This Saturday December 21, ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini (10-1, 9 KO’s) will enter the GLORY 13 TOKYO Welterweight Championship, the biggest night of his career.
The Canadian prospect, born in Toronto to Sicilian parents, has been on a tear since debuting at GLORY 6 ISTANBUL in April with a stoppage win over the much more experienced Murat Direkci (69-17-2, 57 KO’s).
Two more wins inside the distance over top-ranked opponents followed and now Valtellini finds himself at #2 in the official rankings, just one place behind Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken (82-11, 43 KO’s). And this weekend, he intends to remove Holzken from that top spot.
“Things have moved quickly, from being a nobody at the Istanbul pre-fight press conference to now where I am number two in the world has been an amazing experience,” Valtellini says.
“But this has been ten years in the making. My coach Paul Minhas and my amazing team have prepared me with technique and strategy and knowledge, so that I can fight guys who have all this experience.
“That is why I was confident against the likes of Direkci and Karim Ghajji.
“It has been a lot of hard work. I started Tae Kwon Do at the age of seven and it was always a dream of mine to be at the top of my chosen sports. It is a dream that only a very few athletes will ever accomplish.
“I really want it, I have worked two careers and had so much sacrifice in my life to get to this point. This is my chance to get that number one spot and I hope to hold onto it for a long time.”
Before he can fight for the number one spot, he must first get past the tournament’ semi-final stage and with it the undefeated Raymond ‘The Real Deal’ Daniels (24-0, 14 KO’s), one of the world’s most accomplished karate fighters.
“I think he is a good fighter and he uses that point-karate style to his advantage. But I feel that my style works really well against that and when he feels my power he is going to know about it,” says Valtellini.
“That point-karate style works well for him, he constantly hits and moves off, runs away, and forces you to reset and re-setup. But my team has come up with a really good strategy and I feel very confident. This is a good first fight for me to have in this tournament.
“As for Holzken and Karapetyan, they are both great fighters and are more experienced as kickboxers than Daniels is. But as I showed in my fight with Ghajji, experience doesn’t mean much to me. It is a case of me going in there and fighting my way.
“We are the top fighters in the world, we all deserve to be here. At the end of the day it will come down to who wants it more, and I feel that is me. I will be there in the finals.”
Valtellini says he has no preference as to who he wants to meet in the final, should he get there, though he does know how he wants the opposing semi-final to go.
“You’d have to hope they have a hard fight and go to decision, that would be ideal,” he laughs.
“But tournaments are difficult to plan for. Fighters think they have to go in there with a set strategy but all kinds of things can happen. You can take the first fight lightly and lose, you can give it your all and get too injured to continue. For me it is just about letting the fight unfold.”
Valtellini’s confidence is riding high but there are some mixed emotions for him. Pride at finally making his debut in the spiritual homeland of the martial arts, on a card headlined by Peter Aerts (103-30-1, 78 KO’s), is tinged with sadness that his coach and mentor Paul Minhas cannot be with him for this key moment.
“Unfortunately Paul won’t be here for this one because he has some family business he needs to take care of. It is a real shame but he has prepared me well for this,” says Valtellini.
“He has talked to me a lot about Japan and what to expect and the kind of experiences he had here. It is really a milestone in my career and I am proud to be fighting here.”
The card is one of the most talents stacked in recent kickboxing history but for Valtellini it is all about the main event, Peter Aerts’ retirement fight. He is facing Rico Verhoeven (42-9, 10 KO’s), the GLORY 11 Heavyweight Tournament Champion.
“Growing up I was a huge Peter Aerts fan so I hope to meet him and get a picture,” says Valtellini, who lists Aerts as one of the influences in his kickboxing journey.
“In Rico I see a lot of myself, we are young bloods in kickboxing who are coming up and turning heads. We are both hungry and both motivated and regardless of who they are putting in front of us we are winning. And on Saturday I think that Rico continues his winning ways.”
As for his own winning ways, Valtellini thinks that recent trends lie in his favor. The last three GLORY tournaments have seen the favorite eliminated and an underdog take the victory.
“2013 is the year of the underdog if you look at the tournament winners. It just goes to show that the favorite doesn’t always win.” he says. “Ristie, Schilling, Verhoeven - and now Valtellini.”
GLORY 13 TOKYO takes place Saturday, December 21 at the Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan. It airs in the USA on SPIKE TV at 9pm ET / 9pm PT and on BT Sports in the UK, plus a total of 170 territories around the world.
Also taking place this Saturday in the Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo prior to GLORY 13, six fights in the GLORY Superfight Series.
Featuring Jerome Le Banner, Sergey Kharitonov, Remy Bonjasky, Artur Kyshenko and more, fight fans can get 25% off the price of the stream by clicking here
