Chenchen Li and Elvis Gashi were the bonus award winners at GLORY 43 NEW YORK, scooping the awards for Knockout of the Night and Fighter of the Night respectively. Li, making his debut for GLORY, opened the Superfight Series card in a fight with American counterpart Terrance Hill (10-2, 2 KO’s). The veteran Hill’s record includes a win over former GLORY featherweight champion Gabriel Varga but Li (28-5, 15 KO’s) showed no respect for that pedigree. The Chinese featherweight put the pressure on Hill from the outset and was rewarded with a knockout blow via a hard left hand just under two minutes into the first round. Gashi (19-0, 10 KO’s) came in on three weeks’ notice to face Canadian lightweight Josh Jauncey, who was the heavy favorite going into the bout. Jauncey (27-8, 15 KO’s) quipped pre-fight that Elvis would be “leaving the building early” and so he did, but in the manner Jauncey expected. Instead of going down in the second round as Jauncey had predicted, Gashi turned the tables and scored a knockout of his own, dropping Jauncey three times in the second round of the fight. Under GLORY rules, three knockdowns in one round ends a fight by TKO. Gashi secured the third knockdown just seconds before the second round ended, earning a huge upset win on his GLORY debut. Both bonus awards are worth $5,000 and will be added to the receiving fighters’ payments from GLORY 43 in addition to their contracted purses. GLORY’s next event takes place on Friday, August 25 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Chicago, USA and features welterweight champion Cedric ‘The Best’ Doumbe in the headline slot against his rival Murthel ’The Predator’ Groenhart. Tickets for GLORY 44 CHICAGO are on sale now.
