Robin van Roosmalen


Robin van Roosmalen is a Dutch kickboxer and mixed martial artist, currently signed with Bellator MMA, competing in their Featherweight division. He is the former Glory Featherweight Champion and former Glory Lightweight Champion.
As of 1 November 2018, he is ranked the #5 featherweight in the world by Combat Press.

Biography

Van Roosmalen is the oldest of three children. His father, William van Roosmalen, is a former world champion in Muay Thai and kickboxing, together with Pelé Reid, the only men to ever knock out Vitali Klitschko in a kickboxing bout and also the only man to knock out William Beekwilder. Growing up in a kickboxing family, Van Roosmalen began training at the age of 3 under his father in his gym and later also began boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts and judo, in which he received a black belt. He is known for his aggressive, high paced fighting style.

Kickboxing career

Van Roosmalen made it to the semi-finals of the K-1 World MAX West Europe Tournament by beating Henri van Opstal in the quarter-final. He lost his semi-final bout against the eventual winner Mohammed Khamal by KO. After losing a fight against Ajay Balgobind, Van Roosmalen rebounded by knocking out Dutch slugger William Diender with a liver punch and beating the highly regarded Dutch-Moroccan Chahid Oulad El Hadj by decision. On May 21, 2011, Van Roosmalen met Mohammed Khamal in a rematch in Amsterdam. He lost the match by judges' decision.
On September 25, 2011, van Roosmalen won the It's Showtime "Fast & Furious 70MAX" title in Brussels. He beat Chahid Oulad El Hadj for the 2nd time by TKO in the second round, Chris Ngimbi by decision and Artur Kyshenko by KO in the first round. Van Roosmalen had entered the tournament as a replacement for 70MAX giant Giorgio Petrosyan, who had injured himself in his fight against Hinata, and was seen as an underdog to win the tournament over the more highly ranked and experienced Artur Kyshenko.

Glory

Van Roosmalen was drawn against Tim Thomas in the quarter-finals of the ' on November 3, 2012, in Rome, Italy, and won by TKO in the second round when he battered the Englishman into a referee stoppage. In the semis, he dropped Sanny Dahlbeck in each of the first two rounds before finishing him with a punch to the body in the third. Advancing to the final, he went up against Giorgio Petrosyan. His aggressive style played into Petrosyan's hands, however, and he was outclassed by the silky Italian to a unanimous decision loss.
Van Roosmalen took a dominant unanimous decision over Yuichiro Nagashima at ' in Saitama, Japan on December 31, 2012, dropping "Jienotsu" in round one and scoring with low kicks and hard punches throughout. He dropped Murthel Groenhart in round one en route to a unanimous decision win at ' in Milan, Italy on April 20, 2013. He beat Shemsi Beqiri by unanimous decision in a back-and-forth fight at ' in Ontario, California, United States, on September 28, 2013.
Van Roosmalen rematched Davit Kiria in the semi-finals of the ' in New York City, New York, US on November 23, 2013, winning a unanimous decision. In the final, he was battered by Andy Ristie, getting dropped in round one before being knocked out in two. He defeated Marat Grigorian via split decision in the co-main event of ' in Istanbul, Turkey on April 12, 2014.

Lightweight champion

Van Roosmalen captured the Glory lightweight title with a majority decision win over Davit Kiria at ' on November 7, 2014. He rematched Andy Ristie at ' and retained his lightweight title with a dominant unanimous decision win after knocking Ristie down two times in the fourth round. All three judges scored the fight 49-44 in favor of van Roosmalen. On May 11, 2015, he was ranked as the #1 lightweight in the world by LiverKick.com. He defended his title a second time, this time a unanimous decision against Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong at Glory 25: Milan. However, he would lose the title via split decision in a rematch against Sitsongpeenong at Glory 31: Amsterdam.

Featherweight champion

After losing his lightweight title, Van Roosmalen dropped down to featherweight and immediately faced Gabriel Varga for the Canadian's featherweight title. Van Roosmalen dropped Varga twice in the second round and dominated the Canadian throughout the fight, prompting the featherweight champion's corner to throw in the towel in the break between the fourth and fifth round. With this win, Van Roosmalen became the first fighter to hold a Glory title in two separate weight classes. On September 29th, 2018, at Glory 59, Robin van Roosmalen was defeated by the #1 challenger and Interim champion Petchpanomrung "The Professor" Kiatmookao via unanimous decision.

Mixed martial arts career

Final Fight Championship

In February 2016, Van Roosmalen made his professional mixed martial arts debut for Final Fight Championship. He made his debut against Theo Michailidis at FFC 22, and he won the fight via second round knockout. His next bout came on March 11, 2017 at FFC 28 against Risto Dimitrov, and he was victorious via first round technical knockout. On December 13, 2018, Van Roosmalen announced that he would transitioning from kickboxing to MMA full-time.

Bellator MMA

On May 28, 2019, Bellator MMA president Scott Coker announced via Twitter that he signed Van Roosmalen to a multi-fight contract. Van Roosmalen was expected to make his promotional debut in a featherweight bout against Cris Lencioni at Bellator 232 on October 26, 2019. However, Van Roosmalen missed the featherweight limit by nine pounds and the bout was cancelled, with the athletic commission stating Van Roosmalen must compete at Lightweight from now on.

Championships & accomplishments

Kickboxing record