Dominant Rico Verhoeven Retains Heavyweight Crown in Glory 33 Main Event
Rico Verhoeven dismantled Anderson Silva to retain the Glory
heavyweight championship in the Glory 33 main event on Friday at
the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, New Jersey.
Verhoeven (49-10, 13 KOs) was nearly flawless against “Braddock,” as he tore apart the Brazilian’s legs, body and head with his precision punching and kicking before stopping him in the second round. Silva had tremendous difficulty getting inside the Dutchman’s long reach, and as a result, he was turned into minced meat from a distance.
Verhoeven cut down his foe midway through round two with a stinging
leg kick and then felled Silva moments later with a partially
blocked high kick to the head. Silva (41-15-1, 25 KOs) barely beat
the count the second time. He was allowed to continue, but
Verhoeven retained his title by dropping him again with another
vicious leg kick. Because of Glory’s three-knockdown rule, the
fight was halted by referee Kist Greskiewicz with just three ticks
remaining on the clock in the second.
Verhoeven was not the only fighter to impress at the event. Canadian Matt Embree was magnificent in his Glory debut, as he steamrolled the competition in a four-man featherweight contender tournament. He opened the bracket by dropping South Korea’s Chibin Lim (69-20, 40 KOs) twice with a pair of brutal left hooks, ending the fight at the bell to end the second round.
Embree (39-7, 18 KOs) then faced Giga Chikadze (36-5, 21 KOs) in the final, but the Georgian -- who edged former champion Serhiy Adamchuk (33-7, 14 KOs) via split decision in his semifinal -- did not fare any better. Embree floored Chikadze with a missile of a right hook early in the second round and wasted no time in finishing off his reeling foe moments later with another crushing right to the head. The end came officially at 1:28 of the second, making Embree the mandatory challenger for newly crowned featherweight champion Gabriel Varga.
In heavyweight action, Guto Inocente (32-7, 17 KOs) outslugged towering Egyptian Hesdy Gerges over three rounds and won a split decision. The action was intense from the start. Two of the three judges favored the Brazilian 29-28, while the third had the same score for Gerges (49-17-1, 23 KOs).
Verhoeven (49-10, 13 KOs) was nearly flawless against “Braddock,” as he tore apart the Brazilian’s legs, body and head with his precision punching and kicking before stopping him in the second round. Silva had tremendous difficulty getting inside the Dutchman’s long reach, and as a result, he was turned into minced meat from a distance.
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Verhoeven was not the only fighter to impress at the event. Canadian Matt Embree was magnificent in his Glory debut, as he steamrolled the competition in a four-man featherweight contender tournament. He opened the bracket by dropping South Korea’s Chibin Lim (69-20, 40 KOs) twice with a pair of brutal left hooks, ending the fight at the bell to end the second round.
Embree (39-7, 18 KOs) then faced Giga Chikadze (36-5, 21 KOs) in the final, but the Georgian -- who edged former champion Serhiy Adamchuk (33-7, 14 KOs) via split decision in his semifinal -- did not fare any better. Embree floored Chikadze with a missile of a right hook early in the second round and wasted no time in finishing off his reeling foe moments later with another crushing right to the head. The end came officially at 1:28 of the second, making Embree the mandatory challenger for newly crowned featherweight champion Gabriel Varga.
In heavyweight action, Guto Inocente (32-7, 17 KOs) outslugged towering Egyptian Hesdy Gerges over three rounds and won a split decision. The action was intense from the start. Two of the three judges favored the Brazilian 29-28, while the third had the same score for Gerges (49-17-1, 23 KOs).
