Martijn “the specialist” de Jong
Martijn De Jong is a determined person who likes to stay busy with all aspects of fighting. Besides being a top European MMA fighter he triples up as Team Golden Glory Management/trainer and G4 partner. De Jong, the Dutch “Specialist” as he is known, started his professional MMA career in May 1997 in Japan with a victory over Taro Obata in the first round by arm-bar. Since then Martjin continued fighting, training and helping train top fighters at the Golden Glory Gym in Holland. Now De Jong is one of the G4, the new European Powerhouse promotion group. Let’s see what Martijn’s plans are:
KP-How was of your last event?
MDJ- The last events were great. G4 Productions had two Ultimate Glory shows in one week (2 and 9 September). Both shows drew a large audience and had great, exciting fights on it. As always, we had a high end line up with fighters from Norway, Sweden, Belgium, France, Poland, Ireland, Spain, Brazil, Japan and of course Holland. Also we had 7(!) fighters of the famous Team Golden Glory in our shows, all putting on great fights!
KP-Which fighters were standouts?
MDJ- In Ultimate Glory 4, Andy Jekel (7 times Dutch Champion Greco Roman Wrestling, 115kg/253lbs) was the absolute stand out! He defeated his Norwegian opponent within just 23 seconds of the first round with devastating punches.
Ultimate Glory 5 was the night of the stand outs: what about Oktay Karatas of Team Golden Glory pounding Yoshitomo Watanabe into KO from out the guard within 1.52 min in the first round or the brutal standing KO by a left hook from Vincent Latoel (Golden Glory) which sent Daniel Abrol straight to the canvas after just 32 seconds of round 1. But dont forget the war between Golden Glory’s Dion Staring defeating Hans Stringer by decision and the Muay Thai war of Golden Glory’s K-1 MAX fighter Niecky Holzken vs Barakat Bakar!
KP-Who surprised you and why?
MDJ- I was very suprised that Oktay Karatas defeated Yoshitomo Watanabe so fast and so relentless!
KP-What is next for you and your event? Calendar?
MDJ- Ultimate Glory 6 “Champion vs Champion” is sceduled for 17 November in Ede, Holland. The main event will be a rematch between Nathan Schouteren (World Champion Ultimate Combat Championships) vs Siyar “da killa” Bahadurzada (Light Heavyweight World Champion SHOOTO).
KP-Who are some fighters to look for?
MDJ- Watch Vincent Latoel (70kg/154lbs), Oktay Karatas (76kg/168lbs), Siyar “da Killa” Bahadurzada (83kg/183lbs) and Dion Staring (93kg/205lbs). Also look out for K-1 MAX fighter Niecky Holzken!
KP- What is the hardest thing to do as a promoter?
MDJ- The hardest thing is to get a high end matchmaking which pulls a lot of audience to the show and get them out of their chairs screaming for more. Uptill now we were very succesfull in that though!
Thanks to Kid Peligro
