Gabriel Varga (left) (photo via GLORY)

By Kelsey Mowatt

Although Gabriel Varga may not be a household name quite yet in his native Canada, the kickboxer took a big step in that direction earlier this month, by winning GLORY’s Featherweight Championship.

For some time now, Varga has been making his presence felt throughout the kickboxing world, but here in North America, that doesn’t always translate to a lot of media coverage and fanfare. But, following Varga’s unanimous decision win over Mosab Amrani at GLORY 20, the 29 year-old reports the spotlight has gotten that much more brighter.

“Definitely. Even after the fight, when I was still in Dubai, I had about three days before I made my way back home, I noticed a bit of an explosion in the interest in my career,” Varga relayed on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio. “Right now I’ve been taking a break from training, and just every day, getting back to radio interviews, and newspapers, some local television, so it seems like every day I’m setting up something new.”

“I’m sure the craziness will die down in another week or so, but yeah, the next week or two it’s still pretty busy.”

Of course, a key reason for that is because Varga’s championship win was broadcast on SPIKE, throughout North America.

“Yeah, it’s amazing, because before, fighting on events that would do pay-per-view online, you’re only going to get the real enthusiasts watching, and most of those people already know my name,” said Varga. “The top kickboxers, in general they know them. But now with SPIKE you sort of do the calculation…it’s pretty amazing. I’ve definitely noticed over the last two events that I’ve been on for GLORY that I’m getting a lot more feedback from fans, and it’s fantastic.”

The April 3rd fight was also a memorable and competitive scrap, as the five round battled featured plenty of intense exchanges. In the end, Varga was awarded the championship belt with 50-46, 48-47, 49-46 scores.

“Yeah, I’ve been hearing a lot of, just because mostly if anyone’s been watching the fight they heard what the announcers were saying, and aside from those ring announcers, who, for some reason, thought that he did enough to win the fight,” said Varga, when asked if he believes he pulled ahead in the bout as it went on. “Aside from that, I’ve had such positive feedback, and everybody’s been ‘oh you know, you won the fight,’ and some people have come to me and been the first two rounds were hard, and you got the victory in the last three.”

“I’ve had a fair amount of people, including one of the judges, who scored the four rounds for me,” furthered Varga. “Even though I realize that the second round was a close one. And I’ve had some people who thought I won the first round, but I disagree with that. I thought he snuck that one out with some good body shots and just pressure. But overall the fight went exactly I was expecting. I figured the first round would be the hardest, and I figured each round after would get a little easier…”

With the win, Varga extended his winning streak to four and pushed his overall record to 11-2.