Former champion Gabriel Varga is backing Robin van Roosmalen (36-6, 20 KO's) to retain the featherweight title against Matt 'Matics' Embree (39-7, 18 KO's) at GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES next week.
Varga, who lost the belt to Van Roosmalen at GLORY 34 DENVER, is in a good position to assess the upcoming contest, having faced both fighters.
“Roosmalen was always one of the very best at lightweight and after fighting me proved he can make the cut to featherweight and still be just as good. I was expecting his power or cardio to suffer from the weight cut but he came in strong and didn't gas out,” says the Vancouver, Canada native.
Varga notes that Embree has undergone considerable evolution from when they encountered each other back in their amateur days, “just before we both went pro”.
“Embree is a good fighter but I used to find him to be a bit too one-dimensional. He fought like a Thai fighter and I was able to exploit that and beat him using my hands,” he says.
“However, in the GLORY 33 Featherweight Contender Tournament he showed some great improvement in that area by winning both fights by KO with his hands. But is he one of the best boxers at Featherweight because of that? I'd say he definitely isn't.
“Embree will be able to beat a number of people at featherweight but he has yet to be tested again a top GLORY fighter who has a tight defence and boxes well.”
Varga then turns his attention towards making a prediction for the outcome of next week's fight.
“As far as picking a winner for the fight I'd start off by saying it's extremely hard to hold onto a GLORY belt for a long time. Rico's the only one who's still doing it right now,” he says.
“But I do believe there's only a couple fighters who, on the right day, can beat Roosmalen at featherweight and I don't think it will be happening this month.
I don't see Embree being able to beat Roosmalen with his legs as Roosmalen has already fought and defeated many great kickers at lightweight. And Roosmalen's boxing is better than Embree's.
“Sure, Embree could land a single hard shot like he did during his recent tournament win but I'd be surprised if it would hurt Roosmalen the same way that Chibin Lim and Giga Chikadze were hurt and finished.
“So, I will pick Roosmalen to win and hold onto the Featherweight title for this defence.”
Varga has twice held the featherweight title himself, losing it to Serhiy Adamchuk, gaining it back in a rematch and then losing it to Van Roosmalen. He's gotten used to having the belt around him and he wants it back.
To that end he says he will be “watching this fight closely and taking notes to help me become the featherweight champion for a third time.” Varga says he plans to add “another 5-7 lbs of muscle” to his frame in order to compete against “physically strong fighters like Roosmalen”.
Heading into this new year - in which he also plans to bulk his walkaround weight “from 152-153lbs up to 158-160lbs” - Varga looks forward to competing in March as part of the GLORY 39 PARIS Featherweight Contender Tournament.
He's also planning on starting a YouTube channel “in which I'll talk about cardio training for kickboxing. Hopefully I enjoy adding that to my kickboxing life and it becomes popular. I'm aiming to start that this month after I wrap up a couple seminars in which I'm travelling across Canada.”
GLORY 37 LOS ANGELES takes place Friday, January 20 at The Novo by Microsoft, part of the LA Live! entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles.
Van Roosmalen and Embree headline the Superfight Series section of the card, which airs live on UFC Fight Pass. The GLORY 37 numbered card follows. Headlined by middleweight champion Jason Wilnis defending his belt against Israel Adesanya, it airs on ESPN in the US.
