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GLORY heavyweight champion Rico ‘The Prince’ Verhoeven defends his title for the fourth time this coming Saturday when he headlines the GLORY 28 PARIS card taking place at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France. Victory will put him on a ten-fight win streak in GLORY and 11-1 for his time with the organization.

His opponent is Mladen ‘The Scorpion Sting’ Brestovac, a giant Croatian whose string of left-leg head kick knockout wins call to mind a certain other Croatian kickboxer famous for ending his opponent’s nights with that same weapon.

Verhoven comes into the fight off the back of an incredible KO win over Benjamin Adegbuyi at GLORY 26 AMSTERDAM, his second win over the Romanian contender. Brestovac’s route to this fight owes a lot to Verhoeven basically having cleaned out the division.

The logic behind it seems to run something like this: Adegbuyi beat Jahfar Wilnis in the GLORY 24 Heavyweight Contender Tournament to earn his Amsterdam title shot and Brestovac has a KO win over Wilnis from GLORY 14 ZAGREB, therefore it is worth testing Brestovac against Verhoeven.

Brestovac was himself stopped by Adegbuyi in the GLORY 24 semi-finals, but kickboxing does not share boxing or MMA’s obsession with a fighter’s most recent result and that, combined with Verhoeven’s dominance of the division, means Brestovac gets an surprise crack at the belt. Victory would be an upset of course, but nothing is a given with heavyweight fighting. Men this size can end things in an instant.

“Definitely I take him serious.” a vehement Verhoeven tells Bloody Elbow. “He has a really dangerous kick – fifteen of his knockouts came from that head kick. He wants my spot, he wants what I have got, so I take him dead serious.

“Whoever GLORY puts in front of me I will fight. I think he and Jahfar are the only top-level guys I haven’t fought yet. He wants my throne and it’s my job to keep it, so we have to make sure we put him down.

“He’s really strong with his legs. In every Brestovac fight you can see the explosive kicks. And he’s a southpaw, which is also something to watch out for. Weaknesses… he’s got enough, yeah. We just have to exploit them. I have been working with a lot of southpaws this camp – Luke Rockhold is also a southpaw and moves nice – so I feel well prepared.”

Rockhold is the UFC’s middleweight champion and trains out of the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose, California. Verhoeven has just completed some time training there and greatly enjoyed himself. AKA man Daniel Cormier, the UFC light-heavyweight champion, has been effusive in his praise of Verhoeven’s striking skills after their training sessions together.

“I just got back from the US a couple of weeks ago, I was out there for about two weeks, training at some different gyms. We were looking for an MMA gym that would be a good fit for me and where we feel comfortable to prepare for a fight. It was a really good experience for me, I met some really nice people. I enjoyed myself,” say Verhoeven, who recently made his professional MMA debut with a stoppage win.

“The MMA thing is becoming serious, yes. I am not sure when and where the next fight will be, we are waiting to see what offers come in. Let’s see what happens. I am open to different things, I am excited about it, so let’s see what comes in.”

Verhoeven reveals he also spent time “at Team Quest with Dan Henderson, Erik Paulson’s gym, Frank Munoz’s gym and Xtreme Couture, where I did some grappling training and a kickboxing session with Sefo, so that was cool”, but listening to him it sounds like AKA is the place which has really caught his attention.

“AKA was a place I really enjoyed, a good atmosphere and I have a place in my heart for it. The atmosphere and feeling of a gym is really important. While I was there I moved around with Daniel [Cormier] and Luke [Rockhold], it was really good. It felt like we were on the same level, all of us champions,” he admits.

The conversation is taking place shortly after Nate Diaz’s submission win over Conor McGregor in the UFC 196 main event.

“I think Conor was a little bit over-confident and then he got caught out. But he will learn from it and I think he will be back, without a doubt he will be back… I think he maybe just underestimated Nate. He came from 145lbs where he was big and strong for that division but at 170lbs I think his punches didn’t have the same power,” Verhoeven muses.

“Nate said his punches were hard but nothing new. I think for Conor it was something different, maybe he was like ‘hmm, normally when I hit a guy like that he drops.’ And Nate just keeps on pushing.

“But it’s no big deal. He got submitted, that’s it. He got hit but he wasn’t out cold, just stumbling. From there he went for the takedown but Nate is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so I didn’t think that was the smartest thing to do. For me it would have been better to move around the cage and try to clear his head.

“It’s all a learning experience. That is what fighting is about, we learn new things all the time. The fights you lose are the fights you learn the most from, because you try not to let it happen again. He will be back.”

GLORY 28 PARIS takes place this Saturday at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris, France. The event will air live in the US on ESPN 3 and will re-air on ESPN 2 at 9PM ET on Sunday, March 27. The event also airs live in the Netherlands on Spike TV Netherlands.

GLORY 28 PARIS features a four-man Lightweight Contender Tournament which will send the winner forward for a shot at Robin van Roosmalen and his world title. In the running are Sittichai Sitsongpeenong, winner of the GLORY 22 FRANCE contender tournament, former champion Davit Kiria, current K-1 MAX champion Marat Grigorian and local wild card entry Djime Coulibaly.

Offcuts:

Verhoeven on GLORY signing Ismael Londt to the heavyweight division:
“It’s fun, it’s good for him, but for his sake I hope he has the training motivation to get back in shape. His fight with Badr I wasn’t really impressed with, he wasn’t in great shape. Let’s see what he does in his debut.”

Verhoeven on homeland reaction to his win at GLORY 26 AMSTERDAM
“We’ve been getting a lot of big publicity. It was so good for the sport in general in Holland. The media and publicity in general has been great. People are seeing that kickboxing is back again. The event was flawless, everything super.”

Verhoeven on opening his own gym:
“We’ve been working on a gym here close to my home, the gym is in my name and my wife is the main one giving the lessons. She’s a brown belt in Kyokoshin Karate and she used to compete in karate and kickboxing. She’s been Dutch champion, Belgian champion, she’s been to a Kyokoshin World Cup, she knows her way around the mat.

“She knows how I like to teach people and that’s how she teaches as well, so we are the same like that. Whether I teach or she teaches it’s the same, we use the same methods. So it’s cool to have a gym and it’s cool that she can be involved in the sport and stay busy. The gym is like 500 metres from the house so it’s good for me as well when I want to go and move around. We’ve got mats and bags in there, we’re still setting up, I think we will open in like a month from now.”

Verhoeven on acting lessons, auditions and Hollywood
“Things have been so busy, I’ve not really done much with in the last couple of months. Flying here, going there, doing this and that – it can be hard to fit things in. But it’s still a goal I’m working towards.”

MMA can be so cruel.

EA Sports recently picked a cover for its EA Sports UFC 2 video game, and probably figured it was in good hands with Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey, two UFC champions who dominated their weight classes and rose to combat sports superstardom along the way.

NOT ONCE IN A LIFETIME. ONCE EVER.

Then the world watched as McGregor surrendered to Nate Diaz at UFC 196, not long after Rousey got mummified by Holly Holm at UFC 193. The timing could not have been worse, as “Rowdy” was in no shape to rebound after her loss to “The Preacher’s Daughter,” while “Notorious” is just a few days removed from his short night in “Sin City.”

EA Sports UFC 2 hits shelves next week with those memories still fresh in our collective consciousness.

It will be hard not to look at the game and immediately think of their stunning, high-profile defeats. I guess we can file that under “Madden Curse,” the old superstition that appearing on the cover of EA’s football game will result in misfortune for the chosen athlete.

It started out as a joke, but later proved to be chillingly accurate.

I can’t help but wonder if the results of UFC 196 will compel the promotion to examine how its promotes “stars” or markets the future of MMA. On its own, last weekend’s upset isn’t game changing, but it wasn’t that long ago when Paige VanZant and Sage Northcutt — who not coincidentally are both beautiful and well spoken — were boxed up and shipped out to adoring fans.

Turns out the packaging was more expensive than the gift inside.

The evidence can be found in how thoroughly trounced both “12 Gauge” and “Super” were in their respective submission losses at the UFC Fight Night 80 event last December on the promotion’s online digital network. I’m not sure if that makes this criticism better or worse.

It all started out so promising, then…

Jon Jones, meanwhile, is the scariest fighter on the planet, but won’t get pedestal’d because he can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble. Elsewhere in the line up, Demetrious Johnson has what could be the most complete set of skills — and the record to back it up — but can’t draw flies because MMA fans hate short people.

I guess that’s what happens when your target demographic is a bunch of drunk dummies.

But before you shed any tears for EA Sports, think about what a great year Reebok is having. Aside from getting trashed by fans on Twitter, the sneaker and apparel giant went and signed individual, exclusive contracts with a handful of top stars in 2015.

They include:

–Jon Jones (stripped of his title and suspended for hit-and-run)
–Chris Weidman (smashed by Luke Rockhold)
–Anthony Pettis (dominated by Rafael dos Anjos)
–Sage Northcutt (choked out by Brian Barberena)
–Ronda Rousey (starched by Holly Holm)
–Paige VanZant (strangled by Rose Namajunas)
–Conor McGregor (tapped by Nate Diaz)

Money well spent!

That’s the biggest challenge companies face when investing in fighters. In other sports, like basketball and baseball, an athlete can stink up the joint for a week, then have a breakout game and be right back on top. Most fighters only compete three times each year.

A loss gets carried around for several months.

I guess the only way to get through that is to place less emphasis on defeat, which can be hard when some fighters live or die by the goofy rankings, which seem to change from week-to-week with no rhyme or reason. In addition, UFC will hand out pink slips when it comes time to thin the herd.

After all, there is only so much money to go around.

It would be great if fighters could supplement their incomes with outside sponsorships, instead of hoping to be one of the select few handpicked by Reebok, or other organizations in bed with the higher ups. Too bad something like that doesn’t exist in MMA.

Oh wait…

A new woman strawweight fighter is on her way to the UFC and a spot on the upcoming card in Zagreb, Croatia.

It’s no secret, the UFC has a lot easier time finding WMMA fighters at 115lbs than they do 135. It’s a division with a lot more talent out on the regional scene, a lot more fighters competing, and a lot more fighters getting themselves in position for a shot in the big leagues. The next woman to get that shot is a Romanian fighter, Cristina Stanciu. The UFC recently announced her pairing against Maryna Moroz at UFC Zagreb in Croatia, on April 10th. So…

Who is Cristina Stanciu?

“Barbie” as she’s also known is a 21 year old fighter training out of Absoluto Bucharest under Tudor Mihaita. She’s the first breakout talent from the camp, training alongside regional standouts Dinu Bucalet and Adrian Preda. She’ll be entering the UFC with an undefeated 5-0 record, having spent her entire pro-career fighting under the Romanian Xtreme Fighting banner. Her level of competition is about what you might expect, on paper. A couple .500 fighters some fighters on decent win streaks, and a couple of cans. Nothing groundbreaking for a fighter in their first 5 fights, but nothing bad either. Outside of MMA she has a background in competitive Wushu and has done some BJJ but doesn’t appear to have a long history in the sport.

What you should expect:

Stanciu has a nice, evolving striking game as an MMA fighter. She keeps a low stance, and really torques her way into some big power shots. Her kicking game is a little funky. She doesn’t always set up her kicks or turn them over with much snap. Often she uses them to set up big winging hooks over the top, by stepping through as she lands. She does throw a good snapping front kick and can put real power behind her head kicks when she wants to.

Generally, Stanciu seems to have a lot of confidence in her striking offense and defense. While she swings wild, she does have reasonably decent awareness of head movement and hand position. Outside of her standup, Stanciu does well to create offense in all areas. She’s an active striker in the clinch, and while she doesn’t have a pretty ground game, she’s good at jumping on sub opportunities when they’re there and seems to be pathologically aggressive. I’m not 100% sold on her cardio, just for the pace she pushes, but she’s the kind of fighter that will win a lot of early rounds.

What this means for her debut:

This means we’re in for a hell of a fire fight. Maryna Moroz is the more technical boxer, but I’m not sure she has Stanciu’s raw power. Both women are very very aggressive, so the question will be, who cracks first standing? And can Moroz work her guard game if the answer is her? Neither wrestles all that well, and Moroz is very willing to pull guard. If Stanciu can walk through Moroz’s shots like Letourneau did, then she could potentially force Moroz to drop for a submission and work the Ukranian over on the ground. However, given Stanciu’s extremely aggressive approach, there’s a good chance she could give up a triangle or an armbar from top. I feel like I favor Moroz just a bit in this fight, but mostly I expect it to be fast and something of a mess.

To get us better acquainted, here’s Stanciu’s 2015 bout against Diana Belbita: