Richard Abraham (11-5, 4 KO's) went 4-0 in GLORY before losing a close split-decision to Antoine Pinto at GLORY 38 CHICAGO earlier this year, which put him a step back in his quest to secure a GLORY welterweight title shot.
Standing opposite him was Jamie Bates (24-6, 3 KO's), a name on the British circuit but new to GLORY after being scouted on a recent 'Road to GLORY' show in the UK. He was looking to make a big impression in his debut.
Immediately apparent was the height and range difference between them. Bates stands 6'1 against Abraham's 5'9 and had a seven-inch reach advantage. That meant Abraham would have to find a way to bridge the gap and land his shots.
It wasn't to be. Bates may be new to GLORY but he actually has more experience than Abraham as a professional and he used that to his advantage as he sought to keep the Chicago, USA man on the outside and pepper him with shots.
Bates didn't land anything particularly heavy on Abraham in the fight and never had him hurt, but his use of range and angles made it hard for Abraham to land the shots he wanted to. Abraham is a concussive puncher and Bates felt the force of it when the gap was bridged, but for the most part the tricky Brit was able to avoid the worst of it.
Aside from his use of range and angles, Bates also caught the eye with his variety of strikes. He grew up with a karate instructor for a father and that is apparent in his game, which mixes techniques from the Japanese art along with kickboxing and Muay Thai. That variety allowed him to rack up points at the same time as visually impressing.
Some of Abraham's best moments came in the final thirty seconds of the fight as he pressured forward recklessly and swung heavy as Bates was backed onto the ropes. He couldn't find the overhand right bomb that he needed to stop the fight though and at that point only a stoppage would have won him the bout.
Sure enough, the judges had a unanimous decision win in store for Bates, with one of the five giving one round to Abraham and the other four having all three rounds for the Brit, who heads home from Copenhagen now 1-0 in GLORY and ready to “get to work” on his campaign to climb the rankings towards a title shot.
Jamie Bates def. Richard Abraham, Unanimous Decision, R3 (29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
