House of Glory | Videoland [26-08] Results

[K1power]

Coaches
- Badr Hari (Team Badr - Red)
- Rico Verhoeven (Team Rico - Blue)

Participants
- Andy Ristie (41, Bien Fighters)
- Robin Ciric (26, Ciric Sport)
- Soufiane Abdelkhalek (22, Team LGT)
- Tycho Brakel (27, Team Spirit & Ruthless FC)
- Mike Frenken (23, Holzken Gym)
- Oualid Gherbi (23, Kassem Gym)
- Samir Kasrioui (29, Team Ramzi)
- Cedric de Keirsmaeker (31, Bulls Gym, Belgium)
- Figueiredo Landman (18, Verhaar Gym)
- Nick Morsink (28, Sportacademy A-team)
- Jente Nnamadim (27, Siam Gym)
- Anwar Ouledchaib (20, Central Gym)
- Ismael Ouzgni (22, No Limit)
- Guillaume Pinas (20, Pinas Gym)
- Don Sno (21, Vos Gym)
- Gino van Steenis (25, multiple gyms)

What's at stake?
- Some kind of belt and a Glory contract.

Where to watch?
Videoland.
It's still unclear if this is an exclusive, but it would make sense to bring this to other territories as well.

When to watch?
The first episode will be released on Saturday, August 26th.
New episodes will (presumably) come out on a weekly basis.

[K1power]

Just a few more days until the first episode.

I'm actually intrigued and somewhat excited.

[K1power]

Just watched the first episode. It was pretty good.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Some interesting notes about the format / setup of the program:
- All participants are Welterweights.
- The winner is fighting for the belt at a Collission event.
- It wasn't spelled out, but the obvious implication here is a fight against Endy Semeleer at Collission 6.
- All 16 participants were matched up by Robbie Timmers for a series of sparring sessions with shinguards.
- Based on the sparring sessions Badr and Rico each picked 4 fighters to represent their teams.
- This means 8 fighters left over.
- Out of the leftovers Badr and Rico picked two fighters each who had to face each other to earn a fifth and final spot on each team.
- These were actual fights without shinguards.
- The winners earned a reserve spot.
- Unselected fighters and fighters who lost the reserve fights are going home.
- All selected fighters, including the reserve fighters of both teams move into a penthouse where they'll live for the duration of the program.
- The reserve fighters are (probably) included in all activities except fights. They'll only get to fight if someone from the main selection can't.
- Episodes are ~40 minutes long. Not sure about the number of episodes.
- Mark Schaaf is doing at least part of the presentation.
- You can tell that Glory had nothing to do with the production lol. This is a Videoland/RTL production and it shows. These people know how to put together a program. I hope the rest of the episodes is comparable - or better.

On to who made the teams:

Team Badr - Red
- Ismael Ouzgni
- Anwar Ouledchaib
- Robin Ciric
- Andy Ristie
- Reserve Fighter: Gino van Steenis - TKO'd Samir Kasrioui with lowkicks.

Team Rico - Blue
- Don Sno
- Soufiane Abdelkhalek
- Figueiredo Landman
- Mike Frenken
- Reserve Fighter: Cedric de Keirsmaeker - Knocked down Nick Morsink with a spinning backfist.

Additional notes:
- At least from what they showed of the sparring sessions, Ristie is the only fighter to knock his opponent down during the sparring matches. He put Guillaume Pinas down with a liver punch.
- They never shied away from Ristie's Glory history. I think one of the first things he said was the he was the champion. He also mentioned seeing House of Glory as a nice way to finish his career as a fighter. They never mentioned why he left Glory though lol.
- They gave a little bit of background info on most of the fighters.
- Samir Kasrioui who lost the reserve match was constantly victimizing himself and Badr called him out for it lol.
- Badr is assisted by his trainer Mike Passenier.
- Rico is assisted by his trainer Dennis Krauweel.
- I also spotted Alviar Lima so there could be other additional team members involved in coaching on both sides.

Saw that episode 2 is also online, so I have may have additional comments after that one.

[K1power]

Just finished the second episode.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Before going into specifics, I have to adress the system that is used to decide a winner.
It wasn't properly explained in the episode, but I think I mostly pieced the system together:
- Each episode a Team Rico fighter faces off against a Team Badr fighter.
- Each fight is referred to as a quarter-final.
- The winner places himself for the semi-finals.
- In other words, this is a spread-out 8-men tournament.
- The winner 'wins' House of Glory and challenges Semeleer for the WW title.

On to the episode itself.
- It started with a team battle exercise.
- The objective of the exercise was to get a heavy truck tire to a certain position on a grass field.
- All fighters wore a boxing glove on one hand which they were allowed to attack members of the other team with to the body.
- Best out of three rounds won the challenge.
- The result was a brawly, chaotic tug-of-war over the truck tire.
- Team Rico won the first two rounds, no need for a deciding third round.
- Since team Rico won, they got to decide the match-up for the first quarter-final.
- Rico and Badr weren't present during the exercise, but did call to congratulate their teams at the end of the exercise.
- Passenier and Krauweel were doing the coaching.
- Passenier's tactic to the team: "Who cares about winning the tire game? Just bruise them up so they'll be injured during the actual fights."
- Both teams returned to the penthouse where they were presented with the matchup for the first quarter-final: Don Sno (Team Rico) vs. Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr).
- Fighters had one day to make weight and another day to to get ready for the fight.
- Don made weight on the first attempt.
- Anwar had to lose 3kgs and was able to do so in a matter of hours.
- Don and the rest of team Blue trained with Krauweel and Rico.
- Anwar and the rest of team Red trained with Passenier. Badr wasn't present.
- Fight day: Rico and Badr gave their fighters a peptalk and were heavily involved with the coaching during the fight.
- Fights are reffed and judged by members of VON - Vechtsport Autoriteit Nederland.
- The fight itself: It was a bit hard to tell, since you're only seeing a shortened, highlights version of the action, but the fight went kinda back-and-forth. Hard to pick a clear winner.
- Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Don Sno (Team Rico) by Unanimous Decision.
- Despite deciding a matchup in their favor, Team Rico lost the first fight to Team Badr.
- After the fight a pissed off Rico and Krauweel wanted to see the scorecards and challenged the jury's judgment.
- Rico: "You're raping the sport without a condom."

My thoughts two episodes in:
It's pretty good!

I would have liked some more explanation about the format, supported by visual help. Due to being familar with the sport and TV formats I could kinda piece it together, but I can imagine a lay person feeling somewhat lost.

Also, I'm not sure what's going to happen with Don Sno now. He lost the fight, so is he out or will he get a second chance somehow? I guess episode three next week will answer some questions.

I also wonder if these fights will be counted to the participants' records or if they're considered Gym / Exhibition bouts.

Despite being less involved than I expected, thus far both Rico and Badr come across as if they care about their team members and gave some pretty good peptalks.

[K1power]

Just watched episode number three.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- Don Sno, who lost to to Anwar Ouledchaib in the previous episode is still in the house and part of the team.
- It was stated this is so that he can support his team, which makes sense for the team challenges.
- This episode's challenge was a series of team vs. team excercises at a Dutch marine base.
- Best out of three wins the challenge.
- The first exercise was a military style parcours which team Rico won.
- The second excercise was a race around a track where 4 team members carry the fifth member hanging from a log. Team Badr won this one.
- The third excercise was about which team could get the highest total score on a punching machine within a set time limit. Team Rico won.
- At 2-1, Rico won this challenge as well and was once again in charge of the matchmaking for the second quarter-final.
- Once again, Rico and Badr weren't present during the exercise, but Rico did call with Dennis Krauweel at the end to talk matchmaking.
- At the penthouse both teams were presented with the matchup for the second quarter-final: Soufiane Abdelkhalek (Team Rico) vs. Robin Ciric (Team Badr).
- Soufiane had to lose over 4kgs and went to the sauna.
- Soufiane acted super confident while Robin seemed nervous.
- Both Soufiane and Robin made weight.
- First Soufiane did some sort of special training session: a water aerobics based workout with Tiffany van Soest.
- The day before the fight all of Team Rico went to train with Dennis Krauweel who invited Alim Nabiev to help prepare Soufiane for the fight.
- Rico didn't appear to be present during this training session.
- Meanwhile Team Badr went to Mike's Gym where they trained with Mike and Badr. Robin had some one-on-one chats with Badr.
- Fight day: Rico gave Soufiane lots of instructions on how to keep the shorter Robin at a distance.
- Much like with Anwar in the previous fight, Badr appealed to the family man in Robin and for who he's doing this. Robin got pretty emotional and it seemed heartfelt.
- The fight itself: Even though it was once again edited for time and drama, I got a much better sense of who had the upper hand in the fight at which moment. Soufiane started out strong with powerful punches and probably took the first round. From that point Robin seemed to take over as Soufiane started to shut down and was getting tagged with some heavy shots by the end of the third round.
- Robin Ciric (Team Badr) defeats Soufiane Abdelkhalek (Team Rico) by Decision.
- This time there were no protests about the decision by anyone.
- During the fight Badr was very active in coaching Robin.
- Rico wasn't coaching Soufiane in his corner after the first round and seemed to just watch from the sidelines.
- After the second round Rico was in Soufiane's corner, but he seemed mostly angry and frustrated about Soufiane giving away the fight.
- Despite deciding a matchup in their favor once again, Team Rico also lost the second fight to Team Badr.
- Robin said Badr was able to help him to fully focus on the fight. Usually when Robin fights his thoughts are all over the place.
- Robin feels Rico wouldn't have been able to reach him like Badr did.
- After the fight Soufiane was pretty much at the bottom and that's the moment Krauweel and Rico picked to tell Soufian everything he did wrong.

Another solid episode, this is fun to watch. If there are no deals to distribute this outside of Videoland/The Netherlands, I hope someone captures it and puts it on the tracker with some subs so everybody can watch it.

While Team Rico seems to be a bit more hands-on and involve more people from their own teams like Lima, Nabiev etc. I'm not sure about some of their decisions like throwing a tantrum over the decision in the first fight and pouring out their frustrations on Soufiane at perhaps not the best moment. Shouldn't they be the experts on this?

But if the next episode preview is something to go by next week is Badr's moment to throw a tantrum over something not further specified yet: "This makes absolutely no sense. You can go look for a new coach!" - Drives off angrily.

Edit: At some point during the episode, Soufiane mentioned it was Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), which ended on July 1st, meaning this episode was recorded roughly 2 months ago.

[K1power]

Just finished episode number four.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- Soufiane, who lost to Robin in the previous episode was still disappointed about losing and talked it over with Dennis Krauweel. This time Dennis was a lot more relaxed and gave Soufiane some words of encouragement. This felt like a much needed moment.
- This episode's challenge was a rowing competition between Team Badr and Team Rico.
- Each team was rowing in a boat that had a line connected to a large ship. Rowing away from the ship slowly revealed a hidden code that was needed to open a safe located on the ship.
- The competition started out very messy with team members accidentally hitting each other in the head with their oars lol.
- Once they got the hang of it Team Badr quickly gained ground and was first to open the safe, therefore winning the challenge.
- Rico and Badr were - once again - not present during the challenge, but Mike Passenier called Badr after they won to discuss the matchup for the third quarter-final.
- Back at the penthouse the matchup for the third quarter-final was revealed to the team: Mike Frenken (Team Rico) vs. Ismael Ouzgni (Team Badr).
- With only two fighters left (aside from the reserve fighters) this also implied the matchup for quarter-final number four: Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) vs. Andy Ristie (Team Badr).
- After the matchup was revealed Team Rico and Team Badr went bowling together.
- In the car on the way there Don Sno asked what people thought of the matchup Ristie/Landman and from that moment Ristie started to shut down and disassociate from the others.
- Robin (Ciric) asked Andy what's wrong and he said he can't socialize with someone he still has to fight in a couple of days.
- Andy went back to the penthouse before all the others.
- Weigh-in day: Both Mike and Ismael made weight on the first attempt.
- Some background footage of both Mike and Ismael was shown.
- Mike usually trains with Nieky Holzken at Holzken Gym.
- Ismael trains with his older brother L'Houcine who used to be a pretty big name himself.
- Mike and the rest of Team Rico went to train with Dennis Krauweel while Ismael and the rest of Team Badr went to train at Mike's Gym.
- From the footage you could really tell the emphasis on boxing and aggression at Mike's Gym.
- Team Badr went to the barber shop with Mike Passenier who got a big facemask lol.
- Back at the house Ristie was complaining about his upcoming opponent Landman having somewhat of a big mouth and annoying other people at the house.
- Fight day: Rico dialed back a bit on his style of peptalk, but still approached it mostly in a technical way. Mike seemed to respond well to it.
- Badr said he didn't have to give Ismael a big peptalk, because he sees him as the biggest talent in the team. Like with the others, he did appeal to Ismael's pride, though; "Your parents are watching.".
- The fight: From the start Soufiane was the one going forward, but Mike was more active, scoring a lot on the backpedal. The general consensus seemed to be that Mike had won the first round. In the second round Soufiane started being more aggressive and landed some big knees and punches. Most people seemed to agree that Ismael had won the second round. The third round was very competitive with Ismael landing some big shots, but being outworked by a more active Mike who seemed comfortable working from the backpedal. At the end of the third round both teams seemed confident in having clearly won the fight.
- Mike Frenken (Team Rico) defeats Ismael Ouzgni (Team Badr) by Split Decision.
- Badr and Mike Passenier looked at each other like they couldn't believe it.
- During the fight Alviar Lima was pretty actively coaching Mike in addition to Krauweel and Rico.
- Immediately after the fight Rico went over what he liked and what Mike needs to work on for his Semi-Final fight.
- Not sure that was the right moment, but again Mike responded to it pretty well. Seems like he's a good fit for Team Rico.
- In the other dressing room Badr was visibly annoyed by the decision and said Ismael won that fight.
- Badr went to the jury on his own and started having a discussion with them.
- At the end he said "This makes absolutely no sense. You can go look for a new coach!". He walked out, got into his car and drove off angrily. It looked like he was removing and throwing away the mic on his body in the process. That whole bit was in the preview of the last episode as well.
- The preview of the next episode showed Andy Ristie in the dressing room with Mike Passenier, getting ready to fight with both wondering where Badr was.

Another good episode with drama that didn't feel scripted. I wonder how 41 year old Ristie will do against 18 year old Landman. Also wondering how they're going to approach the team challenges/excercises since they technically aren't needed anymore as we already have the next matchup.

Edit: Just noticed I've posted this almost the exact same minute I posted last week's 'review'. Scary lol.

[K1power]

Just finished episode number five.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- The episode starts with Figueiredo Landman talking with the rest of Team Rico about his fighting experience.
- Apparently he's only had amateur bouts so far.
- Learning this Team Rico looks up Andy Ristie's record on wikipedia lol.
- This episode featured the final challenge.
- Each team had to run in a maze of containers while carrying around a heavy bag.
- Among the maze were a number of marked containers that contained move combinations that each team had to gather, remember and then perform correctly in front of a jury.
- Winner is whoever performs all combinations correctly first.
- Some containers had distractions in them like aggressively barking dogs (leashed up) and beamers showing fight footage.
- It looked close for a moment, but Team Rico ended up winning the challenge.
- Even though technically the matchup for the last quarter-final was already decided, for a moment Krauweel considered having his reserve fighter Cedric de Keirsmaeker fight instead of Figueiredo Landman.
- Krauweel was concerned the inexperienced Landman wasn't ready for a veteran of Ristie's caliber.
- Krauweel called Rico, who said he feels this platform is for the next generation to get their chance.
- Back in the house the fourth quarter-final matchup was officially announced: Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) vs. Andy Ristie (Team Badr).
- A bit of background footage of Landman was shown.
- After his kid brother passed away in a drowning accident, Landman became a difficult teen and was a bit of a troublemaker.
- To get away from an unstable home situation, he moved in with his trainer.
- Weigh-in day: Both Landman and Ristie made weight on their first attempt, but Landman had to lose a little bit before he went on the scale.
- Both Landman and Ristie commented they more or less fight at their walk-around weight.
- Once again Team Rico went to train with Krauweel while team Badr went to train with Mike.
- Landman got a lot of coaching on which situations to avoid with Ristie i.e. don't get on the inside to avoid knees etc.
- Mike said he already knows how Ristie fights and essentially only gave him some pointers.
- Interesting to see how Krauweel uses Mokuso / Mokuso Yame meditation to begin and end training sessions.
- This is very much a Japanese/Karate tradition (I still remember doing it as a kid in Karate classes), not so much Kickboxing/Muay Thai. They have something similar, but it's based around Thai culture and language.
- The night before the fight Team Badr went to a fancy restaurant dinner with Mike.
- They earned that dinner when they won the challenge in the previous episode.
- Ristie came late, because he took a walk to clear his mind before the fight.
- The team asked Mike why Badr wasn't there with them.
- Mike said Badr was still a bit sour on the decision from the previous fight and he didn't want to spoil the mood.
- With Team Rico having the house to themselves, Dennis Krauweel and Rico brought food and had dinner with their team.
- Rico and the others urged Landman not to eat Sushi - apparently it's not a good food to eat before a fight?
- Fight day: After Landman got taped, he practiced some situations with Rico.
- Meanwhile, in the other dressing room Ristie was getting taped by Mike and everybody wondered if Badr was going to show up.
- Mike couldn't reach Badr on the phone, apparently he'd turned it off.
- A few moments later Badr was shown arriving at the venue, but the first thing he did was go back arguing with the VON staff about the decision from the previous fight lol.
- Rico joined the discussion and for a moment it got even messier.
- After a few minutes everybody calmed down and Badr went to the dresser to have a moment with Ristie.
- He said he doesn't have to teach Ristie how to get in the right mindset or how to get aggressive and just pumped him up a bit.
- It was good to see Badr actually showing up and not leave his team hanging, even if Ristie doesn't really need Badr for anything.
- The fight: For an 18 year old newcomer, this kid looked good against a slow starting Ristie early on. Everybody seemed in agreement Landman probably took the first round.
- In the second round Ristie looked stronger as Landman looked like he was gassing and started to resort to antics like sticking out his tongue. The general impression seemed to be that Ristie took the second round and it could still go either way.
- In the third round it looked like Ristie was mostly calling the shots, but the Landman had a strong ending in the last 20 seconds or so.
- The bell rang and it looked like Team Badr was more confident than Team Rico, but in the ring Landman looked more confident than Ristie.
- Just before the decision was announced the episode ended.
- The next episode preview didn't spoil the winner and due to how it was edited it really could go either way, though I suspect Landman may have taken it.
- From what I could tell the fight was decent, but Ristie definitely looked a bit sloppier than how I remember him. Could be ring rust, could be his age, could be the editing leaving out some crucial parts.
- Regardless of who gets the decision in the end, Landman did well against a legend.

Good episode. As the tournament advances to the next stage and there won't be anymore challenges you can tell they're going to somewhat mix up the formula of the next episodes compared to the previous ones. I definitely expect some more drama next week.

I believe this season is going to be 8 episodes in total and with three more fights left it would make sense for us to get three more episodes.

Edit: At some point during the episode Ristie said he hasn't fought since he left Glory in 2015. We know that he fought at least once in Kunlun in 2019, though. So that was interesting. Perhaps they didn't want mentions of other promotions or something.

Edit 2: I kinda hope they make the reserve fighters face each other so their inclusion won't feel pointless and just in case someone is out with an injury or something.

[K1power]

Just finished the sixth episode.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- The episode starts with the suspected result:
- Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) defeats Andy Ristie (Team Badr) by Unanimous Decision.
- Based on the implications made in Remy's latest podcast I suspected some controversy surrounding the result, but there didn't seem to be any disagreements and Ristie's body language didn't exactly ooze confidence.
- Badr told Ristie he's proud of him, because he showed he can still do it.
- Back in the dressing room Ristie said he had trouble getting ready for this (program?) and lost 9kgs in a short amount of time.
- Badr told Ristie he hadn't fought in years, so he couldn't have expected this to be easy.
- Ristie said he's still grateful for this opportunity.
- In Team Rico's dressing room the atmosphere was a bit tense.
- Rico and Dennis Krauweel were pissed at Landman for disrespecting Ristie during the fight.
- Rico: "I want to slap you in the face right now!".
- Krauweel: "You're in no position to disrespect a man of his calibre, you're still a puppy."
- Landman said it probably wasn't a good decision to taunt Ristie.
- Landman hurt his foot during the fight, possibly breaking one of his toes.
- After scolding Landman for a bit, Rico still said he did a lot of things right during the fight and congratulated him properly.
- While still in the dressing rooms, both teams got a pre-recorded message from Robbie Timmers presented on an iPad.
- Timmers said that since the teams were more talented than expected, four more fighters will be selected to fight at the upcoming Collision event.
- This seemed to motivate the fighters that aren't part of the tournament anymore.
- Rico and Krauweel had a chat about the upcoming semi-finals.
- Apparently winning last week's final challenge also gave them control over the semi-final matchups.
- Back at the house the semi-final matchups were announced:
- Semi-final #1: Mike Frenken (Team Rico) vs. Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr).
- Semi-final #2: Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) vs. Robin Ciric (Team Badr).
- Based on the timer shown next to the matchups, apparently there are four days between announcement and fight as opposed to two days for the quarter-finals.
- After all semi-finalists had their staredowns, Mark Schaaf entered the house.
- Schaaf told the team that their stay at the house ends here and all fighters can return home until the semi-finals.
- Back home Anwar analyzed footage of his upcoming opponent Mike with his regular trainer Samantha van Doorn (Central Gym).
- Mike did the same together with his regular trainer Sjef Weber (Team Holzken).
- Weigh-in day: Both Mike and Anwar made weight on their first attempt. Since they're not at the house anymore, weigh-ins took place at some hotel and looked more similar to the setup of a regular pre-fight event.
- Both Mike and Anwar were staying at a hotel leading into the fight.
- Mark Schaaf visited both fighters with video messages from friends and family wishing them good luck.
- Fight day: Both fighters were taken to the venue of the fight which looked like it was the same one from the quarter-finals, just slightly upgraded to feature more traditional fighter walk-outs.
- This time more people were present; not just Team Badr and Team Rico, but also Anwar and Mike's regular trainers and some friends and family.
- Again, Rico focused more on Mike's technique before the fight, whereas Badr told Anwar not to embarrass his parents lol.
- The fight: Anwar had a good start, throwing Mike off balance early on while landing some good punches. Mike recovered quickly and started taking over as the round progressed, landing some big shots in the process. Team Badr seemed to realize they gave this round away.
- The second round was much more even, with Anwar arguably landing the better shots overall.
- The third round was a strong round for Anwar who landed a lot more consistently, slightly overwhelming Mike at some points.
- After the bell rang, Rico told Mike he gave away the last round.
- Anwar looked more confident after the fight than Mike.
- Inbetween rounds, backstage footage of Badr showed him saying you could make a case for either fighter taking it at that point.
- Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Mike Frenken (Team Rico) by Split Decision.
- While obviously Team Badr was in a good mood, Team Rico seemed more or less okay with it and still happy with Mike's performance.
- There didn't seem to be any outcry over the decision, like over some previous results.
- The next episode preview showed some concern over Landman's foot injury while Ciric was preparing for semi-final #2.
- This episode was a bit shorter: 36 minutes compared to the 40+ minutes of previous ones.

Even though it was a bit shorter, it was still a solid episode. I guess fighters left the house after the quarter-finals, because there were no more team challenges and staying in the house for a extended period of time messes with people's schedules too much.

If we're getting two more House of Glory related fights at Collision 6, that's going to be a stacked card.

[K1power]

Sept 22, 2023 20:46:07 GMT 1 K1power said:

Some interesting tidbits from the latest episode of Remy & Marinho's podcast (recorded on Tuesday):

- Marinho ran into Andy Ristie a couple of days ago and found out a lot of details/spoilers about House of Glory. At least regarding Ristie's participation and the episode that's going to release tomorrow:

- Since Team Badr was ahead 2-0 over Team Rico after the first two quarter-finals, Ristie feels there were some shenanigans going on to make it 2-2.
- This implies Ristie lost the decision against Landman (like I suspected in my 'review' of last week's episode).
- Ristie feels he was used for House of Glory.
- Ristie is not with Glory anymore.

- Marinho said Ristie told him a lot more, but they're looking to get him as a guest in an upcoming episode to tell the full story himself.

Source: warriorcode.com/en/videos/on-the-bench-41

The plot thickens:



Translation

I'd like to get something off my chest regarding my participation in House of Glory @ Videoland.
After seeing the footage of my fight I was disappointed by how much I was put at a disadvantage with the result.
My trainer contacted them this week and they admitted I've won, but that they wanted to give my younger opponent a chance at a career. I want him to have a fantastic career too, but not at my expense by having me dishonestly lose a fight.

Some questions:
- What footage did Ristie see? Was it the whole fight or the highlights from the episode?
- Is his trainer still Roberto Flamingo?
- Who exactly did his trainer contact?
- Who are 'they' when Ristie refers to someone admitting he actually won the fight?

These questions are important to have answered to:
- Determine how legitimate Ristie's opinion of the result is. The episode cut the highlights together in a way that an argument could have been made for either fighter taking it.
- Determine how trustworthy Ristie's trainer is.
- Determine which party - if at all - admitted the result was rigged.

The implications here are pretty severe. Glory/Videoland scripting the program to push certain fighters forward and make it look like Team Badr vs. Team Rico is an even battle would be scummy, but in all honesty not entirely surprising.

If however the VON governing body is somehow involved in rigging results with some party allegedly admitting it, the further implications are pretty massive as any fight they have judged for any promotion/event can - and should - be put into question. At least anything from recent history.

I wonder if these allegations will get some sort of official reaction and whether or not Ristie will reveal more details in a future podcast or something.

[K1power]

Episode number seven, the penultimate chapter of the season.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- The episode starts with some footage of Ciric being back home with his family.
- After spending some time with his girlfriend and kids Robin visited his father - who is also his trainer - at the gym.
- They analyzed footage of his upcoming opponent Landman from his fight with Ristie.
- Robin's father Nebbe noted that Landman is very explosive, but tires out quickly.
- Robin talked with his father about going to Mike's Gym for some sparring sessions.
- His father agreed, saying that Robin should visit other gyms, because their gym lacks pro-level sparring partners.
- Next they showed Landman back at home talking to his trainer about his experience so far.
- Landman brought up that during his fight with Ristie, too many people were coaching him at the same time.
- It's true; Rico, Krauweel and Lima all were yelling stuff at him inbetween rounds.
- Landman's regular trainer, Marcel Verhaar, pointed out that this doesn't work and asked if the issue was addressed.
- Landman said they talked about it after the fight.
- A bit later Landman was shown training at his regular gym with one of his kid brothers.
- They analyzed Ciric's fight with Soufiane Abdelkhalek.
- Landman pointed out that Ciric has "terrible" defense and that he would put him to sleep.
- Ciric and Landman head to the hotel for the weigh-in and fight a day later.
- When Landman arrives at the hotel he is greeted by Mark Schaaf while Mike Passenier and Dennis Krauweel are chatting in the background.
- Schaaf asks Landman how he is doing and he brings up he broke his toe against Ristie.
- Krauweel was annoyed by Landman revealing an injury while Passenier was there.
- Talking backstage, Krauweel said it felt like Landman was already building up toward an excuse in case he had a weak performance.
- The weigh-in: Like for the previous semi-final, the weigh-in took place at the hotel and looked more the setup of a regular pre-fight event.
- Both Ciric and Landman made weight on their first attempt.
- Later that day Schaaf visited both Ciric and Landman with video messages from their families.
- Both fighters seemed to be motivated and in good spirits.
- Fight day: Like last time, in addition to Team Badr and Team Rico, regular trainers, some friends and family were present.
- In the dressing room, it felt like Team Rico's preparation of Landman was a bit more calm compared to last time.
- Interestingly, this time Badr gave some more technical pointers to Ciric about how to fight Landman.
- The general idea was to go to the body a lot to drain Landman's already questionable gastank even quicker.
- They showed some backstage footage of Badr. He said Landman is very talented, but his performance against Ristie was disappointing, because of his bad gastank.
- Badr told Ciric that Landman has the stamina of a 'shrimp' and that Ciric can't allow Landman to embarrass him in front of his woman.
- The fight: Both fighters started out aggressive, but it was Ciric that landed the first big shot. Landman was rocked and went on the backpedal. Ciric connected another big punch and Landman was knocked down into the ropes, visibly shaken. The ref counts Landman, who got up pretty quick and the fight continued. It took Landman a while, but he recovered and was able to fight back well enough until the bell rang. Big first round for Ciric.
- In the second round Landman came out aggressively, but visibly gassed after that initial big flurry. Ciric tried to take over, but Landman recovered quick enough to make it competitive and land some big shots of his own. Overall the second round was pretty even, but an argument could be made for Landman taking it.
- The last round really was mostly Ciric putting Landman on the backpedal and throwing the occasional counter.
- Some more backstage footage of Badr was shown: "He just steamrolled him."
- Once the final bell rang Landman was quick to raise his arm, but it was mostly for show.
- Badr and Mike were very happy with Ciric's performance and yelled to Rico's corner something along the lines of a jury not even being necessary for this one.
- Krauweel yelled something back like 'It ain't over 'til it's over'.
- Robin Ciric (Team Badr) defeats Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) by Unanimous Decision.
- Robin did a quick post-fight interview in the ring with Schaaf "Sometimes the pressure before a fight is too much for me". He was very emotional.
- This means the final will be Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) vs. Robin Ciric (Team Badr) - An all Team Badr affair.
- Landman backstage: "I was happy to make it to the end, despite getting knocked down early on."
- Badr backstage: "Figgy (Landman) has all this talent, but the one thing that doesn't require talent he lacked in: stamina".
- Mike Passenier backstage: "If my body looked like Landman's I'd never wear a shirt." lol
- Rico backstage: "Badr finally beat me at something, but this is as far as his success against me goes."
- The next episode preview showed Anwar taking on Robin in the final.
- This was another 36 minute episode.

A really solid episode. I liked some of the emotional beats and am glad they didn't somehow manipulate the result in making it a Team Badr vs. Team Rico final.

Regardless of what happens next week, since Ciric already fights in Glory I can't imagine Anwar not getting a Glory contract as well. I mean, they already mentioned more fighters getting a chance to fight at Collision and it would be a waste not to.

The only fighters who didn't really get their big moment are the reserve fighters of each team. I wonder if something is still planned for them.

[K1power]

Episode eight seven, the finale.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

- The episode starts with a quick recap of what happened this season and Robin and Anwar's road to the final.
- Robin heads to Mike's Gym with his dad and regular trainer Nebbe Ciric.
- Anwar also heads to Mike's with his regular trainer Samantha van Doorn.
- Robin and Anwar train a regular session with separate partners and other Mike's Gym fighters.
- Nebbe and Samantha observed the training while casually chatting with Mike.
- Nebbe tried to film Anwar to get some footage of him, but Mike asked him not to.
- After training, Mike asked Robin, Anwar, Nebbe and Samantha who should corner both fighters since they both are Team Badr.
- There were a number of available options, but ultimately they all agreed on both fighters being cornered by their regular coaches.
- Both fighters went to the hotel and in each of their rooms there was a poster of their upcoming fight propped up which both seemed to appreciate.
- Interestingly, the poster said July 25th. This means filming wrapped up earlier than I thought.
- Badr visited both fighters and had a little chat with them.
- The weigh-in: Both Robin and Anwar made weight on the first attempt and had an intense staredown.
- Back in his hotel room Anwar received a gift from his parents in Morocco while Robin was chilling in the hotel restaurant with his dad.
- Fight day: Both Robin and Anwar arrive at the venue about an hour before the fight.
- Even though they are cornered by their regular teams, both are prepped by Mike and got a visit from Badr with a few motivating words and some keys to victory.
- The venue was even busier than last time, with more friends and family of the fighters being there.
- All members of both Team Badr and Team Rico were present, including Rico and Dennis Krauweel.
- Endy Semeleer was present as well.
- Before the fight started, non-finalist members of Team Badr and Team Rico gathered in front of Mark Schaaf, who had a little chat with Rico.
- Rico said a few words about being happy about the experience despite losing to Team Badr.
- Mark Schaaf said he had a video message from Robbie Timmers announcing the additional four fighters that will fight at an upcoming Collision event.
- Robbie announced Ismael Ouzgni (Team Badr), Soufiane Abdelkhalek (Team Rico) and Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) will fight on the undercard of Collision 6.
- The fourth spot goes the the loser of the final.
- Robbie ended the message saying those who weren't picked would still be kept an eye on going forward.
- Both finalists start making their way to the ring.
- The fight: Early in the round the difference in experience shows with Robin being a bit more relaxed and being better at finding openings. Anwar fights aggressively, but his shots and up hitting a lot of air or Robin's guard. Robin lands a good punch that knocks Anwar down. Anwar protests, but it was legit. The fight continues with Robin landed more good shots as the round ends.
- In the second round Anwar throws a kick that lands in Robin's groin. Robin takes some time to recover, but notices the clock isn't stopped. The fight continues with his round being more competitive than the first one.
- In the third round it looks like Robin might just cruise to a comfortable decision until Anwar lands a big punch that sends Robin down. Robin gets up and easily beats the count, but looks a little rocked. The fight continues while Robin realizes the score is even now. Both fighters start throwing heavy leather until the final bell.
- Anwar walks into his corner with his hands raised.
- Robin walks into his corner looking concerned.
- Anwar's cornerman tells him he hasn't won yet and it might go an extra round - I don't think they mentioned his name, but this guy was more actively coaching Anwar than Samantha.
- Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Robin Ciric (Team Badr) by Split Decision.
- Badr told Robin he's still proud of him.
- Anwar did a quick post-fight interview in the ring with Mark Schaaf, thanking Badr and Mike.
- Schaaf announced that by winning House of Glory, Anwar earned a title shot against Endy Semeleer.
- Semeleer walked into the ring with his belt, said he liked the fight and had a staredown with Anwar.
- Badr took the mic for a second to talk about the final and the experience overall, but also brought up his dissatisfaction over the clock not being stopped while Robin was recovering from that groin shot in the second round (as it took time away from both fighters). Badr was actually complaining about VON in backstage footage and was also seen arguing over this with VON director Alexander Engelhardt. Engelhard said backstage that they 'can't just stop the clock for every little thing'.
- Some more congratulary moments were shown.
- Backstage footage of Badr, Mike, Rico and Krauweel was shown whith them talking about how much they liked being part of House of Glory.
- This was a longer episode at a little over 41 minutes

A good final episode to cap of a solid first season of House of Glory.

There is room for improvement overall, but I really liked watching a new episode every week and it didn't have that awful scripted feel that reality shows tend to have.

Full fights have started to trickle out on Glory's YouTube channel and I'll put them in this thread until all of them are released. As people start seeing these, we can judge for ourselves if some of the perceived controversy was justified and see if there'll be any consequences.

To summarize - and I'll also update this in the Collision 6 thred with this, obviously:

- Anwar Ouledchaib is fighting Endy Semeleer for the Welterweight Title.
- Ismael Ouzgni, Soufiane Abdelkhalek, Figueiredo Landman and Robin Ciric are fighting on the undercard with the specific matchups still TBA.

Either way, thanks for anyone who took the time to read my write-ups!

I hope there's going to be a second season at some point.

[K1power]

Full Results

House of Glory Tournament

Final - Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Robin Ciric (Team Badr) by Split Decision
---
Semi-Final #2 - Robin Ciric (Team Badr) defeats Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) by Unanimous Decision
Semi-Final #1 - Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Mike Frenken (Team Rico) by Split Decision
---
Quarer-Final #4 - Figueiredo Landman (Team Rico) defeats Andy Ristie (Team Badr) by Unanimous Decision
Quarer-Final #3 - Mike Frenken (Team Rico) defeats Ismael Ouzgni (Team Badr) by Split Decision
Quarer-Final #2 - Robin Ciric (Team Badr) defeats Soufiane Abdelkhalek (Team Rico) by Decision
Quarer-Final #1 - Anwar Ouledchaib (Team Badr) defeats Don Sno (Team Rico) by Unanimous Decision

Reserve fights

Reserve Fight #2 (Team Rico) - Cedric de Keirsmaeker defeats Nick Morsink by Unanimous Decision
Reserve Fight #1 (Team Badr) - Gino van Steenis defeats Samir Kasrioui by TKO (lowkicks)

[K1power]

Heads-up: apparently these are geo-blocked in some countries so depending on where you are a VPN is needed.

[K1power]

^Tournament Final added.