Guto Inocente (34-7) successfully maitained his unbeten run in the GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES co-headline bout with D'Angelo Marshall (14-3), although it was a close-run thing.
The two fought at a frenetic pace for the three rounds of the fight. At that point it went to the judges for a decision and the scores came back as a draw, resulting in the fight going to an extra round.
The key point of the fight was an overhand right from Inocente which dropped Marshall in the second round. He couldn't find the finish after Marshall beat the count but it did win him the round by a score of 10-8.
It was a crucial score for Inocente; without dropping Marshall the result would not have been a draw and the fight would not have gone to an extra round. Inocente was perhaps unlucky with that scoring anyway; Marshall was right in front of him for the whole fight but neither man really dominated.
Due to the venue GLORY 37 took place in – The Novo Theater at the LA Live! complex in downtown Los Angeles – there were space restrictions and that meant the ring was slightly smaller than usual.
That aided Marshall, as Inocente's kick-based game requires a lot of space and movement. With his space restricted, Inocente didn't have the same ability to launch some of his trademark strikes and Marshall was aided in his ability to close Inocente down and deny him room.
Marshall's incessant forward pressure had him fading a little towards the end of the third. In the extr round Inocente pushed himself to the limit and produced a higher workrate with more significant strikes landed.
That won him the round and won him the fight. Inocente now rises to 4-0 in GLORY and moves up the rankings, edging him closer to title contention or a spot in a Heavyweight Contender Tournament.
