And so this Wednesday night, world lightweight champion Robin van Roosmalen will take to the ring at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom for a special showcase appearance. His opponent, also provided by GLORY, is the power-punching Australian knockout merchant ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Moxon.
That’s a pretty special international-level match-up for a small charity event to be hosting. Dynamite is guaranteed; Van Roosmalen is the clear favorite due to his standing and experience but Moxon is a man of instant finishes when the opening presents itself and in this fight he isn’t dealing with a huge reach disadvantage as he often is.
Having a fight like this take place behind closed doors at a private event is frustrating for fight fans around the world. But GLORY has that covered too; the company says that a camera crew is being sent to record the fight and that it will be released online the day after it takes place. Look out for it being embedded here on Bloody Elbow.
As if that wasn’t enough, GLORY’s chairman and majority owner Pierre Andurand is also fighting on the card. Official GLORY sources would neither confirm nor deny his appearance on the white-collar undercard to the Van Roosmalen/Moxon main event, but other sources have. They say that Andurand – one of the world’s most successful hedge-fund operators – has been rising at 6am every day and “training like a professional” before commencing his working day.
A former international swimming competitor for his native France, Andurand is a big man and a natural heavyweight. His tendency for smashing through records when he entered the oil trading game had him dubbed ‘The French Bulldozer’ by colleagues and that name may well accompany him to the ring tomorrow.
The Happy Hearts Fund was formed in 2005 by former supermodel Petra Nemcova. She lost her fiancé – and nearly her own life – while in Thailand during the 2004 Indian Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster.
Memories of seeing her fiancé swept away and hearing the cries of children in the shattered villages aftermath of the waves drove her to create a charity which seeks to build schools in areas devastated by natural disaster. Already more than 100 have been built and the charity is going from strength to strength.
Tickets for the event start at $1,000 up to $100,000 for a ‘Platinum’-standard table which seats 20 at ringside and comes with its own butler plus backstage perks. The average Bloody Elbow reader won’ be adding too many tickets to their basket right now but we aren’t the target audience anyway; this event is aimed squarely at the Wolves of Wall Street, many of whom box and kickbox recreationally as a means of fitness and stress management.
In other news, GLORY 22 FRANCE takes place this Friday in Lille, France. Headlined by heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven against Romanian challenger Benjamin Adegbuyi, the card also features a four-man Lightweight Contender Tournament to determine the next challenger for Van Roosmalen’s title.
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