This Friday, light-heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov (17-5, 7 KO's) will have his first fight of 2017, a rubber-match with former champion Saulo Cavalari in the main event of GLORY 38 CHICAGO.
Cavalari (60-4, 49 KO's) won their GLORY 20 DUBAI encounter by way of a very close decision and went on to win the belt later that year. They met again at GLORY 28 PARIS last year and it was Vakhitov who came away with the win – and the belt.
Now they are squaring off for what will be their third encounter and Vakhitov's second defense of the belt. Their first fight was close, Vakhitov largely dominated the second – what will the third look like?
“From each fight we are growing, like you saw in my last fight against Mwekassa. This fight you see even better performance from me, we will dominate this fight and for sure the win will be going to me,” he says.
“Every fight we are growing. We are not standing still. But I never expect easy fights and every time I am focused very intensely. The main thing for me now is to keep the belt for as long as I can, winning fight by fight.”
By coincidence, this Friday's card also hosts a Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament, the winner of which will earn a title shot, facing off against the winner of the Vakhitov/Cavalari fight.
In the starting grid are Zack Mwekassa, Zinedine Hameur-Lain, Ariel Machado and Danyo Ilunga. Mwekassa and Hameur-Lain met once before, with Mwekassa taking the win by decision at GLORY 29 COPENHAGEN. Vakhitov expects Mwekassa to beat him again in the first of the evening's semi-finals.
“For this four-man tournament I think Mwekassa is the strongest. He really has a good punch and I saw from my recent fight with him that he has gained many kicks and new techniques, he is not just a boxer any more,” he says.
“My opinion is that he will win. Hameur-Lain won the tournament last year but he didn't get his chance at the title, because he took a fight with Pavel Zhuravlev afterwards and lost.
But this weight division is very serious - just one punch can finish the fight.”
