Robin van Roosmalen (13-3-0) was on a terrifying form in the main event of the GLORY 37 SUPERFIGHT SERIES card.
He faced Matt Embree (39-8-0) of Canada in what was originally set to be a title fight, before Van Roosmalen lost his belt by missing weight at the official weigh-ins the previous day. According to him the problem lay with the scales used by the California State Athletic Commission but whatever the issue was, the result was the same: he was stripped of the belt.
That meant that the match remained a title fight only for Embree, who would become champion if he won. That made no difference to Van Roosmalens performance though. Before the fight he said that instead of going in there to defend his status as champion, he would be going in there to “prove that I am the best in the division”.
His GLORY 37 performance certainly stated the case for that claim. From the opening round he put on a masterclass of pressure, explosiveness and combination-work. Embree boxed well and cut angles beautifully but Van Roosmalen stuck to him like glue, always in range, always landing something.
Van Roosmalen's cardiovascular capacity is one of the best in the sport. He sets a ferocious pace from the first round and does not let up until the final bell. It's an attribute that opponents often struggle with; they burn out as they try to match him and yet he seems to get stronger the longer the fight goes on.
His ability to explode out of nowhere into six- and seven-hit combinations is almost unique. Van Roosmalen will go from boxing with single shots and feints to suddenly moving at light-speed in a combination which targets different areas of the body and is thus almost impossible to defend.
Embree had successes of his own, doing good work with straight punches, but Van Roosmalen was on another level. His speed, power, cardio and fighting intelligence make him the complete package and a very daunting challenge for anybody in the ring with him.
Van Roosmalen really started taking control in the third round, with Embree increasingly being forced on the defensive. In the fourth round the former champion cranked the pressure up a little more.
Late in the round he had Embree backed up on the ropes. He unloaded a series of ferocious bombs. Embree went into a defensive shell and looked ready to be put away. A thundering body shot from Van Roosmalen clearly hurt Embree and looked to be the beginning of the end. Van Roosmalen reset himself and got ready to go again, but referee John McCarthy stepped in and waved the fight off.
It was initially a confusing ending. There are no standing eight-counts under GLORY rules which means a referee cannot step in to give a count to a fighter who is not downed. But it is unusual to see a referee step in to wave a fight off when a fighter is still standing and has not yet taken a count in the fight.
After calling the fight, McCarthy told ringside officials that he had heard something from Embree which had caused him to step in and stop the fight. There were no protests from Embree regarding the stoppage. No doubt he would have preferred to go out on his shield but it is sometimes the job of referees to save fighters from themselves.
Van Roosmalen afterwards declared himself “a king without a crown” and said he intends to win the belt back in his next outing. Who the opponent will be is not clear as yet, but it could be that he faces the winner of a Featherweight Contender Tournament.
