Rico Verhoeven Scores TKO of Badr Hari in Glory ‘Collision’ Main Event

Defending Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven struggled early against knockout machine Badr Hari in the main event of Glory: Collision on Saturday in Germany but he hung tough and wound up scoring a TKO in the process.

Verhoeven had his nose re-broken a few moments in the fight and Hari rocked the champ a few times early in their non-title affair. But Verhoeven recovered nicely and began tagging the Moroccan with low kicks and body shots late in the first. But just as the fight was heating up in the second, Hari suffered a freakish injury during a clinch along the ropes where he broke or dislocated his right arm. The fight was halted and Verhoeven was awarded the TKO at 1:22 of the frame.

In the co-feature, sizable underdog Cedric Doumbe withstood an early onslaught from Nieky Holzken to eventually pick the defending welterweight champion apart from the outside. The two took turns talking trash and landing hard kicks to the legs and body, but Doumbe was sharper throughout and won a split decision via tallies of 48-47 (thrice), 48-46 and 47-48 to snatch Holzken’s title away.

Tiffany Van Soest beat up Jessica Gladstone earlier in the day via unanimous decision and wound up meeting Amel Dehby to win the inaugural Glory women’s super bantamweight championship. Van Soest was masterful against Dehby and countered her repeatedly to win a unanimous verdict with scores of 30-27 (thrice) and 29-28 three times. Dehby out-pointed Isis Verbeek to reach the finals.

Finally, heavyweight Jamal Ben Saddik out-pointed Ismael Londt via unanimous decision by the margins of 29-27 and 30-26 (four times).