Bonjasky: "Spong wants tough tests? Well now he has one."Date published: February 07, 2013
With flying knees as his trademark attack it is no
surprise that Remy Bonjasky (77-15, 40 KO's) was labeled ‘The Flying
Dutchman’ when he broke out onto the world scene.
But the Suriname-born heavyweight soon amended his
nickname, declaring himself to be ‘The Flying Gentleman’ because of his
fashionable sense of style and his almost old-school manners.
Inside the ring and out, Bonjasky is sleek. There is a
symmetry between the precision of his fighting style and the way he is
always so carefully groomed and well-presented outside the ring. He is
unusually polished and polite for a professional fighter.
Even his voice is smooth as, showered and changed after a
hard training session, he leans back in his leather chair to talk about
his Saturday March 23 showdown with young contender Tyrone Spong (68-6-1
42 KO's). The fight will headline GLORY 5 at the ExCel Arena, London.
“When it was first offered I immediately said yes; why
not? He is a strong, young guy who wants to get to the top and test
himself against the best. And now he has the chance.” Bonjasky smiles,
like a businessman discussing a particularly pleasing transaction.
“I think a few years ago when he was at 80 kilograms (176
pounds), he was the best in the world at that weight class. He was very
fast and very fluid, but now he is 20 kilos (220 pounds) heavier and he
has lost a lot of that.
“He has lost a lot of speed and his combinations are not
as sharp. I think he lost a lot of his kickboxing, if you know what I
mean? He has gained power and weight but I think that has been at the
expense of his art a little bit.”
Kickboxing critics suggest that one of Bonjasky’s main
advantages over his opponents has been his speed and his catlike
reflexes. But these are also key advantages that Spong has over many of
his own opponents. With Spong being the younger man - Remy is 37, Spong
is 27 - does that mean Bonjasky’s assets have been negated?
“He is younger than me and maybe quicker, yes. But I have a
lot of experience so the longer the fight goes the better it is for me.
He will get slower. I am a natural heavyweight - I was 105 kilos in
2009, I am 105 kilos today,” Bonjasky reasons.
“So I am used to carrying this weight, I don’t think Spong
is. Not long ago he was 80 kilograms and then he went into some, er,
special diet, to get bigger for the heavyweight fights.”
Spong is on an upward curve right now and is gathering a
lot of attention, particularly in the US market thanks to his
association with the ‘Blackzilians’ MMA team in Florida. But Spong saw
his Blackzilian team mate Alistair Overeem knocked out at UFC 156 this
past weekend. Will that have done anything to knock his own confidence?
Bonjasky is undecided.
“I didn’t watch it yet but I heard about the result. It
was a crack in the teeth for Alistair eh? I think if you have guys from
the same team fighting on the same card and your team mate loses, it can
either motivate you or it can crush you. It goes either way,” Bonjasky
shrugs.
Unlike his younger adversary, Bonjasky is a three-time
winner of the K-1 Grand Prix and as such has achieved more than most
kickboxers can even dream of. But he still feels like he has much to
prove, particularly in light of his performance in the GLORY Heavyweight
Grand Slam which took place on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo, Japan.
The groundbreaking 16-man tournament had a special format,
with two-minute rounds in the early stages and a ‘Best of Three’ rule
which allowed fighters who won the first two rounds of the right to be
declared the winner without the need to fight the third round.
Bonjasky won his first fight but was then eliminated in
the quarter-finals by Jamal Ben Saddik. Looking back, he is not at all
happy about his performance that night.
“That was one of the worst days of my career. I think
maybe the worst of my career. If you look at my career and all my
tournament fights, it was terrible in comparison. Everything went well
in the preparation, I was in good condition and I was being grumpy at
home, which is usually a sign things are going well and I am in fight
mode,” he says.
“Even the day before the event I was fine, I felt really
good. Then when I was in the venue warming up, I started to feel bad. I
felt like I was losing power and during the first fight I could just
feel that it wasn’t going to be my night.
“I think its a good format for the knockout fighters. They
go out there and they try to finish the guy in the first round or the
second round with some big punch,” he adds.
“But for the technical fighters, we don’t try to finish
the guy until later in the fight usually. We break you down hit by hit
and then we look to make the opening for a head kick or something in
round three. But, yeah I would do it again, one hundred percent.”
At
the end of the night, one man was left standing amidst the carnage -
giant karate stylist Semmy Schilt. He beat four consecutive opponents,
including a head kick KO of highly-favored Daniel Ghita, to take the the
$400,000 grand prize.
“Its to be expected. Semmy has the height, the weight, the reach,” Bonjasky sighs.
“But its not just size, he also has the skills with it. If
you look at someone like Hong Man Choi, the Korean, he is a similar
size to Semmy but he doesn’t have the same skill so he isn’t a threat.
Or Bob Sapp, he had the weight and the power but not the skill.
“But with Semmy, he has the size advantage and the skills.
Its unfair really. I don’t think his results would be the same without
the size and distance.”
After the tournament, Schilt said that he would be
restricting himself to single fights from now on and would not be
partaking in any more one-night tournaments. That news has been well
received by his fellow fighters. They feel it opens the field up a bit.
However, Schilt retains the GLORY Heavyweight
Championship. In April, Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita will headline GLORY
6 in Istanbul, Turkey with the winner getting a shot at the belt. Its a
fight that Bonjasky is looking forward to almost as much as his own
clash with Spong.
“Its a fantastic piece of matchmaking. Actually I am going
to that event, I am going to be there just as a fan. There’s a
heavyweight title shot on the line for the winner and these two guys are
so good, they are at that contender level where they are top fighters
but they didn’t win a major world belt yet,” he says.
“So I think the fight is going to be amazing. Semmy said
that the Grand Slam was his last tournament so if that’s the case, I
think 2013 is going to be a big year for Saki and Ghita.”
GLORY 5 LONDON takes place at the ExCel Arena on Saturday, March 23 in London, England. Heavyweight contenders Remy Bonjasky and
Tyrone Spong square off in the main event and tickets are on sale now
via Ticketmaster.co.uk and the exclusive ticket hotline 0844 847 2543 
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