What many kickboxing fans have long suspected has now been confirmed – Rico Verhoeven and Antonio Plazibat will both participate in next year's GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix, which will see the winner earn $500,000, alongside all the bragging rights the victory will bring with itself. The event will go down on March 9 at the GelreDome in Arnhem, the Netherlands.
The pair was initially expected to face each other of COLLISION 5 on June 17, before the champion was sidelined with an arm injury. The plans were further derailed by Tariq Osaro, who beat Plazibat by a fifth-round stoppage in an interim title bout at that very same event. This tournament might afford both of them to finally test themselves against each other, depending on the quarterfinal match-ups, as well as how far they manage to progress.
Following yesterday's press conference and the final GLORY event of the year, which took place yesterday evening, all the participants of Grand Prix are now known. They will be Levi Rigters, Tariq Osaro, Sofian Laidouni, Bahram Rajabzadeh, Uku Jürjendal, Antonio Plazibat, Rico Verhoeven and Nabil Khachab.
