SHARE
Sugden
Chad Sugden high kicking Murthel Groenhart at GLORY 23 Las Vegas

No. two ranked GLORY Welterweight, Chad “2Slick” Sugden gave his thoughts on the GLORY 25 Milan Welterweight Contender Tournament as well as an update on his status with GLORY Kickboxing.

Newark based Sugden stated he was originally slated to compete in Milan, however a back injury, which caused swelling around his discs forced him off the show.

“I was offered the opportunity and at the time, yes obviously I would have loved to have taken it,” said Sugden. “But I’ve been injured and I’ve been having a few problems with my back so I wasn’t really in a position to train for it and I’ve only really just recovered from injury so I haven’t really got long until Friday to be fit for a four-man tournament.”

In the tournament on Friday night, Murthel Groenhart faces Nicola Gallo and Karim Ghajji meets Yoann Kongolo for a chance to face Champion Nieky Holzken at GLORY 24 in Amsterdam. After beating Groenhart at GLORY 23 in Las Vegas, Sugden believes a Groenhart vs. Holzken fight off the back of Milan would be ‘a mockery’.

“I know some people have said Karim Ghajji is the favourite but I think Groenhart is the favourite in the tournament and obviously if he wins, him fighting Holzken, that’s a bit of a mockery really. Holzken is going to beat everyone else in the category. The only one to cause him problems would be me, because my boxing is on his level or above and my movement and everything will cause him more problems than Groenhart would.”

Despite being confident he could beat any of the four competitors, 21-year-old Sugden predicts that despite Ghajji’s strength, Groenhart’s experience should see him victorious overall.

“I believe Ghajji is good and strong, although he has had a lot of fights I don’t think he’s experienced under fighting, he doesn’t look like he’s been doing it all his life. He’s very strong and he mixes it up but Kongolo, I’ve heard has been doing pro boxing as well and he looks pretty tasty.

“It will be a Groenhart vs. Ghajji final and I think Groenhart will be too big, too strong and too experienced. He’s been around a long while, he’s fought some of the best in the world, and I think that’s what’s going to be the difference on Friday night.”

Regardless who wins, the victor is set to face Holzken in Amsterdam on December 4 and the Suggy’s Gym fighter believes that falls in the favour of the champion.

“He [Holzken] is a really clever guy, the fight in Amsterdam it’s quite close after the tournament, so the person that does win the tournament, if he has two tough fights, it’s going to be a hell of an extended camp to get ready for that as well.”

As for the state of the Welterweight division, over the past 12 months there have been a lot of changes, with a handful of fighters moving on from the sport or on the injured list and Sugden believes that could be represented in a passing of the torch.

“I think it has been passed along a bit, I mean Groenhart’s first fight at -77kg was against Marc De Bonte and he beat him. I think what you’re getting now, at -70kg, that is the money division that is the biggest division other than the heavyweights, so when the people start coming up from-70kg they are a lot faster and usually they are the same sort of build because usually they have been cutting to get down to -70kg to get that higher wage packet.”

Sugden added on the injured Valtellini: “I think Valtellini is good, but again, a lot of the GLORY guys are very inexperienced. I rate Valtellini, but I think people like Groenhart, Ghajji, Kongolo, I think they’ve got a lot to offer in the whole thing. I think if maybe Valtellini was in the tournament it would make it really interesting but it’s a good tournament definitely.”

The future remains bright for young Sugden, with his options open for a future in either kickboxing or boxing, with the UK No. 1 admitting the end of 2015 and start of 2016 could be a very interesting time for his career moving forwards.

“We’re keeping options open, we’ve had a lot of offers abroad and in the UK, in boxing. we’ve been training a lot of boxing because the back it stops us kicking so we’ve been really focused on our hands, because even if we ever did kickbox again, we want to be top notch on the hands because a lot of the abroad fighters can do both they can box and they can kickbox. In England you can’t do that with a British licence, you have to make your mind up.

“But for me fighting kickboxing, I pick up a lot of injuries, like getting kicked in the legs, in the body, in the head and kicking as well. We’re just going to see how it goes and see where the offers come because obviously you never know, Holzken might want to fight. He’s a boxer as well, so even if we don’t meet in kickboxing you never know we might meet in boxing as well.”