Varga faces Amrani for World Featherweight Championship at GLORY 20: DUBAI

One of the most anticipated showdowns of the year will take place Friday, April 3 as Gabriel Varga (25-2-0, 8 KOs) and Mosab ‘The Jaguar’ Amrani (52 -8-4, 15 KOs) meet in the main event of GLORY 20: DUBAI to battle it out for the vacant World Featherweight Championship.

The belt is the only one of GLORY’s world titles to be as yet unclaimed.. Varga and Amrani can both stake a claim to being the world’s top kickboxer at featherweight (145lbs/65kgs) but only one of them can win the belt when they meet in the Middle East for their five-round fight.

Varga was trained in karate from a young age by his Shotokan Karate black belt father. In his late teens he took up Muay Thai and began competing full-contact. His training in the two different styles has given him the versatility he demonstrated in winning the GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES Featherweight Contender Tournament.

In that contest he used his superior speed and timing to plague the young Thai talent Yodkhunpon from distance in the semi-finals. In the final he adapted his game for Shane Oblonksy, meeting the Californian head-on and beating him at his own game of standing-in and banging it out toe-to-toe.

Amrani is one of Europe’s most decorated fighters at this weight. A product of Mousid Gym in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he has both a tight, technical Muay Thai game and the hard-hitting aggressive style typical of Dutch kickboxers.

In his debut at GLORY 5 LONDON in March 2013 he stopped Liam ‘Hitman’ Harrison - himself one of the world’s top-ranked fighters at this weight - with a body-shot early in the first round. Amrani has gone 3-1 in his last four fights, the most recent being over the excellent Yuta Kubo of Japan.

GLORY 20: DUBAI has a co-main event of Pat "HD" Barry (16-6-1, 10 KOs) taking on Mourad "The Silent Power" Bouzidi (76-22-2, 34 KOs) in a heavyweight contest.

The card is completed by a four-man Middleweight Contender Tournament with Wayne Barrett (5-2-0, 4 KOs), Simon “Bad Bwoy” Marcus (39-1-1, 24 KOs), Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira (14-2-0, 9 KO) and Jason ‘Tyson’ Wilnis (23-4-1, 6 KOs).

GLORY’s next event is GLORY 19. It takes place Friday, February 6 and features a World Heavyweight Championship main event as Rico Verhoeven defends his title against bitter rival Errol ‘The Bonecrusher’ Zimmerman.

Also on the card is a four-man Welterweight Contender Tournament with Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken, Alexander Stetcurenko, Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels and Jonathan Oliveira battling it out for a shot at Canadian welterweight champion ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini.

The GLORY 19 co-main event sees top-ranked middleweight Joe ‘Stitch ‘Em’ Schilling return to the ring to face young Muay Thai specialist Robert ‘The White Dragon’ Thomas of Canada. Victory may also lever Schilling into title contention alongside the GLORY 20 tournament winner.

GLORY 19 airs live on Spike TV on Friday, February 6 and also airs live in Canada on The Fight Network and in the UK on BT Sport.