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Larsen
Photo credit: Glory Sports Intl

Niclas Larsen last fought for GLORY Kickboxing when he defeated Steve Moxon (by second-round TKO) at GLORY 15 in April 2014. Prior to that he’d gone the distance against Andy Ristie at GLORY 10 the year before, losing by decision.

However, why has it taken just under three years for “The Destroyer” to now return at GLORY 38, in a bout with Lukas Plawecki on February 24, 2017?

Following the victory over Moxon, Larsen had been suffering from an extremely bad staph infection which, was not diagnosed initially, until after the infection took an incredible turn for the worse.

“Yeah, it was staph, the doctors here in Denmark they didn’t do a blood test so I had it for a couple of days so when I came in screaming at the hospital like, ‘ok, we have to take a blood test’. When they saw the result, the infection numbers they were like, ‘you need to get operated right away’ and they were like, ‘if you didn’t have the shape that you have, you know, we have to cut the leg’.”

Larsen
GLORY 15: Larsen v Moxon | Photo credit: Glory Sports Intl

In recent years, a lot has changed in world kickboxing, let alone the GLORY lightweight division. However, GLORY never lost faith in the 70kg WKU world Muay Thai champion and matched him up against Plawecki at GLORY 38 SuperFight Series in Chicago.

Larsen suffered from staph infections on more than one occasion –  once being his right leg and then another two times with his left leg.

Such debilitating experiences would mentally crush any less of a man, especially since Larsen had to learn how to walk again and was unable to walk unassisted for three months after surgery.

However, with the amazing support of his wife (mother to their two young children) and applying a consistently positive mindset, Niclas is now most certainly, ‘ready for Glory’.

“I have so much to show. I got the chance to fight on the big scene. It’s just amazing and the way they build it up and I want to be a part of it. Yeah, so I’m glad they believe in me and GLORY 38 its gonna be, I’m gonna be so ready for this one.”

Larsen was supposed to fight Josh Jauncey in the semi-final of the four-man lightweight tournament at GLORY 22 in June 2015. However, leading up to that event, Niclas was forced to withdraw due to the staph infection reoccurring.

“Almost two years ago, I was supposed to fight Josh Jauncey in the 4-man tournament and I got the bacteria staph. I just tried to recover again for Glory when they came to Denmark in February last year and yeah, I had some problems again with my leg so.

“Now, I’m feeling very good and strong. I’m really good, my immune system is good. I’ve been on a couple of training camps. So I’m feeling better mentally, physically in every day, it’s so good.”

When asked if he would be interested in rearranging that cancelled fight with Jauncey for the near future, Larsen was more than open to fighting Jauncey who, he holds in high regard.

“Yeah, definitely. I really like his style of fighting and I don’t know him as a person, I really like when people you know, seem to me he’s very dedicated. He also has a dream. I feel we on the same road. I can see when if he didn’t win, it hurting a lot.

“I don’t know him but you know, I feel something very, very special for the fans and we both like to move a lot, both like to do some crazy stuff. Yeah, you never know what can happen in a fight with him and me. So yeah that can definitely happen.”

Click here to listen and download the full podcast with Niclas R. Larsen ahead of his GLORY 38 matchup with Lukas Plawecki.