Madison Square Garden has played host to some of the most legendary heavyweight fights in the history of combat sports. And when GLORY heads to New York City in July, “The world’s most famous arena” will be hosting GLORY 43. But it doesn’t look like the GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, will be on the bill.
“He has not been confirmed for New York,” GLORY CEO Jon J. Franklin told MMA Plus. “And we are looking at, perhaps, having his next fight in China. But, we will confirm dates as we go forward.”
Verhoeven, 28, signed a new long-term contract with the promotion this week, just days after defeating Ismael Lazaar at GLORY 41 by unanimous decision. The new contract, which the promotion called a “360-degree deal” will see the GLORY heavyweight champion collaborate with GLORY on “sponsorship, media and entertainment opportunities, and increased brand building in the American and Chinese markets,” the release stated.
Having Verhoeven fight in New York certainly makes a ton of sense. The Dutch champion is GLORY’s biggest star and the face of the promotion. And putting on a big heavyweight fight inside MSG doesn’t really need much of an explanation. With kickboxing still trying to gain popularity in the U.S., having a big heavyweight title fight in the arena where Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier and Rocky Marciano knocked out Joe Louis, would be a historic moment for GLORY.
“I’d love to fight in New York,” Verhoeven told MMA Plus in the lead up to GLORY 41 last week. “Basically I enjoy to be in the U.S. I love the U.S. fans. They are always excited. They always bring so much excitement and love to the arena. And I’d just love to make kickboxing even bigger there as well. MMA and UFC is huge. I think kickboxing has a future there as well.”
Verhoeven, who is 13-1 inside GLORY and 51-10 overall, is far from a household name in America, but back home in the Netherlands, he’s basically a rock star. He can’t go anywhere without being noticed by loyal fans. And his ever-growing fame and popularity is something he has embraced.
“For me, I’ve been enjoying it ever since kickboxing has gotten bigger and bigger. I’ve been doing TV shows and stuff like that,” said Verhoeven, fought in New York at GLORY 9. defeating Errol Zimmerman by unanimous decision inside the Hammerstein Ballroom.
“But I think it’s more difficult for the family to adjust to it and the kids. For example: trying to go to the stores, trying to shop and buy stuff for the kids, that made it a lot more difficult. There are constantly fans that wanting to make picture and just want to have a chat. I’m always excited to talk to the fans and always in for a picture, but for the kids, it’s difficult. It’s like, ‘hey, it’s my daddy. Leave my daddy alone. Why does everyone want to make pictures of you?’ and stuff like that. So that makes it hard sometimes.”
Having the GLORY heavyweight champion defend his belt in MSG is something Franklin would undoubtedly like to see, he says, but it sounds like the promotion has other plans for Verhoeven as of now.
“We would love to get him there, but it might not be this time around,” Franklin said. “That would be pretty cool to have Rico fight at Madison Square Garden. If he wants to do it, we would love to have him there.
“Madison Square Garden has a long tradition of heavyweight fights. But let’s see how we do there in July. Tickets are already selling really well without even the whole card announced. So that’s pretty exciting for us. If we can sell out the Theater this year, we will look into stepping it up into the bowl for next year.”
A main event has not yet been announced for GLORY 43. A heavyweight bout between No.1-ranked contender Benjamin Adegbuyi and GLORY 41 “Contender” tournament winner D’Angelo Marshall and a featherweight “Contender” tournament are the current fights that are scheduled for the July 14 card.
Verhoeven’s fight against Lazaar headlined the GLORY 41 Superfight Series on UFC Fight Pass on May 20, which was the first time Verhoeven fought on the UFC’s highly successful streaming platform. The promotion felt it was important to get their heavyweight champion in front of the UFC Fight Pass subscribers. So much so, that they moved that fight off of the main GLORY 41 card on ESPN3, which it had been originally scheduled for.
And it seems they feel it’s imperative to have Verhoeven ready to go for when they make their debut in China before he fights anywhere else. In September of last year, Yao Capital, the private equity firm of former NBA player Yao Ming, acquired a significant stake in GLORY, which should aid the promotion greatly as they prepare to enter into the Asian market.
“Well, as you said, he’s going to be an ambassador for the brand,” said Franklin. “He’s a really appealing and attractive character, especially with our relationship with Yao Ming’s group [Yao Captial] in China. So, we want to get him going on some promotion over there, and we want to get them going on some promotion in America to help build the GLORY brand.”
As far as GLORY putting on a fight card in China, Franklin said, “We should be in China by the fall,” and that Ming and [GLORY vice chairman] Scott Rudman “were together last week in China looking at cities.”
“The King of Kickboxing’s” wife Jacky, who he has two young daughters with, is expecting once again and is due in September, Verhoeven said. So he hadn’t given much thought to future matchups beyond Lazaar because his personal life will be getting much busier in the coming months.
“We will see when the schedule opens up for another fight, man. For me now, I”m just focused on another fight. My wife is pregnant. Number three coming up. I”m going to change houses. I’m going to move. It’s going to be a busy time coming up.”
So it looks like China is next and fighting in “The world’s most famous arena” will have to wait for the GLORY heavyweight king. But he’d love to fight in MSG at some point wouldn’t he?
“Definitely. Madison Square Garden is still on the bucket list.”
