This Friday GLORY is back on the East Coast of the USA for GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, NJ. Like always, we have two cards taking place in the same night. First, the 'Superfight Series' card airing live on UFC FIGHT PASS and then the numbered GLORY 33 card airing live in the US on ESPN 2 from 11pm ET/8pm PT.
In the previous article we looked at the matchmaking notes for the Superfight Series card, now let's take a look at the matchmaking for the ESPN card.
Rico Verhoeven (c) vs. Anderson Silva
Heavyweight Championship Fight
Verhoeven (48-10, 12 KO's) is always looking for new challenges and Anderson is someone he has wanted to fight for a long time. He already has a fight with Badr Hari lined up for December but he didn't want to be inactive until then so he asked for a spot on this card. Ismael Londt is still due a title shot for winning the GLORY 29 COPENHAGEN heavyweight tournament but we will stage that fight in Europe, it didn't make sense to fly Londt to the US to fight Verhoeven there, and with Anderson being from South America and him and Rico wanting to fight each other, that's the fight we went for.
Anderson (40-14-1, 25 KO's) has had some bad luck, some decisions have gone against him which maybe he should have won – against Bonjasky in their rematch, for example - and he's also had fights like against Ben Saddik where he was winning the whole fight but then lost concentration and was KO'd in the final minute of the fight. It also happened to him when he fought Errol Zimmerman at GLORY 4, if I recall correctly.
But when Anderson is on good form he is really dangerous, as we saw in his last fight. At GLORY 32 VIRGINIA he stopped his opponent with a brutal body kick in the first round and looked really good leading up to that, nice combination work high and low, great movement and an overall intelligent fighting style. He's been around the top of the division for a long time now and he's never faced Verhoeven before, so we gave him a shot on this event.
Rico Verhoeven is dominating the heavyweight division right now, he looks a different class to his opponents when he picks them apart. He is technically superb and in the last few fights we've seen him bring his power in the equation, making him even more dangerous. Anderson has said he intends to “make it a street fight” as a way to beat Rico, because “you cannot compete with him on a technical level”, but Rico has shown himself to be very adaptable to whatever strategy opponents bring.
Rico is the favorite here by a wide margin but you have to bear in mind that these are heavyweights and that one shot can change the course of a fight or even end it there and then. Earlier in his career we've seen Rico caught out unawares with a big power-shot which has stopped him. He's developed massively since then, those early defensive holes have closed up, but you still have to give Silva a puncher's chance.
Hesdy Gerges vs. Guto Inocente
Heavyweight Co-Headline Bout
Gerges (49-16-1, 23 KO's) was fighting in China for most of 2015 and came back to us for GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM a few months ago. He fought Ismael Londt and I was very impressed with what I saw, even though Gerges lost a decision that arguably should have gone his way. He was fit and aggressive and using his full range of skills on the attack, which is the Hesdy Gerges I know from years past. He is back with his old trainer Thom Harinck now and I think he seems to be in a really good place mentally, so it's a good time for Gerges right now.
Inocente (31-7, 17 KO's) impressed us on his debut with an incredible spinning heel-kick stoppage of Demoreo Dennis in Chicago at the start of the year. He followed that up with a win over the experienced Dutch veteran Brian Douwes some months later, so he's showed really good form thus far. But I think fighting someone of Gerges' size and experience is a whole other level to the GLORY opponents he has faced so far. This is going to be a really strong test for Inocente.
Style-wise they are very different. Gerges has the classic Dutch style, pushing forwards with heavy hands and powerful low kicks over and over. Inocente's original background is karate and he has a range of incredible kicks, unusual in this sport and especially for a heavyweight. Gerges is looking to wear him down and break him, Inocente is looking to catch Gerges by surprise and stop him. This should be an exciting fight.
Serhiy Adamchuk vs. Giga Chikadze
Featherweight Contender Tournament
Semi-Final Fight #1
Adamchuk (33-6, 14 KO's) lost the belt back to Gabriel Varga at GLORY 32 VIRGINIA in July but he's wasting no time getting back in there, going straight back into training and into this Contender Tournament. Adamchuk is a guy who made his name in GLORY by taking big fights on as little as a day's notice and winning them, so having six weeks between fights is a luxury for him. He never does training camps as such anyway, because he is always in shape to fight.
Chikadze (35-4, 21 KO's) is also a fighter who came into GLORY at short notice and won impressively. He came in at lightweight and then dropped to featherweight and announced his intention to chase a title shot. He's now 2-1 at featherweight, which got him this tournament spot. He has spoken confidently about being able to stop Adamchuk, he says he sees certain holes in his game which can be exploited.
That's a bold claim because up until his last fight, Adamchuk had never even been dropped by an opponent in GLORY. But Chikadze is very confident. Stylistically they are two of the most unorthodox fighters in the organization, Chikadze with his karate-based kicking game and Adamchuk with his tricky movement and counter-attacking strategy. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but as the former champion and 5-1 in GLORY, Adamchuk is the clear favorite.
Matt Embree vs. Chibin Lim
Featherweight Contender Tournament
Semi-Final Fight #2
Lim (69-19, 40 KO's) is one of the best fighters ever to come out of South Korea and is a well-respected sportsman there, he has a pretty high profile because he does a lot of television work there as well. He had some bad luck in his last outing at GLORY 26 AMSTERDAM as he ran into a Mosab Amrani who was on some career-best form and he got stopped with body shots.
He's in his mid-30's now so maybe on the downside of his competitive career but he is very strong and has really good skills, he has a really high KO percentage. He is facing Matt Embree (37-7, 16 KO's) from Toronto, a debuting fighter who comes from a Muay Thai background. Embree started out under the same trainer as Simon Marcus before moving to his current gym and he has had good success in Muay Thai; now he is looking to replicate Marcus' success in kickboxing.
Canada has had a really strong showing in GLORY – Simon Marcus, Joe Valtellini and Gabriel Varga all hold or have held championships, plus we have strong contenders like Josh Jauncey. So Embree is coming in with a strong pedigree. But with his lack of experience under these rules, you have to say the advantage probably lies with Lim, although youth and (relative) locality are on Embree's side.
