Tyrone Spong has broken into the top five of the official GLORY World Federation rankings following his knockout win over Remy Bonjasky at GLORY 5 LONDON on March 23.
According to the updated rankings, published today by Glory Sports International, the win has seen Spong climb two places to occupy the number four slot with 690 points.
Above him are Gokhan Saki (813 pts), Daniel Ghita (873 pts) and, in pole position, GLORY Heavyweight Champion and Grand Slam winner Semmy Schilt(1121 pts).
Saki and Ghita will fight at this weekend’s GLORY 6 ISTANBUL event in Turkey, with the winner earning a shot at Schilt’s belt later this year.
Also rocketing up the rankings after GLORY 5 is featherweight standout Mosab ‘The Jaguar’ Amrani. His body-shot KO of Liam ‘Hitman’ Harrison has seen him climb two places to take the number one spot with 795 points. Harrison is deposed to number three and 618 points.
In the lightweight division, Albert Kraus has climbed one place after his GLORY 5 win over Warren Stevelmans. He is now at number four with 538 points. Davit Kiria (573 pts) and Robin Van Roosmalen (633 pts) stand between him and world number one Giorgio Petrosyan (711 pts).
GLORY 5 also saw Jordan Watson and Johann Fauveau move up in the lightweight rankings. Watson (421 pts) climbs to seventh for his win over Steve Moxon (218 pts) while Fauveau (367 pts) moves up one place to ninth after winning his GLORY debut.
At welterweight (77kg) there has been little movement, aside from Brazil’s Jonatan Oliveira (424 pts) moving up one spot to seventh place after his win at GLORY 5. In the process he has moved Duoli Chen (398 pts) down one place to eighth.
Steve Wakeling’s demolition of Eddie Walker(366 pts) on March 23 in London has seen him rise two places in the middleweight division. He now has (648 pts) points and occupies the number two spot, directly underneath world number one Artem Levin (711 pts).
He and Levin fought to a controversial draw last year and both are hungry for a rematch. That fight is likely to occur under the GLORY banner in the near future, with the number one ranking spot on the line.
Dutch light-heavyweight Michael Duut (397 pts), of Amsterdam’s Meijiro Gym, has made the largest gains of any ranked fighter in the post-GLORY 5 fallout. He has climbed six places to enter the division’s top ten following his first-round stoppage of the USA’s Dustin Jacoby (363 pts).
As for Jacoby, the loss sees him fall two places to number nine, with Duut replacing him in the number seven slot. Jacoby’s 3-0 run under the GLORY banner came to an end when he ran into Duut but he will look to bounce back at the New York event in June.
The second-highest gain was made by English heavyweight Daniel Sam. His win over the more established Jaideep Singh of Japan has seen him climb five places. Sam now occupies the number 21 slot and finds himself with 205 points and possibly one fight away from cracking the top 20.
GLORY fighters are ranked by the Glory World Federation, a sanctioning body which uses a points-based ranking system similar to that used in tennis and golf. Rankings are updated after each GLORY event and can be found in full on the Glory World Series website.