Van Roosmalen wants to be world champion - just like his father

Lightweight contender Robin Van Roosmalen (31-6, 19 KO’s) has a crucial fight ahead of him at GLORY 15 ISTANBUL, where he faces Marat Grigorian (35-4-2, 18 KO’s).

Having been runner-up in the last two lightweight tournaments, Van Roosmalen steps into the ring on Saturday April 12 to show why his name needs to remain in the championship conversation.

“Right now I want to be the best kickboxer [in my weight class]. I want to be world champion,” he states flatly.

“The last tournament was good, I had a good fight against Kiria and won on points. The final wasn’t good, I lost to Andy Ristie by KO, but we learned a lot from that fight and now we changed a lot of things.”

The loss to Ristie (41-4-1, 21 KO’s) was arguably more to do with Ristie’s unique style and lines of attack - Ristie KO’d both Van Roosmalen and Giorgio Petrosyan with the same left uppercut which neither saw coming - but Van Roosmalen nonetheless identified some areas to work on.

“Every time you have to prove that you are the best and when you lose a fight then you have to think, ‘I did something wrong so I’m going to have to start over again,’” he says.

“I was too slow. So we changed that in my conditioning. It is better now, I am faster, more explosive.”

Having fought at the elite European level for the last few years, Grigorian presents an interesting style match-up for Van Roosmalen. Where Van Roosmalen likes to get close, plant his feet and throw heavy hooks, Grigorian’s boxing-based style sees him throw a lot more straight shots.

A straight line is faster than a circular one and so the match could hinge on whether Gregorian can use straight shots to disrupt Van Roosmalen’s timing and balance. If he cannot, Van Roosmalen only has to land one bomb to send him to sleep.

In seeking to become a world champion, Van Roosmalen is following in the footsteps of his father William, who won a world title of his own in 1995.

That victory is in itself part of kickboxing legend, as Van Roosmalen Sr. won the belt by knocking out Vitali Klitschko, who would go on to become a heavyweight boxing champion with multiple titles.

“When I was little I was always going to the gym with my father. At that time he became the world champion. When he was training I always looked at him and I wanted to become world champion also.” Robin recalls.

“Me and my dad have had to work really hard for this. A lot of people said, when I lost some fights, ‘You know, Robin is good but he is never going to be at the top level’ - and now I am here, so every time I think about losing, I think about that.”

GLORY 15 ISTANBUL takes place Saturday April 12 at Ulker Arena, Istanbul, Turkey and airs in the USA on SPIKE TV at 9pm ET/8pm CT.The event features a four-man World Championship Tournament between Tyrone Spong (90-5, 60 KO’s), Gokhan Saki (79-16, 56 KO’s), Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett (57-4, 45 KO’s) and Saulo Cavalari (28-2, 18 KO’s).The winner will emerge with the GLORY Light-Heavyweight World Title.