GLORY 50 To Have One-Night Heavyweight Tournament
Four fighters look to put themselves into position for a chance at heavyweight gold, as GLORY will hold a one-night, four man heavyweight contender tournament at GLORY 50 Chicago.
In the first of two semifinal matchups, Australian prospect Junior Tafa looks to establish himself as he takes on 5th ranked heavyweight, and top striker Guto Inocente.
Tafa, a protégé of UFC heavyweight and K-1 Grand Prix winner Mark Hunt, made his GLORY debut in October, and made quick work of Quanchao Luo in the very first round.
Inocente has put together an impressive run under the GLORY banner, compiling a 4-1 record featuring top ten fighters among his victories.
Two men who added to Inocente’s win column will be gunning for revenge,
as current world No. 1 Benjamin Adegbuyi makes his 12th GLORY appearance as he faces D’Angelo Marshall.
Romania’s Adegbuyi is no stranger to winning twice in a single evening, earning contender tournament victories at both GLORY 24 Denver and GLORY 35 Nice.
Marshall has only one loss on his GLORY record, dropping a razor-close decision to Inocente in extra rounds at GLORY 37 Los Angelesin 2017. Marshall who is currently ranked third in the division, picked up a unanimous decision over perennial contender Ismael Londt at GLORY 49 SuperFight Series in December.
Chicago native, favorite Richard Abraham will face fellow Illinois native ” Malik Watson-Smith in the welterweight co-headliner of GLORY 50 Chicago.
Both fighters competed at GLORY 44 Chicago in August, with Abraham dominating Daniel Morales en route to a unanimous decision victory and Watson-Smith ending Jeremie Holloway with leg kicks in the second round of a tournament reserve bout.
Headlining GLORY 50 will be a duel between rivals as Murthel “The Predator” Groenhart and Harut Grigorian will vie for welterweight gold.
The complete five-fight card for GLORY 50 Chicago can be found below:
GLORY 50 Chicago
Welterweight Title Headline Bout: Murthel Groenhart (c) vs. Harut Grigorian
Heavyweight Tournament Final Bout: Winner of Bout A vs. Winner of Bout B
Welterweight Co-Headline Bout: Richard Abraham vs. Malik Watson-Smith
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal Bout B: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. D’Angelo Marshall
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal Bout A: Guto Inocente vs. Junior Tafa
Headlining the GLORY 50 SuperFight Series, will be the lightweight champion Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong defending his title against Christian Baya.
The event which will take place prior to GLORY 50 Chicago will also feature a rematch of Romanian Knockout artist, Cătălin Moroșanu, facing off against Greek standout, Giannis Stoforidis. They first faced off in 2014, Moroșanu would take the victory when he knocked out Stoforidis in the second round.
The current fight card for GLORY 50 SuperFight Series can be found below:
GLORY 50 SuperFight Series
Lightweight Title Headline Bout: Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (c) vs. Christian Baya
Heavyweight Co-Headline Bout: Cătălin Moroșanu vs. Giannis Stoforidis
Welterweight Bout: Omar Moreno vs. Casey Greene
Welterweight Bout: Daniel Morales vs. Omari Boyd