The Best of GLORY Kickboxing in 2017

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