“GLORY: Collision 5” was billed as the biggest night of the year so far in kickboxing, and it sure delivered. Four titles were on the line at a packed Rotterdam Ahoy arena in the Netherlands, in addition to five more exciting bouts.
Tariq “Cookie” Osaro (25-2-1, 13 KO) caused a huge upset in the main event as he defeated friend and teammate Antonio Plazibat (22-5, 16 KO) with an emphatic fifth-round finish to capture the interim GLORY heavyweight title. In doing so, he made history by becoming the first ever Nigerian to become a GLORY champion.
Osaro, who truly has had a breakout year, will now face Rico Verhoeven later this year to decide who is the undisputed GLORY heavyweight champion.
In the co-main event, Tarik Khbabez (49-10-1, 27 KO) stopped a valiant Mohamed Amine (29-5, 16 KO) in the fourth round to become the interim GLORY light heavyweight champion. Khbabez was originally set to face Donegi Abena, however, the champ withdrew due to an illness during fight week and in-stepped Amine for the newly created interim title.
Middleweight champion Donovan Wisse (18-1, 10 KO) reminded everyone just why he is one of the pound-for-pound best in the world with a complete shutout victory over Turkey’s Serkan Ozcaglayan (45-7, 36 KO).
Rounding out the title fights, Endy Semeleer (35-1, 17 KO) beat Jay Overmeer (29-5, 15 KO) over five rounds to keep his position atop the GLORY welterweight division.
Elsewhere on the main card, Ibrahim El Bouni (41-8-1, 22 KO) improved to 4-0 in GLORY with a clinical decision over Brazil’s Felipe Micheletti (17-11, 5 KO) and, kicking-off the pay-per-view, Michael Boapeah (15-3-1, 7 KO) knocked Ulric Bokeme’s (31-4, 17 KO) teeth out in the first round.
In the Collision 5 prelims, big Nabil Khachab (26-4-1, 4 KO) scored a dominant victory over German veteran Vladimir Tok (51-19, 28 KO), France’s Diaguely Camara (23-4-1, 10 KO) stopped Eduard Gafencu (17-4, 11 KO) with a knee in the second round, and Croatia’s Andrej Kedves (19-4, 7 KO) defeated Mareks Pelcis (10-3, 5 KO) with an entertaining decision victory in the opening bout of the night.
