Glory 91 - Paris [27-04] Results

[K1power]

Soufian Abdelkhalek replaces Jos van Belzen who is out due to injury.

[K1power]

[K1power]

It's fight week.

[K1power]

First three fights are part of the prelims and can be watched for free on YouTube/Facebook.

[K1power]

[K1power]

[K1power]

[K1power]

Prelims kick off in ~3 hours.

[K1power]

10 minutes...

[K1power]

Results
Chico Kwasi defeats Endy Semeleer by TKO R3
Bahram Rajabzadeh defeats Kevin Oumar by KO R3
Youssef Boughanem defeats Stas Kazantsev by TKO R1
Sofian Laïdouni defeats Vladimir Toktasynov by TKO R1
Pascal Touré defeats Mohamed Amine by Split Decision
Soufian Abdelkhalek defeats Cyril Benzaquen by Unanimous Decision
Bobbo Sacko defeats David Mejia by KO R1
Robin Ciric defeats Diaguely Camara by Unanimous Decision
Mehdi Ait El Hadj defeats Ismail Ouzgni defeats by Split Decision
Remy Deghir defeats Florian Kröger by Unanimous Decision

[K1power]

Not a big review, just some quick comments:

* Aside from the double injury which was just unlucky, I'm happy with this event. The strong ending definitely helped.
* Kwasi destroying Semeleer was a great upset. When Semeleer landed those early uppercuts I thought he would win by KO, but Kwasi ended round 1 strong and completely took Semeleer apart in the second.
* Even though Rajabzadeh won pretty dominantly, he looked less scary than he does at HW. Not sure if he was just getting used to the lower weight or wanting to make some ring time, but he can't play around like this at the GP. As for Oumar, despite Bahram toying with him, he showed heart and survived longer than expected. IMO he deserves another chance in Glory with more fair matchmaking. LOL at Bahram screaming at Robbie Timmers for a GP slot - which apparently he got..?
* Kazantsev making an unlucky landing after being tripped by Boughanem was an unlucky accident that I don't think deserved Mike's aggressive reaction. Boughanem was almost unnecessarily apologetic, very amicable and visibly wasn't happy winning like this - even though he was clearly dominating the fight before it happened.
* Laïdouni/Toktasynov wasn't a fight. Looks like Tok injured himself with a flailing haymaker.
* Even though the fight got sloppier as it progressed, Touré looked a lot sharper than in previous fights. Amine, again, didn't have an optimal preparation: his daughter was hospitalized during his training camp and he was asked about it by Nessim in a pre-fight locked interview which certainly didn't help. That said, three losses in a row for him and a deserved GP qualification for Touré.
* Late replacement Abdelkhalek was able to impress, upsetting favorite Benzaquen in a competitive bout.
* Scary KO Sacko scored on Mejia. You never want to see someone spazzing out like that. Luckily Mejia recovered quickly. The punch didn't look so hard, Sacko just landed it perfectly.
* Ciric/Camara, despite having sloppy moments, was unexpectedly competitive and I'm surprised by Ciric's performance. Completely disagree with Valtellini that Ciric deserved a point deduction. Ref did a terrible job of breaking up that situation. You can't just yell stop from a distance and hope for the best during a heated exchange like that.
* Ait El Hadj started strong, but quickly ran out of fuel. Ouzgni paced himself a lot better and IMO should have gotten the decision.
* So cool to see Deghir's genuine happiness and excitement. Kröger needs to go back to the drawing board.

[Shadess]

Discord was a bit down on the event. I thought it was fine enough, except Tok was kind of an avoidable mistake. Not sure why Glory got him, there's plenty enough random HWs you can throw a fight at. Is it just that he has a seemingly decently big insta following?

Kazantsev injury straight after was bad luck.

I'm very happy for Kwasi. I totally got him and Uku into Glory by posting on the who should Glory sign -thread on sherdog that Robbie follows!!!111 Only half joking, but very happy to see him find success like this. When he fought on KOK I always thought of him as a guy who could make a leap in quality if given a real chance in Glory. He has absolutely taken advantage of the opportunity.

[K1power]

I think it comes down to expectation management. A bunch of guys scheduled here were unknown quantities to me, but for the most part pleasantly surprised.

As for Tok, I think they mostly contracted him to make other fighters look good. It's a bit unfortunate when fighters position themselves like that, but he doesn't seem to train seriously and is just mostly happy to be there. I think he's a better fit for the prelims and/or smaller local cards like K-1 Romania.

Kwasi looked very impressive last night. I don't think Semeleer was ever even knocked down and according to his wiki only lost once before (to Özcan). This must be the first time in a very long time that Mike's Gym actually captured a major belt.

Edit: Rajabzadeh mentioned in a post-fight interview that he didn't want to destroy a young debutant quickly and that he didn't train that long to fight less than a round, which makes sense. Still, headbutting away punches is never a good idea.

Apparently Glory contacted 8 or 9 guys which all refused to fight Bahram before landing at Oumar.

[Shadess]

Apr 28, 2024 8:34:54 GMT 1 K1power said:

This must be the first time in a very long time that Mike's Gym actually captured a major belt.

And not only that, but it's an actual Mike's gym guy, not someone who they nabbed from another gym.

[K1power]

Yeah, that definitely adds to it and makes the accomplishment feel earned from the gym's perspective.