Following his back-to-back knockout victories in the weekend’s Heavyweight Contender Tournament, Errol Zimmerman (103-11-1, 44 KO’s) is calling for rematches with two of his bitter rivals.
He has recent losses to both Rico Verhoeven (43-9, 10 KO’s) and Daniel Ghita (50-10, 39 KO’s) on his record and he wants revenge.
By coincidence, it was announced during the weekend’s broadcast of GLORY 16 DENVER that Verhoeven and Ghita are matched for the GLORY: LAST MAN STANDING event on Saturday June 21.
“Rico Verhoeven and Daniel Ghita will fight for the Heavyweight title next? OK, I want to fight the winner,” he says.
“I want to fight both of those guys. I wasn’t myself against Rico [at GLORY 9] and I want to prove a point. And Ghita has two KO wins over me now, I want to show him that I can beat him.”
Having stopped Ben Edwards (36-10-3, 32 KO’s) and Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva (38-11-1, 24 KO‘s) on Saturday night, Zimmerman feels he is on career-best form and ready to mount a serious threat to the division’s top echelon.
“I’m coming for the heavyweight title. I feel good now, I feel ready.,” he says.
“I want to warn all the other gentlemen in the heavyweight division that I am coming for the title. Please be careful not to get in my way.”
Zimmerman may not have a title belt but he didn’t leave empty-handed on Saturday night. The winners of GLORY Contender Tournaments receive a trophy - the Ramon Dekkers Memorial Cup - which honors the memory of a fighter who has inspired generations of fighters worldwide.
“I had to bring this trophy home. This trophy is a replica of one awarded to Ramon Dekkers when he smashing everyone in Thailand twenty years ago. Ramon was my coach since I was about 16 years old, we were close, I was very upset when he passed away suddenly last year,” says Zimmerman.
“So I had to win this tournament and bring the trophy back to our gym, bring it home where it belongs. There is no way I could allow that trophy to go to Brazil or Russia or Australia, you know? If I failed to do that then I would have had to stop fighting, out of shame.”
Zimmerman also believe the echoes of Dekkers in Saturday night’s competition may have been behind his spectacular ring entrance.
He was walking down the ramp when he suddenly burst into a sprint and jumped high into the air, over the ropes and into the ring. It was a flashy and risky maneuver which the crowd loudly applauded.
“I used to enter the ring like that all the time early in my career, race down and jump over the ropes. I don’t know, I just felt like doing it on the way out,” Zimmerman shrugs.
“Ramon was on my mind and maybe it reminded me of those days. I felt his spirit was there with me in the dressing room and in the ring, watching over me.”
GLORY’s next event takes place Saturday June 21 with a double-header at The Forum in Los Angeles, California.
GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES will see California’s own Ky Hollenbeck stake his claim to a title shot as he faces recent title challenger Andy Ristie, while the Featherweight Contender Tournament will do the same for the 145lb division.
After GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES concludes on SPIKE TV we switch to pay-per-view for the LAST MAN STANDING event. The eight-man tournament brings the world’s best middleweights together with the Middleweight World Championship on the line, and the heavyweight title will be contested by Ghita and Verhoeven.
