GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES & LAST MAN STANDING WEIGH-IN RESULTS

Mirko Cro Cop

“Everyone has their own style. I don’t like it personally, but if that is how he feels like promoting himself to the media, that is up to him. But personally I don’t like it.”

[Miller leans forward and looks at Cro Cop, saying “Boo hoo” into the mic.]

“I don’t care. Talk is talk and a fight is a fight. If it makes him relaxed, then good for him. I don’t care. No big deal.”

“The strategy will be to kick his ass. I will use my kicks much more than in the previous fight… [to Miller: Don’t interrupt me please!] so we will see what happens in two days. Either you see me knock him out or you see him take care of me. We will see.”

Jarrell Miller

“I talked smack, he didn’t like it, I fought him in his country, they jerked me around. So I’m gonna talk smack, fight him in my country, beat him again and get the right outcome.”

“I’m not playing no games. I didn’t come here all the way from New York to LA just to talk smack and not do my job. I’m gonna do what I do best and that’s kick ass. If you don’t like smack-talk, so what? That’s part of the sport. This is a business. And I back up what I say. Coco-Cop is going down. Look out for it, it’s coming.”

Andy Ristie

“It is very important to me to get back into position to challenge for the belt again. It was an expensive lesson for me, my last fight.”

“I don’t feel any extra pressure because I always go for the win anyway. I stay focused; I have to beat Ky Hollenbeck to get that belt.”

“The fight with Kiria was not so difficult for me, it was only a problem with conditioning. Fighting over five rounds was a long time for me but now [I have worked on my conditioning] and it is not so difficult for me.”

Ky Hollenbeck

I thought that Ristie’s fight with Kiria was the Fight of the Year so far. I was watching at home knowing that I was going to be fighting Ristie next, regardless of the outcome. So if Ristie won, I would have been going straight into a title shot and yet I was still just rooting for Kiria when he was making that comeback. It was an awesome fight.”

“This fight is the most important thing for me right now, not the title shot. If that happens, it happens. I want to make sure that this fight is exciting for the fans. Joe Schilling was already the first US fighter to bring a title to the US, so if I can follow that, that’s fine. For me, in this fight, I want to show that our fighters are tough, that regardless of whether we win or lose, we go in there and we give it our all. You want to have fights that people talk about afterwards because of what went on in them, regardless of who won or lost.”

“I made a choice and I stand by it. This is my passion in my life but there are other things going on as well. And I am not so bothered about belts. I want to compete and I’m competing now so I am in the same spot.”

“I’m a little bit busier now. When I am not working as a firefighter, I am working as a kickboxer. It’s busy sometimes but when things are your passion, you make time for them; you make it happen.”

“Americans are at that level where we should be considered championship-caliber. More and more of us are getting there. Two guys in the eight-man are Americans, strong guys and able to get it done.”

Melvin Manhoef

“I am very honored to participate in this LAST MAN STANDING tournament. Here we have the best eight middleweights in the world. That makes it very special and what also makes it special is that this is GLORY’s first pay-per-view in America. So us eight guys are going to make history and we can help extend our sport here and worldwide. I feel like that is very special and that all eight fighters need to bear that responsibility and deliver a good fight, make this successful. That is our job.”

On whether he prefers kickboxing or MMA
“People always ask me this, so many times. It is like me asking who you love more, your mother or your father? I just love to fight, whatever the fight it is. Fighting is my life, they can phone me to fight every day if they want to.”

Simon Marcus

“It affects my game, but I think it plays to my strengths. A lot of the time I go to the clinch and people get away from my power, which is my punching and my kicking. This is going to be a fight regardless of the rules. I am a fighter and I am the best fighter here, so I am going to do what I am going to do.”

“There are seven guys here and I am ready to fight any of them. I am concentrated on being the best that I can be. It could be Joe or anybody, it really doesn’t matter who. I’m going to be facing me. I am not worried about anybody else, only myself.”

Joe Schilling

On sitting next to Wayne Barrett at the dais
“It is what it is. I don’t care who I am sat next to, I wouldn’t feel that much more comfortable sitting next to anyone else on this table. We are all going to fight, it doesn’t matter where we are sat.”

“My first fight for GLORY there were definitely moments I wanted to throw an elbow. I was successful in Muay Thai using my kickboxing style rather than a traditional Muay Thai style, so the transition has been pretty easy for me and honestly I enjoy it more. I do miss throwing elbows though.”

“I am honestly not thinking about any rematches or anything like that. I am focused on winning every round of every fight in this tournament and becoming the first American to win a major title belt twice. After the fight is over, then it will feel good to get those wins [in any rematches that have occurred] but really I have no interest whatsoever in that right now.”

“I love fighting here in Los Angeles. I was fighting in Vegas for a long time. Even though I had a good following who would travel to Vegas, there is nothing like fighting at home. It is a huge honor to be here and I have been dreaming about being involved in an eight-man grand prix ever since I got into kickboxing.”

“At GLORY 10, I was really motivated and I wanted to show that there are top level kickboxers here in America. I don’t think that is a question any more and with this tournament, I am thinking about cementing my legacy. I want to go down in history with legends like Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky and Semmy Schilt.”

On winning the tournament at GLORY 10
“It was life-changing for a while. $200,000 would change it a little more. What would I spend it on? I don’t know. I will let you know after I win on Saturday.”

Wayne Barrett

“I think I am the most underrated guy here and my job is to prove that talent is talent, whether you have got one fight or one hundred fights.”

“It’s an honor for me to fight any of these guys. I came up watching Artem Levin, Melvin Manhoef… I am a fan of all these guys, even Joe Schilling here. But on Saturday, I can’t afford to be a fan. We are all on the same path man, it’s about kickboxing. If I get in the ring with any one of these guys I will be respectful, but we are gonna be fighting.”

“I love combat sports and all I ever thought about as a kid was being here. When you imagine something and then you’re there, that’s me. It is surreal to me that my mind conceived this and wanted it so bad and now I am here. I only turned pro last February. I believe in destiny. I am finally living life the way that I am supposed to be living, I am finally happy. I am not stressed out about this. I am very comfortable here, and I love the ring. What I want to show people is keep believing in yourself and don’t give up.”

“Just because someone is older than you or has been doing something longer than you, does not mean that they have been doing it correctly or to perfection. I feel I have been perfected. Hopefully come Saturday I am not just all talk, I’m action. I do some crazy stuff in the ring, think outside the box and prove to the world that you can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it and you believe.”

Filip Verlinden

“Yeah, this is definitely the right weight for me. Previously I had to fight at a higher weight because that is where the opportunities were but now GLORY provides us with a chance to fight at other weights and I am very happy with that.”

“I don’t know that I am being overlooked, but if I am, maybe it’s because I am not a loud guy. I will do my talking in the ring on Saturday.”

“Me and Melvin both fought at heavyweight before, so we are similar. One thing which is different for me is that I used to be the fastest guy in the ring when I was facing heavyweights, but now these middleweights are all faster. I took a lot of hard punches in my life, but I saw them coming. Now maybe if I don’t see one coming it will be a problem. We will see.”

Daniel Ghita

On this rematch with Verhoeven
“Now it is going to be different. I said in a lot of interviews that I didn’t focus on Verhoeven for the last tournament; all my preparation was for Saki. So that was a mistake.”

“And also, I thought I won that fight with Rico anyway. Now on June 21st,  we will see who wins the title.”

On what rubs him up the wrong way about Verhoeven
“I have seen a lot of fighters in my life and I had a lot of fights in my life. I never saw a fighter who did what Rico does. After three fights, he is the face of kickboxing, he’s the image of kickboxing.”

“I see Peter Aerts, Jerome Le Banner, Semmy Schilt, they don’t act like this. Three fights, just luck [in his wins]. I don’t know, it’s not so nice for kickboxing that after three fights he acts like the champion.”

On his relaxed, humorous nature in the run-up to this fight
“Yeah, why not? It’s something new, no?”
[laughter from Ghita and the audience]

Rico Verhoeven

On this being a rematch following their 2013 meeting
“I am happy to do it again. I love this game. If it is Ghita or Saki or whoever, I don’t care. For me, I became champion last year and if he wants to come and take it then he can try.”

“I had three rounds with Saki and Daniel finished his fight in like two minutes, so I think he was like 95% fresh. For me the three rounds was a good warmup and then I did another three rounds [with Ghita]. Now for this fight he gets a 100% fresh Rico so we will see what happens.”

On Ghita’s trash-talking via Twitter
“I don’t know where it came from! Talking like that, ‘Hey Princey, the king is here’ – I don’t know what movie he was watching that made him come over all confident, but he should watch it a couple times more before Saturday.”

On Ghita’s claim that his four big wins have all been ‘luck’
“What he is saying is crazy. That would be like winning the lottery four times in a row. What he is actually doing is putting Errol Zimmerman down, putting himself down, putting Saki down, putting Peter Aerts down.”

Marc de Bonte

On the quick turnaround from his last fight
“For me, it’s no problem. I used to fight every week. I got six weeks training camp for this one so it’s fine.”

“I just like to fight and in Holland, they have the opportunity to fight weekly; I never said no. I just like the feeling. So that’s why I got that record. Now, every two or three months would be good for me. I don’t like too long a break, I like to keep ring rust to a minimum.”

On changes in his life since winning the title at GLORY 16 DENVER 
“There has been a lot more media. I have been on chat shows and stuff in Belgium, which you don’t normally get for this sport.”

“The media attention has been high and I have been lots of times on national television, which has been extraordinary. But in my personal life my friends and family treat me just the same.”

On whether he now replaces Jean-Claude Van Damme as Belgium’s top martial artist
“We could say that I am the only real one…”

Joe Valtellini

On how the GLORY 13 TOKYO welterweight tournament benefited him
“This is a huge opportunity and so was the tournament in December. It showed me that being a martial artist is what I really want and there is no stopping me.”

“I feel I am the best fighter in the welterweight division. In a tournament anything can happen. In this fight you’re getting a fresh Valtellini and it is going to be a great fight on Saturday night.”

On mental strength
“I think one of the biggest advantages I have is that I am very strong mentally. This is only my 14th professional fight, so mentally I have to be strong, that’s the most important thing. I also have a great team and family around me. They believe in me and give me that confidence to go into the ring.”

“I ask my coach before every fight, ‘what do you think?’ and if he is confident, that is all I need. For this fight, I am here to show my talent and skill. That last fight showed me that I am only going to keep getting better and more people are going to be in trouble.”