Having stopped Simon Marcus in the third round of their GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY contest late last year, Jason Wilnis feels confident that he will repeat the feat when they rematch in the main event of GLORY 40 COPENHAGEN.
The two middleweight rivals are headlining Saturday night's card in the Danish capital and there is no love lost between them. They had to be separated at Friday's weigh-ins, their first face-to-face encounter since January, when Marcus turned up at GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES for Wilnis' fight with Israel Adesanya.
Wilnis was furious with Marcus after the Canadian former champion verbally abused him throughout the five rounds of that fight from his ringside seat, seeing it as a show of disrespect from a previously vanquished opponent.
“In Los Angeles I was fighting a title defense and he was in the audience talking and shouting a lot. He came up to the ring like he wanted to dare me to do something, put himself up like he wanted to fight me [then and there] or something,” says Wilnis, still incredulous.
“He had a big mouth that night but he is not a position to have a big mouth. I am going to shut him up.”
The mechanics of this rematch seem pretty clear to Wilnis: he stopped Marcus last time, it took three rounds, the finish coming by way of three knockdowns, and this one will go much the same way. He doesn't think Marcus can handle his power.
“I am harder than him. I am more complete in fighting style. He has the Thai style but he can't handle my punches and that's a big advantage for me. Even if he comes at the top of his game he is not going to it,” the defending champion says.
“He doesn't have the chin to take my punches and I know for sure I can knock him out. The second round maybe. Tune in on ESPN 2 and watch me KO this guy.”
