The story
Founded by Pierre Andurand in 2012.1
Background
When K-1 began suffering from extreme financial difficulties in 2011, Total Sports Asia, TSA CEO Marcus Luer, Pierre Andurand, and Scott Rudmann of Nectar Capital attempted to buy the brand. K-1 was instead sold to Mike Kim and EMCOM Entertainment Inc.
In the aftermath, Pierre Andurand, Scott Rudmann and TSA decided to start a brand new kickboxing promotion and acquired United Glory, Golden Glory, and It's Showtime to secure a top event production team and contracts to each promotion's top fighters. Forming the Glory World Series, Pierre Andurand was named chairman and Rudmann was named vice-chairman. A number of people formerly involved with these three entities event became Glory consultants.
Glory World Series signed most of the world's top kickboxers, such as Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt, Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghiţă, Albert Kraus, and Giorgio Petrosyan.
History
The company includes a mix of entrepreneurs and senior level executives from different environments. The company's current investors include Pierre Andurand, Scott Rudmann and Nectar Capital and Yao Capital. Former investors have been Liberty Global, and TwinFocus Capital Partners.
In February 2013, Glory announced that former WWE Executive VP Andrew Whitaker had been hired as the global CEO of Glory Sports International.
In August, 2014 Andrew Whitaker moved into an advisory role within GLORY and Jon J. Franklin was appointed as the new CEO. Under Franklin's leadership Glory was named the Number one kickboxing league in the world by Combat Press and one of the three most important global combat sports leagues by Fox Sports (along with the UFC and Bellator).
In 2018, Glory announced that former CEO Jon J. Franklin had moved to the role of Chief Development Officer, and former UFC executive Marshall Zelaznik had been hired as the new CEO.
On May 15, 2020, Glory announced Zelaznik had resigned as Glory CEO.
Read the full text
Financial hardships and change of ownership
On May 26, 2020, Glory Sports International went into receivership, and soon after ownership of Glory was transferred to London-based GSUKCO Limited.
Rudmann is the Executive Vice-chairman, running the league since it was taken over by GSUKCO.
In a press release on October 2, 2023, Glory announced that Maurice Hols was named as the new executive director. Citing "different vision of the future of the organization" with Executive Vice Chairman Rudmann, Hols resigned on February 19, 2024, after just a few months as executive director.
In March 2024, it was announced by Glory that Zelaznik returned to the company and was appointed again as CEO.
Media coverage
In June 2013, after having its first U.S. event in New York, Glory 9: New York on June 22, 2013, Spike TV signed a multi-year agreement to broadcast Glory kickboxing events; their partnership began with Glory 11: Chicago on October 12 of that year. The broadcast deal with Spike was extended in May 2014 to cover 2015.
In February 2016, Glory CEO Jon J. Franklin announced a new multi-year deal with ESPN.
Glory was broadcast on Veronica TV in the Netherlands from July, 2018 to February, 2020.
Beginning in 2019, Glory initiated a partnership with the UFC for the former's events to be exclusively carried in the U.S. by UFC Fight Pass. The first event to be broadcast as part of this partnership was Glory 63: Houston on February 1 and the last event was Glory 75: Utrecht on February 29, 2020.
Events from Glory 76 to Glory 80 Studio were available through pay-per-view.
28 June 2022 Glory announced a multi-year broadcast deal with Videoland in the Netherlands. The deal covered all Glory events starting from Glory 81: Ben Saddik vs. Adegbuyi 2. The last event broadcast by Videoland was Glory 98 headlined by Jamal Ben Saddik vs Uku Jürjendal.
On 16 February 2024 a multi-year broadcast deal with DAZN for most global viewers was announced.
On 6 January 2026, Talpa's OTT streaming platform KIJK become the new broadcaster of Glory in the Netherlands also replacing the previous global broadcaster DAZN after the DAZN's Glory broadcasting rights contract expired in the end of 2025. At the same time, Flipps Media's OTT streaming platform Triller TV also have the new broadcaster of Glory for global viewers (outside of the Netherlands).
It was announced on 1 September, 2026 that Combate would again broadcast Glory events till the end of 2027. The partnership resumes with the broadcast of Glory 109.
Glory Rivals
In January 2022 Glory announced a new series of events called Glory Rivals, jointly promoted with regional promotions. The first Rivals event with Enfusion was scheduled for May 21, 2022, at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp, Belgium. The event was later cancelled due to the finances of Enfusion's local promoter partner Antwerp Fight Organization catching the attention of Belgian authorities.
Glory Rivals 1 was instead held on June 11, 2022, in Alkmaar, Netherlands. In the main event Luis Tavares defeated Florent Kaouachi by knockout in the third round.
Glory Rivals 2 was held on September 17, 2022, in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
Glory Rivals 3 was organized at Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam on November 5, 2022. Ibrahim El Bouni defeated Muhammed Balli by knock-out in the first round.
Glory Rivals 4 took place on December 25 at Ryogoku Sumo Arena in Tokyo, Japan, in collaboration with Rise and Shoot boxing. Kento Haraguchi defeated Serhii Adamchuk by unanimous decision.
Glory Rivals 5 was organized on January 28, 2023, at Zamna Tulum Hotel in Tulum, Mexico, in collaboration with War of Nations. Abraham Vidales defeated Tomás Aguirre by Unanimous Decision. On January 11, 2024, it was announced that Glory and RISE would hold joint tournaments, combine their rankings and unify their rankings. A few days later, on February 6, the promotion put their lightweight and women's super bantamweight divisions on hold.
Glory Rivals 6 is currently scheduled for November 28, 2026, at Maaspoort in Dan Bosch, Netherlands.
Championship history
Glory Heavyweight Championship
Weight limit: Unlimited
Glory Light Heavyweight Championship
Weight limit: 95 kg (209.4 lb)
Glory Middleweight Championship
Weight limit: 85 kg (187.4 lb)
Glory Welterweight Championship
Weight limit: 77 kg (169.8 lb)
Glory Lightweight Championship
Weight limit: 70 kg (154.3 lb)
Glory Featherweight Championship
Weight limit: 65 kg (143.3 lb)
Glory Women's Super Bantamweight Championship
Weight limit: 55 kg (121.3 lb)
From Wikipedia’s article on Glory (kickboxing), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4