GLORY 5 London - Spong vs Bonjasky Fight Card Updates

[keithlewis]

FOUR-TIME WORLD CHAMP STEPHEN WAKELING TO BATTLE KO ARTIST EDDIE ‘SHOWTIME’ WALKER AT STAR-STUDDED GLORY 5 LONDON KICKBOXING EVENT MARCH 23


Four-time world champion Stephen Wakeling (36-4, 14 KO’s) of Kent, England will square off with fast-rising KO artist Eddie ‘Showtime’ Walker (11-2-1, 9 KOs) of Atlanta, Ga. in a middleweight (85 kilograms/187 pounds) contest at the star-studded GLORY 5London kickboxing event at ExCel Arena in London, England on Saturday, March 23, Glory Sports International announced today.

The 29-year-old Wakeling, renowned for his excellent conditioning and tendency to inflict heavy punishment on opponents, has faced and defeated a host of top-ranked riva! l superstars, including Thailand’s famed world champion Jaowchalam Chatjanokgym and Australian powerhouse ‘John’ Wayne Parr. On July 7, 2012, Wakeling fought pound-for-pound sensation Artem Levin to a draw in a spectacular, five-round bout in England.

Wakeling comes from a high pedigree of fighting stock. His father Mark was a successful fighter in his own right and had a career which culminated with a fight in Thailand’s prestigious annual King’s Cup tournament in 1998. Wakeling’s brother, Mike, is a European champion.

Walker, experienced a career breakthrough last year when he scored a shocking, upset KO of WBC interim Muay Thai champion Joe ‘Stitch ‘Em Up’ Schilling after Schilling had put Walker down twice early in the fight in Las Vegas, Nev.

The come-from-behind victor! y earned Walker a spot in the ROAD TO GLORY USA inaugural, middleweight development series tournament in Los Angeles, Calif. on Feb. 9. There, Walker finished as runner-up after scoring a second round (1:26) KO on Edgar Del Fierro and a second round (2:13) TKO on Van Wyk Povey in the quarterfinal and semifinal stages of the tournament, respectively.

Walker is known for possessing frightening power in both hands and, with 9 of his 11 professional wins by way of stoppage inside the distance, he has an incredible 81 percent finish rate. Walker trains under Manu N’toh, a renowned instructor who also counts UFC middleweight Brian Stann among his students, and posted a 7-0 amateur record before turning professional in 2010.

In the highly-anticipated heavyweight main event, decorated,! all-time great Remy Bonjasky (77-15, 40 KO’s) of The Netherlands will take on ferocious, surging superstar Tyrone Spong (68-6-1 42 KO’s) of Boca Raton, Fla. via The Netherlands.


All GLORY 5 London bouts are comprised of three, three-minute rounds. The complete fight card is as follows:

Heavyweight Main Event
Tyrone Spong (Netherlands) vs. Remy Bonjasky (Netherlands)

Lightweight
Andy Ristie (Suriname) vs. Albert Kraus (Netherlands)

Light-Heavyweight
Stephane Susperregui (France) vs. Danyo Ilunga (Congo)

Featherweight
Liam Harrison (UK) vs. Mo! sab Armani (Morocco)

Lightweight
Jordan Watson (UK) vs. Steve Moxon (Australia)

Light-Heavyweight
Raymond Daniels (USA) vs. TBA

Heavyweight
Jaideep Singh (UK/India) vs. Daniel Sam (UK)

Middleweight
Stephen Wakeling (UK) vs. Eddie Walker (USA)

Welterweight
Maxim Vorovski (Russia) vs. Duoli Chen (China)

Lightweight
Johann Fauveau (France) vs. Warren Stevelmans (South Africa)

Catchweight
Reece McAllister (UK) vs. Tim Thomas (UK)

[broncofan]

Final card for Saturday.


Main Card:

HW: Remy Bonjasky vs. Tyrone Spong
70kg: Jordan Watson vs. Steve Moxon
70kg: Albert Kraus vs. Andy Ristie
85kg: Eddie Walker vs. Steve Wakeling
95kg: Stephane Susperregui vs. Danyo Ilunga
95kg: Michael Duut vs. Dustin Jacoby
65kg: Mosab Amrani vs. Liam Harrison
HW: Singh Jaideep vs. Daniel Sam
70kg: Warren Stevelmans vs. Johann Fauveau
67kg: Reece McAllister vs. Tim Thomas
77kg: Maxim Vorovski vs. Nicola Gallo


Preliminary Card:

Chad Sugden vs. Sam Wilson
Marlon Hunt vs. Adam Hadfield
Sam Omomogbe vs. Kerrith Bhella
Fraser Weightman vs. Boris Uhlik

[keithlewis]

"Eddie Walker not on my level," says England's Steve Wakeling


Stephen Wakeling is a big name in the European kickboxing world but he has been pretty inactive in the last few years. This isn’t by choice - if Wakeling had his way he would be fighting every other weekend and taking on the best of the best.

Instead, Wakeling says he has found himself either not being able to get opponents, or being offered sub-par opposition or purses which are below the level of remuneration he feels is acceptable for a fighter of his standing and reputation.

Because make no mistake, Wakeling’s standing and reputation are second to none in the fighting world. Having won seven fights where there has been a world title on the line - including the prestigious WMC belt - Wakeling has earned not just success but a reputation for ferocity and the ability to do serious damage. Perhaps it is no surprise that he feels people are avoiding him.

“Its true, its been a struggle to get fights really. And its not for lack of trying. But it has been a challenge to get people to sign on the dotted line. Either that, or there have been offers where the purses just haven’t been right. I don’t mean to sound big-headed or arrogant but I know what I am worth and I won’t fight for peanuts,” he explains.

“I was very happy when GLORY came along because they are a great organization. The shows are really nice, they have signed all the best fighters, they pay well and they are really looking to push the sport forward and take it to new heights.”

At GLORY 5 LONDON, Wakeling will face Eddie ‘Showtime’ Walker, a US middleweight who has been making a name for himself with a string of knockout wins and upset victories. In 2012 he stopped the top American name Joe Schilling and last month he came second in the middleweight Road To Glory tournament, stopping two opponents and then being stopped by Mike Lemaire in the final.

“I’ve seen some of his fights. He’s aggressive, he has a crowd-pleasing style,” says Wakeling, noting Walker’s propensity for knocking out opponents. But Wakeling also thinks that Walker hasn’t faced too many fighters with tight technicality, and that he will be in for a surprise on Saturday night.

“I’m not one for talking before fights but I do think that he is not ready for this level, certainly not for a fighter like me. He was stopped with leg kicks in the tournament last month, for example. Its a fight and anything can happen but I’m feeling confident and I don’t expect ring-rust to be a factor.”

[keithlewis]

Kraus: "I'm the best lightweight in the world"


In the world of lightweight kick boxers, Albert Kraus is royalty. A consistent figure in the top three at seventy kilograms since emerging onto the world scene a decade ago, Kraus has several times occupied the number one spot.

Currently the Armenia-Italian maestro Giorgio Petrosyan has tenure of that lofty position, but Kraus wants it back. He and Petrosyan were the top seeds in last year’s inaugural GLORY lightweight grand prix. Having made it to the Final 8 stage, Kraus

was forced to drop out when he came down with severe influenza days before the eight-tournament was to play out in Rome, Italy.

“The day I was supposed to fly to Rome I was so sick I couldn’t even get out of bed. I was so disappointed, really disappointed. I trained really hard and then I was so sick. The day I had to leave, this happened to me. I watched the fights and I

thought it was a good tournament - but of course one guy was missing!” he says.

Petrosyan eventually won it via a series of masterful performances, but Kraus isn’t convinced that things would have gone the same for the Italian had influenza not interfered with proceedings,

“I had been very well trained, it was the most important thing of the year for me and I had felt very confident about the tournament. Very confident. I had a really good feeling about it so, who knows? We see next time.”

Kraus has fought Petrosyan twice and lost by decision both times. The first he has no issues with but the second he thinks was a clear robbery. At the very least, he says, the judges should have exercised their option to have another round fought.

Instead they gave Petrosyan what Kraus feels was a gift decision.

“For sure I think I would beat him if he fight him again. For sure! I think if you see my last fight with him, I should have won this fight. For me, that fight, if they let me get an extra round then I would really have finished him,” Kraus fumes.

“But I think maybe K-1 helped him, they wanted to create some new stars maybe, and they did it behind my back.”

This weekend, Kraus will face Andy Ristie in a fight which will do much to determine what the upper end of the GLORY lightweight division looks like. Ristie, from the former Dutch colony of Suriname, has had some standout performances in the past

two years and is being talked up as a hot prospect.

“He is a strong fighter with a little bit of a strange style, I watched a few fights of his. He is not the same style as a lot of other guys, he does a lot of knees to the body, a lot of leaning back. But I am well-trained and I am feeling confident,“ Kraus

says. “I don’t have any particular tactic for him, I just do my usual thing, I don’t think I need to do anything special to deal with him.”

Kraus - 32 years old - is increasingly subject to speculation about his age. While he is the oldest of the top lightweights, he doesn’t feel he has taken much damage over the years and says that because he came through at a relatively late age, he is

the same as many of his younger peers in ‘fight years’. It is also worth noting that Ristie is himself 30 years old.

“People always talk. And a lot of these people, they talk sideways - they don’t tell you anything to your face. For me its no problem, I get more motivated from these people. But on the day that I am finished, that I am too old, then I quit, I will

know it in myself,” Kraus says. “But as long as I feel fit, as long as I feel that I am the best fighter in the world, I stay in the ring.”