Conditioning, dedication and hard work - three things that top contender Rico Verhoeven (43-9, 10 KO’s) firmly believes in.
On Saturday June 21 he will rematch Daniel Ghita (50-10, 39 KO’s) at GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING. Their first fight, in the final of the GLORY 11 CHICAGO tournament, was an instant classic and this time there is even more to play for: the World Heavyweight Championship is on the line.
The heavyweight division is stacked with killers and one-punch knockout artists but for Verhoeven there are only two horses in the race. He sees himself and Ghita as a clear cut above the rest of them and in June their rivalry will have its next chapter, live across the USA on pay-per-view.
“He has sharp kicks, that hard liver kick, plus the sharp left hand, the right head kick… The thing with Ghita is, he can knock you out with anything from any side. He is a very complete fighter,” says ‘The Prince’.
“I think he is my number one competitor in the division. And I think I am the only one who can beat him. I think Errol Zimmerman is the only one of them who is coming up behind us and there’s a big gap between him and us.
“Me and Daniel both beat Errol last year, so I think the [champion’s slot] is really us two.”
When Verhoeven and Ghita last met, in October 2013, it was a war. Intense desire to win the heavyweight tournament fuelled them for a non-stop battle. They stayed in striking distance for the entire duration of the bout and threw constantly.
Fighters are notified that a round is about to end by way of wooden blocks being clapped together loudly when there are ten seconds remaining. Often this will cause them to slow down and break away in anticipation of the rest period or the end of the fight.
In the case of Verhoeven vs. Ghita it did the opposite; the ten-second clapper at the end of the third round provoked them to fury. They redoubled their efforts as the seconds ticked away, hammering each other back and forth and producing a finish which brought the crowd to their feet.
“After that first fight they started calling me ‘Rico Balboa’, ha! People said it was like a Rocky movie the way that fight went,” Verhoeven smiles.
“And this time we are both fresh, we don’t have to fight a tournament first, so it is going to be even more intense I think.
“It’s nice when people enjoy your fight, it’s a great feeling. This is sport but it is also entertainment so to go out there and give the people a good show is what it is all about.”
“The SPIKE broadcasts have been really good for exposure to the American fight fans. Before now a lot of them never saw high-level kickboxing before and now they are seeing it and they love it. It has been good for the sport and I think we’ll see it grow massively.”
Verhoeven looked like he finished stronger than Ghita in their first fight; Ghita seemed to be slowing in the final round and if it had gone to an extra round then conditioning may have become a factor.
Ironically, Ghita had fought less than one round in the semi-finals that night while Verhoeven had gone the distance in his bout.
“I had the three rounds with Saki so I was fully warmed up. I was fully focused, I was in the tournament,” he recalls.
“But Daniel only had like two minutes in the first round. It’s nice to be without injuries [going through to the next stage] but for me I prefer to be warmed up, I like having that three rounds in the first stage.”
Despite his size - he has a big frame and enormous legs even by heavyweight standards - Verhoeven is known as one of the sport’s fitter fighters.
“I will never lose on stamina. This is one of my big rules. When it comes to stamina and conditioning I will not lose. It’s so important for me. And you don’t need anybody to train that for you, you can train it yourself,” he says.
“You have to have that motivation, focus and determination to become a champion. Even when your trainers are not around you have to train 100 per cent. Not everybody does that; I think that is something which makes me exceptional.”
GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING takes place Saturday June 21 and airs on pay-per-view. As well as a World Heavyweight Championship bout between Verhoeven and Ghita, the card will also see Marc De Bonte defend the World Welterweight Championship title he won at GLORY 16 DENVER against ‘Bazooka‘ Joe Valtellini.
The card’s centerpiece is an eight-man Middleweight Championship Tournament in which an octet of contenders will be whittled down to just one. He will be the last man standing and will walk away with GLORY’s World Middleweight Title.
The pay-per-view card will be preceded by GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES, airing LIVE and FREE across America on SPIKE TV. That card features a four-man Featherweight Contender Tournament, the return of Mirko CroCop and the GLORY debut of former WEC champion Miguel Torres.
