Anissa Meksen shut out Brazil’s Jady Menezes over three rounds on the GLORY 43 NEW YORK Superfight Series card, taking a unanimous decision win in her debut appearance for the organization. Menezes, also making her GLORY debut in this fight, has a mere fraction of the ring experience that Meksen has, yet gave a good account of herself in taking the decorated French national the distance. Fighting out of Curitiba, Brazil - a city famous for producing aggressive strikers such as Wanderlei Silva - the young Menezes looked to press forwards on Meksen, trying to close the distance and land power shots at close range. But Meksen, who says her style is "to hit and not get hit in return”, has made an art of controlling the distance in her fights. Most of the time she was able to keep Menezes at the range she wanted her. Meksen’s lightning-fast and varied combination work presented her with numerous scoring opportunities, whereas Menezes’ output was more powerful but more limited in volume and variety. When Menezes could get the range closed down she was able to land heavy and score well, but for the most part she found herself stuck on the outside and having her efforts neutered. She found herself following Meksen around the ring and walking onto punches, knees, spin kicks and more. That is not to say Menezes did not impress; it was a competitive bout and she clearly demonstrated she has the skills to hang at this level. Meksen is just on a different level again. Her extensive list of titles and achievements speaks for itself. When she signed with GLORY she said she was coming to capture the belt and this win was the first step towards that. There is little doubt that Meksen represents the biggest threat to Tiffany van Soest’s super-bantamweight crown. Anissa Meksen def. Jady Menezes, Unanimous Decision, R3 (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
