A world of pain awaits young British welterweight Chad ‘2Slick’ Sugden (13-3, 3 KO’s) next month, according to his GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS opponent Murthel ‘The Predator’ Groenhart (55-16-3, 31 KO’s).
“I read some interviews with Chad and he had some things to say, that he is faster than me and his speed is going to give me problems, stuff like that. All I can say to him is ‘watch out,’” said the Mike’s Gym fighter this week.
“I am going to bring the pain for him in Las Vegas, really. I am going to hurt him and show him what I am all about. ‘The Predator’ doesn’t get in the ring to make up the numbers or play the points game, he hunts to kill. Chad is really going to feel something in this fight, I promise you.”
The fight with Sugden takes place on the Superfight Series section of the Friday, August 7 card and marks Groenhart’s official return to the welterweight (77kgs/170lbs) division. Aside from a GLORY 2 BRUSSELS fight with Marc de Bonte, which he won by stoppage, all his GLORY fights have been at lightweight (70kgs/155lbs).
In 2012, Groenhart achieved a career landmark when he won the K-1 MAX eight-man lightweight tournament, but his recent results in the division have been more mixed. Now aged 28, he finds the weight cut increasingly difficult and believes lightweight is no longer possible for him.
“I have been through a lot in the last couple of years, I had some health problems but everything is fine now. Also at 70 kilograms I have to lose a lot of muscle and that makes me an easier fight for guys at that weight, I am not myself at 70 kilograms,” he says.
“Where I really felt problems was against guys like Robin van Roosmalen and Davit Kiria, they knew how to beat me at that weight. Then at the start of the year I fought Sitthichai at 70 kilograms and during the fight I was thinking to myself, ‘This is s--t…I cannot do this weight any more’
“Afterwards I decided to move back up to 77 kilograms where I can be powerful and the biggest in the weight class. I achieved some things at lightweight which not many other fighters can say they have done, but now when I fight at 70kg I lose too much muscle and it also affects my speed.”
Back on that topic of speed; Groenhart just laughs and shakes his head while discussing Sugden’s assertions last week.
“Everybody has a gameplan until they get punched in the face,” he says. “I am here to give him hell: power-punches and bad intentions. ‘The Predator’ is always there to fight and to show the fans what he is all about.”
GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS takes place Friday, August 7 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and features Nieky Holzken and Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels in the main event contesting the vacant World Welterweight Championship.
The show airs live in the US on Spike TV at 11pm ET/10pm CT
