Rico Verhoeven retained his GLORY heavyweight title in a rematch against Levi Rigters in the main event of COLLISION 7. The kickboxing event aired live from the GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands on Saturday, December 7.
The pair previously met in the final of the Heavyweight Grand Prix in March, where Verhoeven took the win via second-round TKO. The rematch, scheduled for five rounds, went the full distance.
Early in the fight, Verhoeven suffered a low blow. In the third round, Rigters knocked Verhoeven down with a hook. The latter paid him back in the fourth round with an overhand counter. After five rounds, two judges scored the fight 47-46, and three other judges had it 48-45, all in favor of the reigning champion.
I was dazzled again,” Verhoeven said in his post-fight interview about the knockdown. “I got surprised, my hands were all over the place. He did a great job. All my props go to Levi.”
“Luckily, I could [knock] him down as well, so I could get my points back.”
With the victory by unanimous decision, 35-year-old Rico Verhoeven made the 12th successful defense of his title and improved to 67-10, 21 KO. 29-year-old Levi Rigters dropped to 18-3, 8 KO, which snapped his two-fight winning streak.
Among other GLORY Collision 7 results, Morocco’s Tarik Khbabez (52-11-1, 28 KO) retained his light heavyweight title by split decision in a trilogy fight against former champion Donegi Abena (30-11, 10 KO) of Suriname. Also at light heavyweight, Bahram Rajabzadeh (70-4, 62 KO) of Azerbaijan stopped Daniel Stefanovski (34-6, 25 KO) of Macedonia in the first round.