Rico To Headline GLORY 54 In UK
For the first time in five years, GLORY will be returning to England with GLORY 54 Birmingham and GLORY 54 SuperFight Series, on June 2nd at the Gentling Arena,.
Following his victory at GLORY: Redemption, Rico Verhoeven will return to action in a non-title fight against top ranked heavyweight, Mladen Brestovac.
Verhoeven looks to keep his 15 fight winning streak alive, which include six successful title defenses, one of which was against Brestovac in 2016.
After winning the title over Murthel Groenhart at GLORY 50 in February, Harut Grigorian will make his first defense against No. 1 ranked contender Alim Nabiyev in the GLORY 54 co-headliner.
The five-fight card for GLORY 54 Birmingham can be found below:
GLORY 54 Birmingham
Heavyweight Headline Bout: Rico Verhoeven vs. Mladen Brestovac
Welterweight Title Co-Headline Bout: Harut Grigorian vs. Alim Nabiyev
Lightweight Bout: Elvis Gashi vs. William Goldie-Galloway
Featherweight Bout: Bailey Sugden vs. Anvar Boynazarov
Featherweight Bout: Adrian Maxim vs. Chenglong Zhang
Earlier in the evening, GLORY 54 SuperFight Series will feature two light heavyweights in the main event as Danyo Ilunga will square off against Fraser Weightman, who is making his GLORY debut.
Josh Jauncey looks to get a win back from Christian Baya, who defeated Jauncey on five days notice at GLORY 35 Nice.
Jauncey is coming off an impressive victory over Stoyan Korivlenski at GLORY 52 and is looking to keep that momentum against Baya, who lost is looking to rebound from a loss to defending GLORY lightweight champion Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong.
GLORY 54 SuperFight will also feature two semifinal bouts of a four-man welterweight qualifying tournament, with the tournament’s final round to be contested later in 2018/
In the first tournament semifinal bout, Road to GLORY UK winner Jamie Bates fights locally for the first time under the GLORY banner, as he goes up against ISKA British champion and BAMMA fighter Tommy King
In the second semi-final, Leicestershire’s Mark Timms comes home to Great Britain, where he’ll face one of Ireland’s top kickboxers Dawid Blaszke in the other semifinal match-up.
The six-fight card for GLORY 54 SuperFight Series can be found below:
GLORY 54 SuperFight Series
Light Heavyweight Headline Bout: Danyo Ilunga vs. Fraser Weightman
Lightweight Co-Headline Bout: Christian Baya vs. Josh Jauncey
Welterweight Bout: Richard Abraham vs. Adam Hadfield
Lightweight Bout: Marat Grigorian vs. Liu Xu
Welterweight Tournament Semifinal Bout 2: Mark Timms vs. Dawid Blaszke
Welterweight Tournament Semifinal Bout 1: Jamie Bates vs. Tommie King