Glory 22 preview: Verhoeven vs Adegbuyi and the quest for a new lineal HW king

Time for Glory! Glory 22 is live this Friday from Lille, France. It’s a pretty major card, highlighted by Rico Verhoeven vs. Benjamin Adegbuyi for the Glory Heavyweight title, plus a high quality Lightweight tournament. We’ll have your live fight coverage here, but before we get to that, it’s time to preview things with a look at the lineal titles on the line. As always, this research was done by lineal king mjanecek, with some help from me, Fraser Coffeen. I turn things over to Matt to break it dow.

Hello there lineal title fans! Today, we continue our new series dedicated to the lineal history of major kickboxing titles. Our goal is to use this detailed research as a way to appreciate the true greats throughout the history of the sport we love. Lineal titles are one way to recognize the fighters who truly deserve to be hailed as champions for their accomplishments in the ring.

If you missed our first few installment, I invite you to check them out here:

• Lightweight (70 kg – 73 kg)
• Heavyweight Part I: Lineal Reem
• Heavyweight Part II: Lineal Bonjasky
• Featherweight (60 kg – 67 kg)
• Middleweight / Welterweight (75 kg – 85 kg)

As you can see, we’ve jumped around a little bit but have presented a nearly complete picture of the lineal titles throughout the sport of kickboxing. Here’s a quick visual summary of active lineal titles in each weight class:

Lineal Pies Across All Divisions

• Here I’ve pulled out the slices of the pie that have been retired (Bonjasky, Overeem, Schilt, Fihlo) Further down in the article I’ll post the updated Lineal Pie that includes only active titles in the division

There remains one unexplored weight class, however, and Glory 22: Verhoeven vs Adegbuyi gives us a fantastic opportunity to highlight these titles: The Light Heavyweight division (90 kg – 95 kg). Given Glory 95 kg champion Gohkan Saki’s relative inactivity within the promotion, we haven’t really had an opportunity to highlight this weight class. But, the main event at Glory 22 features a unification of 3 lineal titles, 2 of which originated within the Light Heavyweight division.

If you caught our most recent post in the lead up to Levin vs Marcus II for the lineal crown at 75 kg – 85 kg, then you know that we touched on the relative obscurity of the Middleweight and Welterweight divisions throughout kickboxing’s storied past. For the most part, kickboxing has either showcased the “big boys” or the “little guys” and not much in between. One consequence of this is that anyone over 200 lbs pretty much gets grouped in with the “big guys.” For this reason, almost all of the successful fighters competing at 95 kgs (209 lbs) also have a history competing as Heavyweights (typically 100 kg+, but sometimes just 95 kg+). To be fair, weight differences in combat sports that feature only stand up striking is not as clear cut of an advantage to the larger fighter as it is in grapping heavy combat sports. Guys like Semmy Schilt and Lennox Lewis stand in stark contrast to this point, but for the most part, the speed and mobility advantage that comes with a smaller frame can be an equalizer.

With that said, our research shows that the lineal titles of 200 lb plus fighters have, for the most part, merged into one collection of belts. And, with the retirement of Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky, Alistair Overeem, and Francisco Fihlo, the once massive collection of 54 titles from 90 kgs – 100 kg plus has dwindled to just 18 active lineal titles. Here are a few visuals of the titles that are still actively being defended today:

Lineal Dashboard: (90 kg – 100 kg+)

Active Lineal Pie (90 kg+)

Now that you’ve seen the big picture, it’s clear that the 200 lb+ division is one in transition. It’s the only weight class we’ve featured in this series without a true Lineal King:

• Middle/Welterweight: Artem Levin

• Lightweight: Robin van Roosmalen

• Featherweight: Kongsak sitboonmee

The good news is that Verhoeven vs Adegbuyi represents the first step in what looks to be a fast and furious pace towards establishing a Lineal Heayweight King. It’s a journey that we will lay out for you in detail below.

Before we jump into the details, however, here’s a quick reminder of the rules that Fraser and I follow when tracing these lineages…

Rules

1. All lineal titles will begin with the inaugural champion crowned by a given promotion. The title will change hands only with a loss by the champion regardless of what promotion that fight takes place in. In a phrase, a lineal champion is “the man who beat the man.”
2. Unlike the MMA lineal titles that I track (search the fan posts for more info), weight class will not be a factor in tracking the lineage of Kickboxing titles. That is to say that titles will be allowed to migrate from one weight class to another.
3. The spirit behind this collection of titles is to appreciate the history of the K-1 rules / Oriental Kicking style. But, we do sprinkle in a few titles of other similar rule sets like International (Leg Kick) and Shoot boxing rules. For this reason, all fights that would traditionally be considered on a kickboxing record will be included in the lineage. This means that even Muay Thai rules and Shoot Boxing rules fights will be recognized.

Lineal Titles on the Line at Glory 22 (3)

There are 3 titles on the line on Friday in France. Glory HW champ Ricco Verhoeven currently holds the Enfusion Super Heavweight title and the Enfusion 90 kg title, both won recently in his victory over Errol Zimmerman. If you are wondering what happened to the lineal Glory titles (Heayweight World & Tournament titles previously held by Verhoeven) , we’ll get into those a little later in the article. Benjamin Adegbuyi currently holds the Legend 93 kg title. It’s a title he has successfully defended 4 times since 2013 including an impressive showing at Glory 18 against fellow lineal champion Hesdy Gerges.

Other Active LHW Lineal Titles (8)

There are 8 other active Light Heavyweight lineal titles worth exploring including significant titles from Glory, It’s Showtime, and SuperKombat.

Retired LHW Lineal Titles

From 1993 to 1995, K-1 held Light Heavyweight tournaments that they referred to as the K-2 Grand Prix. (Fun fact: there was actually one K-3 GP as well to represent the lightweights before the invention of the K-1 Max). Unfortunately, all of these titles have been retired along with Remy Bonjasky.

The other Light Heayweight title that retired in the hands of Remy Bonjasky is the Oriental Kicking Rules Light Heavyweight ISKA belt established in 1992.

The Search for a Heavyweight Lineal King

Besides the titles that have already been detailed, there are 6 other active Heavyweight titles. As detailed above, there are a total of 9 fighters that hold some share of the lineal pie in the division (soon to be 8 after Glory 22). Probably the most exciting part about the 90 kg to 100 kg + division is the collision course that these 9 fighters are poised for over the next 12 months. Here is a look at the unification opportunities on the horizon:

• Glory 22: Ricco Verhoeven vs Benjamin Adegbuyi (unifies 3 titles) – June 5^th 2015
• Kunlun Fight 26: Andrei Herasimchuk vs Hesdy Gerges (unifies 5 titles including the Glory HW World Title and the Glory HW Tournament title, which Herasimchuk won from Rico Verhoeven in January of this year) – June 7^th 2015
• Kunlun Fight 100 kg+ Tournament Final: winner of Herasimchuk and Gerges vs Glory contender Jahfarr Wilnis or Chinese standout Asihati (creates 1 new title while unifying it with the 5 above) – TBD
• Glory LHW #1 Contender: Saulo Cavalari has established himself as the next contender for Gokhan Saki’s Glory LHW title (would unify 4 lineal titles) – TBD
• GFC Grand Prix: Global Fighting Championship is in the middle of establishing a final 8 for their Grand Prix, which would create a new lineal title. So far, Badr Hari, Ismael Lazzar, and Zabit Samedov (4 lineal titles) have secured a spot in the final 8. Gokhan Saki’s most recent fight took place under the GFC banner, so there’s a chance that Saki’s and Cavalari’s titles could be in the mix for unification at the eventual GFC Grand Prix – End of 2015?
• FFC: Current Final Fight champions Mladen Brestovac and Igor Jurković are both on the Glory roster and in line for unification opportunities in the near future. In fact, Brestovac was recently in line to fill in against Anderson Silva as a late replacement until the fight fell through. So, expect to hear something from him very shortly – TBD

Here’s a quick look at the titles Verhoeven dropped in January to Herasimchuk at Kunlun Fight (China)

• Note: The first iteration of the Glory Heavyweight title was retired along with Semmy Schilt in December 2012

Career Heavyweight Lineal Stats

Lastly, in the interest of appreciating the legends that came before, here’s a quick look at the history of the 90 kg+ division and the fighters who have enjoyed the most lineal title success over the years.

Peter Aerts has certainly had an impressive career by any measure. Many of his losses against others on this list came late in his career, hence the lower than average winning percentage. It’s also notable that Aerts defended the K-1 ’93 & ’94 GP 15 times in a span of just over 1 year. Also impressive is Semmy Schilt’s record of 15-4-1 against other fighters on this list. And, 3 of those 4 losses came to none other than Peter Aerts.

In Conclusion

The history of kickboxing is rich with 200 plus pound fighters. But, the retirement of legends like Remy Bonjasky, Alistair Overeem, and Semmy Schilt from the sport of kickboxing has left the Heavyweight division in a state of transition with no clear Lineal King.

Glory 22 features a unification bout in the main event that could serve as a catalyst for establishing a new King of the division with either Rico Verhoeven or Benjamin Adegbuyi emerging as a front runner for the lineal crown. Enjoy the fights!