GLORY 19 takes place in Virginia, USA on Friday, February 6 and we have a great card for the live TV broadcast.
In the headline slot we have Rico Verhoeven defending his heavyweight championship against Errol Zimmerman. In the co-main we have Joe ‘Stitch Em Up’ Schilling facing young Canadian prospect Robert Thomas.
We also have a Welterweight Contender Tournament with Nieky Holzken, Raymond Daniels, Alexander Stetcurenko and Jonathan Oliveira. Let’s take a look at the thoughts behind the matchmaking for GLORY 19.
Rico “The Prince” Verhoeven (44-10, 10 KO’s) vs. Errol “The Bonecrusher” Zimmerman (103-11-1, 44 KO’s)
This is a great fight. The defending champion Verhoeven and his challenger Zimmerman are bitter rivals and they already have a 1-1 record against each other. Whoever wins this walks away with the title and wins the trilogy, so it’s a huge fight for them.
The boxing legend Mike Tyson has been following the build-up for this fight and is actually going to be part of the commentary team for it on the broadcast. There’s a lot of speculation about this fight because it is such a clash of styles, a technician against a power-puncher.
Being a title fight, this is set for five rounds. Their previous fights were set for the standard three rounds duration, although the first one ended in the first round when Zimmerman landed a KO combination on Rico in 2012.
Errol isn’t a fighter who aims to go the distance and usually he doesn’t have to. But that natural power means he has not trained as hard as he could have over the years, whereas Verhoeven is an absolute athlete who trains, eats and sleeps only like an athlete is supposed to. The fitness advantage is with Verhoeven so if it goes the full five rounds, it favors him.
Verhoeven won the vacant title after beating Daniel Ghita at GLORY 17 in June. That was a very technical kind of fight and both were cautious. I don’t think this fight will look like that. Maybe at first it will but I think they will quickly open up and get to work.
The two fighters were interviewed by Tyson via video-link in the run-up to this fight. Verhoeven would not give away his tactics but Zimmerman said he was going to put the pressure on immediately and look to win by knockout again.
Personally I always think it is nice to see a fighter who goes ‘all or nothing’ and takes risks by attacking full power. But that also opens them up and increases the risk to themselves, plus Verhoeven likes opponents who pressure forwards onto him the whole time, it suits his style.
The winner will be the one who can put it all together on the night: confidence, spirit, mental strength, physical strength, experience and fighting intelligence. It sounds like a lot but that is exactly what champions are made of.
Joe Schilling (18-6, 11 KO’s) vs. Robert Thomas (7-2, 5 KO’s)
Middleweight
Schilling was already one of the top Muay Thai fighters in America when GLORY began staging events in the USA. He wanted fights with the biggest international names, big tests for himself, and so he came to GLORY and got them.
He proved his quality at GLORY 10 LOS ANGELES in 2013, winning the four-man tournament and beating Artem Levin in the final. At GLORY 17 in June he made it to the final of the LAST MAN STANDING tournament but this time it was Levin who won the fight and became the middleweight champion.
Schilling has really become one of the faces of modern American kickboxing, he’s one of the guys who is challenging European dominance of this sport. He has proven himself to be championship material. His fight with Simon Marcus in the first stage of LAST MAN STANDING was a crazy war and Fight of the Year for most fans.
Thomas is a young fighter from Canada. He also has a Muay Thai background and he has achieved some great results and some real recognition on the Canadian and US circuit in recent years, as an amateur and then as a professional.
He made the hardest GLORY debut I think anyone has ever made - he faced Artem Levin at GLORY 16 DENVER. Levin needed an opponent for that card and Thomas had been pressing for an opportunity to fight for us so we made the fight and though he lost a decision, he showed great talent and potential for the future.
At the recent GLORY 18 event Thomas faced Mike Lemaire, winner of a ‘Road to Glory’ tournament and more experienced under our rules. In the third round Thomas figured Lemaire out and stopped him with a head kick for an impressive finish.
Thomas certainly is not a fighter who avoids a challenge. He’s already faced Levin, now he faces Schilling - he’s not scared of anyone. It is impressive that Thomas is willing to take on these tough opponents so early in his career and even though Schilling is clearly the favorite, you cannot ignore the confidence that Thomas clearly has in himself.
Nieky Holzken (85-11, 45 KO’s) vs. Alexander Stecurenko (51-10, 24 KO’s)
Holzken won the GLORY 13 welterweight tournament but then took 2014 off from GLORY because of a shoulder injury he suffered in a car accident. In the meantime ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini won the title and now Holzken, who beat Valtellini in the GLORY 13 tournament final, is gunning for him.
But to do that he must win this Welterweight Contender Tournament in Virginia. He is the favorite to win it, due to his record, skills and experience, but these are top fighters and a Holzken victory is far from guaranteed.
In the semi-final he faces Alexander Stecurenkco from Russia. This guy is really tough. He used to be a middleweight and our champion Artem Levin, also Russian, has fought him three times and says he is “mentally and physically exhausting” to face.
Stecurenko has that tough Russian style and he has also trained a lot in Dutch-style kickboxing. He can be unpredictable, which disrupts opponent’s timing, and he also has KO power, although Holzken has more KO’s and a higher ratio of wins by KO.
Holzken is the physically stronger fighter but Stetcurenko’s machine-like high output may give him some problems. He is non-stop and that requires constant use of energy. If the fight ends in a KO it will probably be from Holzken but if it goes to a points decision that could well be in Stetcurenko’s favor.
Raymond Daniels (25-1, 15 KO’s) vs. Jonatan Oliveira (20-3, 11 KO’s)
Daniels’ knockout of Francois Ambang at GLORY 16 DENVER has been voted the best KO ever by GLORY fans worldwide. It showcased his amazing and unique skills honed by a lifetime of karate practice. He has won more karate tournaments than any other fighter in the world and now wants to make his mark in kickboxing.
In that fight with Ambang we saw that his boxing skills have improved and that his kicks are inimitable and super-dangerous. His style is totally confusing for his opponent and very difficult to train and gameplan for. He is moving constantly and is dangerous every second in the fight.
Although he is the lowest-ranked fighter in the tournament, coming in at #8 in the rankings, he definitely is a potential winner. None of the other fighters is used to his kind of attacking and fighting style.
He will face Jonatan Oliveira in the first semi final. Oliveira has a 2-0 record in GLORY and has that Brazilian fighting spirit. I also think he maybe has the hardest punch of all four tournament fighters, he hits really hard.
He is a training animal and his nickname “maloqueiro” (“hoodlum”) says a lot about his fighting heart. This is a guy from the slums and streets of Brazil - he is fighting for a better life. This fight is ironic because Daniels is a former Long Beach Police Department officer.
