"The big announcement is that I won't be participating in the GLORY tournament".
With these words, spoken in a recent podcast appearance, Antonio Plazibat has officially confirmed that he won't be taking part in the upcoming GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix on March 9, despite the earlier announcement.
Plazibat would go on to say: "I think of all the people who could replace me at the moment, the most interesting one is Jamal Ben Saddik." Despite this and the wishes of many kickboxing fans, the promotion has instead decided to replace Plazibat with Nordine Mahieddine. The French-born Algerian has both overcome and suffered a loss at the hands of the Croatian Heavyweight and currently sits at the No. 4 spot in the official GLORY Heavyweight rankings. He last competed in September last year, when he knocked out Abdarhmane Coulibaly in spectacular fashion.
Fortunately however, the reason for Plazibat's withdrawal isn't re-injury, it's simply that he hasn't yet fully healed. As he chose to let the bone heal naturally, through a cast and physical therapy, the timeline for his return was longer than had he undergone surgery.
The Split native had the following to say about his withdrawal: "So my arm will have healed by the 9th of March. But I would have to enter the fight without any serious training, without any sparring, without having received a single strike on that arm. It's not smart, it's one of the most idiotic things you could do. And then I have to fight two more times that evening. Even if I do knock out my first opponent as soon as the fight starts, my opponent in the second round would just [aim for the arm]".
