On Friday, Feb. 24, GLORY kickboxing returns to The Windy City for GLORY 38: Chicago.
In the night’s main event, light heavyweight titleholder Artem Vakhitov puts his belt on the line against No. 1 contender and former champion Saulo Cavalari. The pair have met twice previously with Cavalari edging Vakhitov by split decision at GLORY 20 and Vakhitov outlasting Cavalari at GLORY 28 to capture the title. Since then, Russia’s Vakhitov has defended the belt against Zack Mwekassa and Brazil’s Cavalari has topped Brian Douwes to set up the rubber match.
Also on the night’s main card, a one-night, four-man light heavyweight contender tournament features the aforementioned Mwekassa against France’s Zinedine Hameur-Lain in one side of the bracket, while Danyo Ilunga looks to bounce back from his “Fight of the Year” battle with Michael Duut as he takes on Brazil’s Ariel Machado on the other side of the bracket.
In the SuperFight Series, former heavyweight title challengers Benjamin Adegbuyi and Anderson Silva lock horns, Romania’s Cătălin Moroșanu makes his promotional debut against Maurice Greene, and Murthel Groenhart clashes with Thailand’s Thongchai.
GLORY 38 takes place from Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill. The main card airs live on ESPN3 at 10:30 p.m. ET. The SuperFight Series streams live on UFC Fight Pass at 8 p.m. ET.
Below are the results of the event’s weigh-ins (H/T to Michael Stets of MMA Plus)
Richard Abraham (169.5) vs. Antoine Pinto (170)
Danyo Ilunga (209.2) vs. Ariel Machado (208.5) – light heavyweight tournament semifinal
Zack Mwekassa (207.6) vs. Zinedine Hameur-Lain (205.4) – light heavyweight tournament semifinal
Benjamin Adegbuyi (267.5) vs. Anderson “Braddock” Silva (247)
Cătălin Moroșanu (237) vs. Maurice Greene (271)
Murthel Groenhart (168.6) vs. Thongchai (171)
Paweł Jędrzejczyk (168.8) vs. Daniel Morales (169.8)
Łukasz Pławecki (154.6) vs. Niclas Larsen (153.4)
Brian Collette (208) – light heavyweight tournament reserve fighter