GLORY 11 CHICAGO marked the organization’s debut on SPIKE TV in the US. It was also GLORY’s first visit to the Mid-West and its first four-man Heavyweight Championship Tournament.
The event was a huge success and went down a storm with fight fans. Let’s take a look at some of the key numbers from this landmark event in kickboxing history:
782,000 - Viewers who tuned into GLORY’s live-broadcast debut on Spike TV at its peak
250,000 - Dollars which Heavyweight Championship Tournament winner Rico ‘The Prince’ Verhoeven took home
545 - Combined weight in pounds of the GLORY 11 heavyweight superfight between Sergey Kharitonov vs. Daniel Sam
280 - Total strikes thrown in the thrilling finale fight between Rico Verhoeven and Daniel Ghita
66 - Percentage of Tyrone Spong’s strikes which landed on Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett before KO’ing him in the second round, making Spong the most accurate fighter on the GLORY 11 card
59 - Percentage of strikes landed by Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva, the second most accurate fighter on the card that night. Third place goes to Errol Zimmerman, with 54%
32 - Consecutive unanswered strikes thrown by Errol Zimmerman at the end of first round with Hesdy Gerges. It brought the crowd to its feet, as did the KO blows which finished the fight in the second round.
12 - The next event is GLORY 12 NEW YORK, which features the Lightweight Championship Tournament and a grand prize of $150,000
11 - Full-power leg kicks landed by Daniel Ghita on Rico Verhoeven. This is almost double the average amount of full-power leg-kicks that GLORY 11 fighters landed. Ghita also landed a further 21 which were not full power
10 - Weight in ounces of the official GLORY competition glove
9 - GLORY 11 CHICAGO aired live at 9pm ET on Spike TV, as will GLORY 12 NEW YORK
8:40 - Minutes and seconds it took ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini to finish four-time French champion Karim ‘Gadjetboy’ Ghajji
7 - Rounds the heavyweight tournament lasted. It could have gone to nine
6 - Finishes from eleven fights
4 - Beautiful GLORY ring girls in Chicago. Among them were model/actress Clark Gilmer and July’s 'Playboy Playmate of the Month' Alyssa Arce
3 - Number of opponents the Italian-Canadian prodigy ‘Bazooka Joe’ Valtellini has stopped in his three appearances for GLORY
2 - The number of ranking places Verhoeven has climbed. He now sits at #4 and has cracked the heavyweight Top 5 for the first time
1 - ‘King of the Ring’ Tyrone Spong retained his #1 light-heavyweight ranking spot with a KO of Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett
‘Strikes landed’ figures come courtesy of CompuStrike
GLORY 12 NEW YORK takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York on Saturday November 23. The event features a $150,000 Lightweight Championship Tournament and airs live on SPIKE TV in the US.
By John O'Regan
