Albert Kraus has been forced to withdraw from the GloryFinal 8. In an official press release from Glory, they have stated that Kraus
has been bedridden for much of the week with the flu and will not be able to
compete at this weekends Glory 3 event. Stepping in to replace Kraus in the
tournament will be Japan’s
Yoshihiro Sato.
bout of the tournament against Dzhabar Askerov, but will now face Sanny
Dahlbeck in the night’s opening round. Sato was originally eliminated from the
tournament in the Final 16 after losing a split decision to Shemsi Beqiri.
Askerov will now fight Warren Stevelmans in the night’s reserve bout.
JAPANESE STAR YOSHIHIRO SATO ENTERS THE MAIN DRAW
Rome, Italy (Nov. 1, 2012) – Albert Kraus has been forced to withdraw
from this weekend’s GLORY 3 Rome ‘Final 8’ event due to ill health. The
veteran lightweight has been bedridden for much of this week and has
been diagnosed by doctors as suffering from full-blown influenza.
But his bad luck is Yoshihiro Sato’s fortune. The Japanese standout was
on Saturday’s card as a tournament alternate and was to fight in a
reserve bout early in the evening. He has now been moved into Kraus’
vacant slot and will face the young Swedish prodigy Sanny Dahlbeck
(24-4, 14 KO’s) in the first round of the one-night elimination
tournament.
“We’ve been monitoring Albert’s situation for the last two days to see
if he would make a recovery but he hasn’t, and it’s really impossible
for him to fight in this condition. He has been getting sick frequently
and has been forced to stay in bed” says GLORY Managing Director Marcus
Luer.
“Like the real fighter that he is, he wanted to try and fight on
Saturday but being so unwell and having lost so much fluid, he isn’t fit
to fight and his team have taken the decision to remove him after
taking advice from medical staff.”
GLORY has a formalised ranking system in place and it is this that mandated Sato being moved into the vacant slot.
“Fighters are ranked by a system which allocates points based on wins
and losses. Sato is ranked number nine and was the highest-ranked
lightweight not to be in this weekend’s Final 8 event, so he was
automatically next in line to take Kraus’ place,” explains Cor Hemmers,
legendary trainer turned GLORY brand ambassador and the man who devised
the system.
“It’s hard luck for Kraus but of course it’s good luck for Sato. He is
now in the tournament with a chance to take the $300,000 grand prize
back home to Japan. He has many fans in Japan and around the world who
will be happy to see him come into the FINAL 8 and who will tune in to
support him. The other fighters now have to think how they will handle
him if they meet him on the way to the final.”
Sato was matched with Dzhabar Askerov for the first reserve match of
Saturday night’s event. Askerov will now instead face the experienced
South African lightweight Warren Stevelmans who, like Askerov, was
eliminated during the FINAL 16 stage of the tournament earlier this
year. This new match is likely to be very intense and could well be in
the running for Fight of the Night.
With a 49-8-0 record that includes 20 knockouts, Sato is highly
experienced against top-level opposition and has faced some of the FINAL
8 before. He is 1-1 in a pair of fights with quarter-finalist Shemsi
Beqiri (72-7, 31 KO’s) and in 2010 lost a decision to tournament
favourite Giorgio ‘The Doctor’ Petrosyan (71-1-2 (1 NC), 33 KO’s) of
Italy.
GLORY 3 Rome ‘Final 8’ takes place this Saturday at the Pala Lottomatica
in Rome, Italy. It features the top eight lightweight kickboxers in the
world fighting in a one-night tournament for a grand prize of $300,000.
The live stream of the GLORY 3 Rome ‘Final 8’ event will begin on
GloryWorldSeries.com at 20:30 CET/3:30 p.m. EST/12:30 a.m. PST with the
event’s first preliminary bout. The HD stream is priced at $15.00 US /
€11.60 – head to GloryWorldSeries.com for more details.
About GLORY:
The GLORY World Series (www.gloryworldseries.com)
is the world’s premier stand-up fighting league, staging events across
the globe. It offers up to $1,000,000 in prize money to successful
fighters via individual matches and participation in the 16- and 8-man
tournaments, which are open to only the very best fighters in each
weight class.
With television deals across over 145 countries plus a ground-breaking
online video streaming system and the world’s largest online martial
arts library, GLORY is one of the world’s most widely-broadcast sporting
organizations already.
Owned and operated by Glory Sports International (GSI), the organization
has offices in Holland, the UK, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Its
personnel include prominent hedge-fund investors, the pioneering sports
marketing agency Total Sport Asia and several executives from the Golden
Glory and It’s Showtime team.