Today, GLORY announced via its website that Groenhart will face Holzken in one of the two semi-final matches taking place in the Welterweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 19 on Friday, February 6.
Groenhart and Holzken fought in Russia in 2010. The fight went the distance and included an extra round before Holzken won a decision which sparked plenty of discussion and a little controversy. Now Groenhart gets a chance to settle the score.
Holzken has been absent from the GLORY ring since winning the welterweight tournament at GLORY 13 in Tokyo, Japan in December 2013. A shoulder injury sustained in a car accident sidelined him for the first half of the year.
Since then he has had two professional boxing matches and one kickboxing fight, which took place in a regional Turkish promotion on Christmas Day. That latter fight ended in stoppage, as did his two boxing matches this year, but Groenhart represents a much higher level of competition than the Turkish opponent did.
The winner of the fight will go forward to fight in the tournament final that same night, against the winner of the other semi-final bracket. The tournament winner will then be declared ‘The Contender; at welterweight and will go forward to challenge ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini for his belt later this year.
GLORY 19 airs live on Spike TV in the US and is headlined by Rico Verhoeven defending his World Heavyweight Championship against Errol Zimmerman. The two are 1-1 against each other, making February 6 both a title fight and a rubber match.
The 2010 fight:
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