2024 wasn't as good a year for GLORY as 2023 because it lacked the great high end Berjan Peposhi fights. Peposhi alone had 3 matches last year that were way better than any GLORY match of 2024, 2/11/23 vs. Ahmad Chikh Mousa, 4/29/23 vs. Jan Kaffa, 12/23/23 vs. Miguel Trindade, and are among the best GLORY matches ever. Otherwise, GLORY in this 3rd stage after the attempt to finally make kickboxing mainstream in America failed and they survived two COVID years of barely running any shows, has kind of settled into being a stable Netherlands based promotion since 2022 that runs about 10 shows of 10 matches, averaging 1 title fight per show. Because their schedule isn't overkill, kickboxers require a shorter turnaround than MMA fighters, and they don't just fire half the roster because they had a couple losses, a lot of their fighters appear on 3 or 4 shows per year, so you actually remember who they are and what they do. This feels like a big selling point in the era of UFC seemingly having 1000 fighters on the roster, half of whom have had less than 3 fights in the promotion, and all the regional promotions having the champion vacate the title without defending because UFC made the call. GLORY continued to feature lighter weight classes, which makes for overall more entertaining and skilled fights. They only had 3 tournaments compared to a tournament per show in the old days, but they were proper 8 man tournaments, and they had them in 3 different divisions, so they felt sort of special. Their heavyweight division is still a decent watch, with the fighters having enough conditioning that it's not a slog if they go the full 9 minutes. Levi Rigters had a breakout year, winning 4 fights and only losing to champion Rico Verhoeven twice, despite dropping him in each fight. The lack of a women's division since the retirement of Tiffany Van Soest on 9/9/23 is a real bummer. Overall, their roster is young, with Rico & Tarik Khbabez being the notable fighters in their 30s, and the fights all tend to be pretty fast paced and high energy. While there weren't tons of standout fights, the average GLORY fight is very watchable, definitely a lot more entertaining than the average UFC fight, and none of the shows felt like a waste of time.

3/9/24 GLORY 90 Light Heavyweight Title: Donegi Abena vs. Tarik "Tank" Khbabez 5R. Khbabez applied constant pressure, walking Abena down the entire fight to tire him out. He's mostly a boxer, but he threw some effective calf kicks, just not nearly as effective as Abena's leg kicks. Abena was actually more active despite Tank setting the pace, and his accuracy was tremendous. Abena didn't do much in the 1st 2 minutes, but Tank likes to throw his punches from more of a crouched and hunched position so it's easier to work the body, and while Abena didn't quite get his knee through to the head, landing to the shoulder opened up hurting Tank with the left hook follow up. Tank went down after landing a low kick because Abena beat him to it with a crisp jab, but this was just a slip. Overall though, Abena was more accurate and effective in the 2nd half of the round after taking his time getting the measure of Tank at the outset, and all 5 judges scored it for him. Tank was more focused and locked in during the 2nd, and did a much better job of working the body with punches, and ending with a low kick. Abena took a cheap shot on the clinch after the ref had called break because Tank was turned away. This that landed big to the chin because Tank was sideways and couldn't see it coming. Tank went down from this, and his trainer was so pissed he hopped in the ring and tried to attend to him, which the ref was none too happy about. I found it ridiculous that Abena was merely warned for this, given it might have done fight altering damage. It was funny though that they rang the bell when the round finally continued. Tank did his best to back and attack so Abena couldn't get comfortable, but he was mostly chasing rather than cutting Abena off. When Abena's feet were set and he had time, he was too hard to deal with, but he had to stay off the ropes and move away from Tank in order to create these moments where he could set and unload. I thought Tank was able to keep Abena on the ropes enough in the later part of the 2nd to win the round, but 1 judge did give it to Abena, who outlanded Tank 33-22. Tank winning rounds despite Abena outlanding him kind of became the story of the fight. Early in the 3rd, Abena took another cheap shot after Tank got turned sideways when Abena turned off the ropes. This wasn't as egregious or damaging, but since they didn't take a point the 1st time they needed to take one here. This was sort of inadvertently evened out by Abena's inside leg kick knockdown not being scored even though it clearly wasn't any kind of slip or off balance, and it was a really damaging shot. Khbabez's calf was shot, and he went down from a very ordinary calf kick almost as soon as they restarted. It was difficult for Tank to plant, push off, or even put weight on the right leg now, so he was doing more swinging and less pursuing when he could get away with it, but ultimately still had to hobble after Abena. Tank normally should take over in the 2nd half of the fight due to his cardio advantage, and making his opponent back the whole fight. That did play out, but Abena still won the third despite being gassed because that was more than evened out by Khbabez's leg injury. Abena was pissed that they gave him a standing 8 count early in the 4th, but he held the top rope to stay up after a good Tank low kick then literally just hooked his arm around the rope after ducking a big hook. Apparently this didn't count as a knockdown because Abena won 10-9 on one card and lost 10-9 on the rest. Abena spun Tank with a calf kick. and landed 2 dodgy body shots after the ref called break because Tank wasn't facing him. The action was still good, but neither fighter was moving anywhere near the way they did at the start. Abena was up on 2 cards going into the 5th, and the other 3 had it tied. Tank was still succeeding in this round even though he was hobbling because Abena just didn't have the energy to punish him coming in. There was another odd moment where Tank stopped and looked around for his mouthpiece that Abena knocked out with a left, and this time I side with Abena because the ref was reacting to Khbabez stopping rather than doing his job and finding the place to let him put it back in. Abena showed no enthusiasm for having to leave his position leaning in the corner to finish the fight. Abena finally made a push with about 10 seconds left, but Tank had already been pushing for the last minute. It was too little too late. Abena outlanded Tank 158-102 for the fight, which should get him the decision, especially being the champ. Round 4 was even at 21, but Abena had the advantage in the other 4. Interim champ Tank took the 5th round on all cards to win the split decision 48-47 and become the official champion. Good match.

5/18/24 GLORY 92: Berjan Peposhi vs. Ahmad Chikh Mousa 3R. A rematch of their 2023 GLORY fight of the year from 2/11/23. This was good, but failed to recapture the magic of their 1st match, seemingly because Peposhi has improved so much he's eclipsed the higher rated Chikh Mousa. Peposhi's vast and widespread improvement was apparent right from the outset, as he was able to come forward the whole fight with his greatly improved body punch combinations, push Chikh Mousa back with the front kick, and then take that space right away. Peposhi was fully prepared for Chikh Mousa's block, and landed the jab in between it, or body hooks or straights underneath it. Peposhi was consistently changing levels in this fight, whereas in their first fight he was largely just a headhunter. The body worked so well for Peposhi in this fight that it felt like he was now targeting it even more than the head even thought that wasn't the case statistically. Peposhi working the body was crucial for another reason, Chikh Mousa is largely a counter striker, and this made it far more difficult for him to get his offense going. Chikh Mousa did a much better job of landing the calf kick in this fight. He might throw a head punch then a low kick, but he had a hard time elongating his combos or getting off with any consistency. Chikh Mousa landed a few very good low kicks in the second round to upend Peposhi, but Peposhi was rarely backing and never trapped against the ropes in this fight, Chikh Mousa wasn't gaining any real momentum. Again, Peposhi found himself up two rounds going into the third. In this fight though, Peposhi's mouthpiece was staying in and he seemed to be the tough one who just refused to give ground. Chikh Mousa wasn't able to back him tonight no matter what he tried, but crucial to his defeat was that he didn't really seem to make adjustments. Chikh Mousa's calf chicks were definitely adding up in third, but this was the only thing that was working for him, and it kind of seemed like he was just waiting for Peposhi to either be forced to adjust to it or to be unable to fight the same way because of it, neither of which transpired. Chikh Mousa's jab wasn't very accurate, and he just wasn't creating the opening for nearly enough power punches. This time, his connect percentage was much more in line with Peposhi's because Peposhi landed under 50%, but Chick Mousa's volume was roughly half, so his connect numbers were half. Peposhi outlanded Chikh Mousa 134-72, even having the kicking edge 52-42, although no one would say that Chikh Mousa didn't win the kicking battle. Peposhi won a 30-27 unanimous decision. Good match.

5/18/24 GLORY 92: Dennis Wosik vs Jan Kaffa 3R. Kaffa was nicknamed the Diamond due to having a similar style to the late great Ramon Dekkers inside the ring, though I guess he resembles Brutus Beefcake outside the ring since he's a barber. These guys were super fast, both in foot speed and Wosik especially had the hand speed. He would kind of lure Kaffa in, then start popping him with counters especially when Kaffa threw the right hook a bit wide. Kaffa had a lot more volume, but Wosik landed cleaner and harder, definitely he had the more memorable shots. Kaffa got inside consistently and worked combos, but the ones that weren't blocked still didn't seem to really the penetrating. Kaffa did a good job of working the body and the low kick, but Wosik was cracking him with lead and counter left hooks. Kaffa took the first round for being the more consistent fighter. Wosik took over a minute into the second with a right kick into a left spinning backfist knockdown. Wosik was good at utilizing variations of this combination, with Kaffa avoiding a spinning high kick not long afterwards. Wosik consistently landed with the right low kick and the left hook. He seemed a lot more relaxed, fluid, and flowing in the second, which he won handily. Kaffa used all he had left in the tank in the third, and there was a crazy Holloway vs. Gaethje style big swinging finish to close it out. Though 2nd ranked Kaffa outlanded 140-97, his accuracy dropped almost 30% after the 1st round, and the quality of 4th ranked Wosik's shots was considerably higher. Wosik took the unanimous decision 29-27. Good match.

7/20/24 GLORY 93: Michael Boapeah vs. Ulric Bokeme 3R. This was a rematch of an odd fight from GLORY Collision 5 6/17/23 where Bokeme got his teeth knocked out 2 minutes in due to a mouthpiece malfunction, and the ref stopped the fight because Bokeme turned his back and walked over to his corner complaining about what happened while spitting teeth out. Boapeah had more options in this fight. He was showing more lateral movement than normal, and was scoring pretty evenly with punches and kicks. Bokeme, who is the taller of the two, had a lot of success early when he would step forward and grab a clinch knee, but this wasn't happening often enough, especially after round 1. Boapeah had way too much activity for Bokeme in the first, but the intensity from both picked up considerably to start the second. Bokeme now committed to pressure, getting in Boapeah's face, where he did a good job of landing body hooks on the inside. When Bokeme got his inside combo off first, Boapeah was mostly shelled up, and had a hard time getting started. The issue is Bokeme reasonably didn't have enough stamina for this amount of forward pressure and volume, so Boapeah could just defend and then fill the gaps. Boapeah was active when he had space, and ultimately Boapeah actually outlanded Bokeme 38-35 even though it was one way traffic when Bokeme was proactive. Round 2 was definitely an entertaining round, but I was very surprised that all the judges gave it to Boapeah, as it felt like Bokeme was more able to impose his will. I'm not sure if Bokeme was gassed after 1 round of this, or disspirited from finding out he was down 2 rounds, but he was somewhat flat in the 3rd. Boapeah definitely had better footwork, and his ability to cut angles to dictate was even more apparent now that Bokeme had slowed down. Boapeah was pretty consistent throughout the fight. His conditioning held up, and he just kept plugging away. Boapeah won a unanimous decision 30-27. Good match.

8/31/24 GLORY 94: Soufian El Hammouchi vs. Arman Hambaryan R3 2:38. Hambaryan has an entertaining pressure style where he keeps coming forward without ever exiting. He was getting inside so well early that his spinning backfists were turning into illegal spinning elbows. Hambaryan's best work was using at the left straight to set up the right step knee against the ropes. El Hammouchi adjusted rather than wearing down. He's the longer fighter, and would prefer to have space to throw jabs, front kicks, and high kicks. That wasn't going to happen here without a concerted effort, so he had to rely on his footwork. As the fight progressed, El Hammouchi was doing a better and better job of circling off a little then kicking. Hambaryan was chasing more and more, and paying for it. It was impressive that El Hammouchi had more activity and accuracy because he was the one throwing single shots from distance most of the time. El Hammouchi was getting backed up most of the first round, but he landed two good right straights with his back in the corner just before the round ended, dazing Hambaryan with the last. Hambaryan started wobbling backwards, and turned his back as El Hammouchi was trying to follow up, prompting the ref to give Hambaryan a standing 8 count, turning a 10-9 round for Hambaryan into a 10-8 round for El Hammouchi with one second left. El Hammouchi tried to do a better job of not giving up so much ground in the second, throwing the front kick when Hambaryan stepped forward, and generally trying to circle and kick so he wouldn't get bullied. This was a more back and forth round, depending on whether Hambaryan was able to get his combo started and eat up all the space or El Hammouchi was able to keep circling away. When El Hammouchi was able to get himself into open space, he was also able to score with hooks even while backing. Both fighters had their moments in this round, and it could have gone either way, as exemplified by the scorecards being 3-2 for El Hammouchi. Hambaryan was eating way too many middle kicks in the third round, just trying to walk through them. El Hammouchi ducked and circled off the ropes then dropped Hambaryan with a step knee. Hambaryan was still wobbly after he got up, but he only knows one way to fight, so he was trying to push forward still, albeit slowly and weakly. Hambaryan used his last bit of energy missing a spinning backfist, and from there he was kind of just standing in front of El Hammouchi getting hit until his corner threw the towel in. In the end, El Hammouchi had more options, but Hambaryan showed an a lot of heart and persistence. Good match.

8/31/24 GLORY 94: Berjan Peposhi vs. Ayoub Bourass 3R. Bourass is a 20-year-old making his GLORY debut on 2 weeks notice. They claimed he was only giving up 3 inches, but he looked a full head shorter. Bourass has a lot of potential, but this was a mismatch. Peposhi had Bourass backed into the ropes most of the first half of fight with his ridiculous pressure, but Bourass was surprisingly difficult to hit, all things considered. Bourass did a very good job with his angles, avoiding Peposhi's shots and turning off the ropes. Peposhi attacked the body in the second round with the middle kick and the front kick, trying to open up the high kick, but Bourass kept blocking. Bourass got is back off the ropes in the second round, but his left/right combos couldn't keep Peposhi off him, and Peposhi was kicking his calf to compromise his movement. Peposhi was cut outside the left eye early in the third, but while there was a lot of blood, it wasn't dripping into the eye. Peposhi was up 2 rounds, and in the last half of the 3rd, Bourass just went for broke. Bourass landed a crazy double spinning back fist, then tried a jumping 360 switch kick. This was the kind of stuff you'd only see in a movie, or maybe from Cung Le. Peposhi lost his mouthpiece, and started seeming out of sorts, but settled down in the final minute to secure the 29-28 unanimous decision. Peposhi has now won 3 in a row after a rocky start in GLORY. Good match.

10/12/24 GLORY 96: Teodor Hristov vs. Robin Ciric 4R. 23-year-old Hristov is a top prospect with a lot of speed and athleticism. He was the better fighter at distance where he could utilize his angles and his variety. Hristov would mostly blitz in behind a combo, and do a good job of escaping without giving Ciric much opportunity to counter. He pushed a furious pace. Ciric wasn't that active, but made his strikes count. Ciric did a good job with the front kick to actually create some space, including knocking Hristov off his feet with one in the first round. In round 2, Ciric caught Hristov stepping in and dropped him with a right hook. Most of Ciric's best shots were these sort of timing counters. Hristov needed to at least take the third to force an extra round. It looks like he might have a knock down early in the third, but it was a good call by the ref ruling that Ciric was on 1 foot and just lost his balance trying to back away from Hristov's right hand. Hristov rocked Ciric with a lead uppercut early in the round. Ciric's best offense was intercepting Hristov coming in. Hristov was the much more active fighter, his issue was that he only landed 17% of his punches, so connected with 13 more blows despite throwing almost twice as many. A majority draw sent it to the extra round. Hristov upped the pace that much more in the fourth. He went down from a scissor knee, but it was clearly a slip, as it only connected with his forearm. Ciric was landing with more power, he just had a hard time creating his opportunities, as outside of the front kick he was largely reliant on what Hristov was doing. The fourth round was definitely the best and most intense of the fight. All 5 judges gave this round to Hristov. Good match.

10/12/24 GLORY 96: Ionut Iancu vs. Cihad Kepenek R2 2:59. Iancu weighted 78 pounds more than Kepenek, 303 to 225. Kepenek had the reach, the speed, the movement. He had every capability of winning this match, but his fight IQ wasn't very high, and I think he underestimated just how much power Iancu posesses. The first two and a half minutes of round 1 were largely feeling out, Kepenek trying to maintain distance, while Iancu was trying to back him into the corner. Once Iancu succeeded, there was some fierce exchanging of fists. Kepenek was able to punch his way out of the corner before the round ended. Excellent flurry! This gave Kepenek a false sense of confidence though. Iancu is not a fighter whose power you can simply absorb and answer back. You need a much better strategy than that. Iancu didn't expend a lot of energy chasing Kepenek down, which was probably smart since I don't assume he has too much stamina, but kind of the problem with the fight as well. Kepenek could have won a decision just staying long and moving if Iancu wasn't going to be more proactive. Until Iancu showed he was willing to plow through the front kicks and wing his bombs, Kepenek especially needed to stick to the safe and winning strategy. Kepenek was much too complacent when Iancu would finally cut him off. Instead of moving quickly in the other direction, or throwing something to open up his escape, he would just stand in front of Iancu waiting, and Iancu was accurate with his big punches. He hurt Kepenek with a big right hook, and then went to town on him in the corner. Kepenek survived the flurry, then punched his way out of the corner again, but you don't want to be exchanging with a fighter who weighs that much more than you, especially when all the important advantages beyond power are in your favor. Iancu backed him with a big right hook then walked through Kepenek's punches and dropped him with an overhand right. Kepenek got up, but he was not ready to defend himself, and continued to just stand in front of Iancu. Iancu was backing Kepenek with each punch, and scored another knockdown with a big right uppercut. Kepenek was even more out on his feet this time. His corner needed to be telling him to just stall because he needed the time to recover, and he had an extra knockdown to work with next round if he lasted that long. Maybe they were, but you couldn't tell from Kepenek's muscle memory response. Instead of trying to circle, or doing anything to stay away and buy time to recover, he just walked right over to Iancu and ate two more huge punches. Since he waded right into danger rather than running or even clinching, he lost to the three knockdown in one round rule with one second left. Kepenek slugging it out is what made the match interesting, but he won the 1st round by largely avoiding the fire fight. The fight was kind of lost because it was already a 10-7 round, so just fighting smart and winning the 3rd wouldn't have got the job done, but nonetheless, if he's a little better with his time management, maybe he recovers and figures something out. Iancu really only did one thing, but he knew how he wanted to win, and was patient enough to wait for his openings and then go all out to capitalize. Good match.

12/7/24 GLORY Collision 7: Ayoub Bourrass vs. Anass Ahmidouch-Fatah 3R. Ahmidouch-Fatah was almost a head taller, and he had the kicking advantage, so Bourrass really had to be diligent about keeping the pressure on. Bourrass was the bully though. Bourrass tried to keep Ahmidouch-Fatah on the ropes where it was easier for him to land punches, while Ahmidouch-Fatah tried to use kick combos to regain distance. The biggest issue for Ahmidouch-Fatah is he doesn't do a very good job of using his boxing to set up his kicks, he's mostly just kicks, which is why Bourrass was sometimes able to smother him. Ahmidouch-Fatah landed two spinning back fists in a row, using the right hand followed by the left hand. I thought Ahmidouch-Fatah won at least the first round, but Bourrass was leading going into the final round because he did a better job of dictating where the fight was taking place. He won the final round for sure, so it probably wouldn't have mattered. Bourrass outlanded Ahmidouch-Fatah 45 to 42, but they had very divergent paths to get there. Ahmidouch-Fatah landed 26 of 64 kicks, but only 14 of 63 punches. Bourrass landed 33 of 112 punches, but only 12 other strikes. Bourrass took 4 of the 5 scorecards. Good match.

12/7/24 GLORY Collision 7 Light Heavyweight Title: Tarik "Tank" Khbabez vs. Donegi Abena 5R. While this was definitely one of the better GLORY fights of the year, it was probably also the worst scored. It felt like these judges were mainly just scoring boxing, despite it being a battle of attrition where both fighters came out trying to injure their opponent's calves. Abena was a lot more technical, and a lot more defensively responsible. He landed a ridiculous 226 of 338 because Tank just didn't defend. Tank threw 392, but only landed 152. Being busier is meaningless when you are still outlanded because your opponent is connecting with 2/3 of their strikes. Tank hits harder, but he never hurt Abena or had him in any kind of trouble. Khbabez definitely deserves credit for maintaining a high pace, and being able to ignore a lot of damage to do so, but this felt like skill vs. willpower. I thought Abena won the 1st 3 rounds pretty easily. Tank held up better, and perhaps Abena became a little uncertain because what he was winning with wasn't being rewarded, again. Abena had success with the calf kick in their previous fight, and outlanded Khababez at a 3/2 ratio in that fight yet still lost despite Tank's calf being totally shot, so this had to be even more frustrating for him. I think giving Tank the 4th and 5th rounds is fair because he kept coming, and definitely had the conditioning advantage, but thinking he was the better fighter tonight is just crazy to me. Tank's legs were beat up from the outset. He would lift his leg to try to lessen the damage from the calf kick, but right from the outset, the impact was causing him to stumble. Khbabez was focused on getting his shots in, and wasn't putting much effort into defense at all. He wasn't applying nearly as much forward pressure as usual early, so Abena was basically just landing at will. Tank tried to throw huge punches in round two, but would eat a kick to the leg or midsection because he was telegraphing them and not setting them up. Tank turned his back after missing a right punch, and almost ate a huge high kick. Todd Grisham said turning your back is the cardinal sin of any fight sport, which I wish someone would tell the idiots that are training all the wrestling heels to make a mockery out of fighting by doing a lap after every move. 3 judges gave this round to Khbabez for landing a couple good punches, I guess, but I thought he was thoroughly outtechniqued. Abena had almost doubled Khbabez up in strikes landed through two rounds. Tank was finally landing combos to start the third, and overall in rounds 3 through 5, he was successful in implementing his strategy of coming forward with his punches to an extent. He just pushed through the pain and the damage, and kept throwing. He actually slowed down considerably in the second half of round 3, which was one of the reasons he pretty clearly lost it, with his legs looking in rough shape. Round 3 was more of the same scoring insanity though. Ingoring the accuracy of Abena and the gimpiness of Tank, 4 judges somehow gave it to Khbabez. I find it difficult to argue for the power of Tank being the determining factor when he's hobbling around. In round 4 and 5, it was Abena who was slowing down some, particularly with his arms looking tired. Khbabez landed more cleanly in the 4th and did a better job with his combinations. This was the first round I thought he actually won, but somehow we entered the 5th with Abena needing a knockout. and it didn't help that Abena seemed to kick more in the later rounds because that took less energy. Abena definitely didn't close the fight strong. He shouldn't have had to, but it was open scoring, so he knew he was "losing" and didn't have the extra push to even meet the Tank. Khbabez won a split decision 48-47, 47-48, 49-46, 49-46, 50-45. Good match.

12/7/24 GLORY Collision 7 Heavyweight Title: Rico Verhoeven vs. Levi Rigters 5R. This was a very competitive fight you believed there was a chance Rico might actually lose even before Levi got the knockdown lead. Rico was consistent as always. He didn't push a huge pace early, but he kept coming forward, controlling the distance so he was inside of Rigters' big shots, thus negating his length and his flashy offense. Rico's pressure was definitely the story of the fight, negating Levi's spectacular offense, and thus largely relegating him to a standard tall fighter. Rigters was scoring really consistently with his boxing though. Despite being unable to mix things up, he landed 119 punches to Verhoeven's 39, resulting in a 152 to 110 total landed advantage. Levi did a great job with the straight, but Rico being the ring general kept him from following it up, so his 60% punch accuracy wasn't worth nearly as much as it normally would have been. Still, there was a case to be made for Rigters winning some of the early rounds. Levi landed a switch kick just before the end of the first round that seemed to be ruled a knockdown despite Rico grabbing his groin, but was corrected by replay. Levi had a knockdown with a right hook at the end of round 3. It was a delayed knockdown, and Levi was trying to follow with a flying knee, so Rico also got caught a little with a stray shin when he was down, though Levi did all he could to stop as Rico fell forward. This really changed things because instead of Rico probably going up 3-0, it was now an even fight on the scorecards. Rico actually wasn't the fresher fighter going into the 4th, or at least he was still recovering. Rico got the knockdown back with a short right hook 2 minutes into the 4th though. Now you felt like Rico would win for sure. Rico fought the rest of the round with by far the most energy he showed all fight, pushing for the finish. Rico was the more energetic fighter in the 5th, with Rigters finally trying to make a late push. In the end, the big difference was Verhoeven recovered well from Rigters knockdown, but Rigters was kind of done once Rico turned things up a few notches after his knockdown. Rico won a unanimous decision. Good match

12/21/24 GLORY GLORY/RISE Featherweight Grand Prix Reserve: Jan Kaffa vs. Yutaro Asahi R3 2:00. This was an excellent fight that was somewhat marred by a bad ref call stealing the final minute from us, and arguably the match from Kaffa, though he was clearly losing. The right fighter still won, based on what we'd seen so far, but one of the things that made this fight so good was that there were a lot of surprises. Kaffa was far less consistent than Asahi, but he'd proven he could drop Asahi out of nowhere, and it was such a high quality match I didn't want to see it end. The first round was by far the worst, but it was fine, and the other two really made up for it. Kaffa started patiently, which wasn't working because Asahi was doing a good job of using his jab to maintain distance. Asahi would get the 1st shot in, and either follow it up or be ready to counter when Kaffa pushed forward. Kaffa's nose was bloodied before he forced himself to be more proactive. Both opened up right from the start of round two, but while Asahi was still showing more speed and dynamism, the less technical fight gave Kaffa more opportunities to catch Asahi off guard. Kaffa backed Asahi into the ropes with a right middle kick that was blocked, then Asahi sidestepped a left to the body, but got leveled with an awesome right spinning backfist as Asahi was looking to answer with the check hook. Kaffa couldn't really manufacture these kind of big moments in a repeatable manner, but he could react well, and it was never safe to exchange with him. Asahi wobbled Kaffa with a left high kick even though it was blocked, but Kaffa avoided a spinning backfist and landed another of his own. This was an excellent round. Asahi would have won the round if not for the knockdown, but he found himself down going into the final round despite being the consistently better fighter throughout. Asahi was pressing hard to start the third, and Kaffa was matching his urgency. Asahi wobbled Kaffa with a right straight then dropped him with a beautiful jumping knee. Asahi tried a switch high kick, but Kaffa blocked it and landed a spinning backfist on the break. The ref then took a left hook from Kaffa trying to separate them. This was getting wilder and wilder. Asahi landed a jumping knee, but basically just jumped through Kaffa. Kaffa see the knee coming and back up at all, so Asahi wound up grabbing Kaffa mid-air, and landed on top of him kind of like a Thesz press. This was called the knockdown, but it was a terrible call because there was no way for Kaffa to avoid going down given his opponent fell on top of him. The weight of Asahi jumping on Kaffa caused Kaffa to fall awkwardly, and I was wondering if he might have hurt a knee, but this was irrelevant because as a tournament alternate match, the ref ruling it a knockdown still meant the fight was over due to 2 knockdowns in the same round. Excellent match.

12/21/24 GLORY/RISE Featherweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal: Berjan Peposhi vs. Lee Sung-hyun 3R. This was good, but not as consistently entertaining as the typical Peposhi match. Peposhi has become a lot better at dictating the fight in the past year, but this felt like a step backwards. He still had high output, but he was too willing to fight Lee's fight, which saw him consistenly giving ground. Lee was more measured, aiming for the one big shot. Lee was forcing Peposhi to back up, trying to create openings for his boxing, but he was too hesitant because he wanted to counter rather than to lead. Peposhi fought well with his back against the ropes, and showed good footwork when he needed to. Peposhi was largely scoring without taking too much damage even though he was the one who was dictating position, but Lee wasn't trying to win by outlanding Peposhi. I initially thought Peposhi cut Lee under the right eyebrow with his short left hook counter, but from the replay, it looked like an accidental clash of heads before he landed it. Lee was looking for the left hook counter to the right straight, and finally he dropped Peposhi with it late in the second round. Peposhi got up swinging, trying to get it back before the round ended. He missed a big left hook, but then dropped Lee with another one. The action was a lot more frantic in the third round, with Peposhi likely ahead, but both fighters assuming they needed to win the round if they wanted the decision. Lee was done playing the waiting game though. I thought Peposhi got a real mouthpiece after the Chikh Mousa disaster, but Lee was able to knock it out with an ordinary right straight. With 11 seconds left, just as they finished showing the statistics where Peposhi had outlanded Lee 132 to 47, Lee scored a flash knockdown with a step knee. Peposhi was disgusted because 1 knee just briefly touched the canvas, and he had no time to get it back, as the bell literally rang just as the referee restarted to fight. I thought Peposhi won the 1st 2 rounds, with the second round knockdown being a wash, so a 10-8 3rd for Lee would make it a draw and force an extra round. Instead, two judges scored the 2nd round even, so Lee won a majority decision 29-28, 28-28, 29-28. Good match.

Kaffa vs. Asahi was an easy pick for MOTY. The other 9 are all at about the same level, and the list would definitely change if I felt like rewatching everything over the course of a few days.

1. 12/21/24: Jan Kaffa vs. Yutaro Asahi
2. 8/31/24: Soufian El Hammouchi vs. Arman Hambaryan
3. 8/31/24: Berjan Peposhi vs. Ayoub Bourass
4. 12/21/24 GLORY/RISE Featherweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal: Berjan Peposhi vs. Lee Sung-hyun
5. 5/18/24: Berjan Peposhi vs. Ahmad Chikh Mousa
6. 12/7/24 GLORY Light Heavyweight Title: Tarik "Tank" Khbabez vs. Donegi Abena
7. 3/9/24 GLORY Light Heavyweight Title: Donegi Abena vs. Tarik "Tank" Khbabez
8. 5/18/24: Dennis Wosik vs Jan Kaffa
9. 10/12/24: Ionut Iancu vs. Cihad Kepenek
10. 10/12/24: Teodor Hristov vs. Robin Ciric

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