Cvjeticanin knocked out in title bid, Plazibat wins
Milos Cvjeticanin suffered the first knockout of his career in a Glory title fight, while Antonio Plazibat brutally finished Anis Buzid in Rotterdam.
- Milos Cvjeticanin was knocked out by a flying knee in the third round, officially at 1:56, the first knockout of his career.
- Mori Kromah defended the world heavyweight title even though the Rotterdam crowd was mostly behind the Serbian.
- Antonio Plazibat stopped Anis Buzid in the fourth round, officially at 1:43, with a flurry of strikes.
- The win pushes Plazibat toward the top of the list of title contenders.
The Ahoy arena in Rotterdam did not sound like a Dutch venue that Saturday night. It sounded as if someone had picked up a stand from Petrovaradin and dropped it into the heart of the Netherlands. When Milos Cvjeticanin walked toward the ring, the chants for the Serbian drowned out everything else, and the man waiting on the other side of the ropes had no intention of playing the gracious host.
Mori Kromah, the reigning world heavyweight champion from Amsterdam, was defending his belt in front of a crowd that wanted him to lose. That made his job harder, and that is exactly why the way he finished it stung the Serbian camp so badly. Cvjeticanin was hunting for his own knockout, chasing it, but somebody else’s caught up with him first.
How did the Serbian title bid collapse?
The first two rounds were a feeling-out process. Two big men measured each other, looking for rhythm, and Cvjeticanin looked like a fighter who had not yet settled into the bout. That feeling probably cost him. In the third round Kromah read the moment, lifted his knee and landed the kind of shot that comes around once in several fights. Official time: 1:56 of round three.
It was the first knockout in the career of Milos Cvjeticanin, the fighter from Petrovaradin who arrived in Rotterdam with a reputation as a hard man to put down. At 32, with a chance to win the biggest prize this sport offers, he was left on the canvas of an arena that had loudly been on his side.
After the fight Cvjeticanin did not run from the truth. Speaking after the bout, he said he never felt the fight or the ring, that he needs to heal his body, and that he had been the one chasing the knockout. Honest, bitter and without excuses. Anyone who hunts a knockout knows that sometimes the other man lands his first.
Plazibat finishes Buzid
While the Serbian camp fell silent, the Croatian one had reason to celebrate. Antonio Plazibat from Split and Anis Buzid from Morocco went three rounds without a winner, which sent them into an extra sudden victory round. In it, Plazibat exploded. A flurry of strikes dropped Buzid, who was knocked unconscious and had to be revived in the ring. Official time: 1:43 of the extra round.
After the fight Plazibat paid huge respect to his opponent, said he had not given up, reminded everyone that this is a dangerous sport and thanked the Glory organization for its trust. Tellingly, before the night he had called the Cvjeticanin fight “50-50” and said “Milos can catch him.” As it turned out, the night belonged to the Croatian rather than the Serbian, and this win pushes Plazibat straight toward the top of the list of contenders for the world title.
For Cvjeticanin, this is a heavy blow, but not the end of the story. Fighters come back, the body heals and the hunger stays. The only question is how long it will take him to return to the ring. Do you believe Milos Cvjeticanin can fight for a title again, or is this knockout the turning point of his career?
