Groenhart: “After I crush Harut at GLORY 42, I have to get a title shot”

Murthel 'The Predator' Groenhart and Harut Grigorian were supposed to fight at GLORY 41 HOLLAND last weekend. But Grigorian pulled out a few weeks ahead of the fight with a broken toe, leading to his teammate Alan Scheinson stepping in on three weeks' notice.

It was a tough, hard-fought bout which Groenhart won by unanimous decision. In his pre-fight and post-fight interviews he made clear that if he won, he wanted a title shot against the winner of the Cedric Doumbé/Nieky Holzken fight taking place at GLORY 42 PARIS.

But GLORY matchmaker Cor Hemmers had other ideas and insisted that the match with Grigorian would be rescheduled. It was confirmed at the end of last week that it would also be taking place on the June 10 Paris card, with Groenhart planning to channel some frustrations into it.

“It was taken out of my hands. If Harut won on this card against someone else he could take the next title shot and I was told that if Nieky won the fight against Doumbé I also wouldn't get the next title shot so I thought f—k it, just take this fight, kick the s--t out of Harut and take the payday,” he says.

“I was already really motivated already for Harut, I want to kick his ass becuase he has been talking some shit and I don't like his face anyway.

“After I crush Harut there can be no argument, I have to get a title shot. I missed out twice now and after this [next fight] I won't take anything but a title fight. Once I beat Harut there can't be any argument, right?”

Groenhart - who has faced Holzken in two GLORY title fights and lost extremely close, heavily-debated decisions both times – feels like he has a solid gameplan in place for the upcoming Grigorian clash. He jokes that he “will just step on his toe and it's broken again.”

Their fight will be forming the co-main event of the evening, with Doumbé and Holzken in the headline slot. Doumbé took the belt from Holzken at GLORY COLLISION in December and now the former champion wants to reclaim it in Doumbé's home city.

“I think Nieky has to bring the fight now. Normally he just stands and waits to counter-punch but now he really has to bring the fight. Cedric has the belt now, that's 1-0 [in his favor], it's in Paris, so that's 2-0 [in his favor],” muses Groenhart.

“Nieky has to being it, punch him, knock him out. I don't see him winning on points. Cedric moves a lot and scores a lot of points, so Nieky has to KO him and if he doesn't he will lose the fight.”

GLORY 42 PARIS takes place at the Accor Hotel Arena in Paris, France on Saturday, June 10 and features the GLORY debut of French welterweight standout Yohan Lidon as he takes on recent title challenger Yoann Kongolo.