At yesterday's press conference, GLORY presented its plans for a 32-man heavyweight tournament in the presence of the first 12 participants. With prize money of "over a million" the organization is calling on heavyweights from any discipline to prove they have what it takes. Over the course of 2025, the 32 heavyweights will have two opportunities to qualify for the final 8 Grand Prix in December. This is how the tournament works.
PHASE 1
On the 5th of April the tournament will start with the opening round where the 32 participants will be facing one of the other contenders. The matchup will be decided by a random draw.
The winners of each of the sixteen bouts go on to the qualifying round. In this round, scheduled for June, the contenders will be placed in one of the four 4-mans tournaments. The winners of these 4 tournaments will secure a spot in the final 8 Grand Prix in December.
PHASE 2
After the first four seeds have been filled. The contenders will get another chance at a spot in the Grand Prix during the second phase. This time the opening round will consist of 24 fighters that are once again randomly paired up with each other. The 12 winners will be distributed over the three 4-mans tournament brackets in the qualification round. The three winners of these tournaments will join the four winners from phase 1 in the Grand Prix bracket. To complete the tournament one wildcard is added, bringing the total number of participants to 8.
Although the second phase is meant for the fighters that were unable to secure a spot in the first phase, it could very well be that new signings might enter here, confirmed GLORY matchmaker and talent operations manager Gyp Tessier to Beyond Kickboxing. Phase 2 is scheduled to be held in August and October of this year.
PARTICIPANTS
At the press conference the first 9 contenders were presented including the 2018 Grand Prix champion Jamal Ben Saddik and newcomers Rade Opacic and Ahmed Krinjic. Other familiar Glory faces that have already pledged to enter the tournament are: Bahram Rajabzadeh, Tariq Osaro, Uku Jurjendal, Ionut Iancu, Soufian Laidouni and Murat Aygun. Today GLORY shared the news of "Mister Tournament" Benjamin Adegbuyi and "Big Sexy" Nico Horta joining.
The announcement of the names have sparked some buzz in the heavyweight division, with lots of heavyweight showing their eagerness to join on social media. According to Vechtsportinfo's Ron Emmerink only 6 spots are left. Over the course of the coming weeks the rest of the participants will be announced via the official GLORY channels.
However Beyond Kickboxing was already able to confirm the signing and participation of 21 year old Romanian prospect Alin Nechita.
RICO VERHOEVEN
With the wild card it seems like GLORY is giving itself a possibility to add its long reigning king of the division Rico Verhoeven in at a later moment in the tournament. In advance of the questions by the media, GLORY’s CEO Marshall Zelaznik took the time to explain that the tournament format is built in a way to anticipate on Rico not participating.
The Dutch champion has openly expressed his wish to fight a cross over fight with some of the other big names outside of kickboxing. Zelaznik expressed his hopes of sharing news soon about some initiatives they have been working on, including defending his belt.
