Friday night will be the second time Simon Marcus and Jason Wilnis have fought. Their first fight – at GLORY 20 DubaI – ended in a decision win for Marcus, and Wilnis has had plenty to say about it in the meantime. Marcus is now looking forward to addressing Wilnis’ comments in physical form.
Wilnis has maintained that Marcus got a lucky edge over him in their GLORY 20 fight due to having an “easy” fight with a rather passive Wayne Barrett, as opposed to Wilnis’ own three-round war with Alex Pereira, himself a former Contender tournament winner. Wilnis’ contention has been that he was carrying vastly more damage than Marcus into their tournament final fight.
“Losers always make excuses for why they failed to be successful so that statement is no surprise to me,” snorts Marcus derisively. “As a matter a fact, if you watch the fight, I had injured my right foot badly and was unable to use it at all in the match and also tore a muscle in my leg against Barrett. I was not fighting to my full potential at all, so I’m curious to see what his excuses will be this time after I bust him up.
“That fight against Wilnis was far from being one of the harder fights I’ve been in with other top opponents. He has a style that will do well against some of the other top competition, but not me. Nevertheless he can be dangerous so I will be stepping into the ring prepared for anything he has to offer. Based on our last fight I would rate him as a B- level fighter.”
Marcus and Wilnis actually crossed paths backstage at GLORY 30 Los Angeles earlier this year. Wilnis was there to fight Joe Schilling and Marcus was making his first defense of the middleweight title he had won when Artem Levin stormed out of the ring in frustration during their GLORY 27 Chicago clash. Wilnis had passed comment on that as well, saying that Marcus had “got the middleweight belt for free.”
“I knew after he beat Schilling that night that he would likely be the next number one contender and I’m more than excited to show him why I am the world champion. As a matter of fact, I told him face to face as he returned to the locker rooms after his win against Schilling. I told him we have a score to settle. I run from no man,” says Marcus.
“It doesn’t annoy me though. It’s actually amusing to me that I am now going to get the chance to bust his ass and shut him up. Mentally, physically and spiritually I feel I have reached new heights and am looking forward to displaying that on Friday night.
“I visualize myself putting on a dominating performance and ending the fight with a KO. I believe I owe it to Glory , my fans and myself. Lil’ Willy doesn’t deserve to go five rounds with the champ.”
GLORY 33 New Jersey ‘Superfight Series’ airs live worldwide on UFC Fight Pass from 8:30pm ET. Marcus and Wilnis headline the Fight Pass broadcast, which also features British heavyweight Chi Lewis-Parry, a training partner of Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez at AKA, as he faces undefeated American opponent Anthony ‘The Joker’ MacDonald.
When the Superfight Series card concludes, the action moves live to ESPN 2 from 11pm ET as the GLORY 33 numbered card goes live. That card is headlined by Rico Verhoeven defending the heavyweight championship against Brazilian veteran Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva.
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