It is no secret, former WCW and WWE star Goldberg is now a member of the Glory family. However, his role within the world’s top kickboxing promotion is still up in the air.
It started out with a few exchanged tweets between the former pro-wrestler and the promotion a few months back and it has blossomed into something more. Recently the 48-year-old hosted a TV show of some Glory highlights.
Goldberg talked about his passion for the sport and says that he was a huge Glory fan before they spoke and met and that he would do anything to help the promotion and bring eyes to their product whether it be hosting TV shows, being the ‘face’, standing on a street corner with a Glory sign or even fighting. In fact there was already and offer on the table for Goldberg to fight.
“There was an offer on the table for me to fight May 8th here in San Diego when GLORY is in my backyard,” he stated on The MMA Hour before revealing that the opponent was former WWE star Alberto Del Rio, who was actually an MMA fighter and fought in Pride.
Goldberg did have a number of issues with that though. Apart from the timing of the event, both in terms of getting himself physically ready and doing proper marketing for the fight, he didn’t want to fight another person attached to professional wrestling.
“You can’t have a combat sport like this, this is as real as it gets, and have two pro-wrestlers fight in the beginning. I don’t think that’s good karma for what they want to accomplish,” he said. “I think if it’s done properly then it is a kick in the pants and a positive for the business. If it is done negatively then it’s gonna do nothing but kick it back a notch. And I don’t want to be associated with anything that is not done properly.”
Alan’s Angle: Goldberg has been training in striking and Muay Thai for some time now and is aware of his own capabilities and restrictions. I think a well-matched fight with an opponent who is at a similar level, not a Mickey Rourke-type can, would be a much needed and deserved boost in attention that Glory needs. It will bring eyes to what they offer and their roster of highly talented fighters.
If Goldberg does well then a couple more fights can happen, if he doesn’t then he can quit and stay on in some role being that recognizable face that the promotion needs.
I do think him vs. Del Rio would have been a horrible fight to make. Not knocking either person’s ability but that would have been a fight considered a sideshow that would have very little credibility to it. However I would have no issue with Del Rio fighting on a Glory card in the future, just not against Goldberg where it would be considered a horrific ‘WWE – Brawl For All’ type showdown.
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