On Saturday, June 2, GLORY Kickboxing hosted its 54th event from the Genting Arena in Birmingham, England.
In the night’s main event, the sport’s heavyweight king, Rico Verhoeven, put his belt on the line against a familiar face, Croatia’s Mladen Brestovac. The 29-year-old Dutchman Verhoeven rode a nine-fight winning streak into his seventh title defense. He previously defeated Brestovac at GLORY 28 in Paris by decision. Brestovac entered the match-up having won five of his last six bouts, including a 36-second demolition of Hesdy Gerges at GLORY 45 last fall.
Gold was also on the line in the night’s co-main event as welterweight champion Harut Grigorian made his first title defense against the red-hot Alim Nabiyev. Grigorian turned the welterweight division on its head at GLORY 50 in Chicago, stopping Murthel Groenhart in the first round. Nabiyev, meanwhile, had edged former champions Nieky Holzken and Cedric Doumbe in his last two appearances to earn a shot at the belt.
The action kicked off at 12:45 p.m. ET with a live preliminary card stream on the promotion’s YouTube page. The night’s SuperFight Series followed at 2 p.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass. Main card action started at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN 3 and ESPN News.
Harut Grigorian def. Alim Nabiyev by unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46, 50-45, 50-45) – for welterweight title
Bailey Sugden vs. Aleksei Ulianov ruled a no-contest (accidental head butt). Round 2, 1:10
Chenglong Zhang def. Adrian Maxim by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Danyo Ilunga def. Fraser Weightman by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Josh Jauncey def. Christian Baya by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Adam Hadfield def. Richard Abraham by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Marat Grigorian def. Liu Xu by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Elvis Gashi def. William Goldie-Galloway by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Mark Timms def. Dawid Blaszke by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27) – welterweight tournament semifinal
Jamie Bates def. Tommie King by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27) – welterweight tournament semifinal
Kevin Ward def. Wilker Barros by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Christi Brereton def. Nicola Kaye by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Vinny Church def. Ben Woolliss by split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28)