Murthel Groenhart Pressures Cedric Doumbe, Wins Glory Welterweight Title
He had lost to Nieky Holzken twice for the Glory welterweight title
and had already been bested by Cedric Doumbe. None of that mattered
on Friday night in the main event of Glory 44 Chicago, though, as
Murthel Groenhart used relentless pressure to finally hoist a Glory
championship belt above his head.
Groenhart, a two-time Glory welterweight tournament champion, was surprisingly effective against Doumbe over the five allotted rounds as he landed dozens of punches and kicks on the defending champ. One of the greatest defensive fighters in all of kickboxing, Doumbe certainly made it difficult for the Dutch fighter to land anything clean, but “The Predator” used an uncompromising attack to win a unanimous decision via tallies of 48-37 (twice) and 49-46.
Armenian Harut Grigorian had to dig deep in both of his welterweight contender tournament fights to come out on top. Grigorian (46-11, 32 KOs) survived a three-round war with France’s Karim Benmansour (48-8-2, 22 KOs) in the opening round and then applied tons of pressure on slick Frenchman Antoine Pinto (133-37-1, 77 KOs) to repeat the triumph. Grigorian won both fights by unanimous verdict to earn a crack at Groenhart’s title later in the year. Pinto edged American Zach Bunnel (5-3, 4 KOs) via decision to reach the final.
Tiffany Van Soest (18-2-1, 6 KOs) was stellar in the main event of the Glory 44 SuperFight Series undercard main event in retaining her super bantamweight title for the first time. “Time Bomb” tore into last-minute replacement opponent Meryem Uslu (36-11-1, 12 KOs) before stopping her with a front kick to the face, followed by a flurry of punches and kicks. Referee Chris Wagner stopped the bout after administering Uslu an eight-count and deeming her unfit to continue. The end officially came 36 seconds into the fourth.
In other results, Richard Abraham beat Daniel Morales via unanimous decision; Michal Turynski defeated Catalin Morosanu by split decision; Dustin Jacoby obliterated Sean Choice when he dropped him three times in the first, scoring a TKO at 2:18 of the first; Robert Thomas knocked out Warren Thompson at 2:36 of the third; Nate Richardson unanimously outpointed Rafal Dudek; and Victor Pinto eked past Adrian Maxim via split decision.
Groenhart, a two-time Glory welterweight tournament champion, was surprisingly effective against Doumbe over the five allotted rounds as he landed dozens of punches and kicks on the defending champ. One of the greatest defensive fighters in all of kickboxing, Doumbe certainly made it difficult for the Dutch fighter to land anything clean, but “The Predator” used an uncompromising attack to win a unanimous decision via tallies of 48-37 (twice) and 49-46.
Armenian Harut Grigorian had to dig deep in both of his welterweight contender tournament fights to come out on top. Grigorian (46-11, 32 KOs) survived a three-round war with France’s Karim Benmansour (48-8-2, 22 KOs) in the opening round and then applied tons of pressure on slick Frenchman Antoine Pinto (133-37-1, 77 KOs) to repeat the triumph. Grigorian won both fights by unanimous verdict to earn a crack at Groenhart’s title later in the year. Pinto edged American Zach Bunnel (5-3, 4 KOs) via decision to reach the final.
Tiffany Van Soest (18-2-1, 6 KOs) was stellar in the main event of the Glory 44 SuperFight Series undercard main event in retaining her super bantamweight title for the first time. “Time Bomb” tore into last-minute replacement opponent Meryem Uslu (36-11-1, 12 KOs) before stopping her with a front kick to the face, followed by a flurry of punches and kicks. Referee Chris Wagner stopped the bout after administering Uslu an eight-count and deeming her unfit to continue. The end officially came 36 seconds into the fourth.
In other results, Richard Abraham beat Daniel Morales via unanimous decision; Michal Turynski defeated Catalin Morosanu by split decision; Dustin Jacoby obliterated Sean Choice when he dropped him three times in the first, scoring a TKO at 2:18 of the first; Robert Thomas knocked out Warren Thompson at 2:36 of the third; Nate Richardson unanimously outpointed Rafal Dudek; and Victor Pinto eked past Adrian Maxim via split decision.
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