Rising Star Ayoub Bourass Set to Ignite Glory 101 in Featherweight Showdown

Ayoub Bourass wants to give it his all in the ring for his third fight at Glory. He will face the Spaniard Aitor Currito. "You know what it is: you can fight, but you can also use your brain. So you’re going to play chess. If you’ve read an opponent, then you surpass him. I’m in Japan for the first time and the fans love spectacular things. I’m a spectacular fighter, so I’m counting on the fact that the arena will catch fire," he said.

Bourass recalls a memorable moment from his Glory debut. He suffered a points defeat against the fourth-ranked Berjan Perposhi, but he managed to conquer the hearts of the fans by applying a double reverse punch and circular kicks. Spectacular. "I did things that had never been done at Glory and I was twenty years old. During that first training, I had 0.0 physical condition, but I had nothing to lose. I lost that match on points, but I established my name." Ranked in the featherweight category (65 kilos), Bourass won his second fight against Anass Ahmidouch-Fatah. Since then, his career has been on the rise.

Before kickboxing, Bourass had tried his hand at football. "I started playing football at VV Barneveld and when I was twelve, I was able to do an internship at Vitesse. I wasn’t accepted there and my father then said to me: come, we’re going to do kickboxing. He had already taken me to a gala, but I had never done it before." He ended up adopting kickboxing. "I was very quickly in the ring and as it was going well, more and more friends started doing kickboxing. When I was fourteen, fifteen years old, I had two world titles at events in Italy. At the time, I had already given an interview and had already said: my ultimate dream is Glory."

From the age of 18, Bourass started fighting in the senior category and progressed very quickly. "I won all my C and B class fights. In my debut in the A class, I had, as in my debut at Glory, a replacement fight. It was against a Surinamese fighter who had fought 33 fights and won them all. I did a circular kick and he had eight counts. I won and that fight went viral." At the age of 19, he was crowned world champion at Enfusion. Today, he has realized his dream of evolving at Glory and hopes to be able to live it fully.

"I’m still young and I live at home, but before that, I worked in healthcare. Now I’m fully focused on kickboxing. Recently, I joined Said el Badaoui’s SB Gym in Utrecht to have better fighters around me. I need this challenge," hopes the young kickboxing talent.