GLORY Vice-Chairman: “It was our decision to release Sitthichai”

[Broadcast]

Recently, certain media outlets reported Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong signed with ONE Championship, with it being implied the Thai star defected from GLORY to join the Singapore-based ONE.

According to GLORY Kickboxing Vice-Chairman Scott Rudmann, who co-founded the promotion along with Chairman Pierre Andurand, these reports are inaccurate. GLORY Kickboxing released the Thai from his contract with the parting amicable.

“We don’t make a habit of commenting on fighter releases but sometimes it’s necessary to correct the record and there were a lot of erroneous reports around Sitthichai. It was our decision to release Sitthichai from his contract,” Rudmann stated.

“GLORY is in the business of giving fans the fights they want to see between the best fighters in the world, on the world’s biggest platform for kickboxing, and right now there’s not tremendous interest for yet another rematch between Sitthichai and the lightweight champion Marat Grigorian (note: Grigorian and Sitthichai have faced each other four times in GLORY).”

“There are fresh new contenders coming for Marat who will be trying to take that belt from him. In light of that, and to be fair to Sitthichai, who was a great champion while he held the belt, a great athlete, and a great partner for us, we were happy to grant his release and let him seek new challenges.”

“He also enjoys fighting in Thailand and southeast Asia, where we have no immediate plans for an event. We wish him well,” he said.

Sitthichai was not the only onetime GLORY fighter signed by ONE in its recent signing spree. Guto Inocente also signed with ONE.

According to Rudmann, fighters moving between promotions is business-as-usual in the fight game, and the executive didn’t sound overly concerned.

“If you’re a professional kickboxer who wants to be with the best athletes, GLORY is where you want to be,” he said.

“We are where the elite strikers compete and where the fans go when they are looking for the best in the world.”

“From time to time we do release fighters who end up joining other organizations. That is part of the sport and how we keep our roster filled with the best talent for the matches we want to make.”

Kickboxing Z

 

[Broadcast]

What bullshit from Glory, if it is true they still had Sittichai contracted! All the top lightweights go to ONE, and you are losing Sittichai for Marat. I told you Grigorian is a Dutch matchmaking protegee!

Glory will trick all of us once again Wilnis and RvR are elite. In fact RvR was very good, but did not faced opposition at some points. Adamchuk and Varga. )

Another fake product was Nieky Holzken, sometimes even pushed by the judges. Good, but not that good to be a top p4p in Glory or everywhere (worldwide).

At least Glory could tell us they will focus now on other division. 77 kilogram weight class would great if they sign Gafencu, Lambagiu and Stefanovski! Then the 95 kg is full of good free agents. If they are not hurrying up, Fabio Kwasi from Romanian circuit (Surinamese), will also sign with ONE like Bogdan Stoica. Cozmanca is also free, but maybe will go to ONE. Catinas is free.

Basically with ONE in competition now, they will want to acquire the best from Romania. Plus Artem Levin, Levin is free. Otherwise they will count on Chinese midgets.

ONE"s division with Kryklia, Khbabez, Stoica, El Bouni is nice, and I guess it will be even more expanded. Londt, Guto, etc, maybe they will finally split it in two.

 

[Broadcast]

ONE is good to the world. If more fighters from Enfusion and Romanian promotions will be signed, then all the feeders will have to develop from bottom again. Because Glory and One are in competition now. In my country they are not milking enough the talent. So thank you, Mr Chatri!

2nd tier promotions will not have something else what to do, than to leave their fighters sign somewhere else. All have what to gain, from the Netherlands to Romania, and even in Russia the same. China, Thailand, etc.

 

[Snubnoze707]

Didn't notice your thread before posting in the ONE thread:

https://kickboxingz.com/scott-rudmann-talks-sitthichai-departure

Glory is trying to save face by saying Sittichai didn't leave them for ONE and that they dropped him. They also go onto say they were happy to "grant his release". Clearly SIttichai wanted to leave...

"If you’re a professional kickboxer who wants to be with the best athletes, GLORY is where you want to be,”

Ya, unless you are a long standing champion that lost one fight to a guy he already beat 4 times LOL

I'm really starting to dislike Glory...

 

[Memeojima]

Sittichai vs Petrosyan will be interesting

 

[Loriquero]

Nobody wanted to see Sitthichai vs Grigorian VI. It was enough. Is good for everybody that Sitt went to another organization closer from home and fight new people.

ONE already won the 70KG division for now. Glory should be looking for keeping their 77-85 and 94 weight divisions healthy. With the best guys in the world.

their featherweight division also needs urgently like 30 more top thai/japanese/chinese guys.

 

[Tayski]

I'm really starting to dislike Glory...

Don't worry, they won't be around for too long the way things are looking.

 

[FokaiMuayThai]

Been done with GLORY for a while.

 

[Deleted member 576123]

I was a hardcore K1 fan. Watching the Japanese arenas really defined my own training and desire for kickboxing.
When K1 broke down, I started watching It's Showtime! and quite enjoyed it but wasn't quite sure of the roster and what was going on with inactivity for a lot of fighters. SuperKombat and a couple of other shows appeared to have a bit of promise for propping up the scene.

But, with the HW divisions always struggling since the decline of the big K1 shows, I started to watch Enfusion and found it far more entertaining in their lighter divisions.

I don't know if Enfusion is still going or going to continue but I'll watch if so.

However, I LOVE watching ONE. Not so much their MMA; I still prefer other MMA shows, but their Muay Thai and kickboxing.

I can't help but see the end for GLORY. Unless they are happy to operate only domestically, like K1 continue to do.

 

[Broadcast]

For me it is awesome there is competition, because there are many kickboxers today. And do you know why more? Because Glory was not signing all the best figthers anyway.

In ONE we have Khbabez, Stoica and El Bouni, even Bogdan Stoica, who are better LHWs than many in Glory (just that if they would move to 95 kg back, and Kryklia would stay in HW). Only Vakhitov, Pereira and Abena are there, maybe also Maslobojev and Tavares. Not to mention Kwasi (better talent than El Bouni in my opinion), Cozmanca and others are still not signed by top 2 promotions.

So basically I have been criticizing Glory for years for not making more efforts in adding, reuniting all the top fighters.

 

[Shadess]

Why don't the Romanian promotions bring all the best fighters in the world to fight at their shows?

 

[onne1983]

Not to mention Kwasi (better talent than El Bouni in my opinion),

ElBouni disagrees...

 

[UWanaPlayDaGame]

Nobody wanted to see Sitthichai vs Grigorian VI.

nobody wanted to see Sittichai vs Grigorian IV & V either.

 

[Kanka]

nobody wanted to see Sittichai vs Grigorian IV & V either.

But we still did

 

[Broadcast]

ElBouni disagrees...

As head to head record, yes. El Bouni was also KOed by Red Cairo and doesn"t mean necessarily Cairo was the better fighter. El Bouni is a stronger hitter, but Kwasi if you watch their first matches in the Netherland Fabio was superior as technicity and speed. Otherwise Kwasi is not advantaged by fighting in big weight classes. In my opinion (he has become slower). Plus sometimes styles can make fights. Alex Pereira lost twice to Jason Wilnis, one time by retirement. Before knocking him out...

And don"t forget, mate, it"s kickboxing! Not a 12-round boxing fight. Not to mention they are also heavyweights.

In KB Hoost and Aerts used to dispute together about 7 fights or so, or more. Some surely matches eachother more..

 

[Snubnoze707]

nobody wanted to see Sittichai vs Grigorian IV & V either.

Ya, suddenly rematches are a problem after Grigorian finally succeeded in getting a win, after have been given multiple chances. They chose the gatekeeper over the champ.

 

[Shadess]

Yup Sitti wanted to leave, which absolutely makes sense for him as ONE does things in Asia and Thailand. Better build his career more in front of the eyes there unless he was paid straight up much more by Glory.

Glory didn't really seem to know what to do with Sitthichai either. This statement from Glory was a bit unnecessary I feel. Some ~Glory fighters have gone to ONE and their CEO resigned. The CEO news also seemed to be, "maybe", leaked out by their previous CEO for some reason. Don't think Glory wanted the news out yet and were caught with their pants down. Now they felt like they had to say something I guess.

 

[Broadcast]

Glory acts like a Dutch promotion. Shame. Fucking 4 title chances, this is unreal! Adegbuyi won not 1, but 3 contender tournaments. Every Dutch linked to the matchmakers is getting 50 chances.

Imagine what a fighter like Sittichai thinks, when you have to meet the guy for the 4th time!!! Plus their fights were not really attractive to be honest. The fans didn"t ask for them.

Marat takes on Gashi and Beztati after. Defending against a fighter like Beztati, without experience and beaten by Koprivlenski. And Gashi is a sort of bum.

The problem is not a bloody division, accept the best LWs will be in ONE! But One Championship is "stealing" more and Glory does not even sign more fighters instead of so many lost. It is chaos!

 

[Snubnoze707]

To be fair, Adegbuyi got two shots at Rico's title. They would be doing the same thing with him that they did with Marat had they given him another shot.

Most of these issues are a result of thin divisions. Glory does rematches a lot not because it's what the fans are clamoring for, its because they run out of other options.

 

[Loriquero]

Glory acts like a Dutch!

When they are not acting like an American company..... They wanted so bad to keep Van Soest as their champion again... Same with Van Nostrand.