My thoughts:
The Good
+ Despite being annoyed by several things, I had fun watching this card. Glory events tend to be a one step forward, two steps back experience. It is what it is.
+ Osaro dominated Aygün and I wasn't even surprised. He took an unnecessary risk by allowing Aygün to tag him here and there, but for the most part he looked solid. A good performance winning the tournament, securing himself the first spot in the Grand Prix and a shot for the Interim Title against Plazibat.
+ Semeleer completely outclassed Groenhart. I saw some people complain that Semeleer is way below Doumbé, because he didn't stop Groenhart in similar fashion, but I don't think that's fair. Semeleer just has a completely different style and short of knocking someone out, this was about as dominant a victory as one could get. Groenhart was hanging on for dear life for the majority of the fight and lost with a whopping 8 point difference. And as much as I like Groenhart this is what should have happened, because he didn't deserve a direct title shot. Especially not over Nabiyev who got screwed over.
+ Amine/Duut was a fun, exciting fight. Amine combined solid basics with effective calf kicks to completely throw Duut off his game. Duut adapted, but it was too little too late.
+ Kaffa/Peposhi had some great moments...
+ Aygün made quicker work of Sljivar than I expected. He still has that nervous, stiff movement, but it was fast and effective. Sljivar landed a few good shots early on, but he was just out of his depth here.
+ Osaro really impressed against Wilnis. His gastank is still questionable, but pacing himself here really helped. That combo he finished Wilnis with was crazy.
+ Despite being allowed to go on for way too long, Kombou/Bratkowicz was an entertaining start to the event.
Neither fighter has ever heard of defense or dodging, but they really went after each other.
The Bad
- Glory MUST introduce standing 8 counts. They attract enough negative attention without risking their fighters' safety.
- Amine addressing his Moroccan fanboys in tough-boy Arabic in the post-fight interview was annoying. It's such a cliché. I hope he gets lit up in his next fight.
- ...but there were way too many breaks in the action, illegal moves and bad reffing to fully enjoy it. Unfortunately, again by that female ref.
- Agreeing with
kbfan here and it's something I've been bitching about for almost two decades now: European/Dutch governing bodies have this weird rule that their refs have to count when it's the finishing knockdown.
STOP THAT SHIT. It's not helping anybody, just makes the finish look super anti-climactic. The only thing I accept is dramatic Kakuda-style waving the arms and sounding the bell like a madman.
- How could Sljivar be confused by the 2 knockdown stoppage? Has he ever watched a tournament or attended a rule meeting? Show some responsibility.
- Wilnis looked bad. He started throwing way too late and paid dearly for it.
- Filipovic/Kwasi has to be weirdest fight I've seen in a while. I get that Kwasi took the fight on short notice, but what was he even doing? It looked like he was
trying to fight like Pereira. Even worse, that weird style worked on Filipovic until he was able to turn it around. Also; did Filipovic BITE Kwasi? In hindsight, I'm glad this was only a reserve fight.
- Kombou/Bratkowicz had some truly horrendous reffing. I get that Glory isn't the party providing the ref, but they should really file a complaint and demand someone else for future cards. This isn't the first time that ref made questionable calls. Unfortunately, it wasn't even her only badly reffed fight on the card.
Some additional comments:
* While I don't think Osaro will beat Plazibat, it would be foolish to count him out. He improved a lot in a short amount of time and he seems likely to keep doing so.
* Glory should give Nabiyev the rematch with Semeleer already.
* The card definitely felt like a changing of the guard; Fighters in their 20s destroying veterans in their 30s.
* I wonder why Glory ditched the qualifying GP originally scheduled for Glory 86 and went with some direct qualification bouts instead. Perhaps they want to have some more control over the tournament field.
A bit late with my event coverage, but I was on a short vacation and watched last night's event in a hotel room lol.
.