GLORY 19: HEAVYWEIGHTS
On Friday, February 6 GLORY hosted GLORY 19 and GLORY SuperFight Series from Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. The six-fight card, featuring the Heavyweight World Championship bout and GLORY’s four-man, one-night Welterweight Contender Tournament, aired live on SPIKE TV.
GLORY SUPERFIGHT SERIES QUOTES
Andy Ristie
“The plan was to finish this quick and get to the next fight – van Roosmalen has got my belt and I want it, it belongs to me.”
“I want the title shot next. That belt has to be mine. Robin, I am coming for you. Be ready.”
Xavier Vigney
“I was just planning on using my boxing to pick him apart and really take my time but I managed to catch him early and take advantage of that.”
“Whoever GLORY want to match me up with next is fine. I never stop training. I have fought tough guys before so whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it, I am ready.”
Josh Jauncey
“My corner said if I didn’t win round three I wouldn’t even get a draw. So they told me to go for the knee. My brother said it was there and it was. I threw it and that is what cut him.”
“He can’t fight with a flap of skin over his eye because I am going to keep punching it, so it was good thing they stopped it!”
Brian Collette
“I saw he was trying to push the fight and pressure me so I wanted to take his gas away via the body and the legs.”
“That head kick was my goal throughout the fight. I just had to lay the foundations to set it up.”
Francois Ambang
“It felt so good to win like this in my home state of Virginia. I want to thank God, my family and my training partners. It was hard for me to lose to Raymond Daniels the way I did, to see that replay all the time everywhere, but now I am back.”
“I am ready to fight anyone. I am here to be a contender and get into title contention so whoever GLORY want to give me next, I am ready.”
GLORY 19 QUOTES
Nieky Holzken, GLORY Welterweight Contender Tournament Winner
“I consider the welterweight title belt to be mine. I beat Valtellini and then I had to take 2014 off because I got injured in a car accident in January. So he’s got the belt right now but I am coming for it. Valtellini is good and it is going to be a good fight but the belt belongs to me and it will be coming home with me.”
Raymond Daniels, GLORY Welterweight Contender Tournament Runner-Up
“It was a tough tournament and Nieky is a really tough opponent. I have now fought the division’s champion and the division’s number one contender so I think I’m right up there and that I’ve proved a point. But at the same time the fight with Nieky has showed me that there are a lot of things I need to work on so it’s a case of get back to the gym and get to working on those things. I am always looking to improve and become the best I can be. I’ll be back.”
Joe Schilling
“I’m not entirely satisfied with my performance because I wanted to put him away but Robert Thomas is a really tough kid and I think he’s got a bright future in the sport. He took some big shots from me and kept coming. I was surprised he was able to beat the count after that knockdown in the third round.”
“It’s no secret that me and Artem Levin are rivals. He actually recently moved to California and we’re friendly, but inside the ring it’s all business. He’s got the middleweight title belt and I think I can take it from him.”
“GLORY has put a Middleweight Contender Tournament together for Dubai in April but I am ranked above all those guys and I’m not in the tournament. So I think either I should get a title shot or maybe Filip Verlinden, who is ranked #2 and also not in that tournament, could fight me and the winner fights Levin. I don’t know; we’ll see what happens.”
Rico Verhoeven
“I really got carried away in the first round because there was just so much emotion behind the fight. When I hurt Errol early and got him in trouble I just wanted to finish him. But my corner were going crazy and shouting for me to stick to the gameplan because when you rush in on someone you open yourself up and make it into a 50-50 fight when there is no need to.”
“I would have liked to get the KO because it would have nice, both to answer critics who say I don’t knock people out enough and also because it would have been good to knock Errol out with the same combination he knocked me out with in our first fight.”
“That wasn’t the way that I wanted the fight to end and even though me and Errol are professional rivals you never want to see anyone get an injury like that. So I hope that he recovers well from it and gets back to competition. But certainly I think that if the injury didn’t happen he wouldn’t have made it to the fifth round. The fight wouldn’t have gone to the fifth, absolutely not, I am sure of that. I would have finished it.”
“Next, I don’t know. I think Benjamin Adegbuyi is emerging as a contender but he didn’t fight any really top-level guys yet so I don’t know if we could call him a contender right now. First things first I am going back home to the Netherlands to see my family and relax for a few days, then we will see what comes next.”