Glory Kickboxing arose from the ashes of K-1 when that Japanese company tumbled unceremoniously from the top of the professional kickboxing ranks around 2011. Previously, K-1 had dominated the international kickboxing scene, putting on cards around the globe, primarily focusing on the heavyweight ranks. These cards culminated in the year-end K-1 Grand Prix, a heavyweight tournament pitting the best heavyweight kickboxers from around the globe against each other. It was a huge success, and the cash came in hand over fist for the company for well over ten years.
However, the company encountered extreme financial difficulties (in no small part to financial negligence and corruption) and had to enforce major cost cutting measures to stay afloat. This was especially disheartening because their K-1 MAX brand, focusing on 70kg (154 lb) fighters had arguably surpassed the heavyweight ranks both in terms of marketability and quality of bouts.
Eventually, a group of Dutch entrepreneurs and executives joined forces to create Glory – a new promotion that aimed to carry on the legacy of big time professional kickboxing. It took a few years but Glory has now solidly entrenched itself atop the heap – at least for now.
Glory’s goal is to produce fast-paced fights with minimal slowdowns and an emphasis on aggression and going for the knockout. Although purists may have issues with these rules (particularly the limited use of the clinch and three-round fights as opposed to five-rounds, excepting title fights) they have mostly resulted in a very watchable product with many great matches to their credit.
2017 was no exception. What I’ve done is compile what I perceived to be the 50 best bouts from that year. The criteria I used was based on competitiveness, technical skill, and excitement or drama, although not necessarily in that order. I did not include fights which lasted less than one round, as ranking them can be somewhat problematic due to their brevity or one-sidedness.
What’s great is that most of these fights are available for free on YouTube through Glory’s official channel or via UFC Fight Pass, which has a deal with Glory to air their “SuperFight” series, which airs prior to each main card. I have provided links to official airings of each fight; simply click on the fight and you will be taken there.
Without further ado…
50. Thiago Silva vs. John King
Glory 48
49. Josh Jauncey vs. Elvis Gashi
Glory 43
48. Niclas Larsen vs. Lukasz Plawecki
Glory 38 SuperFight Series
47. Chenglong Zhang vs. Wilson Sanches Mendes
Glory 41
46. Cedric Doumbe vs. Yohan Lidon
Glory 47
45. Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Anderson Silva
Glory 38 SuperFight Series
44. Yoann Kongolo vs. Yohan Lidon
Glory 42 SuperFight Series (For some reason, Fight Pass does not link to the individual fight. The link above is for the main card.)
43. Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Guto Inocente
Glory 43
42. Alex Pereira vs. Burim Rama
Glory 40
41. Yassine Ahaggan vs. Max Vorovski
Glory 47 SuperFight Series
40. Giga Chikadze vs. Kevin Vannostrand
Glory 43
39. Robin van Roosmalen vs. Petcpanomrung Kiatmookao
Glory 41 SuperFight Series
38. Mike Lemaire vs. Robert Thomas
Glory 48
37. Artem Vakhitov vs. Saulo Cavalari
Glory 38
36. Marat Grigorian vs. Anton Petrov
Glory 39 SuperFight Series
35. Artem Vakhitov vs. Ariel Machado
Glory 47
34. Dylan Salvador vs. Serhiy Adamchuk
Glory 42 SuperFight Series
33. Anderson Silva vs. D’Angelo Marshall
Glory 41
32. Anvar Boynazarov vs. Abdellah Ezbiri
Glory 47
31. Harut Grigorian vs. Antoine Pinto
Glory 44
30. Murthel Groenhart vs. Alan Scheinson
Glory 41 SuperFight Series
29. Harut Grigorian vs. Pavol Garaj
Glory 39 SuperFight Series
28. Jason Wilnis vs. Israel Adesanya
Glory 37
27. Victor Pinto vs. Adrian Maxim
Glory 44 SuperFight Series
26. Harut Grigorian vs. Karim Benmansour
Glory 44
25. Nieky Holzken vs. Alim Nabiev
Glory 49 SuperFight Series
24. Mike Lemaire vs. Warren Thompson
Glory 37 SuperFight Series
23. Alex Pereira vs. Yousri Belgaroui
Glory 49
22. Anderson Silva vs. Giannis Stoforidis
Glory 41
21. Marat Grigorian vs. Antonio Gomez
Glory 42 SuperFight Series
20. Fabio Pinca vs. Anvar Boynazarov
Glory 47
19. Chris Mauceri vs. Yuhang Xie
Glory 40 SuperFight Series
18. Wayne Barrett vs. Robert Thomas
Glory 48
17. Rico Verhoeven vs. Jamal Ben Saddik
Glory 49
16. Yoann Kongolo vs. Karim Benmansour
Glory 37
15. Murthel Groenhart vs. Thongchai
Glory 38 SuperFight Series
14. Cedric Doumbe vs. Nieky Holzken
Glory 42
13. Zakaria Zouggary vs. Massaro Glunder
Glory 45 SuperFight Series
12. Robin van Roosmalen vs. Matt Embree
Glory 37 SuperFight Series
11. Michael Duut vs. Danyo Ilunga
Glory 49
10. Robin van Roosmalen vs. Serhiy Adamchuk
Glory 45
9. Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao vs. Serhiy Adamchuk
Glory 39
8. Tyjani Beztati vs. Stoyan Koprivlenski
Glory 49
7. Simon Marcus vs. Jason Wilnis
Glory 40
6. Ariel Machado vs. Danyo Ilunga
Glory 38
5. Dylan Salvador vs. Massaro Glunder
Glory 47 SuperFight Series
4. Mohammed El-Mir vs. Simon Santana
Glory 40 SuperFight Series
3. Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong vs. Dylan Salvador
Glory 39 SuperFight Series
2. Zakaria Zouggary vs. Yetkin Ozkul
Glory 41 SuperFight Series
1. Tyjani Beztati vs. Youssef Assouik
Glory 41 SuperFight Series
Enjoy!