Glory World Series Managing Director Marcus Luer (pictured). Photo credit: Glory World Series

By FCF Staff

World championship kickboxing promotion Glory World Series issued a statement yesterday, confirming that the company’s acquisition of former competitor “It’s Showtime” has been completed. The statement, which came from Glory Managing Director Marcus Luer, also addressed a short-list of allegations made by it’s competitor, K-1.

The statement, in it’s entirety, is as follows:

STATEMENT FROM GLORY MANAGING DIRECTOR MARCUS LUER

Singapore
12 July 2012

Today we are delighted to confirm that our acquisition of It’s Showtime is complete. We are looking forward to working with Simon Rutz, Remon Daadler and their team in Holland and welcoming the athletes they represent to the GLORY platform. It’s Showtime will continue to stage events, beginning with the upcoming events in Tenerife, Spain on 21 July 2012, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 10 November 2012.

We are all unified in our purpose of bringing fans around the world the best possible matchups between the best fighters on the planet in order to deliver an incredible fan experience and bring the sport of Stand Up martial arts fighting to the level of global prominence it deserves.

We also want to take the opportunity to clarify a number of serious factual mis-statements contained in the press release distributed on 3 July 2012 by Mr. Gunil (Mike) Kim, the President of K-1. Our acquisition of the It’s Showtime business was conducted with the highest standards of professionalism, diligence, and integrity.

In respect of Mr Kim’s statements:
1) we confirm that the It’s Showtime partner in Madrid still has not been paid for its production and promotion of the K-1 event in that market on 27 May.

2) the It’s Showtime organization had provided all required payment information for the fighters who competed at the event to K-1 Global Holdings on time so that K-1 Global Holdings could remit payment to the fighters as per their contract. The payments were received after the requisite requirement date for payment had expired and only after the televised announcement of our deal with It’s Showtime.

3) Mr. Simon Rutz’s contract for services with K-1 never prevented him from selling his business or conducting any work for other promotions

4) K-1 still has not paid the fees it owes to Mr. Rutz under the contract. As a result, this contract is now terminated.

5) The management company representing all It’s Showtime fighters is now owned by GLORY

We congratulate Simon Rutz and his team on the business they have built, and look forward to working together. We will be announcing additional GLORY events for 2012 very soon. To all the fighters, trainers, promoters, and especially the fans around the world, we say to you, IT’S TIME FOR GLORY!