COMBAT SPORT HITS HOLLAND HARD IN SEPTEMBER
G4 Productions powered by MAX presents:
ULTIMATE GLORY 4 AND 5
– Major Professional Shooto and Muay Thai Events
It’s the sport that now surpasses boxing in TV viewership figures in the US, and the association that runs the sport’s largest championships is the 2nd most yahooed search during an event weekend.
Professional Shooto (or Mixed Martial Arts, hereinafter MMA) is a sport that has come into the mainstream in recent years, the skill of the sport now widely recognised. A combination of kick boxing, wrestling and ju-jitsu, there are now tens of thousands of people practicing these forms of martial arts in Holland and the rest of the Europe.
The organizers of Ultimate Glory – which takes place on Sunday 2 September at the Hof van Salland in Diepenveen and 9 September in De Flint in Amersfoort, Holland – have brought together some of the top fighters in the world for what will be the greatest ever Shooto events to be hosted in Holland.
There are a host of international fighters billed to attend from: Chechnya, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil and Japan plus the best of local talent from the Netherlands.
Promoter Martijn de Jong will fight on 2 September in Ultimate Glory 4 as well. He will face Japanese Taro Obata. They fought in Japan in 1997 on MMA rules where Martijn got the win. The fight will be a rematch on Shooto Grappling rules. The event has the theme: “20 years Anniversary” as promoter Martijn de Jong is practicing Martial Arts for 20 years in September. Taro Obata is very eager to set the record straight. In the same event watch 7 times Dutch Champion wrestling Andy Jekel making his Professional Shooto debut and what to think of seeing World Champion MMA Marloes Coenen performing at her best!
One week later Ultimate Glory 5 on Sunday 9 September, look out for Golden Glory’s finest: Oktay Karatas, Vincent Latoel, Dion Staring, Murat Chunkaiev and K-1 Max superstar Nicky Holtzken. Also performing coming straight out of Japan: Yoshitomo Watanabe! Action guaranteed!
Ultimate Glory’s PR managers John Buijen says: “Once you’ve attend a MMA event such as Ultimate Glory, you will fall asleep if you ever watch other sports such as Tennis, Baseball, F-1 and Soccer again!”
Ultimate Glory co-promoter Ron Nyqvist says “MMA is a sport that had its origins in Brazil over 100 years ago when different styles of martial arts would compete against each other, thus the origination of the name mixed martial arts.”
“There are now Professional Shooto or MMA tournaments in every country in the world and the sport is growing here in The Netherlands. It is hard to know exact figures but there are hundreds of clubs throughout Holland now exclusively teaching MMA.”
“It is a sport that has – largely through lack of understanding of the skill and history involved – been sensationalized in a way that has not been productive and we hope, through this event, which will be attended by a wide cross section of the public, that there will be a greater appreciation of what is involved.”
Ultimate Glory Promoter and co-owner of G4 Productions, Martijn de Jong says: “We are very happy to present our first show in association with public company MAX Entertainment Holdings (US:MXEH). We are the only group of promoters in Europe to have such a cooperation”.
MAX CEO Daniel Kilian said, “We recognized the potential in the G4’s group right away, and it fit perfectly into the model we had started to create. It is not often that a group with this much experience is available to commit to something like this. G4 and MAX were made for each other and the timing is perfect.”
In the USA, MMA has a large celebrity following with George Clooney, Cindy Crawford and a cross-section of top US sportspeople regularly spotted in ringside seats.
Sunday 2 September 2007
Ultimate Glory 4
Hof van Salland
Dorpsstraat 30Diepenveen, HollandDoors open at: 14.00hEvent starts at: 16.00h
www.hofvansalland.nl
Sunday 9 September 2007
Ultimate Glory 5
De Flint
Coninckstraat 60Amersfoort, HollandDoors open at: 16.00hEvent starts at: 18.00h
www.deflint.nl
For more info:
shootoholland@gmail.com
www.ultimateglory.com