Last Saturday, Glory 36 “Collision” took place in Oberhausen Germany. It was the night of the “fight of the century” opposing two Heavyweight Dutch super fighter: Badr Hari and Rico Verhoeven. Rico has been the Glory heavyweight champion for three years and Badr Hari made himself famous as a multiple K1 champion allowing him to obtain directly a title shot for his first fight at Glory Kickboxing. What was supposed to be the fight of the century ended in round 2 with the arm injury of Badr Hari. While everybody was expecting a knock out from either side, the fight did not turn up as good as expected.
The real happening at Glory 36 was the debuts of a 24 year old French Muay Thai fighter named Dylan Salvador. For his first participation at a Glory Kickboxing event, he took part in a 4 man lightweight contender tournament. The winner of this tournament would earn a title shot against current Lightweight champion Sittichai.
For the first fight Dylan Salvador’s opponent was Russian Anatoly Moiseev - ranking number 3 on Glory Lightweight ranking and ex-WAKO world champion, a title that Dylan also holds. Moiseev was considered the tournament’s favourite as he was the most experienced man. Dylan landed a couple of knees to Moiseev that made the difference in the judges’ eyes. Dylan won the first fight by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 29-29). Second fight saw Dylan facing Swiss-Albanian Hysni Biqiri who also just won the other semi-final against Spanish Antonio Gomez by unanimous decision. Biqiri’s height could have seemed an edge as he is 180cm and has a longer reach (Dylan is 176cm) but it was not sufficient to overcome the French man determination to win this tournament final. Salvador cleverly let Biqiri come forward to tag him or dodge his attacks to counter them. Dylan won his second fight in the same night by decision and made a big impression on the crowd and everybody following Glory.
The current Glory Lightweight Champion Sittichai Sitsongpeenong successfully defended his title the same night in Germany against Marat Grigorian. By winning this 4 man tournament on his first Glory night, Dylan Salvador quickly made himself the Glory Lightweight contender.
Fun fact is that Salvador and Sittichai already crossed path twice: they each won once. This third bout will definitely be one of the most interesting fights in 2017 to watch.
Watch Dylan Salvador's fight against Hysni Biqiri at Glory 36
Photo credits: www.glorykickboxing.com
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