Rico Verhoeven was on top at GLORY 77 on Saturday, January 30, adding a couple of wins to his official fight record. Partaking in the four-man knockout tournament, heavyweight champion went through his old foe Hesdy Gerges and Tarik Khbabez in the semi-final and final bouts of the contest, respectively.
Gerges took the fight on a short notice, after Jamal Ben Saddik was forced to withdraw from the original main event due to injury. It was a fairly easy win for Verhoeven, who scored a unanimous decision.
Cruisy @RicoVerhoeven in the semi-final bout of #GLORY77 heavyweight tournament against Hesdy Gerges @GLORY_WS @FiteTV pic.twitter.com/KoyTn1OuG8
— Parviz Iskenderov (@parviziskender) January 31, 2021
To credit the 2010 It’s Showtime heavyweight champion – he was able to go through the whole three-round fight, despite having only ten days to prepare.
It was Verhoeven’s third win over Gerges, following their bouts in November 2011 and June 2012. After being rivals for quite sometime, in the end it was all respect.
RESPECT #GLORY77
Rico Verhoeven moves on to the finals! Don’t miss the rest of the heavyweight tournament, only on PPV.
PPV: https://t.co/sfNUu37nIB pic.twitter.com/N8ePBsPfpL
— GLORY Kickboxing (@GLORY_WS) January 30, 2021
In the final bout of the tournament, which was also the last fight of the evening, Verhoeven met Tarik Khbabez. On the way to finale, the latter went head to head with Levi Rigters for three rounds, and took the majority decision.
The championship round didn’t go the distance. It was all over after the first round, when Khbabez’s corner instructed the referee to call it a day.
There were quite a few heavy hits thrown in the #GLORY77 tournament final. Yet, it was all over in one round, with @RicoVerhoeven coming out victorious ? @GLORY_WS @FiteTV pic.twitter.com/CNgpfIgtw8
— Parviz Iskenderov (@parviziskender) January 31, 2021
Ultimately, Rico Verhoeven earned the win by TKO and took all tournament.
.@ricoverhoeven gets it done!
He cruises to the #GLORY77 heavyweight tournament championship! pic.twitter.com/viHQsclxNM
— GLORY Kickboxing (@GLORY_WS) January 30, 2021
While there was no GLORY heavyweight title on the line, the champion updated his record to 57-10, 18 KOs, and is now expected to face either Jamal Ben Saddik (pending recovery) or Benjamin Adegbuyi in his next defense. The latter stopped Badr Hari in the third round in December 2020.
The full fight results from GLORY 77 can be found here.
