GLORY Kickboxing makes the promotion’s inaugural journey to China, on Saturday, Oct. 14, for GLORY 46: China.
The GLORY middleweight title is on the line when champion Simon Marcus attempts to defend the title for the first time against Brazilian challenger Alex Pereira. Marcus reclaimed the middleweight crown with a close victory in the rubber match with Jason Wilnis at GLORY 40. Pereira knocked out Maycon Silva in the second frame to defend his WGP Kickboxing 85-kilogram title outside of the promotion in August.
In the night’s SuperFight Series headliner, GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven takes on former UFC title challenger Antônio “Bigfoot” Silva in a non-title affair. Verhoeven has won 13 straight fights in GLORY with his lone defeat in that span coming outside of the promotion against Andrey Gerasimchuk at Kunlun Fight 15, the last time Verhoeven competed in China. Silva makes his kickboxing debut as a heavy underdog.
In the night’s featherweight contender tournament, Chinese GLORY veterans Chenchen Li and Chenglong Zhang return in their home country against Japan’s Masaya Kubo and New Zealand’s Quade Taranaki, respectively.
GLORY features a professional Sanda bout between highly touted Chinese fighter Hongxing Kong and prospect Yang Sun. The more experienced fighter, Kong, holds a victory over one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters of all-time, Saenchai.
Elsewhere on the card, top-10 featherweight Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao takes on China’s Lei Xie, Shanghai Gao meets short notice replacement Alan Scheinson, and lightweight Qinghao Meng fights German Pascal Schroth.
The GLORY 46 SuperFight Series airs at 6 a.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass. The main card airs live at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN3, Fox Sports Africa, Fight Network (Canada), OSN Sports (Middle East), Sky (New Zealand), and GLORY pay-per-view (International). The event airs via tape delay at 10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 15, on ESPN2.
The fighters hit the scales on Friday. Video appears of above (courtesy of GLORY), while the results appear below.
Quanchao Luo (268.5 lb / 121.8 kg) vs. Junior Tafa (290.6 lb / 131.8 kg)
Chenglong Zhang (142.6 lb / 64.7 kg) vs. Quade Taranaki (142.6 lb / 64.7 kg) – featherweight tournament semifinal
Chenchen Li (143.1 lb / 64.9 kg) vs. Masaya Kubo (142.4 lb / 64.6 kg) – featherweight tournament semifinal
Rico Verhoeven (261.7 lb / 118.7 kg) vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (285.1 lb / 129.3 kg)
Wei Zhou (185 lb / 83.9 kg) vs. Andre Walker (185.2 lb / 84 kg)
Shanghai Gao (164 lb / 74.4 kg) vs. Alan Scheinson (165.1 lb / 74.9 kg)
Sanda: Hongxing Kong (131.2 lb / 59.5 kg) vs. Yang Sun (132.3 lb / 60 kg)
Jia Liu (116.6 lb / 52.9 kg) vs. Zaza Sor. Aree (116.8 lb / 53 kg)
Lei Xie (149.7 lb / 67.9 kg) vs. Petchpanomrung Kiatmookao (147.5 lb / 66.9 kg)
Qinghao Meng (153.2 lb / 69.5 kg) vs. Pascal Schroth (153 lb / 69.4 kg)