Rico Verhoeven was on top at GLORY 77 on Saturday, January 30, adding a couple of wins to his official fight record. Partaking in the four-man knockout tournament, heavyweight champion went through his old foe Hesdy Gerges and Tarik Khbabez in the semi-final and final bouts of the contest, respectively.
Gerges took the fight on a short notice, after Jamal Ben Saddik was forced to withdraw from the original main event due to injury. It was a fairly easy win for Verhoeven, who scored a unanimous decision.
To credit the 2010 It’s Showtime heavyweight champion – he was able to go through the whole three-round fight, despite having only ten days to prepare.
It was Verhoeven’s third win over Gerges, following their bouts in November 2011 and June 2012. After being rivals for quite sometime, in the end it was all respect.
There were quite a few heavy hits thrown in the #GLORY77 tournament final. Yet, it was all over in one round, with @RicoVerhoeven coming out victorious 🏆 @GLORY_WS @FiteTV pic.twitter.com/CNgpfIgtw8
— Parviz Iskenderov (@parviziskender) January 31, 2021
In the final bout of the tournament, which was also the last fight of the evening, Verhoeven met Tarik Khbabez. On the way to finale, the latter went head to head with Levi Rigters for three rounds, and took the majority decision.
The championship round didn’t go the distance. It was all over after the first round, when Khbabez’s corner instructed the referee to call it a day.
