The first of the quarter-final matches for the GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING Middleweight Championship Tournament has been announced.
Melvin ‘No Mercy’ Manhoef (47-11, 37 KO’s) will face Filip ‘The Belgian Bull’ Verlinden (42-11-1, 16 KO’s), with the winner going through to the semi-final stage of the eight-man, one-night tournament.
“This is a classic match, a hard-hitting brawler-type fighter against a fighter with a more technical style,” says Cor Hemmers, GLORY Matchmaker and Head of Talent Operations.
“Manhoef is a legend in the fighting world. He is one of the fiercest competitors ever to come out of the Netherlands, and that says a lot.
“His power and aggression are notorious. Manhoef can KO literally anyone - he was the first fighter to knock K-1 tournament winner Mark Hunt out. If he can stop him, he can stop anyone.”
Middleweight is Manhoef’s natural home but he has regularly competed as high as heavyweight over the course of his career, as heavyweight was kickboxing’s flagship division and home to the biggest-money fights.
The same is true of Verlinden. He joined GLORY as a heavyweight and competed in the sixteen-man GLORY 4 TOKYO: GRAND SLAM tournament at that weight.
He then dropped down to light-heavyweight, where among other fights he took Tyrone Spong the distance in the GLORY 9 NEW YORK light-heavyweight tournament.
Verlinden dropped to middleweight for a fight with Israel ‘Iz’ Adesanya at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL. He dominated the bout and was unlucky not to score a KO. Now he goes into the June 21 tournament with his confidence high.
“We saw in the fight with Adesanya that middleweight is Verlinden’s natural weight, it suits him perfectly. He is big for the weight class but moves very well, he isn’t having to bulk up to heavyweight like he used to,” says Hemmers.
“Verlinden is a big boxing fan and you can see that in his style, he likes to move a lot and he uses long straight shots, head movement and crisp combinations. But he is also a very complete kickboxer, as you can see from the head kicks he was landing in his last fight.
“In this match with Manhoef we have a power-fighter coming forward looking for a brawl and a technician who will be looking to keep the fight where he wants it, but who also has the power to be a threat.”
There are six more fighters taking part in the GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING Middleweight Championship Tournament.
Quarter-final matches between Artem Levin, Joe Schilling, Wayne Barrett, Alex Pereira, Bogdan Stoica and Simon Marcus will be announced this week via GLORYWorldSeries.com
GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING takes place Saturday June 21 airs on PPV priced at $34.95 in the USA.
As well as the Middleweight Championship Tournament it features a World Heavyweight Championship fight between Daniel Ghita and Rico Verhoeven plus Marc De Bonte defending the World Welterweight Championship against Canadian contender ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini.
