Rico Verhoeven is still the king of the kickboxing world.
The Dutch star, who has dominated the heavyweight division for 13 years, now has 13 title defenses after beating two-time light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov via unanimous decision after five rounds to extended a historic reign at Glory’s 100th show in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Vakhitov was coming back to kickboxing after experimenting MMA, passing on an offer from the UFC to return go the ring and challenge Verhoeven and had his moments in the match, especially with a spinning back kick to the body in Round 2. Other than that, Verhoeven out-struck his much smaller opponent with combinations, attacking the body and mostly the legs, to comfortably win a unanimous decision (50-45×5).
“That was like a cherry on the cake,” Verhoeven said of winning five rounds in all scorecards. “I knew this guy was amazing, also technically, conditionally, so I knew this was gonna be a huge challenge. Sorry guys if it wasn’t the fight you hoped for or you expected, but this was a chess match on the highest level. This guy is so freaking good, it’s so hard. He goes downstairs, upstairs, to the body, to the head, so it’ so freaking hard, but believe me, this guy is going to be the next light heavyweight champion again, 100 percent.”
To regain the light heavyweight belt, Vakhitov will have to beat Sergej Maslobojev, who won it in the co-main event of Glory 100. He challenged Tarik Khbabez in a rematch of a 2022 clash in which Khbabez first became champion, and this time put on a masterclass to regain the gold. After three close rounds, Maslobojev simply chopped down Khbabez’s legs for a knockdown in Round 4. Khbabez went back to the feet and ate a vicious left hook the body for a standing count. Khbabez was clearly hurt, but still went back to the fight to eat more punches to the body and leg kicks to go down a third time, crowning Maslobojev champion at 38 years of age.
In the middleweight division, it was down to the final round in a close championship battle between Donovan Wisse and Michael Boapeah. With a ton of bad blood stemming from a title bout in 2023 that was won by Wisse, Boapeah came in strong with leg kick attacks before entering the championship rounds. With scores all over the place going into the fifth stanza, four judges felt Wisse did enough in the final three minutes to retain the belt.
Boapeah looked upset after the decision was read and fans in the arena booed the result. Wisse, who broke Alex Pereira’s record for most consecutive middleweight title defenses in Glory, said he’s open to a trilogy in the future.
“I know the fans are disappointed in the decision, but I can do nothing about it,” Wisse said after the match. “I’m the winner today, and maybe we run it back a third time.”
Petpanomrung Kiatmuu9,, a.k.a. Petch, successfully defended his featherweight belt for the ninth time in a rematch with Miguel Trindade in the first title bout of the card. Petch, who won a split decision over Trindade in the final of a one-night grand prix in December, landed the harder shots throughout five rounds, including a pair of knockdowns in Round 2, to walk away victorious via unanimous decision.
Glory 100 also featured four one-night tournaments to determine who would advance to be part of a massive Last Heavyweight Standing grand prix later this year.
Tariq Osaro was one of the stars of tournaments portion of the card, scoring knockouts over Sofian Laidouni and Luigi Gashi to advance. Nico Horta earned his spot with decision victories over Colin George and Milos Cvjeticanin. Anis Bouzid also went the distance twice tonight to make it to the main tournament, defeating Iraj Azizpour and Asadulla Nasipov.
The fourth name to make it was Mory Kromah, and he had to make it through an insane final match with Bahram Rajabzadeh. Kromah, who won a decision over Alin Nechita in the semifinal earlier on the card, stayed calm and composed after two illegal knees thrown by his opponent to then land an incredible flying knee to stop Rajabzadeh.
Click here for the complete Glory 100 results.
