GLORY Kickboxing returns to the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., on Friday, Aug. 25, for GLORY 44: Chicago.
In the evening’s headliner, GLORY welterweight champion Cédric Doumbé puts his title on the line against familiar foe Murthel Groenhart. Doumbé kicked off his current 12-fight winning streak with a decision victory over Groenhart in his home country at GLORY 28: Paris. The champion makes his debut in the United States against the surging Groenhart, who has won six of his past seven fights.
In the night’s welterweight contender tournament, four men compete for a potential shot at the winner of the main event. In the first semifinal, experienced French Muay Thai champion Karim Benmansour fights exciting Dutch knockout artist Harut Grigorian. In the other leg of the one-night tournament, France’s Antoine Pinto meets American Casey Greene.
In the SuperFight Series headliner, Tiffany van Soest makes the first defense of her GLORY super bantamweight title against last-minute replacement Meryem Uslu.
Elsewhere on the card, popular Romanian heavyweight slugger Cătălin Moroșanu battles with Poland’s Michal Turynski, top-10 middleweight Dustin Jacoby makes his anticipated return from injury opposite Sean Choice, and 2017 Wu Lin Feng 63-kilogram tournament champion Adrian Maxim takes on Lumpinee stadium veteran Victor Pinto.
The GLORY 44 SuperFight Series airs at 8 p.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass. The main card airs live at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN 3, SFR Sport 5 (Europe and Africa), Esporte (Brazil), Fox Sports Africa, Fight Network (Canada), OSN Sports (Middle East), and Sky (New Zealand).
The fighters hit the scales on Thursday, Aug. 24. Results will be posted below as they become available.
Richard Abraham (170) vs. Daniel Morales (169.5)
Antoine Pinto (169.5) vs. Zach Bunnel (168) – welterweight tournament semifinal
Karim Benmansour (170) vs. Harut Grigorian (169.5) – welterweight tournament semifinal
Tiffany van Soest (121) vs. Meryem Uslu (120) – for super bantamweight title
Cătălin Moroșanu (221) vs. Michal Turynski (244)
Dustin Jacoby (186.5) vs. Sean Choice (179.5)
Warren Thompson (186.5) vs. Robert Thomas (186.5)
Rafael Dudek (154) vs. Nate Richardson (154)
Adrian Maxim (142.5) vs. Victor Pinto (142.5)