Rico Werhoven extended historic reign with his glorious historic 100th show held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Verhoeven, who has dominated the heavyweight class for 13 years, has 13 title defenses after beating two light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov through a unanimous decision after five rounds.
Vakhitov returned to kickboxing after experimenting with MMA, handing over offers from the UFC, repeatedly challenging Verhoeven in the ring, and spending his moments in the match, especially with a back kick that spins into the body in round two. Other than that, Verhoeven comfortably won the unanimous decision (50-45×5) by attacking much smaller enemies in combination and attacking the body and legs.
“It was like cherry blossoms on a cake,” Verhoeven said he scored five rounds on all scorecards. “I knew this guy was amazing, technically and conditionally, so I knew this would be a big challenge. If you weren’t the fight you wanted or were hoping for, this was a chess match at the highest level.
To regain the light heavyweight belt, Vakhitov will have to defeat Sergej Maslobojev, who won the Glory 100 co-main event. He challenged Tarik Khbabez in the 2022 Clash Thad rematch. After three close rounds, Maslobojev simply cut down Khbabez’s leg for a knockdown in round four. Khbabez returned to his feet, hooked his body to the left and ate for the standing count. Khbabez was clearly injured, but still crowned the third Masroboev champion and returned to the fight to eat more punches on body and leg kicks to get the third kick.
In the middleweight division, he made his final round in a close championship battle between Donovan Whisse and Michael Beaupea. With a ton of bad blood derived from the 2023 title match that Wisse won, Boapeah got stronger with a leg kick attack before entering the championship round. Throughout the score entering the fifth stanza, four judges felt that Whisse had done enough to hold the belt in the final three minutes.
Boapeah looked upset after the decision was read, and fans at the arena booed the results. Whisse, who broke the record for the most consecutive middleweight titles of Alex Pereira’s glory, said he is open to a trilogy in the future.
“I know the fans are disappointed with the decision, but we can’t do anything about it,” Whisse said after the game. “I’m the winner today and maybe we’ll bring it back for the third time.”
Petpanomrung kiatmuu9, aka Petch, successfully defended his featherweight belt for the ninth in a rematch with Miguel Trindade in the first title match of the card. Petty, who won the split decision over Trindade in the one-night Grand Prix final in December, earned a more intense shot throughout the five rounds, which included a knockdown in round two, winning the unanimous decision.
The Glory 100 featured four one-night tournaments to determine who will become part of the massive heavyweight standing grand prix later this year.
Tariq Osaro was one of the stars in the tournament portion of the card and advanced with knockouts from Sofian Laidouni and Luigi Gashi. Nico Horta won his spot by beating Colin George and Milos Cvjeticanin. Also, Anis Bhuzid reached the main tournament twice tonight, beating Iraj Azizpur and Asadura Nasipov.
The fourth name to make it was Mori Kromah, an insane final match against Bahram Rajabzadeh. With the decision over Arin Netita in the semi-finals before the card, Kroma remained calm after two illegal knees thrown by the enemy, then landed an incredible flying knee to stop Rajabzadeh.
Click here for complete glory 100 results.