New Zealand based kickboxer and mixed martial artist Israel “The Style Bender” Adesanya will return to Glory World series, having come to terms with the stand-out kickboxing promotion. Adesanya will participate in the promotions next four-man middleweight tournament at Glory 34.
The event is scheduled to take place at the 1st Bank Center in Denver, Colorado on October 22 and will be streamed live on UFC Fight Pass.
Adesanya is joined in the one-night tournament by Robert Thomas, Yousri Belgaroui and Alex Pereira.
It will be Adesanya’s second outing in the Glory World Series promotion after losing his debut to Filip Verlinden via decision back in April, 2014. Training out of City Kickboxing in Auckland, Adesanya has been busy competing internationally and that will continue later this week with the 27-year-old set to face French fighter Romain Falendry on the inaugural Rise of Heroes card in China.
Adesanya’s opponent in the first part of the Glory tournament will be Robert “White Dragon” Thomas. The 23-year-old Canadian has competed five times in Glory for a 2-3 record, with wins against Mike Lemaire, David Radeff and losses coming to Artem Levin, Joe Schilling and Wayne Barrett.
On the other side of the bracket, undefeated Dutch prospect Yousri Belgaroui makes his debut in Glory World Series and will face Brazilian Alex Pereira. Belgarouri comes into the contest with a perfect professional record of 19-0 (Edit: 19-1) and has high hopes in continuing the undefeated streak. Pereira started his Glory campaign with a four-man tournament win back in March 2014 however since then has lost back-to-back fights to Artem Levin and Jason Wilnis.
Update 15/9/2016: Fight News Australia has been notified that Belgarouri suffered his first loss to Adesanya just last month and the Dutch fighter will be looking at evening up the score. Prior to that Pereira had also defeated Adesanya in a fight Adesanya’s camp believe he should have been given the judged nod.
Glory 34 will be headlined by a featherweight title fight between current champion Gabriel Varga who will take on former lightweight champion Robin Van Roosmalen.
Fight Card:
- Gabriel Varga vs. Robin Van Roosmalen – Glory featherweight title
- Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Thomas – middleweight tournament
- Yousri Belgaroui vs. Alex Pereira – middleweight tournament
- Dustin Jacoby vs. TBA
- Casey Greene vs. Richard Abraham
- Saulo Cavalari vs. Brian Douwes
