“I’m becoming champion in the light heavyweight division,” Luis Tavares will be facing Sergej Maslobojev at GLORY 81 for the vacant Glory Light Heavyweight Championship, “Book that, 20 of August.”
“The Infamous” Tavares has been competing in GLORY’s light heavyweight division. However, when he was competing in ENFUSION Kickboxing, the Cape Verdean-Dutch fighter held titles in both light heavyweight and heavyweight. When asked if he would like to move to heavyweight in the future, he answered, “Definitely … I want the money fights and the money fights are in the heavyweight division … Of course, I will defend my title but uh I want the money fights.”
Ahead of this fight at GLORY 81, Luis Tavares sat down with Tim Wheaton of MMA Sucka to discuss his plans in this title bout. See below for the full interview.
Luis Tavares on the GLORY 81 Title Fight
While Luis Tavares plans to move to heavyweight in the future, the kickboxer has a huge fight ahead of him at GLORY 81 on August 20. For the vacant Glory Light Heavyweight Championship, he will face the streaking Sergej Maslobojev. The Lithuanian striker is a challenging fight for anyone as he has held titles in KOK, WKA, WAKO, and elsewhere. Maslobojev is currently on an eleven-fight win streak and has won over half of his career bouts via knockout.
Tavares explains that he has the utmost respect for his Luthianian-born opponent but sees holes in his game. The Cape Verdean-Dutch fighter explained, “He belongs near the top of the world in my division. He’s been winning his fights, he’s been on 11 fight win streak. But I see a couple of things in his game that I’d like to exploit. First and foremost, he’s a very complete fighter he likes to put the pressure on his opponents … But there’s some little things I see that he has in his game … little holes when he’s pressuring people and nobody has exploited that as of yet. I’m a very tactical fighter … I’m very confident that I’ll pull out the victory.”
Holding multiple world titles in light heavyweight and heavyweight in ENFUSION, WFL, and others, Tavares has had a very impressive kickboxing career. He is on a five-fight win streak against top-ranked opponents, and along the way, he was able to avenge multiple losses from earlier in his career. Despite only being aged 30, he has an impressive record of 65 wins professionally, a third of which were won by KO/TKO. Including his most recent win against ISKA world champion Florent Kaouachi.
Luis Tavares breaks down his highlight reel KO from GLORY Rivals 1!#GLORY81 | AUG 20 | https://t.co/MuEo6Fq5ZQ pic.twitter.com/MmKxkLxMWf
— GLORY Kickboxing (@GLORY_WS) July 25, 2022
Tavares was originally scheduled to face former reigning champion Artem Vakhitov, of Russia. This fight was called off due to the Russian-Ukrainian war and Vakhitov was stripped of his title. In a statement, GLORY Kickboxing said, “The organization has encountered a variety of obstacles that have made it impossible to arrange bouts for its Russian athletes, barriers like travel bans, safety concerns and payment blockages in an environment of worldwide sanctions against Russia and unwilling opponents … We respect their careers and commitment to the sport and we have gone to enormous lengths to try and make various bouts happen for them, but the real-world challenges are insurmountable in today’s environment.”
“Nothing personal against him,” Luis Tavares holds a 2013 loss to the Russian that he plans on avenging, “But I still want to get my revenge. He’s one of the top fighters in the world so maybe we can do it in the future.” Even after setting his sights on the vacant GLORY title, Tavares still has plans to defeat the former light heavyweight champion.
Luis Tavares at GLORY 81 will be fighting for the crown jewel of his career when he faces Sergej Maslobojev on August 20 for the vacant Glory Light Heavyweight Championship. Both men have earned their place at the top of the division in this high-stakes matchup.
Featured Image Credit Courtesy of GLORY Kickboxing.
