Exciting news for kickboxing fans – Glory is coming back. The top kickboxing organization announced details on their next show this week. Glory 27 will be live in Chicago, IL on Friday, February 26. The show is at the Sears Centre, with tickets going on sale via pre-sale January 8, and with a general on sale date of January 11. Glory fans will remember that this is the same venue that hosted Glory 11 – the company’s debut show on Spike back in 2013. That was a fantastic show with an all time classic main event of Rico Verhoeven vs. Daniel Ghita – now the company will try to top that at Glory 27.
Headlining Glory 27 will be one of the big Glory fights of the year, as Artem Levin takes on Simon Marcus once again for the Glory Middleweight title. This will be the 3rd meeting between these two men, the consensus top two Middleweights in kickboxing today. Their first fight was contested under Muay Thai rules in Lion Fight in 2013; Marcus took the decision there. They rematched last May at Glory 21 with the fight going to a highly controversial draw that many felt Marcus should have won. Since that fight, Marcus has not competed, while Levin has gone 4-0, all in fights in Russia outside of Glory.
Also exciting news as part of this announcement – the show will air on the ESPN networks. Glory left their broadcast partner Spike last fall, and has been on the ESPN networks since, but it’s been on a show by show basis. No word yet if a more permanent deal is in place, but Glory has confirmed that they remain with ESPN for now.
No other fights have yet been confirmed for Glory 27, though we do know the show will also feature a 4 man Middleweight contender tournament, with the winner earning the next shot at the Levin vs. Marcus winner.
In one final update, Glory’s website currently has a banner that indicates Glory 28 will take place in March, and features the images of Gokhan Saki and Saulo Cavalari, so pencil that in as the likely Glory 28 headliner.
We’ll have more details on Glory 27 and 28 as they become available.
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