The Good, the Bad and the GLORY: How well did Last Man Standing fare?
by Andreas Georgiou - @AGeorgiouMMA.jpg) |
| Artem Levin (left) punishing Joe Schilling - Copyright Glory Sports International |
The Good: From top to bottom the card was stacked. Quite often, with UFC events, there are a few fights on the card that have the audience hooked, and a few more which do the opposite. GLORY seemed to avoid this and had action from start to finish, with the Last Man Standing tournament and two title matches. I think that having strong PPV cards can only benefit the sport, having fights that fans are disinterested in usually equals low PPV buys, but with the social media buzz I hope that GLORY do well in their PPV market so fans can see more nights like Saturday.
With the depth of the card, GLORY did a good job introducing a lot of fighters to a new audience. There is no doubt that last night’s super card was about bringing in new fans to the sport, and from the overnight reaction, it would seem they managed that. Introducing a lot of fighters was something important for GLORY going forward, a handful of middleweights, welterweights and heavyweights, with the majority of them being retained by the organisation. So it was very important for fans to start building their fighter recognition, it’s just a natural thing in sports.
The Bad: If there was anything that hindered the show, it would have to be its length. Although there were lots of good fights, it felt very gruelling watching a four hour PPV (on top of the two hour preliminary show) and especially as a UK viewer where the card started at 1am and ended at 7am, it was sometimes a struggle to stay focused and awake during the show.
Another negative point for me would be the commentary of Ron Kruck and Duke Roufus. At times Kruck made a few mistakes with his commentary, stumbling on his words. Roufus is very knowledgeable with his kickboxing knowledge however I feel that he and Kruck don’t mesh very well. I am a big supporter of Mauro Ranallo, and his experience from PRIDE, Strikeforce and boxing brings a seasoned, accomplished voice to GLORY, something missing at Last Man Standing.
This next point would definitely have to be the biggest gripe of the evening, yet again combat sports fall upon controversial judging scores. Firstly in the Melvin Manhoef vs Filip Verlinden fight, one judge scored the fight 28-28 despite the Belgium dominating most of the fight, and knocking down Manhoef. However the biggest judging call of the evening was the unanimous decision 47-46 win for Joseph Valtellini over Marc de Bonte. Both men scored knockdowns in the fight, but I felt that de Bonte took the last round definitively, thus winning the fight 47-46, but the judges didn’t see it that way. With Neiky Holzken back on the scene, obviously GLORY will be inclined to book a rematch with Bazooka Joe, but I feel a sense of injustice if de Bonte doesn’t get a return fight before the close of 2014.
The GLORY: One of the really enjoyable things from the pay-per-view was the brilliant presenting. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Ron Kruck and Duke Roufus on commentary, so it was a breath of fresh air to see the panellist table of Michael Schiavello, Stephen Quadros and Remy Bojansky. I’ve always been a huge fan of “The Voice” Schiavello, the way he construes his language and pitch to create excitement is something un-paralleled in the sport. Quadros is a legend, and fans will remember him in the early days of the UFC. Bojansky needs no introduction, as one of the most decorated Dutch kickboxers ever. These three gelled together really well and I would love to see GLORY maintain their services.
Joe Schilling vs Simon Marcus was an excellent fight from a neutral perspective. Everyone wondered how Marcus would cope under K-1 rules without the use of his muay thai clinches and elbows. The fight itself was the clear best of the night, both men put it all on the line in a crazy quarter final match-up, seemingly without care for the fact that the winner would still have to go through two more opponents. The fight ended in a 28-28 draw, so a sudden death victory round was called. This is something I would love to see in MMA. A tired Marcus didn’t seem up to the challenge, and it was pretty much a formality when he was deducted a point for continually dropping his mouth piece, but moments later Schilling knocked him out, ironically sending his mouth piece flying one last time.
Although we didn’t see many finishes on the GLORY card, a fantastic knockout by Wayne Barrett had fans screaming de ja vu after his looping hook knocked out an air borne Stoica in similar fashion to Fedor Emelianenko’s knockout of Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.
What did you think of GLORY: Last Man Standing? Leave a comment below or join in the debate on twitter with the handle @KingdomMMA.
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