Glory 17 is going down this Saturday, and it's one of the most promising line-ups kickboxing has ever produced. Three titles are on the line, and non-title bouts featuring stars such as Cro Cop and Andy Ristie.

A decade ago, a Muay Thai superstar was born in K-1 — Buakaw Por. Pramuk. Buakaw represented Muay Thai and displayed it's beauty to the K-1 audience, which at the time was the premier kickboxing organization in the world.

You can check out how he defeated the superstar Masato in this breakdown:



Now, it's Glory's era, and a new Nak Muay may burst onto the kickboxing scene. In Muay Thai, Simon Marcus has been cleaning up competition in his weight class. He's already got notable wins against Artem Levin, Joe Schilling (2x), Kaoklai Kaennorsing, and Filip Verlinden.

That means the Canadian has defeated 3 of the 7 men in the tournament. For these reasons and more, Marcus has been ranked the #1 pound for pound North American Thai Boxer by MuayThaiAuthority.com since 2012.

But his credential isn't the sole reason for potential superstardom — it's his origin. He's a Canadian that fights out of Toronto's premier Muay Thai gym: Siam No.1. Toronto is North America's fourth largest city; it's got a thriving Muay Thai community, and possibly half the city's prominent trainers and gym owners branched out from Siam No.1.

The mastermind behind this phenomena is Ajahn Suchart — the man who also coached Clifton Brown (first Canadian to capture a World Championship in Muay Thai). What does this all mean? If he takes the Glory Middleweight Tournament title, expect a very proud city and a Canadian superstar.

On paper, Marcus may be the favorite to win, but while this may be very promising for Glory, how likely is this to happen? Buakaw beat Masato when clinch rules were lenient, and subsequently lost when it was modified.

Simon Marcus has beaten many elites fighters under Muay Thai rulesets. And while Marcus isn't completely fresh to kickboxing rules (2009 WKA champion), it's been 5 years and it's a whole different level of competition.

This means he's going to need lots of adaptations, with more techniques such as this:



Here Marcus used punches to create a liver shot opening and ended it with a clinch knee. Marcus is excellent with setting up his knees, and while he is a clinch specialist (pretty much all great Thai Boxers are), many of his knee KOs are permissible under Glory rules.

While elbows aren't allowed in Glory, knees are. But there are many limitations:

“A fighter may clinch in order to immediately attack with a legal knee strike (or strikes). If the knee attack and/or counter attack by the opponent is continuous and productive the referee may allow it to continue for in his estimation up to five seconds; otherwise the fighters should disengage the clinch and continue to fight. “If a fighter clinches and fails to immediately attack with a legal knee strike the referee shall “break” the fighters, and may caution, warn or penalize the offending athlete.”

The real test isn't whether Marcus can beat these fighters, it's whether he can beat them in a ruleset with clinch limitation. Just as how Buakaw adapted his hands, knees, and kicks to better compete in K-1, Marcus is going to have to do the same.

Check out how Buakaw captured the title again under clinch limitations:



Like how Buakaw out-punched the better puncher in Andy Souwer, the key for Marcus can be to exploit the greater sensitivity in clinch transitions.

Marcus' greatest test will be how well he deals with punches without holding the clinch. Buakaw's recent performance against Lee Sun Hyun is a great example of how to deal with a good combination puncher in kickboxing.

Clinch entry, exit, and knees against a puncher:



Expect to see more beautiful setups like this on Saturday night:



In this sequence, Marcus used the push-kick and arm (punch) motions as a feint to step in, creating the right distance and clear opening for a knee to the liver. It's beautiful how this was setup, with multiple feints going on in one motion: notice the shelling of his opponent and the pull & pressing for more leverage.

If you love striking, tuning into Glory 17 is a must. Stay tuned for post-fight breakdowns on the UG!

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