Joe Schilling vs. Simon Marcus Added to GLORY Last Man Standing
As someone who has been following Kickboxing and Muay Thai for the past few years, there is probably one series of fights that broke through the barrier of being “obscure” in Muay Thai in the US; that being Joe Schilling vs. Simon Marcus. I had never seen American Muay Thai elicit a response like that first fight got. People were passionate about it, they were crazy about it, they were upset or they were happy. It was without parallel. American Muay Thai never had that before.
The first fight ended in controversy, with Schilling controlling the first round with his kicks and punches and Marcus looking for his signature clinchwork. Schilling was too smart to let it get to him, though, so he continued applying pressure on Marcus. Then Marcus got the clinch in and it was a matter of both guys holding on, until Marcus hit what has been called a controversial clinch. Some people will cite it as legal, others will look at the minutiae and tell you it was illegal, either way, it happened. Joe’s head hit the canvas hard and he came back up to his feet wobbly. Marcus could have poked him and put him down, instead he punched him and knocked him out.
So when they met again it felt like the internet Muay Thai community was going to implode. What we got was a super-close fight that saw Simon Marcus eke out a decision victory thanks to his clinch work and a lot of Joe Schilling fans unhappy, not seeing a rubber match in the future. Enter GLORY.
GLORY’s Last Man Standing PPV will feature the Last Man Standing tournament and in the first round we’ll see Joe Schilling vs. Simon Marcus for the third time, this time under Kickboxing rules, where Joe feels a lot more comfortable. On June 21st this will go down and I’ll be damned if this isn’t an incredible first round fight.