GLORY COLLISION 4 - Hari vs. Overeem [08-10] Results

[K1power]

Yeah I'm based in Holland.

Don't want to focus on the negative too much, but I'm not a fan of Dutch crowds - regardless of ethnicity.
Exceptions aside, Western crowds generally tend to be quite loud and rude.

I think Valtellini and Grisham are a good commentary duo. Grisham not being a fighter is something Plazibat called him out for lol.

Of course, it's quite common to have non-experts as co-commentators; Mike Schiavello, Mike Goldberg, Bonjasky's co-commentator Alex Lely (former Pool player). I guess the idea behind it is that they're there to complement the expert analysis by the pros, add some banter and perhaps be entertaining for the laypeople watching at home.

That said, no Dutch commentator will ever be able to fill the shoes of the great Fred Royers.
It's a shame he quit, I'd love to see him back even for just a few years.

Edit: And of course it was good to see the sportsmanship. Even though after that Alistair went on to say "Rico wears make-up" in the postfight presser haha.

[larsenator]

Is he not on Eurosport anymore (Fred)?

[K1power]

No, I don't think he does commentary anymore, period. He hasn't necessarily quit, so much as he just stopped being asked. I mean, he's still running a Gym so I'm sure he's involved enough to be interested. If K-1 or kickboxing in general ever makes a return to EuroSport I hope they ask him back, even if it's for a limited time.

EuroSport more or less stopped covering kickboxing - they didn't really do any fightsports for a long time - and Fred did some commentary for K-1 and Glory on other Dutch networks. I think the last event he did was the first Rico vs. Badr card.

Recently fightsports has been making a big comeback on EuroSport, but it's mostly MMA and some boxing. Marloes Coenen has been doing the commentary for UFC events alongside someone else and she is really good. In fact, I'd say she's better than most other Dutch commentators outside of Royers.

[larsenator]

Right, thank you.

Yeah I used to do commentary for Eurosport Danish version for eight years - when K-1 was huge. They had Shooto, PRIDE FC and Bushido, It's Showtime, Thai- & Kickbox SuperLeague, K-1 Word MAX etc. on too BITD. Was sooo cool.

[K1power]

IIRC it was you and another EuroSport commentator who used to post on the old Kakutougi.

I'm blanking on the name, but I think he was from Poland.

[K1power]

This screenshot is pure gold:

[K1power]

I thought the post-fight interview was just him being emotional, but he's really pursuing this narrative.

It's good to see that in the comments, aside from some people egging him on, a bunch of his fans are saying "You lost that fight, bro."

As much as I like Khbabez, there's this pattern of him undeniably losing fights and then coming up with excuses and blaming the promotion. He complained his way up to a title fight, ended up having a great showing, but he still isn't happy. I mean, I can only imagine how crushing it is to lose at that level, but how about taking some responsibility?

Either way, I hope this doesn't escalate into Khbabez getting released or something. Ideally he'll come to his senses and try again.

[larsenator]

I know his trainer personally and interviewed Khbabez prior to the fight and as such was biased and hoping he would win: he clearly lost. Put up a hell of a fight, that's for sure, but he lost.

And yeah he is an emotional man and very passionate and losses are difficult for him - he actually goes into great details about this in the interview and it's hard not to like him.

[K1power]

I read that interview a few days ago and, again, Khbabez seems like a nice guy. He's just completely deluded.

One has to wonder if his team/friends/family are being straight with him or not; If all you hear is "You won that fight!", you may actually believe it.

BTW Reem doing the interview after the fight is working out nicely for you .
Yesterday he was being interviewed in a Dutch talkshow and the host pissed him off lol.

[larsenator]

Yeah I agree.

Let's see: maybe he's not in the mood anymore (Reem).

[Kenshin (Banned)]

So it went to decsion after all. I haven't seen the fight, is the controversy about Hari getting prolonged 8 counts in the third round justified?

[K1power]

There were definitely some shenanigans going on in that fight. Badr got generous recovery time. It didn't help him in the end, though.

Without the knockdowns he would have won a decision, but Overeem caught a second wind and landed some hard shots to put Badr down twice. I was surprised Badr showed some heart and made it to the final bell.

[larsenator]

TOTALLY agree.

There was one point during one of the downs, where Hari looked like he had pain in his left arm, and he looked towards his corner and said something: I thought to my self "Alright, here we go again - Hari's checking out, saying that he got injured." Luckily it didn't happen.

[K1power]

He probably did get injured. His body just can't do it anymore.

[Shadess]

Was a fun event. So happy Maslobojev won!

Regarding the booing, Glory also brought it on themselves a little. The ladies fight had no business being the co-main, should've been first of the title fights. You schedule the most likely boring fight right before a Badr main event...what do you expect?

Not hating on women's fights here but you should also know your fighters and the audience a little. Reminds me of when Enfusion used to have a female fight ~halfway into their main card every time, never mind the quality of the fight, they just put a female fight in the middle of the card even if it was a expectedly going to be a relatively low quality fight. Often they had such good atmosphere going then to just completely kill it in the middle of the event with some random fight that clearly belonged on the undercard. Lower quality fights go lower on the card, you build up towards the end.

With a TVS title fight you shouldn't exactly chuck it on the prelims but it should've been earlier on the card than it was. Scheduling the fight like this serves nobody.