Considerable pressure accompanied Mohamed El Mir to the ring for his featherweight showdown with the debuting Simon Santana of Norway.
For one, he was still looking for his first win in GLORY. Two, he was making his featherweight debut in the organization, having previously campaigned at lightweight. And finally, but most heavily, he was three months removed from the death of his father.
As an added layer of pressure, El Mir said he was dedicating his fight to his father and that if he was not successful he would be retiring from competition. So he had a lot on his mind in the months, weeks and days leading up to the bout. His face was a picture of focus when he made his walk to the ring.
Santana too was focused, this fight representing his debut in the world's premier kickboxing league and the biggest opportunity of his career to date. He had not come to Copenhagen to roll over and so the first round was a close and competitive war with a high level of output from both.
El Mir was on home soil but Santana's fire won him this round, sealing it with a blow near the end of the round which visibly staggered El Mir shortly before the bell rang and the fighters returned to their corners.
Things changed in the second as El Mir clicked into gear. He began figuring Santana out and finding routes to land significant shots. In particular he had success with his straight right cross as a counter-attack, Santana standing too wide and square in front of him and paying the price accordingly.
Santana had some stunning good luck in the second round. He was put down on three occasions, the first two seeming to be clear-cut knockdowns, but the referee ruled all three instances to be slips and did not administer a count. El Mir did not protest but would have been within his rights to do so.
Still, the fighters were very closely matched in terms of strikes landed as they went into the third round, El Mir having landed 47 and Santana close behind with 46. The third frame would be decisive and they were resolved to leave it all in the ring.
It was a hard-fought round, the pace not slowing despite the output from both. El Mir began to edge into control of the encounter but Santana stayed dangerous. The final thirty seconds of the round were a firefight, the two swinging wildly at each other, standing just inches apart.
At one point El Mir stood with his arms out wide, baiting Santana and daring him to take a shot. Santana duly obliged, only for El Mir to anticipate it and sidestep, landing a big right cross counter of his own as Santana came in and rocking the Norwegian.
Despite their best efforts the two fighters went the distance and onto the judges' scorecards. All five judges felt El Mir had lost the first round but had taken the following two, returning a unanimous decision in his favor and handing him his first win in the organization.
“This fight was for my father tonight. This last three months I only trained and cut weight, that's all I did. Now I will not retire, I will fight again, and I hope GLORY can put me in a four-man tournament and I can show all the people that featherweight is my weight class,” he said afterwards.
Mohamed El Mir def Simon Santana, Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
