GLORY returns to the USA this Friday, January 20 with GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES at The Novo in downtown Los Angeles, California. This is our fourth visit to the capital city of the west coast. The previous three shows featured a ton of great fights and this one will be no different.
As usual the event is split into two cards. The first is the SUPERFIGHT SERIES card, airing live on UFC FIGHT PASS, then we have the GLORY 37 numbered card airing on numerous networks worldwide and on ESPN in the US.
Let's take a look at what to expect from the SUPERFIGHT SERIES card. It's headlined by world featherweight title fight between defending champion Robin van Roosmalen and his challenger Matt 'Matics' Embree of Canada.
Embree debuted at GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY. He came into the Featherweight Contender Tournament as rather an unknown to kickboxing fans, though he has a lot of Muay Thai experience internationally. He smashed his way through the tournament, stopping Chibin Lim and Giga Chikadze to get this title shot.
I like Embree's style. It's attractive to fans and entertaining. He is technical but he goes for the kill and he has got heavy hands. Usually I would not want to throw a new fighter in at the deep end if it can be avoided but he won the tournament and earned this title shot against one of GLORY's most successful fighters ever, so who am I to argue?
For me, I think Robin probably has too much experience. On the other hand, Embree has already surprised us once, so let's see. Its only Robin's second fight at this weight but he made weight last time with no issues and dominated Gabriel Varga to take the belt from him at GLORY 32 VIRGINIA, so I wouldn't anticipate any issues with his form.
I feel like the advantage lies with Van Roosmalen but Embree cannot be underestimated. Both of them are go-forward fighters who throw a lot of powerful shots. Expect them to meet in the middle of the ring and go at it immediately. This could end up being a 'Fight of the Year 2017' contender.
Worth noting: if Embree gets the win then he becomes the fourth Canadian champion in GLORY history. If Roosmalen retains the belt then he is not only the first fighter to hold belts in two different weight classes but also the first to have defended a belt in each weight class. He would also become only the second fighter to have successfully defended the featherweight title.
Prior to the title fight, two heavyweights collide as Jhonata Diniz returns to GLORY and faces recent addition Tomas Mozny, who debuted at GLORY 29 COPENHAGEN last year with a win over Cihad Kepenek.
Diniz was a feature of many early GLORY cards – he debuted at GLORY 2 BRUSSELS in October 2012 – but definitely got thrown to the wolves back then. He'd had just one professional A-class fight in Brazil before his win at GLORY 2. Then after that his next two opponents were Daniel Ghita and Rico Verhoeven, both losses.
He actually took Ghita the distance at GLORY 4 TOKYO, which is quite impressive when you look what Ghita has done to other fighters, but Verhoeven absolutely dominated him. He took a win over Igor Jurkovic then lost to Hesdy Gerges at GLORY 15.
So he had a very, very hard start in GLORY, some of the absolute top guys in the division. After the loss to Gerges he went away from GLORY to get more experience. He has done well on the regional and international circuit in the last two years and now he is back to try another run in GLORY.
Mozny had a good debut and they are both next to each other in the rankings, they are at the younger end of the heavyweight division, it's a good, balanced fight. If Diniz wins and does well maybe he wants to get some revenge fights like Gerges, and maybe he wants to take down some fellow Brazilians like Braddock and Inocente, they have been climbing in his absence. A win for Mozny is a victory over a more established name in GLORY and would put him 2-0.
The middleweight fight between Mike Lemaire and Warren Thompson sees two American fighters who are still looking to establish themselves. Lemaire has alternated wins and losses while Thompson is still looking for his first win, though in his last appearance he really suffered from stepping in on just one day's notice.
Dustin Jacoby has emerged as the poster-boy for US kickboxers, he's had an amazing run. If you are Mike Lemaire you are looking at that and thinking that you want to take his place, especially as you already hold a win over him. Thompson too harbors similar aspirations but first he has to get on the right track and for him that starts with Lemaire.
A women's super-bantamweight fight sees California's Zoila Frausto facing Daniela Graf of Germany. These two were supposed to fight in the Women's Super-Bantamweight Grand Prix last year at GLORY 30 LOS ANGELES but Frausto was forced out with injury. Now they are facing off but it's a non-tournament bout. Home field advantage for Frausto's debut and for Graf and chance to even her record after her Grand Prix loss to Funda Aliykis, who replaced Frausto.
Opening the SUPERFIGHT SERIES card is a featherweight battle between Giga Chikadze and Leo Pinto, one half of the two Pinto brothers.
We signed both brothers last year; Leo is the younger and Antoine the elder. They are of French parentage but have spent much of their lives in Thailand, where they are well known on the Muay Thai circuit and well known to the general public because of their appearances on reality TV there.
He's a Muay Thai stylist, not so experienced in kickboxing, so we have to see how he does under GLORY rules, how his style adapts. Chikadze is 4-2 in GLORY now and a tricky opponent with a very unorthodox style. He has established himself in the division and his win over former champion Serhiy Adamchuk was impressive and he is local to Los Angeles, so it's not an easy fight for Pinto's debut at all.
