Verlinden Responds to Manhoef

Melvin Manhoef’s recent comments about Filip Verlinden’s tactics in their LAST MAN STANDING fight are “crazy talk”, according to the Belgian middleweight.

Verlinden (43-12-1, 16 KO’s) faced Manhoef (47-12, 37 KO’s) in the quarter-finals of the June tournament in Los Angeles. Being the taller fighter, he stayed on the outside as much as possible and tried to use his reach advantage and avoid letting the shorter Manhoef getting the range to throw his killer hooks.

Manhoef criticized Verlinden’s tactics in a recent interview, accusing him of “running away from the fight”, a charge Verlinden completely rejects.

“Yeah it’s crazy talk man. What does he want me to do, drop my hands and stand in the middle of the ring? And who was the one that who got knocked down in that fight anyway? He took an eight-count, not me. I knocked him down,” he says.

“I’m taller than him so obviously I am going to try and stay on the outside. If he can’t touch me that’s his problem. Maybe he should have stood with his hands down and let me knock him out, if he is thinking along these lines.”

Manhoef is infamously powerful. He has incredibly explosive knockout power in both hands and is the only fighter to score a clean punch KO of the Australian heavyweight Mark Hunt. When you consider that Manhoef stands at 5’8”/1.73m, it is incredible he has fought at heavyweight and light-heavyweight.

“He’s small but he’s a f--king animal,” laughs Verlinden.

“He hits hard. He didn’t really catch me clean but I felt on my guard that he has a big punch. And I have been punched by some big hitters, guys like Gokhan Saki, Alistair Overeem and Errol Zimmerman.”

Verlinden trains at Bulls Gym in Belgium and Hemmers Gym in Breda, Netherlands. The latter was at one time home to Overeem and Saki and remains the home of Zimmerman and the giant heavyweight Jamal Ben Saddik.

The mid-week pro-sparring session at Hemmers Gym is infamous. It is nicknamed ‘Gehaktdag’ (‘Mincemeat Day’) because of the intensity of the sparring rounds, which are basically full-on fights while wearing shin-pads and sparring gloves, which are bigger than competition gloves.

“I remember in 2010 I had to do ten rounds and it was three rounds with Saki, three rounds with Overeem and three rounds with Zimmerman. They were all preparing for K-1 back then and it was heavy man,” says Verlinden.

“I was fighting in the IFMA back then, the amateur tournament, and the fights were like in slow motion for me because I was used to getting beatings off the guys in the gym. Alistair would knock you down and jump up on the corner of the ring with his arms up while you took an eight-count. It was like a real fight.”

Verlinden laughs and shakes his head as he recalls those times when he would head to the gym knowing that he would be going into battle with some of the world’s top names.

“Some days you would be driving to the gym thinking of excuses you could make up and call them with so that you didn’t have to turn up, a flat tire or whatever. Thinking, ‘I could just turn the car around,’” he smiles.

“But once you get there it’s OK. And you need that kind of training to make you better and tougher, so it’s all good.”

GLORY LAST MAN STANDING first aired in the US on pay-per-view. It will air FREE on SPIKE TV on Friday August 8.

Two of the fights on this card have been nominated for ‘Best Fight’ in the Half-Year Awards and the event, as a whole was one of the most exciting in GLORY history. Tune in for the full card at 10PM on August 8.