Statement of Bas Boon of the famous Golden Glory Gym.
Golden Glory statement and story - Amsterdam Arena
Does being unlucky exist?
Little less than one month ago we traveled to Tokyo Japan. We met Kharitonov for
his fight in Dreams against Monson. Kharitonov prepared in Moscow and not in
Holland and after having a great winning streak Kharitonov, tapped out within
one minute. He was warned about the north south choke by Monson, but it did not
help. Discussions followed about the importance of preparing in Holland - at all
times. Little did I know the events that were to come, I sure had another thing
coming......
One week later Nieky Holzken calls me: Bas: I broke my toe in the last sparring
session in my preparation for the K-1 max (last 16). Nieky fought with a broken
toe and still qualified and gave an unbelievable performance.
Not even a few days after the Nieky Holzken incident, I agreed with Scott Cocker
from Strikeforce to have Alistair defend his Strikeforce heavyweight title.
A few days later the telephone rings: Alistair has been arrested, what???????
The G.G lawyer makes some overtime and Alistair is released after a few days.
Alistair attended some famous dance club with his brother Valentine. Went to the
toilet and did not have coins to pay the toilet woman. Alistair told her he
would pay a euro when he came back, because he did not have change. Then the
security guard who was near by started to get involved.
Brother Valentine saw the incident and also started asking what the problem was.
They offered to pay, but by then 6 security guards came over surrounding them.
The Overeem brothers were asked to leave, Alistair was already outside when he
saw his brother Valentine fighting. Valentine still was discussing the situation
on his way outside with one of the security guards hit Valentine in the face
with a flash light. Three security guards dived onto Valentine and brother
Alistair wanted to go back inside to help his brother. This resulted in five
security guards in the hospital.
More dark clouds arrived when (after being released from prison, one of the
security guards was fired and one declared that the Overeem brothers started the
incident) Alistair starts training immediately after release. The street fight
left him with a wound on his fist which became infected. Alistair thought he
hurt his hand in training and it was just bruised. It was only because of the
management pushing him to go to the hospital that he saved his hand. When he
finally got his injury checked, he was advised to stay a few days in the
hospital. They told him if he would have come any later he would have lost his
hand.
No we had to cancel the Strikeforce title fight for June 6th.
All this is happening as I am trying to get Ruslan Karaev to Holland for acting
as a replacement fighter for Gokhan Saki, who was supposed to fight the rematch
with Spong in the Amsterdam Arena on May 16th. Saki got "unlucky" in his title
fight tournament final battle against a Japanese opponent on March 28th. Turned
out Saki has a bone splinter in his foot and will not be able to fight for two
months.
Visa applications were done for Kharitonov and Karaev, however Karaev was on a
holiday and did not really train, but we agreed if he would come to Holland
three weeks before the Amsterdam Arena event, he would be fit to fight.
Kharitonov came but Karaev got some problems with his visa application at the
embassy and for two weeks he traveled up and down to the Dutch embassy in Moscow
to try and sort things out. When everything finally was sorted with his visa,
there were some Russian holidays and Dutch holidays, queens day and May 5th
liberation day. To make a long story short, Karaev arrived in Holland two days
before the Amsterdam Arena event, totally wasted from all the traveling and visa
business. He came on the original papers I sent in the first place, so no wrong
doing from G.G. So we decided to cancel the fight, first Saki now Karaev.
Gokhan Saki
Simon Rutz "understandably" was not happy with these developments, but we really
tried everything. Even Saki said he would fight with the injured leg one day
before the event. But of course the management told Saki this was not a good
idea and that Simon already found a replacement fighter.
Still we agreed that if we would receive some more money for the fight as
originally agreed we would accept the fight. It would have been a great risk and
if Saki would kick his opponent and kick with his foot on an elbow, he could
seriously damage his already badly injured foot and would be out of the fighting
scene for years. Also his win in Japan against Spong would not be so profitable
anymore as he would fight a good fighter with an injury and had higher chance of
loosing (for sure this would have happened if we can see how this evening went
for GG, the double money would have been a bad business deal!). Simon Rutz took
it the wrong way and started to raise his voice that was filled with emotion -
at the press conference.
"It's Showtime / Simon Rutz could not be blackmailed" and blah blah. Very
Unprofessional on Simon Rutz the promoter / manager's part, who was putting on
such a great event! Saki heard Spong had still no opponent two days before the
event and thought, I can still offer to fight, but it will be a big risk and
against his doctor's advice., these things sometime happen and a promoter
sometimes does anything to save his fight card/event and does not care about the
health of the fighters. These types of issues should stay between closed doors
and is not for the public to hear and does not promote the sport. Especially as
Simon Rutz really blackmailed another big organization not long ago with a
fighter who was totally fit, but as Simon made a mistake as a manager (he was
too busy promoting his event) he signed a five year deal. When his fighter
became a mega star he wanted more money (understandably) However, Simon asked
for more money just one day before the event, while his existing contract was
still valid and there was no time to get a replacement fighter in such a short
time. Simon confronted the promoter with this crap one night before the event.
Simon raised his voice and his unjust case at his own press conference, saying
how unfair G.G treated him. If somebody was capable of blackmail it was Simon
and no body else! If that is not hypocritical I don't know what is. Why would
Simon press this behind the scene in negotiations so much? Why blow this up so
much? The reason is simple: He wanted Saki to fight in his event in Turkey
against Badr and thought that the management of Golden Glory was trying to make
double money by negotiating with Simon without the knowledge of Saki. If Saki
would fight against Spong, G.G would make extra money. He thought Saki would
hear his accusations towards G.G in the press conference and he thought Saki did
not know about the proposal from his management, he was hoping Saki would then
leave Golden Glory and Simon would have a fair chance for his game plan in
Turkey!
As my partner Ron Nyqvist and Saki discussed all these things, the night before
the press conference, the speech of: how bad GG was, came as a total surprise
for me at the press conference. I did not really understand what was going on?
Why was Simon putting all these business matters out to the public? Things
became more clear when Simon started talking about Saki fighting in Turkey (what
did that have to do with the Arena?). Simon wanted to promote in Turkey and
wanted Saki to fight Badr Hari, Saki found out Badr would get more money for
that fight then himself and its Saki who is the star in his home country.
Apparently (the management did not know this) Saki ask for triple the amount, no
deals were made and this was Saki's good right and did exactly what the
management would have done and would have suggested. Saki was built up in Turkey
by his management who helped with the K-1 TV deal in Turkey and broadcasted
events with the involvement of Golden Glory on Turkish TV, where the last rating
went through the roof when Saki fought. The last Glory event had almost 18
million viewers on Turkish TV (more then in Japan, maybe people start to
understand the commercial value of this incident). Simon could smell the
opportunity of a big bag of money, however he did not control Saki, as he is
with Golden Glory. Saki now offered to fight for more money with an injured
foot, so Simon started a smudge campaign.
It did not stop at the press conference at the event in front of 20.000 people
and live TV he talked for fifteen minutes about how he could not be blackmailed
and how bad Golden Glory handled the case.
Bad vibes
Well the tone was set, I did not think about Kharitonov and Alistair at that
time, but after Stefan Leko fought I had a very nasty feeling in my stomach.
Stefan was back, the Blitz moved through the ring and frustrated Melvin Manhoef.
Manhoef was expected to KO Stefan, which was not fair to Melvin as Stefan is a
great fighter and apparently had big plans for the fight against Manhoef.
Stefan did great with good jabs and uppercuts following up with low kicks, in
round two he landed about 20 low kicks and the audience started yelling every
time Stefan landed a low kick. Melvin was well prepared and fought back but
Stefan evaded the dangerous KO power punches from Melvin who did not really get
into the fight like he wanted. In round three Stefan kicks with his left leg to
the inside of Melvin's leg and hits his knee with his foot. His foot started to
swell like a balloon and a few minutes before the end of the fight Stefan is
stopped by MIV. No shame for Stefan who got a great applause by the audience,
bad luck?
Errol Zimmerman
Then Errol makes his way to the ring, but at the end of round one he get
caught with a knee opening a big cut on his forehead, the ref stops the fight
just before the end of the first round, ooops Leko's injured foot, now Errol's
cut in round 1 before Nieky's toe and Saki's foot and then you still have to do
the main event...........
Semmy Schilt
Semmy was well prepared, he trained a lot with fellow Golden Glory
fighters and it was painful to see Stefan going away in an ambulance and Errol
getting stitches.
I am thinking back, this is not our month, Kharitonov, Alistair missing the
title fight and almost a hand loss, Stefan's foot, Errol's cut aaarghhh all the
weight is on Semmy's shoulders who does not really have good memories at its
showtime events Arena, with his only really KO loss against Ignashov.
It was a complete circus, the final was crazy and we could not hear our selves,
the audience was so loud, it was like nothing I've seen or witnessed before. So
there was no coaching, Semmy was "on his own" and just got caught. We knew what
Badr was going to do, but he did what he had to do and Semmy got caught for the
second time, before that Semmy hit Badr with a good left which resulted in a
bleeding noose, a few inches lower and it would have landed on Badr's chin. But
it did not happen, the second time Semmy was hit, he was up and wanted to
continue but the ref counted him out.
For Golden Glory the candle went out that night with a very bad smell. However
we would like to congratulate Simon Rutz and company for putting on a great
event. In the future our fighters will have many more battles, in the ring and
possibly behind the scenes, with management and fighters. We just hope that
everyone has learned something from this situation and that the sport may
triumph above all!
Semmy and his corner men applauded Badr on his victory! We all do here at Golden
Glory.
Let's keep our dirty laundry where it belongs, in the closet or first wash it
before hanging it outside for everybody to see!
I am sure in the near future Semmy and Badr will meet again!
Golden Glory Bas Boon