Glory 23 Breakdown
Middleweight Tournament Qualifier Dustin Jacoby vs. Ariel Sepulveda Round 1 Good leg kicks and body kicks from Jacoby. He kept Sepulveda way out of striking range with great jabs. Sepulveda had a right hook to the body in the exchange that was good but he wasn't able to get anything else in the mix. Jacoby knocked out Sepulveda commandingly with punches and a finishing right hand. Dustin Jacoby def. Ariel Sepulveda via R1 KO (Punches) That was a great win for Jacoby to snap his recent 0-4 streak in his last four fights. I didn't think he would do well in the tournament for that reason, but he looks really crisp after that opener. Middleweight Tournament Qualifier Casey Greene vs. Quinton O' Brien Round 1 Good hooks from Greene to open. O' Brien is very heavy on his feet compared to Greene. Great 1-2 from Greene before the fight was paused from a cup kick. O' Brien has landed a few shots to the body but Greene is getting much better of the exchanges. I have it 10-9 Greene, he won that round without question. Round 2 Huge kicks from Greene in this round. O' Brien landed a good head kick and scored with push kicks to the body. O' Brien looked much better in this round-like a completely different fighter. As the round went on, Greene's gas looked like it was getting low in this round but I still think he got the best of it with more punches. This was a close round but I give it to O' Brien 10-9. Round 3 More body kicks and push kicks from O' Brien. Greene outstruck O' Brien in this round as in the first. The kick percentages were pretty close but Greene was able to land significantly more punches to the head and body. His punches had a lot of snap and he scored often with kicks to the leg and body. No question, 10-9 Greene. He will win most likely by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Casey Greene def. Quinton O'Brien by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). I was right on the scoring prediction. Greene spent a lot a lot of energy in this fight and it will play a big factor in the final against Dustin Jacoby. Jacoby didn't expend nearly the same amount of energy in his fight against Sepulveda. Xavier Vigney vs. Daniel Sam Round 1 Great head kick opener from Vigney. Sam had some great leg kicks but Vigney was able to close the distance with jabs to stop them. Sam scored with a big overhand right but he was outpunched significantly. 10-9 Vigney. Round 2 Sam with more leg kicks and another overhand right. Vigney is constantly getting behind sam's guard with hooks though. Sam needs to be much more active and kick more to the legs to win. Vigney 10-9. Round 3 Good work from Vigney continuing into the third round. Sam has been pretty inactive in the fight thus far but he has done great with leg kicks in this round. There's a good argument that he won this round based on kicks, but I think that Vigney still took it 10-9. I believe Vigney won by unanimous decision (30-27x3) Xavier Vigney def. Daniel Sam via split decision (29-28 Sam, 29-28 Vigney, 30-27 Vigney). I can't believe a judge gave two rounds to Sam, that is completely ludicrous. If you completely close your eyes to punches and just watch the kicks, then yes. But two rounds? Vigney outboxed Sam skillfully. Sam should have thrown more leg kicks in the first two rounds to slow Vigney's movent. Vigney is a young heavyweight prospect and I believe he'll be fighting Rico Verhoeven soon for the heavyweight title. Middleweight Tournament Final. As I said before, Greene spent way more energy than Jacoby in the first round of the tournament. I wouldn't have guessed it but I think Jacoby will take this fight based on his gas tank. Casey Greene vs. Dustin Jacoby Round 1 Great push kiick from Jacoby. Greene scored with a hard right hook. Great left hook Jacoby. Jacoby hit very hard in this round and outscored Greene. Jacoby had a great ability to strike with variety and a flying knee to cut Greene. Jacoby had better defense overall and he scored a late knockdown in the first. 10-8 JAcoby Round 2 Jacoby landed power punch after power punch on Greene. He made critical errors in his defense by leaving his hands down low. Jacoby got a but carried away at the end but he pummeled Greene for the TKO victory when Mark Smith calls it off by TKO. Dustin Jacoby def. Casey Greene via 2nd round TKO (punches) I think both the knockdown and the TKO call were great calls. Greene wasn't technically down on the canvas but the ropes prevented him from being knocked down so it did and should count. Greene may not have been lights out but he was not defending himself intelligently. Hats off to Dustin Jacoby for turning around his recent luck and hats off to Mark Smith for excellent officiating. Glory Welterweight Title Fight Holzken defeated Daniels once before and I believe he will do it again tonight. I think Holzken will trap Daniels in the ring corners as he did in the first fight and kick his legs out from underneath him. Granted, this is their first fight of the night. Nieky Holzken vs. Raymond Daniels This was exactly the fight I expected. Holzken outboxed Daniels once again by forcing Daniels into the corners of the ring. I have to say Daniels looked much better in this rematch in that he utilized much more lateral movement to stay out of the corners. Daniels looked really crisp and eventually relaxed in the fight into the second. Two excellent moments in this fight when Nieky Holzken recognized that Daniels' was cut wide open and interrupted his vision beyond his ability to fight. Also, when McCarthy stopped it. It was absolutely necessary even though it wasn't a very pretty ending. It looked like Daniels could see out of his eyelid in two different places. Nieky Holzkien def. Raymond Daniels via 3rd round TKO (cut)