Donegi Abena will put his light heavyweight championship belt on the line with Glory on June 17 in Rotterdam Ahoy, at the event called Collision 5. Tarik Khbabez is his challenger.
The 25-year-old Abena from Utrecht, who fights under the Surinamese flag, became light heavyweight champion at Glory in February. At the time, he defeated Sergei Maslobojev, who was ordered to stop by the arbitration after a bleeding shin. Abena thus won by technical knockout, to the dissatisfaction of the Lithuanian who had wanted to fight on.
Where a rematch was obvious in the first instance, Tarik Khbabez (31) from The Hague now gets the chance. The ‘Tank’, fighting under the Moroccan flag, lost to Maslobojev last year after a decision by a divided jury, which Khbabez in turn was dissatisfied with. He got a little revenge by winning convincingly against Daniel Toledo in March, on a technical knockout. The way made such an impression that he now has the chance to capture the light heavyweight title from Abena.
Collision 5 also sees heavyweights Antonio Plazibat and Tariq Osaro battle it out for the interim title. The winner will fight Rico Verhoeven for the heavyweight title in the fall. Also, Donovan Wisse will defend his middleweight championship belt against Serkan Ozcaglayan.
Remy Bonjasky
Every two weeks Remy Bonjasky writes a column on AD.nl. Read all columns here.
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