The Gelredome in Arnhem suddenly falls silent on Saturday evening. The more than 20,000 attendees focus their gaze on a corner of the stadium. The main match of Glory, the largest kickboxing organization in the world, is about to start. Levi Rigters, who challenges heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, appears in an opening between the stands.
The song Kleine Jongen by André Hazes blares through the speakers in the stadium. Rigters lost his father last Sunday. Now he chooses to perform the song that Hazes sang for his son. “Little boy, you are in this world. So you will have to fight, just like me,” Rigters sings out loud. The stadium sings loudly along with him. The 29-year-old Rigters walks to the ring in the middle of the stadium, visibly emotional.
Then the champion Verhoeven makes his entrance, preceded by a kitschy show with men dressed as Roman soldiers. This show was set up by Glory to enhance the fight, because this is the biggest event of the year for the kickboxing organization. Verhoeven sprints to the ring, as he always does before his fights. Tim Hughes, the American presenter of Glory, emphasizes what matters before the title fight. Rigters gets the chance to dethrone Verhoeven, the king of kickboxing. “To be the king, you have to defeat the king,” said Hughes.
Faster pace
In the first round it immediately becomes clear that Verhoeven (35) fights at a higher pace than Rigters despite his older age. Yet it is Rigters who is the first to seriously shake Verhoeven with a sharp knee in the abdominal area, causing the reigning champion to go to the ground. However, Verhoeven quickly gets back up and still narrowly ends the first round with a lead on the jury’s scoring cards. Verhoeven is also the better in the second round and at the beginning of the third round, but then the party suddenly turns upside down.
Rigters lands a tremendous punch in the third round and knocks Verhoeven to the ground again. As a result, Rigters is suddenly in front of the jury. With this slight lead for Rigters, the match enters the last two rounds. Verhoeven immediately attacked in round four, by knocking Rigters to the ground. The match turns again, in which the two fighters are evenly matched. Verhoeven takes the lead and does everything he can to hold on to it. In the fifth round he has more energy left. Rigters can only win by knocking Verhoeven to the ground, but the champion fights the match professionally and maintains his lead on the jury’s scoring cards.
Ten years undefeated
Verhoeven won the heavyweight title for the first time at Glory in 2014, by beating the Romanian Daniel Ghiță in California. Since then, the Dutchman has been undefeated within the organization for more than ten years. Only during a trip to the Chinese organization Kunlun in 2015 did Verhoeven lose to the Belarusian kickboxer Andrey Gerasimchuk. But at Glory he never lost again. This win over Rigters marked the twelfth time that Verhoeven defended his title at Glory. Former martial artist Melvin Manhoef, as an analyst at broadcaster Videoland, was at a loss for words after this win over Rigters. “For me, Verhoeven is now the best of all time,” said Manhoef.
After the fight, Rigters shed tears as his team gathered around him in his corner. Verhoeven emphasized in his interview in the ring that he sees a lot of potential in Rigters. “Levi is a future champion,” said Verhoeven. Rigters showed himself to be a worthy loser by expressing his respect for Verhoeven. “You have to kill this man to beat him. Otherwise it won’t work,” Rigters concluded. For the time being, the king of kickboxing has still not been dethroned.