Simon "Bad Bwoy" Marcus defeated Wayne Barrett and Jason Wilnis at GLORY 20 in Dubai to take home the Ramon Dekkers memorial trophy and earn a title shot against Artem Levin at GLORY 21 on May 8, 2015 in San Diego.
The main event for GLORY 21 is set.
Simon Marcus won the GLORY 21 middleweight contender tournament in Dubai last night (Fri., April 3, 2015). And not only did he get to hoist the Ramon Dekkers Memorial Trophy, but he also earned a title shot against Artem "The Lion" Levin at GLORY 21, which takes place on May 8, 2015, in San Diego, California.
Marcus defeated Wayne Barrett by unanimous decision in the semifinals and squeaked by Jason Wilnis in the final by split decision to earn the Middleweight contender tournament victory.
The final was closely contested, but Marcus pressed the action when he had to and did just enough to get the nod from the judges. The three scores were 28-30, 30-27, and 29-28.
"I am here to be champion, nothing else, so Artem Levin better know that I am coming for him," said Marcus post-fight. "I already beat him under Muay Thai rules and maybe he thinks he will have the advantage under kickboxing rules, but I will show him different."
In the semifinals, Marcus bested the No.5-ranked GLORY middleweight, Wayne Barrett by unanimous decision. Both fighters were tentative and cautious early on, and neither were taking command of the fight. However, in the final round, Marcus pushed the pace and was the aggressor compared to Barrett. The Canadian advanced to the final with a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).
Marcus, who lost to Joe Schilling in his GLORY debut at Last Man Standing, split a pair of fights in China before GLORY 20. He wasn't a favorite to win the middleweight tournament, and many had him losing to Barrett in the first round because of the two knockouts he suffered in such a short time frame, on top of struggling to adjust to life outside of Muay Thai rules.
After GLORY 20, Marcus revealed he has been doing extensive work on the transition from Muay Thai to kickboxing in Thailand with one of the greatest of all time.
"For this tournament I went to work with Buakaw [Banchamek] in Thailand," Marcus said. "He is a good friend of mine and we have trained together before, but this time we really looked at some stuff for fighting when you are moving from Muay Thai rules to kickboxing. Nobody did that better than Buakaw."
The improvements certainly showed in both fights. Marcus is now 42-2-1 overall and 2-1 in GLORY.
In the other semifinal contest of the evening, Jason Wilnis and Alex Pereira put on action-packed, fast-paced battle that saw both fighters land knockdowns. Wilnis dropped Pereira in the first with a left hook, and Pereira dropped Wilnis with a left hook in the third round. Wilnis would advance to the final though, by unanimous decision (28-27, 28-27, 29-28).
For full GLORY 20: "Dubai" results and play-by-play click here.
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