Saulo Cavalari announced his presence to the rest of the GLORY light-heavyweight division when he stopped the decorated veteran Mourad Bouzidi on the undercard of the GLORY 12 NEW YORK show last November.
The finish was one of the knockouts of the year and, coming after Cavalari had out pointed the very good Filip Verlinden in his debut for GLORY, marked him out as a talent. It also earned him a spot as a wild card in the GLORY 15 ISTANBUL Light-Heavyweight Championship Tournament.
He faced Tyrone Spong in the semi-final of the competition. The general consensus pre-fight was that he was overmatched but Cavalari showed otherwise. He rose to the occasion to give Spong a very tough fight and while he lost a decision, he also won a lot of hearts and minds.
On November 7 he finds himself in a tournament once again. This time the prize is a shot at the light-heavyweight title. Gokhan Saki won it by breaking Spong’s shin the final of the Istanbul tournament. Now Cavalari is one of four men hoping to earn the right to challenge him for it.
Cavalari will face the former #1 light-heavyweight Danyo Ilunga in the semi-final, a match of two very hard-hitting kickboxers who are both very driven to win. As we see in this video, Cavalari comes from the slums and fighting success is his only route out of there, while Ilunga wants his former preeminent position back.
In the other tournament bracket, Zack Mwekassa – coming off his GLORY 16 DENVER knockout of Pat Barry – faces Brian ‘The Lion’ Collette, a Muay Thai stylist from Virginia who is also coming off a big KO victory. The odds of all three tournament fights ending inside the distance are high to say the least.
The event airs live on SPIKE TV from 9pm ET on Friday, November 7. Rumor also reaches Bloody Elbow that the ‘Superfight Series’ undercard may have a live broadcast as well, though no deal is yet finalized.
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