Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, a heavy favorite against UFC veteran Antonio Silva at Saturday’s Glory 46 in China, needed two rounds to score a TKO victory.
Verhoeven landed vicious leg kicks early on, getting “Bigfoot" off-balance twice in the first minutes. The action only stopped in the first round when Verhoeven landed a vicious low blow.
“Bigfoot" returned more aggressive in the second round, but Verhoeven knocked him down him with a head kick. Silva managed to continue, but only to get more punishment from the heavyweight champion, who landed a combination of a spinning wheel kick and punches to force the referee to stop the bout.
WOW! @RicoVerhoeven gets the TKO in the 2nd round against Bigfoot Silva after the referee steps in. #GLORY46 @GLORY_WS #UFCFIGHTPASS pic.twitter.com/2SORQbUM9H
— UFC Fight Pass (@UFCFightPass) October 14, 2017
"The low kicks were part of the gameplan," Verhoeven said after the win. "He’s from MMA, so low kicks are different in the MMA game, so it was part of the game: hurt him on the leg and finish him on top."
"Coming in throwing bombs, that’s what he did,” he said of Silva’s performance. "He threw some hard kicks as well, so it was a good fight."
Watch the full event below (Verhoeven vs. Silva starts at 2:08:30):