Glory (kickboxing)

Glory (kickboxing)
Glory, formerly Glory World Series, Ultimate Glory, and United Glory, is an international kickboxing promotion based in the United Kingdom, which is owned by Pierre Andurand, Yao Capital, Scott Rudmann and other investors.
Background
Glory can actually be traced back to United Glory, which held both MMA and kickboxing events as early as 2006, and operated as a separate promotion from K-1 and It's Showtime. Major names to have competed for Ultimate Glory included Alistair Overeem, Nieky Holzken and Errol Zimmerman.
When K-1 began suffering from extreme financial difficulties in 2011, Total Sports Asia, TSA CEO Marcus Luer, Pierre Andurand, and Scott Rudmann of Nectar Capital attempted to buy the brand. K-1 was instead sold to Mike Kim and EMCOM Entertainment Inc.
In the aftermath, Pierre Andurand, Scott Rudmann and TSA decided to start a brand new kickboxing promotion and acquired United Glory, Golden Glory, and It's Showtime to secure a top event production team and contracts to each promotion's top fighters. Forming the Glory World Series, Pierre Andurand was named Chairman and Scott Rudmann was named vice-chairman. A number of people formerly involved with these three entities event became Glory consultants.
Glory World Series signed most of the world's top kickboxers, such as Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt, Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghiţă, Albert Kraus, and Giorgio Petrosyan.
History
The company includes a mix of entrepreneurs and senior level executives from different environments. The company's current investors include Pierre Andurand, Scott Rudmann and Nectar Capital and Yao Capital. Former investors have been Liberty Global, and TwinFocus Capital Partners.
In February 2013, Glory announced that former WWE Executive VP Andrew Whitaker had been hired as the global CEO of Glory Sports International.
In August, 2014 Andrew Whitaker moved into an advisory role within GLORY and Jon J. Franklin was appointed as the new CEO.
In 2018, Glory announced that former CEO Jon J. Franklin had moved to the role of Chief Development Officer, and former UFC executive Marshall Zelaznik had been hired as the new CEO.
On May 15, 2020, Glory announced Zelaznik had resigned as Glory CEO.
On May 26, 2020, Glory Sports International went into receivership, and soon after ownership of Glory was transferred to London-based GSUKCO Limited.
Scott Rudmann is the Executive Vice-Chairman running the league since it was taken over by GSUKCO.
Media coverage
In June 2013, after having its first U.S. event in New York, Glory 9: New York on June 22, 2013, Spike TV signed a multi-year agreement to broadcast Glory kickboxing events; their partnership began with Glory 11: Chicago on October 12 of that year. The broadcast deal with Spike was extended in May 2014 to cover 2015.
In February 2016, Glory CEO Jon J. Franklin announced a new multi-year deal with ESPN.
Glory was broadcast on Veronica TV in the Netherlands from July, 2018 to February, 2020.
Beginning in 2019, Glory initiated a partnership with the UFC for the former's events to be exclusively carried in the U.S by UFC Fight Pass. The first event to be broadcast as part of this partnership was Glory 63: Houston on February 1 and the last event was Glory 75: Utrecht on February 29, 2020.
Events from Glory 76 to Glory 80 Studio were available through pay-per-view.
28 June 2022 Glory announced a multi-year broadcast deal with Videoland in the Netherlands. The deal covers all Glory events starting from Glory 81: Ben Saddik vs. Adegbuyi 2.
16 August 2022 Glory announced a multi-year broadcast deal with Viaplay in Poland.
5 October 2022 Glory announced a multi-year broadcast deal with TV3 in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Glory Rivals
In January 2022 Glory announced a new series of events called Glory Rivals, jointly promoted with Enfusion and RISE. The first Rivals event with Enfusion was scheduled for May 21, 2022, at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp, Belgium. The event was later cancelled due to the finances of Enfusion's local promoter partner Antwerp Fight Organization catching the attention of Belgian authorities.
Glory Rivals 1 was instead held on June 11, 2022 in Alkmaar, Netherlands. In the main event Luis Tavares defeated Florent Kaouachi by knockout in the third round.
Glory Rivals 2 was held on September 17, 2022 in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
Glory Rivals 3 was organized at Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam on November 5, 2022. Ibrahim El Bouni defeated Muhammed Balli by knock-out in the first round.
Glory Rivals 4 took place on December 25th at Ryogoku Sumo Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Kento Haraguchi defeated Serhii Adamchuk by unanimous decision.
GLORY Rivals 5 was organized on January 28, 2023, at Zamna Tulum Hotel in Tulum, Mexico, in collaboration with War of Nations. Abraham Vidales defeated Tomás Aguirre by Unanimous Decision.
Roster
Events
Glory events
United Glory events
Champions
Current champions
Indicates former interim champions.
Indicates current lineal and interim champions.
Glory Heavyweight Championship
Weight limit: Unlimited
Glory Light Heavyweight Championship
Weight limit:
Glory Middleweight Championship
Weight limit:
Glory Welterweight Championship
Weight limit:
Glory Lightweight Championship
Weight limit:
Glory Featherweight Championship
Weight limit:
Glory Women's Super Bantamweight Championship
Weight limit:
Tournament champions
Contender Tournament champions
Qualification Tournament winners
Road to Glory Tournament champions
Multi-division champions
Fighters who have won championships in multiple weight classes (excluding tournament champions).
Robin van Roosmalen - Won Glory Lightweight Championship on November 7, 2014, then Glory Featherweight Championship on October 21, 2016.
Alex Pereira - Won Glory Middleweight Championship on October 14, 2017, then Glory Light Heavyweight Championship on January 30, 2021.
Notable fighters
Featherweight
Serhiy Adamchuk
Mosab Amrani
Lim Chi-Bin
Abdellah Ezbiri
Massaro Glunder
Liam Harrison
Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao
Yuta Kubo
Masaaki Noiri
Fabio Pinca
Saenchai PKSaenchaimuaythaigym
Robin van Roosmalen
Dylan Salvador
Lee Sung-Hyun
Tim Thomas
Kevin VanNostrand
Gabriel Varga
Sergio Wielzen
Lightweight
Chingiz Allazov
Dzhabar Askerov
Shemsi Beqiri
Alessandro Campagna
Sanny Dahlbeck
Johann Fauveau
Marat Grigorian
Hinata
Ky Hollenbeck
Davit Kiria
Albert Kraus
Anatoly Moiseev
Steve Moxon
Giorgio Petrosyan
Łukasz Pławecki
Andy Ristie
Robin van Roosmalen
Dylan Salvador
Simón Santana
Yoshihiro Sato
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong
Warren Stevelmans
Jordan Watson
Bruno Gazani
Tyjani Beztati
Enriko Kehl
Welterweight
Marc de Bonte
Roberto Cocco
Raymond Daniels
Murat Direkçi
Cedric Doumbe
Karim Ghajji
Harut Grigorian
Murthel Groenhart
Nieky Holzken
Paweł Jędrzejczyk
Karapet Karapetyan
Yoann Kongolo
Artur Kyshenko
Yohan Lidon
Thiago Michel
Alim Nabiev
Antoine Pinto
Thongchai Sitsongpeenong
Alexander Stetsurenko
Chad Sugden
Alex Tobiasson Harris
Joseph Valtellini
Middleweight
Israel Adesanya
Wayne Barrett
Yousri Belgaroui
Chris Camozzi
Dustin Jacoby
Artem Levin
Melvin Manhoef
Simon Marcus
L'houcine Ouzgni
Sahak Parparyan
Alex Pereira
Agron Preteni
Karl Roberson
Joe Schilling
Kengo Shimizu
Bogdan Stoica
Filip Verlinden
Steve Wakeling
Jason Wilnis
Donovan Wisse
Amir Zeyada
Light Heavyweight
Donegi Abena
Randy Blake
Mourad Bouzidi
Saulo Cavalari
Nathan Corbett
Abdarhmane Coulibaly
Michael Duut
Zinedine Hameur-Lain
Danyo Ilunga
Igor Jurković
Freddy Kemayo
Steve McKinnon
Zack Mwekassa
Nenad Pagonis
Koichi Pettas
Gökhan Saki
Thiago Silva
Tyrone Spong
Andrei Stoica
Stéphane Susperregui
Luis Tavares
Makoto Uehara
Artem Vakhitov
Pavel Zhuravlev
Ștefan Lătescu
Heavyweight
Benjamin Adegbuyi
Peter Aerts
Jamal Ben Saddik
Remy Bonjasky
Antonio Plazibat
Mladen Brestovac
Brian Douwes
Ben Edwards
Mirko Filipović
Hesdy Gerges
Daniel Ghiţă
Badr Hari
Guto Inocente
Singh Jaideep
Jérôme Le Banner
Ismael Londt
D'Angelo Marshall
Cătălin Moroșanu
Alistair Overeem
Daniel Sam
Semmy Schilt
Antônio Silva
Anderson Silva
Giannis Stoforidis
Ewerton Teixeira
Rico Verhoeven
Nicolas Wamba
Jahfarr Wilnis
Errol Zimmerman
See also
Golden Glory
References
External links
Kickboxing organizations
Sports organizations established in 2012
2012 establishments in Singapore
Kickboxing in Singapore
Kickboxing in Europe