Rico Verhoeven has broken into the Top Ten of the world heavyweight rankings following his domination of Jhonta Diniz at GLORY 7 MILAN.
Prior to the win Verhoeven occupied #11. With the victory he climbs to #9 and enters the Top Ten of the official GLORY rankings for the first time.
Verhoeven is 23 years old but has more than fifty fights to his name across the amateur and professional ranks. He is widely considered a future contender and he says he wants the number one spot badly.
“I want to be the best so that means I have to fight everyone ranked above me. Everyone is going to get it,” he said after the win over Brazilian export Diniz, who stays at #15.
At light-heavyweight, the young Dutchman Michael Duut continues to shoot up the rankings by following his stoppage of Dustin Jacoby at GLORY 5 with a decision win over multi-time world champion Steve McKinnon at GLORY 7.
The win in Milan sees Duut climb three places to #4, the spot previously occupied by McKinnon. The Australian - who was by far the favorite to win the fight and feels he was robbed by the judges - moves down one place to #5 and anxiously awaits a rematch.
Lightweight supremo Giorgio Petrosyan won his fight with Hafid El Boustati in comfortable fashion and remains the world #1 at 70 kg (154lbs). But he could have been dislodged from the spot by Robin Van Roosmalen, who also appeared at GLORY 7.
Van Roosmalen beat Murthel Groenhart by decision and retains the #2 spot in the rankings but had he won the fight by KO he would have gained extra ranking points and would have moved into the #1 spot, pushing Petrosyan to #2.
As it turns out, the top three fighters at 70kg all stay in their current places. Number three in the list is Davit Kiria, the karate stylist from Georgia. His win over Yuri Bessmertny increased his ranking points but kept him in the same slot while Bessmertny falls one place to #22.
The lone middleweight (85kg/185lbs) fight at GLORY 7 also did nothing to change the upper end of the rankings. Artem Levin stays at #1 with his win over Sahak Parparyan, who - because Levin was higher-ranked and the favorite to win the fight - retains his own position at #3.
Muay Thai master Sak Kaoponlek put on a superb display in his featherweight (65kg/145lbs) fight with Sergio Wielzen of Suriname. Kaoponlek - once the undisputed #1 in his native Thailand - climbs three places to #12 in the GLORY rankings while Wielzen drops from #12 to #14.
The lightweight fight between Chingiz Allazov and Marat Grigorian at GLORY 7 ended with a technical draw after an accidental elbow created a bad cut over Allazov’s eye.
The points for the draw do nothing for Grigorian but they do move Allazov up one place to occupy the #21 spot previously occupied by Yuri Bessmertny.
Finally, at welterweight (77kg/170lbs), Karapet Karapetyan gained 61 points by defeating Roberto Cocco. However, this was not quite enough to move him up from #6, while the distinguished veteran Cocco drops one place to #16.
