The Glory Kickboxing Last Man Standing $1m tournament kicked off on Saturday at Glory 99 as 32 heavyweights attempted to make it to the next round.
Along with announcing the huge 32-man heavyweight tournament, the promotion also announced that heavyweight champion and Glory star Rico Verhoeven will take on Artem Vakhitov at Glory 100.
The promotions announcement came after Vakhitov allegedly rejected a contract offer from the UFC after winning on Dana White’s Contender Series last year.
The winner of the 32-man, heaviest tournament ever, will subsequently go on to fight the winner of Verhoeven vs Vakhitov.
Glory 99 was headlined by kickboxing star, Jamal Ben Saddik, who took on Cristian Ristea in an attempt to go through to the next round of the $1m tournament.
Jamal Ben Saddik overcomes horror injury to advance in heaviest tournament ever
The 32 fighters weighed in on Friday afternoon, combining for a total weight of 8269lbs, which is the equivalent of 14 grizzly bears and 17 silverback gorillas.
One of them was the 6’9″ Colin George, who scored a bizarre KO earlier on the card, advancing to the next round where he will take on Nico Horta at Glory 100.
The veteran, Ben Saddik, had to overcome some adversity at the end of round one as the referee signalled the beginning of the round before halting the action immediately and calling for a check on ‘The Goliath’s’ shin, which was completely cut open.
Fortunately for the fans in attendance at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena, the action continued, and the two heavyweights continued throwing down for the final two rounds.
The Morrocan went on to pick up the unanimous decision victory, advancing to the next round where he will take on Sofian Laidouni.
Ben Saddik wants fight against recently cut UFC heavyweight contender
Prior to his win on Saturday, Ben Saddik revealed in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow that he would like to fight against the likes of Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall.
“I think it would be nice to compete against those guys, they call themselves the best heavyweights, there is one around here, so hopefully, in the future, I can have my shot against one of those guys,” he stated.
The star also called for the promotion to sign recently cut UFC heavyweight contender Jairzinho Rozenstruik, who, of course, has a background in the sport of kickboxing.
“As you know me, I only want to fight the strongest opponents out there, you know, Rozenstruik is one of them. He’s a very strong guy with a lot of experience, and I hope he joins us in Glory, and after the four-man tournament in June, I have a couple months free, I can fight him then maybe,” Ben Saddik added.
