De Bonte says Valtellini win “was a decision for Canada”

Marc de Bonte (87-12-1, 28 KO’s) says the decision to award ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini (12-2, 10 KO’s) the World Welterweight Championship after their fight at GLORY LAST MAN STANDING was “not correct”.

The Belgian contender believes he won three out of the four rounds and should have been GLORY’s first welterweight champion.

“Joe is a tough fighter but I don’t agree with the decision. Two rounds were his but in [one] I made the pressure, the fourth I gave him a knockdown and the fifth he didn’t do anything,” he says.

“I saw an interview where he said my cardio was bad but in the fifth he did nothing. I attacked, I hit him with clean shots, his face was all bloodied up.

“In the fifth round I was like, ‘This is a walk in the park’. I don’t think he recovered from the knockdown in the fourth. I don’t agree with the decision. I don’t know what the judges were looking at.

“I feel I won, I don’t feel I lost that fight at all. I think I showed I was the better fighter, more conditioning, more aggressive, more clean shots…”

Both fighters scored knockdowns in the fight. Valtellini was first, dropping De Bonte with a right head-kick, which came on the end of a blistering hand combination in the third round.

De Bonte got up and survived the round under heavy pressure from Valtellini. In the fourth round he returned the favor, dropping Valtellini with a flying knee. Of the two knockdowns, it was De Bonte’s which seemed to cause the most trouble.

“I didn’t feel it [when he dropped me], it was just lights off, lights on. I was dazed but not too much. I just thought ‘I will stay covered until he blows himself out,’” De Bonte recalls.

“You saw after the third round that he didn’t have the conditioning to stay with me any more. [the flying knee in the fourth round] wasn’t perfectly on the jaw but he went down and after that it was survival mode for him.”

As he has said, De Bonte felt like he was on cruise-control in the fifth round. But he admits he wasn’t sure the judges were going to see the fight the same way he did.

“I thought they my rob me so I wanted to try and finish him in the fifth. I focused too much on knocking him down but it didn’t happen,” he shrugs.

In the end the judges had the fight for Valtellini, giving him the first three rounds and De Bonte the latter two. A sad De Bonte now goes back to base to await news of his next outing and plan another run at the title.

“[I feel] disappointment and anger… This was a decision for Canada, it was not correct,” he says. “I like Joe, he is a cool guy, but I won that fight.

“Nieky Holzken has a title fight with Valtellini next, so I don’t know what they want to do with me. We will see.”

GLORY LAST MAN STANDING aired on pay-per-view. The action-packed card was one of the most stacked in kickboxing history, featuring the eight-man Middleweight tournament plus title fights in the Heavyweight and Welterweight divisions.

The event, priced at $34.95, is still available to order - click here for details.