Last Man Standing on Spike TV

GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING was a genuine landmark in the history of combat sports. Not only did the event feature an eight-man tournament comprised entirely of elite international competitors, there were also three world titles on the line.

GLORY, the world’s premier kickboxing league, is the first organization which has been able to gather all of the world’s top kickboxers under one roof so that the best can fight the best. It is often compared to the UFC, an organization which has done with MMA what GLORY is doing with kickboxing.

Cor Hemmers is the organization’s matchmaker. A trainer of multiple world champions in his years as a coach, at present he uses his experience to find the world’s best kickboxers and face them off against each other.

He has been in the corner for numerous title fights, ringside for countless more, yet says that even with his jaded palette he was impressed by what he saw at The Forum Arena in Los Angeles.

“The fights were of serious intensity, even by the standards of a sport which places a notably high value on aggression and looking for a finish in every fight,” he explains. “Though with such prestigious titles on the line, maybe that is no wonder.”

In fact GLORY has the highest percentage of knockouts and finishes of any combat sport, testament to the skill of the fighters and the ferocity of the action. When fights do end in decision it is usually because one or both fighters has been able to survive a knockdown by way of sheer toughness and determination.

California man Joe Schilling won the Middleweight Championship Tournament in 2013, beating the world-ranked #1 Artem Levin in the final. He entered the 2014 tournament looking to repeat the feat and this time he wasn’t the complete underdog that last year’s bookmakers had him as.

“I won’t spoil things for you by giving away all the results from the tournament, but we will say this: Schilling’s fight with Canadian rival Simon Marcus in the quarter-final stages is one of the most vicious, hard-fought encounters you will ever see,” says Hemmers.

“It is almost certain to be a frontrunner for Fight of the Year when 2014 comes to a close.”

Other standout moments in the tournament include Melvin Manhoef’s heroic attempt to take out the highly technical Filip Verlinden and the huge knockout which ended the fight between New York man Wayne Barrett and Romanian champion Bogdan Stoica.

The tournament ended with one fighter being crowned World Middleweight Champion. That left two other belts to be decided. Rico Verhoeven and Daniel Ghita contested the vacant World Heavyweight Championship while Marc de Bonte, facing Canadian prodigy ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini, made his first defense of the World Welterweight Championship he won in Denver earlier this year.

Ghita and Verhoeven fought once before, in the final of the most recent heavyweight tournament. The close battle ended in a decision for Verhoeven but Ghita disputed the result and in Los Angeles had the chance to both settle the score and take the title belt home with him.

In an added twist, Ghita and Verhoeven are former training partners and, as with many relationships which come to a sudden end, the split created some bitterness. Ghita in particular went after Verhoeven repeatedly on social media. The young Dutch fighter took it all in his stride though, having fun with the exchanges as Ghita became increasingly furious.

“There was huge tension between them during fight week and that translated into the fight itself. They would go from watching each other intensely to exploding into action in heartbeat. When two big guys go at it, you can’t afford to look away,” says Hemmers.

“After this fight there wasn’t the same controversy as enveloped the first fight. Instead the discussion centered on Ghita’s tactics. They were unusual, especially in the first two rounds of the fight, and they have been analyzed over and over by the fans ever since.”

Last but not least, the fight between De Bonte and Valtellini. On any other card this would have been the headline bout and it would have done that billing justice. This bout will certainly be in the running for Fight of the Year, along with Schilling vs. Marcus.

“De Bonte is a top talent but hasn’t been widely recognized as such outside of the hardcore kickboxing fanbase, so winning the welterweight title in May was a huge moment for his career. It showed he was the real deal,” says Hemmers.

“As for Valtellini, early last year nobody knew who he was. He debuted on a GLORY undercard in April 2013 and has been demolishing opponents ever since. Valtellini is one of the most exciting fighters to emerge in the last decade.

“He’s explosive, he is focused, he trains super-hard and he is really, really hungry. He also has an incredible killer instinct, he really does go in there to finish every fight. His breakout moment was the fight with world #1 Nieky Holzken in December; people were very impressed with how Valtellini brought the fight to a really experienced dangerous guy like Holzken, who is very much in his prime.

“If you look at the fight with De Bonte and Valtellini you see two guys at the top of their game and hungry for the belt. There was so much firepower traded in this fight. Both guys were knocked down and it is amazing that they managed to survive even one round, the way they fought.”

Hemmers doesn’t want to give too much away to anybody who has yet to see the event, which aired only on pay-per-view in the US, but he does want to get a message across.

“In the audience that night there were people like Lyoto Machida and Joe Rogan from the UFC. Rogan was interviewed in the arena and said it was the most exciting night of combat sports he has seen for a long time,” he says.

“That comment really says it all; Rogan has seen thousands of fights and if he was blown away by LAST MAN STANDING there’s a pretty good chance that you will be too.”

GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING airs TONIGHT on SPIKE TV