Last Saturday, GLORY launched their new kickboxing reality show in collaboration with Videoland called ‘House of GLORY’. The first two episodes have been well received by the Dutch audience and landed in the top 10 most-watched shows this month. Since the show will be exclusively broadcast in the Netherlands, we'll take a look at what GLORY’s reality TV debut is all about.
Very similar to the UFC's 'The Ultimate Fighter', the participants of the show will be divided into two teams. Each of the teams is coached by a GLORY star. Heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, and his trainer Dennis Krauweel lead Team Blue, and K-1 Legend Badr Hari and his coach Mike Passenier will be in charge of Team Red.
The show starts with 16 participants of which 8 fighters will be selected to be on either team Badr or team Rico based upon a round of sparring. The selected fighters will face each other in a tournament spread out over multiple days. Of the remaining 8 fighters, both teams choose 2 more fighters who get the opportunity to fight for the reserve spot on the respective team by winning a real 3 rounds 3-minute bout. Additional challenges will decide which team will decide the matchups for the next fight. The winner of the show will get a title shot against none other than the Welterweight king Endy Semeleer at the end of the year and earn an exclusive GLORY contract.
THE FIGHTERS
GLORY surprised friend and foe alike with the return of Andy Ristie as one of the participants. The former GLORY Lightweight champion is best known for his knock-out victory against arguably the greatest kickboxer ever, Giorgio Petrosyan. But perhaps even more for his controversial break with the promotion. The Surinamese fighter was involved in an accident at GLORY 20 in which the gloves of Ristie had been tampered with. GLORY banned Ristie's trainer Roberto Flamingo for life and gave the, at the time, champion Ristie a fine. Ristie never fought in GLORY again. The now 41-year-old is happy with the opportunity to end his career on a positive note.
The surprisingly good line-up gives the audience a lot to look forward to over the coming weeks. Other than Ristie, GLORY veterans Robin Ciric and Cedric de Keirsmaeker join the line-up. Plus, carefully selected Welterweight talents such as Ismail Ouzgni, Jente Nnamadim, and Soufian Abdelkhalek, fighters who made their name in Enfusion. Other names include MMA prospects Tycho Brakel and Gino van Steenis and the experienced German-Dutch boxer Nick Morsink, who returns to his kickboxing roots. With Mike Frenken, Oualid Gherbi, Samir Kasrioui, Figueiredo Landman, Anwar Ouledchaib, Guillaume Pinas, and Don Sno, GLORY has added some of the most exciting upcoming talents the Netherlands has to offer in the -77 KG division.
INTERNATIONAL RELEASE
As of yet, it is unclear if GLORY or Videoland will make ‘House of Glory’ available for the international audience later on. But the chances are high that the show will bring out new exciting additions to the already stacked Welterweight division. However, even with the surprisingly good line-up, it is questionable whether the skill level of the winner will be up to par with the current champion Endy Semeleer.
