Glory’s Tiffany Van Soest, Undisputed’s Herman Terrado & Nick Barnes
Latest news from the World of Kickboxing, Muaythai and MMA:
The results from the August 25, 2017, Glory Kickboxing 44 Show in Chicago
San Diego’s Tiffany Van Soest (Glory 4-0, Overall 18-2-1), made her first defense of the Women’s Super Bantamweight Title that she won at Glory Collison in December. With this win, Van Soest, of course, returns to page one after destroying her opponent Meyrem Uslu from Hamburg, Germany, a skillful veteran with 56 bouts (Overall 43-12-1) who was making her Glory debut.
Uslu’s credentials: she had owned several world titles in Muay Thai, plus a win over Jessica Gladstone, a gal Van Soest defeated in December on her way to winning the Women’s Grand Prix and her title belt.
Going into Friday’s contest, Tiffany had been the only female fighter on the GLORY roster who had scored a knockdown. On Friday night, she went one better by scoring a knockdown that turned into a finish. It came in round four. Over the course of the second and third rounds, Van Soest had been steadily applying the pressure and breaking her opponent down, checking her forward progress and forcing her onto her back foot.
Shortly after the start of the fourth round, after backing Uslu up, Van Soest found an opening and let fly a push-kick to Uslu’s face. It was a powerful shot and landed cleanly to stagger Uslu. She followed with a flurry on the falling Uslu and hit her with knees. Falling backward into the ropes, the referee was prompted to step in to administer a count. After just seconds into the count, he realized that Uslu couldn’t continue and waved the fight off. Uslu did not protest the stoppage as Van Soest added a new record to her list: she is now the first female fighter in GLORY history to score a stoppage win. TKO, 0:36 of round four.
At the conclusion of her bout on Friday evening, we see Tiffany Van Soest, the Women’s Super Bantamweight Champion having her arm raised in victory.
In the Main Event, it was Murthel Groenhart (black trunks) Glory 10-6, Overall 67-22-3, winning by split decision over the former welterweight champ Cedric Doumbe who’s record now drops to (Glory 4-2, Overall 67-6-1).
Here is a four pack of the classic action shots from the Groenhart victory over Doumbe captured by Nadim, the photographer from Glory Kickboxing.
On Monday, August 28, 2017, GLORY KICKBOXING announced that top welterweight prospect Alim “Professor” Nabiyev (45-6, 21 KO, fighting out of Russia) has joined their world premier kickboxing league. Currently living and training in Moscow, the 22-year-old Azerbaijani-Russian-Ukrainian fighter will make his debut at GLORY 45 Amsterdam replacing Yoann Kongolo in the Co-Main Event against former welterweight kingpin Nieky “The Natural” Holzken (90-13, 46 KO, fighting out of the Netherlands.
Nabiyev boasts a resume that includes IFMA, WMF and WMC world titles and victories over Yohan Lidon, Jamie Bates, and Chad Sugden. His opponent, Holzken, is the longest reigning champion in GLORY welterweight history. During a career spanning 15 years, he has achieved status as one of the division’s most respected and accomplished fighters.
Now, let us turn our spotlight on the Downtown Undisputed Gym at 16th and K streets where they were also in competition mode – adults and youngsters.
Like pieces to an intricate puzzle, the three owners of the Downtown Undisputed Fitness Gym at 16th and K streets all add something special to the often demanding and befuddling mission of running this large facility. (l to r) Their technique instructor Nestor Flores adds 22 years of experience in training both boxers and mixed martial artists, Rocco Joel is your GM, enforcer and standup comic, and Herman Terrado is the head MMA trainer and active pro-fighter with a record of 15-3-1, 8 KOs, plus he’s a devoted family man.
In-house professional Nick Barnes (12-2, 3 KOs) was featured on the last LFA#20 fight poster (3rd from the left). Then, on August 25th, he traveled to the Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minnesota to defeat the local champion Chad Curry (now 9-3, with 7 KOs) by a split decision in the show’s Main Event.
(top) Nick Barnes poses for an in-house photo with several of his medals. (below) Coach Herman Terrado is shown greeting his students before class.
Mixed Martial Arts is all about knowing the right people and having great friends who can help you prepare for a competition. Having great friends like Nick Barnes, the legendary grappler Baret “The Finisher” Yoshida and Dominick “the Dominator” Cruz has certainly lent a hand in Herman Terrado’s success.
Back and forth they go from airport to hotel room to event, from small town to big city on their quest to become the next Bellator or UFC World Champion.
During a tournament last week, both of Herman Terrado’s sons won a gold medal in the competition in their age and weight class. (bottom, right) We see the victorious Victor Terrado (c) standing between two fellow competitors.
Imagine the pride & love flowing back and forth between father, son, and coach after young Victor Terrado’s stunning performance. “Daddy, I did just like you!”
Brazillian Jui-Jitsu Champion Herman Terrado: “Honey, where’s Victor?” Wife: “I don’t know, I thought he was with you.” Young Victor: “Daddy, I’m up here!”
There’s nothing like time with the family and there’s always a lot to talk about.
