The GLORY featherweight crown was up for grabs as the GLORY 32 main event saw Gabriel Varga recapture his crown from the man that took it from him, Sirhiy Adamchuk. Canada’s own Gabriel Varga spoke with Bloody Elbow’s Eddie Mercado about snatching back his title, the toughness of tournaments, and discusses the possible challengers to his crown.
Interview: Glory Kickboxing Featherweight Champion Gabriel Varga **AUDIO ONLY**
GLORY’s newly re-crowned featherweight king, Gabriel Varga, opened up about losing the ‘spark’ for kickboxing ahead of being overthrown by Sirhiy Adamchuk back at GLORY 25: Milan:
“When I got it, I just felt the sort of energy for kickboxing, my enthusiasm kind of plateaued which was new for me. When I trained for Adamchuk the first time, every day when I woke up I didn’t have that spark to go push myself to do my running or go and do pads. I really wasn’t enjoying it.”
Gabriel Varga has already competed in two tournaments within the GLORY promotion and isn’t exactly interested in competing in an eight man tournament:
“Both of my tournament experiences were so positive. When I was in Japan, my very first fight card with GLORY ever, I went over there and I never fought for GLORY and was going in against three or four guys in the world I already knew of who were considered the best. I was going man, I don’t know what I’m getting myself into here. Like am I going to walk out broken? Is this going to break me tonight? I just didn’t really know. I walked out pretty much uninjured, which was amazing. I was in Tokyo and got to go around and see the sights for about three days. Same thing when I was in L.A. for that contender tournament. The next day I was completely fine. I didn’t feel like I had really done more than one fight. When you hear those guys in the past doing three fights, then that boggles my mind. I’ve been offered a couple times to compete in eight man tournaments and I have no interest in it now. Unless someone says that the prize money is 200 grand and I can go okay, I’m going to fight then take six months off or something to rest up. You hear those guys in the past fighting two eight man tournaments plus a couple of other fights per year. Ugh, crazy!“
After facing the same opponent back to back, Gabriel Varga is looking for a more ‘aesthetically pleasing’ bout; possibly against the Rafael Cordeiro trained Giga Chikadze:
“Everybody has certain styles that make a fight. I think him and I, from what my brother says, would have a good fight, an aesthetically pleasing fight. If it happens, that’s what I want now. I’m done with Adamchuk for a little bit. That was, I think like the past year now just training, knowing that I’m going to be getting into an actual fight fight and it’s not going to look good. I really don’t enjoy that so if Giga and I fight at least I know it’s not going to be a mess.”
The GLORY featherweight champion Gabriel Varga is open to a rematch with the man that he first took the title from, Mosab Amrani:
“I still think one of the best guys in the division is Mosab [Amrani]. I’m always up for a good fight and I know last year we got nominated for fight of the year. I think we could do even better on another fight. I think Mosab, if they could throw him any opponent now, aside from Adamchuk, I think Mosab would win. I like Mosab. We were chatting with him after. He’s a nice guy; he’s a great competitor. So i’d like to see some of those other guys fight Mosab and see if they can get by him; then i’ll be ready. If they can’t, I wouldn’t mind a rematch with him because just stylistically it is nice to give fans a good fight; and the two of us would do that. So, we’ll see how it plays out.”
Gabriel Varga will keep a close eye on the featherweight contender tournament at GLORY 33: New Jersey on September 9, 2016. The name of those competing in said tournament have yet to be revealed. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for all of your GLORY kickboxing news, updates, and more!
Andrew Reed
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