earned him a Knockout of the Year nomination for 2013.
Moxon’s favorite fighter of all time is Mike Tyson, who - like Moxon - was also among the shorter fighters in his weight class. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and so Moxon has been emulating Tyson's crushing knockouts throughout his six-year career.
His next outing will be at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL on April 12, the same card his countryman Corbett is on. Moxon is facing Niclas Larsen, a Muay Thai fighter and champion in his native Denmark.
Larsen debuted at GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES as a late stand-in against Andy Ristie and put on a very spirited performance. His rangy, creative style will make for an interesting match with Moxon’s close-quarter power punching.
Ben Edwards (36-9-3, 31 KO’s)
Heavyweight (+209lbs/95kgs)
Australian power-puncher Ben ‘The Guvnor’ Edwards loves tough sports. He is a former professional rugby player who made the switch to kickboxing when he went in search of an even more physically demanding challenge.
Edwards packs 256lbs (116kgs) into every punch and has an incredible 88% KO ratio. In his ten years as a professional kickboxer he has won two ISKA titles. He also has also ventured into professional boxing, where he has amassed a 3-0-1 record.
Among his KO wins are the likes of Mighty Mo, Raul Catinas and fellow GLORY heavyweight Daniel Sam. In 2010 he stopped three opponents in a combined 3:28 during a regional K-1 tournament, breaking Jerome Le Banner’s long-held record of 4:04.
The biggest win of his career came at GLORY 12 NEW YORK in November, when he had a hard-hitting back and forth war with the enormous Jamal Ben Saddik.
The two battered each other around the ring before a final surge from Edwards scored him a knockout in the final moments of the match.
Israel ‘Iz’ Adesanya (31-1, 14 KO’s)
Middleweight (77kgs/176lbs)
New Zealand native Israel ‘Iz’ Adesanya recently signed a multi-fight deal with the GLORY World Series and is the only ‘Kiwi’ on the roster at present.
New Zealand has a small population but a rich heritage in the fighting world. Aside from the warrior tradition of the native Maori culture, New Zealand has given the world Ray Sefo and Mark Hunt, two of the hardest-hitting fighters ever to step into the ring.
Adesanya has long been a dominant force in the rings of his native New Zealand, where he has captured several national titles. Fighting out of CityKickboxing in the city of Auckland, the orthodox Muay Thai stylist has fought around the world but is now in the globe’s premier league.
A recent fight with the highly-regarded Simon Marcus of Canada brought Adesanya considerable attention. The two had a war and while Adesanya didn’t get the win, he did earn the respect of world-ranked Marcus and everybody who saw the fight.
Adesanya joins a middleweight division which is home to top contenders such as Artem Levin, Joe ‘Stitch Em Up’ Schilling and Wayne Barrett. In his debut fight he will face Filip Verlinden at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL.
Verlinden lives and trains in Belgium and in 2012 he was fighting in the heavyweight division because it was the most lucrative at the time.
This fight will mark his middleweight debut, a category much more suited to his frame. His experience and solid technical style will be a tough test for Adesanya.
GLORY’s next event takes place Saturday April 12 in Istanbul, Turkey.
GLORY 15 ISTANBUL features a four-man light-heavyweight tournament with the GLORY World Light-Heavyweight Title on the line.
The card is one of the most stacked in kickboxing history and will air in the US on SPIKE TV, in the UK on BT SPORTS and in over 150 territories worldwide.
