A four-man Light-Heavyweight Contender Tournament forms the centerpiece of the GLORY 45 AMSTERDAM card taking place Saturday, September 30 at the Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The starting grid sees four heavy hitters line up to battle it out over two stages in one night until only one of them is left standing to claim the tournament trophy.
In the first of the semi-final bouts, rising young talent Imad “The Problem Child” Hadar (19-1, 7 KO’s) of the Netherlands faces California’s Manny Mancha (5-2, 4 KO’s).
In the second semi-final, Michael “Dreamcrusher” Duut (40-8, 17 KO’s) faces Italian newcomer Giorgio Dragos (11-4, 7 KO’s). The two semi-final winners will then square off later that evening in the tournament final.
Duut likely starts as tournament favorite due to his wealth of experience relative to the other participants, but is entering the competition in search of redemption following a disqualification loss in his last outing.
His fight with Mourad Bouzidi was stopped by the referee at GLORY 41 HOLLAND after Duut was issued with three warnings for stalling and excessive clinching.
Duut had gone into that fight off the back of a ‘Fight of the Year 2017’ win over Danyo Ilunga. It is that award-winning form which he looks to bring to the tournament in Amsterdam.
Hadar too is coming off a loss, in his case a stoppage in his GLORY 40 debut at the hands of French veteran Freddy Kemayo. That loss snapped the win streak which brought the rising young talent into GLORY and now he’s looking to put it behind him and ascend the rankings by winning the tournament.
Mancha sports a 2-0 record in GLORY but hasn't been active in the organization since his GLORY 30 win over Warren Thompson in Los Angeles early last year. Now he’s looking to come back with a bang and fly the Stars n’ Stripes in the light-heavyweight division.
Dragos is a newcomer to GLORY and looking to make an impression on his debut. There are few tougher ways to make your debut for GLORY than in one of the four-man tournaments, but there’s also no better way to make an impact than winning one.
His list of accomplishments this year includes winning the WKN European Championship and the WKN International Championship. He is ranked #1 in Italy at his weight and comes from the same management stable as Giorgio Petrosyan.
GLORY 45 Amsterdam is set to air live on ESPN3 on Saturday, September 30th, 2017 at 3:30pm Eastern time (ET) and replay on ESPN2 on Sunday, October 1st, 2017 at 11pm ET.
