GLORY will crown its first-ever female champion in December when the Women's Super-Bantamweight Grand Prix reaches its conclusion at the GLORY: COLLISION on December 10.
The competition has played out across several events in 2016 and has seen a starting field of eight fighters whittled down to a final four. Those four will now compete in a one-night tournament at GLORY: COLLISION, with the two semi-final winners meeting later in the evening for a finale match which will crown a champion.
In the first of the semi-finals, bookmaker's favorite Tiffany "Time Bomb" van Soest (15-2-1, 5 KO's) of Los Angeles, California will meet Canadian counterpart Jessica "Thumper" Gladstone (6-6, 2 KO's). The second semi-final will see 21-year-old Dutch talent Isis "Fight Queen" Verbeek (9-3, 5 KO's) meet undefeated French standout Amel Dehby (28-0, 11 KO's).
Van Soest is a former Muay Thai champion who also competes in MMA for the INVICTA FC promotion. She rode an extensive win streak into her GLORY debut and continued it with a win over Emma Hasshass of the Netherlands to progress to the semi-finals.
Gladstone came in to GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY on a weeks notice to face Daniela Graf of Germany and scored a huge upset when she was able to outwork and outland her more experienced European opponent to win a decision and move forward in the tournament.
Verbeek trains alongside some of the bigger names in Dutch kickboxing, including Marat Grigorian and Errol Zimmerman. She says that ever since she was a young girl she dreamed of being a professional kickboxer and on leaving high school she went full-time in pursuing that goal.
Dehby made her debut at GLORY 35 NICE and maintained her undefeated record when she dominated young South Korean prospect Jiwaen Lee over three rounds. Dehby is tournament favorite alongside Van Soest.
The two semi-final fights will take place on the SUPERFIGHT SERIES section of the card with the tournament final then taking place on the GLORY: COLLISION section of the card towards the end of the event, along with Nieky Holzken's welterweight title defense against France's Cedric Doubmé.
Watch GLORY 36 SUPERFIGHT SERIES live on UFC FIGHT PASS on Saturday, December 10. The card will be followed by GLORY 36 GERMANY (ESPN in the USA) and the evening will then conclude with the four-fight GLORY: COLLISION pay-per-view headlined by Rico Verhoeven and Badr Hari.
The GLORY: COLLISION pay-per-view is priced at $29.95 and available through US providers (DISH, DirecTV, iNDemand) and digitally via UFC.tv
