Niclas Larsen's incredible story had another chapter added to it in his home city of Copenhagen on Saturday night as he took a win over Yodkhunpon in the GLORY 40 COPENHAGEN co-main event to continue his comeback from grievous illness and take another step closer to a title shot.
Following a win over Steve Moxon at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL, Larsen looked set to go on a run in the lightweight division. But the Danish talent then found himself plunged into a nightmare as shortly afterwards he contracted an infection which would eventually take two years to beat.
In that two years he was hospitalized several times and at one point had doctors stood around his hospital bed talking to him about amputating a leg. Larsen managed to beat the infection but had to start adult life almost literally from square one when he left hospital – not only could he not kickbox, he actually needed to learn to walk again.
Fast-forward to early 2017 and Larsen had plenty of recovery time and training behind him as he entered the ring for GLORY 38, his first fight since GLORY 15. It was a tense time and a hard test but he passed with flying colors and showed that he remains every bit the top talent he appeared to be before illness took hold of him.
GLORY 40 was his second outing of 2017 and equally pressured because it was taking place on hoe soil. His opponent was also trickier than the one which faced him in Chicago and that added a layer of difficulty; Larsen is usually the trickiest fighter in there, but tricks are second nature to Thai fighters, raised in the ring from infancy, and so Larsen may have had some worries.
If he did, they proved unfounded. His range, speed and reflexes kept him out of trouble, aided by the fact that Yodkhunpon is that rarer kind of Thai who likes to get into close-range wars rather than scoring clean points at a distance.
Larsen's brain and ring generalship make him a cut above most of his peers; he is a thinking fighter who is always creating or finding openings and who knows how to use the ring space to his advantage and how to bait his opponent into making the wrong move.
Yodkhunpon had moments of success but it was Larsen's night and he was not going to be denied a win in front of his home fans, so he was on his mobile best form as he danced circles around his opponent while darting in and out to score on him.
His unanimous decision victory puts him 2-0 in the division this year and secures him a spot in the next Lightweight Contender Tournament. Victory in that would put him into a title shot, which means that Larsen is potentially now just two wins away from a shot at the world title. By any standards that is a remarkable achievement; with Larsen's story it is positively miraculous.
Niclas Larsen def. Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai, Unanimous Decision, R3 (29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
