John Joe O'Regan
Dutch Supreme Court orders kickboxing star Badr Hari back to jail
Top heavyweight kickboxer Badr Hari was told on Tuesday by the Supreme Court in the Netherlands that his appeal against a 2015 sentence has been denied and that he must return to the Netherlands to serve another six months in custody. Hari had previously served eight months of the original two-year sentence and had appealed […]
Badr Hari says GLORY champ Rico Verhoeven ‘is still not in my league,’ eyes summer rematch
We know now that all five ringside judges had former K-1 heavyweight champion Badr Hari up 10-9 following the 1st round of his December GLORY superfight with heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven. That was as far as the judges got though, because halfway through the second round Hari sustained an injury to his right forearm which […]
Glory Collision: Who wins the clash of kings between Verhoeven and Hari?
Tonight, the long-awaited clash between heavyweight kickboxers Rico Verhoeven and Badr Hari goes down in the main event of Glory: Collision. Verhoeven is the Glory heavyweight champion, Hari the former K-1 heavyweight champion and, to his fans, still the real number one heavyweight kickboxer. Today they will settle the question. The two central characters in […]
Cedric Doumbé: ‘I think Holzken is a little bit crazy to accept this fight with me’
By his own admission, Cedric Doumbé (56-4-1, 35 KO’s) is rather an unknown quantity when compared to Nieky Holzken (90-11, 46 KO’s) and his previous title challengers such as Murthel Groenhart. Indeed it was a win over Groenhart earlier this year which pushed Doumbé into the title contender picture and then, once Holzken had eliminated […]
Van Soest: ‘Becoming Glory’s first women’s champion will solidify my destiny’
Tiffany Van Soest (15-2-1, 5 KO’s) has held a plethora of titles in the course of her career. She won both the Lion Fight Women’s featherweight title and super-bantamweight title before moving to Glory earlier this year and has also held the WBC Muay Thai Women’s International Super Bantamweight Championship since 2012. Earlier this year […]
CroCop: ‘Chicken’ Wanderlei pulled out of RIZIN fight
One of the major attractions of the 2016 RIZIN Grand Prix was supposed to be a trilogy bout between Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop. Silva even got a first-round-bye in the tournament to help guarantee the booking. But as is often the case, tournaments rarely go as planned. And now it appears that Silva […]
Nine fights added to GLORY’s end-of-year card including Tiffany van Soest in the Super BW Grand Prix
Glory Kickboxing has one last event lined up for 2016, and it looks to be a big one. And unlike most cards, it won’t just be Glory 36 Germany, and a “Superfight Series” card, but a PPV event as well. The PPV will feature heavyweights Rico Verhoeven vs. Badr Hari, alongside a welterweight title bout between […]
Badr Hari: ‘I’m going to knock Rico Verhoeven out, make his title belt worthless’
Rico Verhoeven (49-10, 13 KO’s) is the GLORY heavyweight champion and holds the organization’s record for successful title defenses. He’s a popular figure with Dutch sports press and even some mainstream outlets, being a regular guest on late-night talk shows. But it was Badr Hari, whose notoriety and air of menace makes him a subject […]
Van Roosmalen sets Glory record, expresses interest in UFC crossover fights
Robin Van Roosmalen lost the lightweight title to Thailand’s Sittichai Sitsongpeenong at Glory 31 Amsterdam earlier this year by way of a decision, which sparked much controversy. In search of new challenges, he turned his attention to the featherweight division and the title, which Gabriel Varga had recaptured from Serhiy Adamchuk at Glory 32. Numerous […]
Simon Marcus vs Dustin Jacoby rematch set for GLORY 34 co-main
Dustin Jacoby (9-7, 7 KO’s) and Simon Marcus (44-3, 24 KO’s) have already met once before. Jacoby challenged Marcus for his belt at GLORY 30 LOS ANGELES earlier this year but fell short over five rounds. With Marcus now back in the contender ranks, Denver native Jacoby is getting a second chance at solving the […]
The Ultimate Chicken-Fighter: Thai standout Thongchai torn between gambling and GLORY
Thongchai (134-32 in Muay Thai) is huge by the standards of the average Thai, standing 5’10” (1.78m) and walking around at as much as 200lbs (90kgs) when he is out of training. At 20 years old he has yet to finish growing but he is already much bigger than when he won a Lumpini Stadium […]
GLORY 34 Middleweight Contender Tournament 4-man line-up complete
A successful competitor on the Brazilian circuit and with some international appearances to his name, Ariel Machado was nevertheless rather an unknown on the world stage when he got his GLORY call-up. But he impressed with his performance at GLORY 32, particularly with the clever tactics he used against the fearsome Zhuravlev and his discipline […]
Holzken vs. Groenhart III confirmed for Glory 34: Denver
Glory today confirmed that the highly-anticipated trilogy match between bitter rivals Nieky Holzken and Murthel Groenhart will take place at Glory 34: Denver next month. Holzken is the reigning welterweight champion but Groenhart believes the belt should have been wrapped around his waist after their GLORY 26 fight in December. Now he gets a second […]
Hamasaki: ‘If I win at Invicta on Friday night, I want UFC call-up’
Ayaka Hamasaki rides a four-fight win streak into the bout and is 3-1 in Invicta overall. Her last fight was a successful title defense against Amber Brown, ending in an armbar submission midway through the third round. She trains and fights out of Abe Ani Combat Club in Tokyo, Japan, a team famous for its […]
Simon Marcus blasts ‘B-level’ Jason Wilnis ahead of GLORY 33 title fight
Friday night will be the second time Simon Marcus and Jason Wilnis have fought. Their first fight – at GLORY 20 DubaI – ended in a decision win for Marcus, and Wilnis has had plenty to say about it in the meantime. Marcus is now looking forward to addressing Wilnis’ comments in physical form. Wilnis […]
Rico Verhoeven looking forward to ‘street fight’ with Anderson Silva at GLORY 33
GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven is probably the most technically proficient fighter that heavyweight kickboxing has ever produced. He started training at five years old under his karate black belt father and these days supplements his grueling kickboxing regimen with regular training sessions alongside world heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury. But on Friday night, he […]
Chikadze on former champion Adamchuk: He’s tricky, but I’m going to stop him
Adamchuk’s tenure as champion began at GLORY 25 when he took the belt from Canada’s Gabriel Varga by way of a close and controversial decision. He then defended the belt against Mosab Amrani at GLORY 28 by way of an incredible shut-out performance over five rounds, before losing it back to Varga – also by […]
Glory’s Gerges on fighting ‘strange’ UFC vet: I’m ‘old-school’, I’ll ‘take two punches to give one’
Hesdy Gerges (49-16-1, 23 KO’s) and Guto Inocente (31-7, 17 KO’s) are fighting in the co-main event of GLORY 33 NEW JERSEY on September 9. They’re booked on a card headlined by heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven defending his title in the main event against Brazilian veteran Anderson “Braddock” Silva (no relation to, but a friend […]
Varga: ‘I believe my team will win me the fight’
Gabriel Varga won the GLORY featherweight championship by way of a shutout performance against the world-class Mosab Amrani in April last year, but then lost the belt to Serhiy Adamchuk of Ukraine in his first defense. The decision was unanimous but the result did not reflect the closeness of the fight, nor the ineffectual nature […]
GLORY 32 Virginia light heavyweight tournament and main event preview
GLORY rolls into Norfolk, Virginia this weekend with an ESPN-airing card which features a four-man light heavyweight contender tournament and a featherweight title fight between two of the most technical kickboxers in the game. The tournament participants are all newcomers or recent arrivals to the GLORY roster, but one in particular is exciting interest among […]
TUF 23’s Dennis faces Brian ‘The Lion’ Collette at GLORY 32
Myron Dennis (18-4, 8 KO’s), who featured on The Ultimate Fighter 23 recently, lost a unanimous decision to Brian Collette (22-3, 18 KO’s) at GLORY 19 last year. It was a high-paced encounter which saw both of them landing bombs before Collette started to edge ahead. He found a weakness in Dennis’ leg kick defense […]
Kickboxing Hot Topic: Badr Hari vs. Rico Verhoeven, Roosmalen to UFC?
It’s been tumultuous in the kickboxing world of late, with titles changing hands and new contenders emerging. The recent GLORY event in Amsterdam saw the lightweight championship relocate to Thailand with Sittichai and the interim light-heavyweight championship head to South Africa with Zack Mwekassa. Hard fights await both – Sittichai wants Petrosyan and Mwekassa will […]
Mwekassa: ‘Bouzidi will find out on Saturday how slick my boxing is’
Mourad Bouzidi is currently riding a four-fight win streak and was originally supposed to be facing Artem Vakhitov in Amsterdam. But, the Russian sustained an injury and had to withdraw. Estimates have him fit to return late fall or early winter. Zack Mwekassa, 4-2 in GLORY and coming off a win over Zinedine Hameur-Lain in […]
Young prospect Eddy Nait-Slimani out to make his name against Saenchai at GLORY 31
Eddy Nait-Slimani (62-1, 17 KO’s) faces the biggest challenge of his young career this Saturday night when he faces the “living legend” Saenchai at GLORY 31 Amsterdam. Saenchai needs little introduction to fight fans. A genuine Muay Thai prodigy, he has spent two decades fighting and winning against top-level opponents at home and abroad and […]
Bouzidi on Mwekassa: ‘He’s powerful but not too slick’
Mourad Bouzidi, of Tunisian heritage but born and raised in the Netherlands, is often said to be one of the nicest guys in kickboxing. Nobody trash talks him or seems to have a bad word to say about him. The Japanese nicknamed him ‘The Silent Power’ in his K-1 days because of his soft-spoken nature […]
Josh Jauncey: ‘GLORY 31 clash with Moiseev will be Fight of the Year’
GLORY lightweight Josh Jauncey (24-6, 12 KO’s) has marked himself out as contender material with a string of wins and exciting performances. Even Giorgio Petrosyan, regarded as the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter, said after winning a decision over Jauncey back in November that his opponent had “everything he needs” to become GLORY champion in the […]
Muay Thai icon Saenchai added to GLORY 31 card
Comparisons between fighters and other sporting greats can be a fraught move, as with UFC commentator Michael Goldberg’s infamous comparing of Travis Lutter’s jiu jitsu skills to basketball legend Michael Jordan. Such comparisons are apt, though, when it comes to Saenchai. There is not a Muay Thai fan, pundit, fighter or trainer in the world […]
Simon Marcus says being champion ‘is everything’ to him
At fifteen years old, Simon Marcus was all but written off already. A wild and rebellious youngster, he had no interest in education and no respect for authority. After yet another incident, he found himself expelled from high school, but he wasn’t concerned. At that point he was mentally inclined towards life on the wrong […]
From Slump to Streak: The remarkable rise of middleweight contender Dustin Jacoby
Almost everyone who spends any time with Dustin Jacoby comes away with a good opinion of him. He is likable, humorous and personable. People around him talk about his good character. But none of that amiability stopped him being written off by fans, when his TKO loss in his GLORY 5 LONDON debut was followed […]
Chi Lewis-Parry declares ‘compulsive liar’ Jon Jones to be ‘the DiCaprio of MMA’
Chi Lewis-Parry (6-1, 2 KO’s) originally came to AKA as a sparring partner for Daniel Cormier as he prepared for his rematch with Jon Jones. When that fight was nixed due to Cormier sustaining an injury, Lewis-Parry booked a spot on the GLORY card in May then stayed on to help former UFC heavyweight champion […]