I have been involved in kickboxing for almost my entire life. I have trained numerous champions and been present at some huge events.
I have some amazing things over the years, but I can tell you with total sincerity that GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING is the most stacked card there has ever been in our sport.
Usually the matchmaking notes are presented in two parts: one for the Superfight Series card, one for the numbered event. This time around there is so much going on that we have had to present it in four parts.
You can find the breakdown for the Featherweight Contender Tournament here, the notes on the GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES headline fights here and my observations on the eight-man Middleweight Championship Tournament here.
Now we turn our attention to the two title fights taking place on the LAST MAN STANDING pay-per-view card, which is priced at $34.95 in the USA.
Daniel Ghita (ROMANIA) vs. Rico Verhoeven (NETHERLANDS)
World Heavyweight Championship Fight
Semmy Schilt won this belt by stopping Errol Zimmerman at GLORY 1 STOCKHOLM in May 2012. But in 2013 he decided he was done with fighting for the time being.
The rules state that once a belt is won it must be defended at least once within the next year or be vacated. Schilt did not defend it and so it now lies vacant, awaiting the attentions of its next two suitors.
They are Daniel Ghita (50-10-0, 39 KO’s) and Rico Verhoeven (43-9-0, 10 KO’s), ranked #1 and #2 respectively. Their fight in the final of the GLORY 11 CHICAGO heavyweight tournament final was an instant classic, one which media have likened to a scene from one of the Rocky movies.
It ended in a decision win for Verhoeven, a decision Ghita was furious about. The two were formerly training partners. They had gone separate ways before the tournament in order not to create any difficulties but after the GLORY 11 fight they fell out completely.
Verhoeven tried his best to dominate the older and more experienced Ghita in that fight and Ghita couldn’t get the KO shot he wanted. From that moment on, all trace of friendship was gone. It really is no mercy between these two now.
You can see how bitter it has become just by looking at their Twitter accounts. Kickboxing isn’t really a trash-talk sport but Ghita and Verhoeven have been going back and forth for weeks. They have also been making harsh comments via the media.
Ghita has criticized Verhoeven for not having many KO’s on his record, compared to 80% of Ghita’s wins coming by way of stoppage. Verhoeven has accused Ghita of being jealous and unable to handle the pressure of big fights.
After the loss to Verhoeven, Ghita went away and changed things in his training. He used his fight with Errol Zimmerman at GLORY 13 TOKYO to send a message: Zimmerman was taken out in less than a minute by a clinically destructive Ghita.
They are both going into this fight with a lot of confidence. This rematch will look very different from the first fight. The tension is strong between them.
Verhoeven told media that Ghita doesn’t train like a champion. I would respectfully disagree; from what I can see, Ghita is taking this fight very, very seriously and has been training very, very hard.
Their first fight was a 2013 Fight of the Year and on Saturday I think we are very likely to see a contender for 2014 Fight of the Year. I am really looking forward to this one.
Marc de Bonte (BELGIUM) vs. ‘Bazooka‘ Joe Valtellini
World Welterweight Championship Fight
De Bonte (87-11-1, 28 KO’s) won the vacant World Welterweight Championship by beating Karapet Karapetyan at GLORY 16 DENVER on May 3.
He is a Muay Thai stylist with a very technical style but he also has some unorthodox things he does. His knees are very good and he can KO an opponent with them.
Valtellini (11-2-0, 10 KO’s) has blasted his way up the rankings. From an unknown making his debut at GLORY 6 ISTANBUL in April 2013 he has become a fan favorite.
His fight with Nieky Holzken in the final of the GLORY 13 TOKYO welterweight tournament was, like Ghita vs. Verhoeven 1, a Fight of the Year contender. Fans loved that fight.
Valtellini ‘s father told me that Joseph is a big fan of my late son Ramon Dekkers and has really studied his style and techniques. It was ironic because Holzken was a student of Dekkers’ so they had a really super fight.
De Bonte’s fight with Karapetyan was very technical and sometimes a little cautious because they are friends and training partners for many years. They even corner each other sometimes.
But this fight between De Bonte and Valtellini will be very different. They don’t know each other and have never sparred or trained together. They are pure opponents to each other.
De Bonte is not going to let anyone just take the belt away from him and Valtellini is going to have to get it by serious force if he really wants it. And whoever wins, Holzken is waiting in the wings for them. Welterweight is a very interesting division right now.
GLORY LAST MAN STANDING takes place at The Forum in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, June 21 with Ghita and Verhoeven in the headline slot.
It airs live across the USA on pay-per-view priced at $34.95. The card also features an eight-man Middleweight Championship Tournament featuring the world’s top 185lb/85kg fighters battling it out for the World Title.
The tournament line-up consists of: Artem Levin (RUS), Joe Schilling (USA), Wayne Barrett (USA), Alex Pereira (BRA), Filip Verlinden (BEL), Bogdan Stoica (ROM), Simon Marcus (CAN), and Melvin Manhoef (NED).
GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES precedes the PPV card and airs live and free on SPIKE TV from 8pm ET.
