GLORY 100 is officially in the books! A sold-out crowd at the Rotterdam Ahoy witnessed nearly nine hours of action-packed kickboxing, with 19 fights on the card and multiple titles on the line. From breakout performances to dramatic knockouts, the night had its highs and lows—but it was a memorable showcase of the sport at one of GLORY’s biggest events to date.
Heavyweight Title Fight
A clean sweep for the king of kickboxing. Rico Verhoeven turned up the pace in his 13th consecutive title defense, dominating former light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov over five rounds. While Vakhitov never looked completely out of his depth in his return to the GLORY ring, he struggled to keep up with Verhoeven’s volume, pressure, and size—giving up nearly 20 kilograms in weight.
Verhoeven systematically broke him down, targeting the legs and body while also landing sharp jabs and uppercuts upstairs. The defending champion outstruck Vakhitov in nearly every exchange and cruised to a unanimous decision win on all five scorecards (50-45 x5).
“He goes downstairs, upstairs, to the body, to the head, so it’s so freaking hard—but believe me, this guy is going to be the next light heavyweight champion again, 100 percent,” Verhoeven said post-fight, giving credit to Vakhitov’s performance.
It remains to be seen whether Vakhitov will return to light heavyweight or enter the upcoming Last Heavyweight Champion tournament, where another shot at Verhoeven could be on the horizon.
Light Heavyweight Title Fight
Sergej Maslobojev came out in the first round chopping at Tarik Khbabez’s legs and setting his punches up off of those pinpoint accurate low kicks against the Moroccan tank. Khbabez found some success blitzing, pressing Kuvalda up against the ropes, and swinging hooks with reckless abandon whilst Maslobojev guarded up in what was a fairly dominant round for the Lithuanian, with the older man landing more and more accurately.
The champ Khbabez found more success in the second round, with his constant forward pressure smothering some of the success Maslobojev was having at distance, but also smothering his own work.
Whenever the challenger stepped back or angled off to the side, he was landing much of the cleaner work, countering the Moroccan tank’s punches with his own and slicing through the guard of Khbabez with his straight punches.
The third was much of the same, with Khbabez finding more success landing strikes whenever Maslobojev moved back; however, the damage from the leg kicks was starting to add up, making Khbabez a stationary target for Maslobojev at distance, where the champ was not able to lean on the challenger to take strain off of his legs.
The accumulation of damage to the head, body, and legs of the champion was ultimately too much for him, resulting in three knockdowns off of leg kicks and body shots that secured the victory and the title by stoppage for the highly technical Lithuanian Sergej Maslobojev in the fourth round.
Middleweight Title Fight
Michael Boapeah came out cautious initially in the first round, moving and following the champion Donovan Wisse with a tight high guard and trying to work away at Wisse’s leg with calf kicks. Wisse found most of the success in the first round, countering with punches and stabbing Boapeah’s body with crescent kicks and knees.
Wisse came out in southpaw at the start of the second round, showing clear damage to his left leg from the challenger’s calf kicks. Boapeah found more success with the calf kicks whenever Wisse switched back to orthodox, constantly knocking the champ off balance.
The third round would play out similarly. Boapeah's aggression with inside and outside calf kicks made it difficult for Wisse to get any extended exchanges going, although when the champ was in punching range, he would have much of the cleaner work.
The fourth round was tightly contested by the two, with Boapeah not really able to capitalize on the significantly slowed Wisse, missing on his big punches, and Wisse finding more success countering, hitting Boapeah’s guard, and kneeing the body at closing range.
The fifth round was again tightly contested, with similar success from both men in the penultimate round, Boapeah finding more success with the low kicks and Wisse finding more success volume punching and working from close range.
The fight would be ultimately awarded to the champ, albeit in a close-fought split decision victory, with two judges giving the fight to Boapeah.
Featherweight Title Fight
Against expectations that the champion would start slow and that the fight would be close like their meeting in the Featherweight tournament finals, the slow and methodical southpaw champion was dominant from the first bell, with the Thai fighter dominating the early rounds against the explosive challenger Trindade.
The first round was tightly contested by both fighters, with not many big strikes being landed between the two, although the champ was finding some success as he usually does with his left kick to the leg and body. The second was much more eventful, with Petchpanomrung dropping Trindade twice, once with a shot to the body and another with a left high kick.
The champ would control the pace for much of the fight after with his left kick and tight defense, not letting the challenger land much and stifling Trindade's offence by working at his legs and arms.
The Thai put on an absolute masterclass, destroying the legs, body, and arms of the challenger enroute to a very lopsided unanimous decision victory, with only one judge awarding even a single round to Trindade.
Group 1
Iraj Azizpour and Ionuț Iancu's semifinal fight started off cagey, with both fighters exchanging mostly low kicks, with most of the big moments coming from Azizpour, albeit not very frequently.
The second round saw Azizpour get hurt by a right hand by Iancu, but the Iranian was able to stay on his feet and defend to the bell. Azizpour put on a clinic in the third against a tired Iancu, jabbing and kicking his way to a split decision. 4 judges scored it 29 - 28 Azizpour, and 1 judge scored 29-28 Iancu.
Bouzid came out in southpaw to match his opponent and quickly sent Nasipov to the canvas a minute into the first round, with a combination to the body.
The Russian came back strong after getting up from the canvas, making the first round very close outside of the knockdown. He would ride the momentum from the first round into the next two rounds, fighting behind a Philly shell, giving Bouzid a difficult target to hit with his head movement, and landing the better shots with his long punches.
With the two rounds secured for Nasipov, they went to an extra round off of a draw. The Russian was tired going into the fourth, sudden victory round, allowing Bouzid to get up close, and past the middle distance Nasipov was having so much success at. As a result, the younger man would lose a unanimous decision to Bouzid, allowing the Moroccan to progress to the finals.
For the Group 1 final, Bouzid came out in orthodox against Azizpour, looking much more fluid with his kicks and punches against the shorter and heavier Iranian. Azizpour's low guard and Bouzid's length allowed for Bouzid to land clean power jabs and right hands against the veteran, which, mixed with the calf kicks, turned Azizpour into a plodding heavy bag.
In the third round, whenever Azizpour entered punching range, the Moroccan would unload a flurry of punches in combination to back the Iranian up. Bouzid won a unanimous decision, moving him onto phase 2 of GLORY's Heavyweight tournament.
Group 2
Horta started the match as he typically does: moving forward and taking shots on his guard and forehead. He marched George down for much of the fight, switching stances to land the southpaw cross down the middle, close distance on the taller fighter, and barrel his way into the clinch, where Horta punched to the body and head to wear on his opponent, winning a unanimous decision. Using that gameplan, the fan favourite was likely able to conserve gas for the finals of the tournament.
Milos and Cem exchanged calf kicks in open space, with Cem seeming to barely get the better of those low kick exchanges. Milos started adjusting by bringing his leg back and checking them, backing Caceres into the corner. The Serbian carefully attacked Caceres, manipulating his guard and ultimately ending the fight with a jumping knee that flattened Caceres' nose, causing a doctor stoppage 2:01 into the first round.
The fight against Horta and Milos was very tightly contested across the three rounds, with Horta coming forward and pressuring the much smaller Serbian. Milos landed the cleaner work for much of the fight, but the relentless forward pressure and body work of the fan favourite Big Sexy won him the fight, along with a flash knockdown that went unscored in the second round, sending the Cape Verdean into the second phase of the Heavyweight tournament.
Group 3
Kromah put on a clinic against Nechita, outsizing and outgunning the Romanian with heavy knees to the body and head, along with long heavy punches, enroute to a dominant unanimous decision victory. Kromah outworked the Romanian everywhere, working well against the ropes and on the front foot by boxing him up.
In contrast, the other semifinal ended faster than the walkouts, but was similarly dominant; fan favourite Bahram quickly eliminated the bigger Asdren Gashi in a flurry of hooks thrown with reckless abandon, a minute into the first round.
In typical Bahram fashion, the Golden Wolf came out swinging and throwing jumping knees. In those messy exchanges, he hurt Kromah and shoved Kromah to the ground, kneeing him in two different incidents while Kromah was on the ground. The two grounded knees caused a difficult decision, resulting in the officials coming in to discuss what should be done. The refs decided on deducting a point from Bahram.
When the fight resumed, Kromah dropped Bahram with a knee to the head up close and then again with another jumping knee while Bahram was swinging hooks, stopping the mad Golden Wolf. The former Enfusion champion Kromah moves on to the second phase of the heavyweight tournament in dominant fashion.
Group 4
The fight started off very slow, with both fighters exchanging carefully, Gashi trying to guard up and score with calf kicks while Osaro stalked Gashi down and punched away at the smaller man's guard. Two minutes into the first round, Osaro caught Luigj Gashi with a heavy cross off of a jab slipped by Gashi, resulting in a standing count by the ref, wherein the Albanian chose not to continue, resulting in a quick end to the night for the Gashi brothers.
The fight between Laidouni and Ben Saddik ended quickly with the Goliath's right shin splitting open early into the first round, off of a kick checked by the smaller Frenchman. Although, for the short amount of time the fight was being contested, Laidouni was landing well with his southpaw cross. The fight ended by a doctor stoppage in the first round from JBS' shin cut.
Laidouni came out very fast, circling frantically against the juggernaut Osaro and finding success evading the shots of the massive pressure fighter for much of the first round. Osaro caught Laidouni up against the ropes and dropped him with a right hand late into the first round, faceplanting the French fighter, which he barely made it his feet from. The Frenchman came out frantic in the second round, brawling with Osaro in the corner, which allowed the Nigerian to floor the Frenchman with a massive stepping left hand, ending the fight in the second round.
