Former Glory Champion Heading To MMA

Saulo Cavalari, the former Glory Kickboxing Light Heavyweight Champion, is making the transition to professional MMA.

Although a professional MMA debut date and fight have yet to be set, but the kickboxing great expects to compete by the end of the year.

"I’m thinking about making my debut by the end of the year,” Cavalari told MMA Fighting. "Until then, I still have a contract with GLORY and I’ll fight to become champion again."

Cavalari recently moved to the country of Brazil and he is training at the Gile Ribeiro Gym in preparation for his MMA career.

The kickboxer was transitioning to MMA in 2013, but then a personal tragedy through those plans off track for a few years.

"I’ve competed in some jiu-jitsu tournaments here in Curitiba three years ago, won some and lost some,” Cavalari said. "I was starting this MMA project in 2013, but my mother passed away. I was coming off a loss in Japan, in kickboxing, and thought about starting in MMA, but I had to step away to take care of my mother. When I came back, GLORY was interested in signing me, so I signed with them and became champion. I lost the belt now, unfortunately, but that gave me this desire and motivation to start in a new sport. When I started training kickboxing, most of my friends moved to MMA, started training jiu-jitsu, but I stayed in kickboxing and became a world champion. I love kickboxing, but I always wanted more challenges. I’m a fighter and I want to challenge myself in different areas.”

Even though he hasn’t competed in MMA as of yet, the fighter did compete on the kickboxing portion of the inaugural Bellator MMA Dynamite card.