Reigning Glory light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov lost to Saulo Cavalari via split decision at Glory 20. He turned the tides and beat Cavalari at Glory 28 by unanimous decision. Friday night, in the main event of Glory 38: Chicago, Vakhitov proved that he is truly the better of the two.
Cavalari cleared his head just enough to last a little longer, but Vakhitov was patient while in search of the knockout. Cavalari played it safe in an effort to survive the frame, but the multiple-time Russian and European champion switched to southpaw and bombarded him with punches to the head. Cavalari sagged into the corner, unable to defend himself, allowing not only Vakhitov to tee off, but to force referee Chris Wagner to rescue him. The official time of the TKO came at 2:43 of the second, allowing Vakhitov to successfully defend his title for the second time.
In a rather shocking upset in the Glory light heavyweight contender tournament, Brazil’s Ariel Machado cut through the bracket like a knife through warm butter to win the whole thing. Machado started off the night by dominating Germany’s Danyo Illunga and beating him via unanimous decision. He tagged Illunga several times to the head with powerful punches and scored a flash knockdown in the third to easily win via tallies of 30-26 (twice) and 30-27.
Machado’s good fortunes continued in the finals when he clubbed heavy tournament favorite Zinedine Hameur-Lain out in the first round. Hameur-Lain, who brutally knocked out Brian Collette with an overhand right at 2:46 of the second in his semifinal match, didn’t seem as fast or explosive against Machado. Though the European tagged him with several clean punches and a few glancing head kicks, Machado was relentless.
Machado sent Hameur-Lain to the canvas after drilling him with a right hook late in the round and the Frenchman was counted out just as he was climbing back to his feet. The end officially came at 2:43 of the first, though Hameur-Lain was clenching his stomach while he was down. Replays were inconclusive as to whether a gnarly body shot hurt him before Machado tagged him to the jaw, however. The impressive tournament win sets up a meeting between Machado and Vakhitov later in the year.
Local welterweight contender Richard Abraham was hoping to give his hometown fans a show to remember, but he had a heck of a time in figuring out the tricky style of France’s Antoine Pinto. Abraham plodded forward for all three rounds, trying to sucker the younger kid into a boxing slugfest, but Pinto was elusive on the outside and continuously tied the American up on the inside. Abraham absorbed countless knees to the body and pesky punches to the head and though he landed some damaging blows in the contest, it was not enough to get him over the hump. A flash knockdown of Pinto in the closing seconds of the bout was ruled a slip and it cost Abraham the fight; Pinto won a split decision via tallies of 29-28 (twice) and 28-29.