Van Roosmalen says Petchpanomrung “will be done in two rounds” at GLORY 41

“I'm going to win my belt back in my home town in front of all my friends and family. This fight might be the best moment in my career so far. I feel great about it,” says a confident Robin van Roosmalen ahead of next week's GLORY 41 HOLLAND showdown with Petchpanomrung.

They are disputing the vacant featherweight title, taken from Van Roosmalen (37-7, 21 KO's) after he missed weight for his GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES title defense earlier this year. He blamed the scales in Los Angeles for leaving him “a king without a crown” after he stopped Matt Embree but says there will be no repeat issues this time.

Petchpanomrung (156-35-2, 25 KO's) finds himself in this title fight after winning the four-man Featherweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 39 BRUSSELS earlier this year. He beat two high-level opponents along the way but Van Roosmalen, who was ringside, was not especially impressed.

“I think he's a smaller version of Sitthichai but with less power and his boxing isn't as good. He's got a good left kick and he goes to the body well on the inside, changes levels, but that's about it,” he says. Lightweight champion Sitthichai was Van Roosmalen's closest rival prior to Van Roosmalen dropping to featherweight.

“I watched Petchpanomrung in the tournament and I felt like he got hit a lot, especially in the earlier part of the fight. A lot of Thai guys take time to warm up into the fight so maybe it was that, or maybe his guard just isn't that good, but for sure I know I can land heavy on him.

“He didn't look too comfortable in Brussels, maybe these rules are still very new to him. I have a lot more experience with fighting under GLORY rules and that's a big advantage for me. Honestly, I see him hanging out for the first round and then in the second round he is done.”

Van Roosmalen professes himself to be “very excited” about fighting in his home city of Den Bosch next week but says he has managed to hold himself back from overtraining, which has been a problem of his in the past.

“I feel very good, I trained really hard for this one but I haven't overdone it. I trained smart. Sometimes I have let myself get too excited for fights and I have done two hard sessions a day in training camp and then had to take some days off,” he explains.

“This time I've done it just right. I don't need to learn anything new, I know how to punch, I know how to kick, so we've just worked on the things we wanted to do for this fight and that's it. Running in the mornings and short, hard rounds in the gym in the evening.”

One thing Van Roosmalen is particularly looking forward to is having members of his extended family in the audience.

“I'm excited to fight here, there's no pressure. The people here in Den Bosch know me, I don't need to prove anything to anybody,” he says.

“I just want to make a nice performance for everyone and I'm really happy that my grandparents can be there, my mom's mom and dad. They usually have to stay up late at night to watch me so it will be great to have them there as I take my belt back!”

GLORY 41 HOLLAND takes place Saturday, May 20 at the Brabanthallen ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the city of Den Bosch. It airs live in the US on ESPN 3 and live in the Netherlands on Ziggo Sport.

Van Roosmalen and Petchpanomrung fight on the GLORY 41 SUPERFIGHT SERIES card, which airs live worldwide on UFC FIGHT PASS.