Dubai: Gokhan ‘The Rebel’ Saki has reiterated he is enjoying life as a free agent as he eyes a debut win against his challenger Sebastian Ciobanu from Romania at the third edition of the Global Fighting Championship (GFC-3) to be held at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, on Friday.
Saki — the reigning Light Heavyweight World Champion fighting out of Mike’s Gym in Amsterdam — is a Dutch-Turkish heavyweight kickboxer, and will be looking at a winning debut in Dubai against his opponent from Romania. He is also a two-time Dutch and European Muay Thai champion and as of 2014 has been ranked number one in the light heavyweight category.
Sake’s last fight was on April 12 last year when he scored a technical knockout within two minutes against Suriname’s Tyrone Spong in the final of a light heavyweight combat sport championship held in Istanbul.
“That fight seems so long gone. It is all behind me now. At the moment I feel so refreshed that I am able to go around the world and participate in all the big fight organisations. I have a lot of regard for GFC. I have a good feeling here and I am just so focused in going out there and finishing the job,” Saki told Gulf News.
“I really don’t know about the future. For the moment, this next fight on Friday against Seb [Ciobanu] is the most important and I am totally focused on going out there and winning in the shortest possible time,” he added.
Presented by Golden Cage Promotion and Events, GFC-3 is part of a series of fight nights involving some of the best Mixed Martial Arts, Kick Boxing and Muay Thai exponents from across the world.
Though GFC-1 and GFC-2 held in May and October last year attracted strong fields on both occasions, it is the third edition that has gained maximum attention with Prince Amir Shafipour — a former three-time world champion who is the brain behind the GFC series — managing to attract some of the top names in the world of MMA fighting.
On the current list of champions are names that comprise a ‘who’s who’ from the world of MMA including Badr Hari, Peter Aerts, Peter Graham, Dewey Cooper and Zabit Samedov, making the GFC Series the biggest MMA promotion in the Middle East.
The next big highlight this Friday night will be the four-man knockout tournament with a prize purse of Dhs1 million. Steve McKinnon of Australia will take on Zabit Samedov of Azerbaijan, and Jafar Ahmadi of Iran will fight Danyo Ilunga, the Congolese-German Muay Thai kickboxer in the knockout tournament.
The winners of these two bouts will meet in the final with the champion on the night claiming the Dhs1 million and qualifying to the season-ending $1 million GFC Grand Prix.
Friday night will open with a series of seven bouts all part of an exciting undercard that has been planned keeping the main fights in mind. Jamnian Srikam (Thailand) will take on Saeed Nouri Long (Iran) to open the night in a Super Welterweight bout, followed by Adrian Garlonta (Romania) taking on Jashid Givehchi (Iran) in a Middleweight fight.
