New Zealand based Israel Adesanya made a triumphant return to kickboxing promotion Glory, taking out the the four-man middleweight tournament over the weekend.
The event took place in Broomfield, Colorado, USA on Friday night (Saturday in Australia).
Adesanya dominated Robert Thomas en-route to a decision win in his first fight while on the other side of the bracket Dutch based Tunisian Yousri Belgaroui won a decision over Ariel Machado.
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Thomas #GLORY34 @GLORY_WS pic.twitter.com/AfT9pgkKFu
— Zombie Prophet (@ZPGIFs) October 22, 2016
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Thomas #GLORY34 @GLORY_WS Knockdown # 2 pic.twitter.com/HLWtoZl43F
— Zombie Prophet (@ZPGIFs) October 22, 2016
The two met in the final and in a back-and-forth contest the Auckland fighter edged out the win via split-points decision. Two judges gave Adesanya the fight 30-27 and 29-28 while the other gave it to Belgaroui 29-28.
Adesanya puts himself in prime position for a bout against Glory middleweight title holder Jason Wilnis sometime in 2017.
On the preliminaries, Adesanya’s training partner Mike Mathetha lost via decision to Richard Abraham.
The card was headlined by a title fight with Nieky Holzken defeating Murthel Groenhart to successfully defend his welterweight title.
