Reigning GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven was officially announced for the headline spot at the event earlier in the week, with the identity of his opponent left a mystery as fans attempted to guess who might challenge “The King of Kickboxing” at the landmark event.
Now that mystery has been revealed, with Vakhitov making his return for a huge heavyweight title clash between two of the most dangerous strikers in the world.
Verhoeven hasn’t lost in GLORY for more than a decade, and has racked up 12 successive defences of the GLORY heavyweight title against a who’s who of heavyweight kickboxing.
Now he’ll take on Vakhitov, a two-time GLORY light heavyweight champion, and the most dominant light heavyweight champion in GLORY history, with five championship defences to his name.
Vakhitov’s run in GLORY came to an end after he defeated former two-division GLORY champion, and former two-division UFC champion, Alex Pereira in 2021.
It looked like Vakhitov was set to follow in Pereira’s footsteps by transitioning to mixed martial arts, and a victory on Dana White’s Contender Series saw him offered a contract with the UFC.
However, after weighing up his options, Vakhitov has decided to return to GLORY, and will move up to heavyweight in a bid to dethrone Verhoeven and capture a GLORY world title in a second weight class.
“It is rare in this business that you can have two legends face off in a quest to claim even greater legacy and increase their respective claims in becoming the greatest of all time,” said GLORY CEO Marshall Zelaznik.
“They say styles make fights, and with Artem’s discipline, speed and fight IQ, facing off against Rico’s power, stamina and experience, it’s positioned as one of the great matchups in the history of combat sports.
“Anytime a fighter with Artem’s accolades moves up a division to face another dominant champion like Rico it creates a must-see spectacle.”
GLORY 100 will take place on June 14 in the Netherlands, at a venue to be announced later this week.
