On Saturday night, at Glory 12 New York, Andy “The Machine” Ristie (42-3-1) became the best lightweight (70kg) kickboxer in the world.
The 31 year old Dutch-Surinamese fighter defeated number 1 ranked Giorgio Petrosyan and number 2 ranked Robin van Roosmalen, both by KO on the same night, to win the second Glory lightweight tournament.
I told everybody before this tournament that I would be number one. I knew I was going to win,” said Ristie afterwards. “I trained really hard for this fight. I have a difficult style for people to fight against and I have the power to knock anybody out.
“When Petrosyan went down I knew he was finished, I could feel it as soon as I hit him. I was really happy. People didn’t give me a chance in this fight but I proved them wrong. And I had the right tactics to beat Robin.
Petrosyan has since admited that he broke his left hand against Ristie in the first round. Undoubtedly this worked to Ristie’s advantage, however luck of this sort is never enough to guarantee victory and Ristie can take full credit for his win over Petrosyan.
Ristie’s achievement on Saturday is possibly the greatest performance by a lightweight 70kg kickboxer in one night tournament in the history of the sport. That may sound like hyperbole, but after taking a look through the records of previous K-1 Max tournament winners (and van Roosmalen’s It’s Showtime Fast & Furious 70Max win) I can’t see another tournament where a fighter has defeated the number 1 and number 2 ranked 70kg fighters in the same night and defeated them in such dramatic fashion.
I will be honest, while I thought Ristie would be a challenging fight for Giorgio Petrosyan, I really didn’t think Ristie would win. “Ristie is good, but he throws way too many jumping knees” I thought. (Well, maybe I can claim to be partially right about this because Ristie didn’t use his jumping knees at all against Petrosyan and van Roosmalen.) Instead, Ristie made great use of his height and length, putting pressure on Petrosyan and Van Roosmalen to take control before dispatching both opponents.
No doubt Ristie will face Petrosyan and van Roosmalen again in 2014 and they will be much anticipated rematches.
Andy “The Machine” Ristie (42-3-1) just pulled off a huge upset in the Glory lightweight tournament at Glory 12 New York today, defeating Giorgio “The Doctor” Petrosyan (76-1-2-1) by knockout in the third round.
The fight was fairly even heading into the third round. While Ristie had left openings for Petrosyan to counter, Ristie’s timing had kept Petrosyan from landing more often. Ristie came out hard in the third round, catching Petrosyan with a right hand that sent the champion crashing to the mat. Petrosyan was unable to gain his feet satisfactorily within the count and the referee called the fight.
This is the first time Giorgio Petrosyan has lost since 2007 and only the second loss of his career. Since that 2007 loss, Petrosyan had been undefeated in 42 consecutive fights.
Can Ristie pull of a second upset tonight and defeat Robin van Roosmalen in the lightweight tournament final?
Badr Hari (102-12) faced Alexey Ignashov (84-21) at Legend 2 in Moscow in the weekend. This was the third time that Hari and Ighnashov had met and unfortunately for us, it was the worst fight of the trilogy. This was less a fight and more like a three round sparring session.
I am an Alexey Ignashov fan, hell most New Zealand kickboxing fans are too, but I was very much disappointed in his performance on Saturday. Looking to counter Badr Hari was not a bad plan at all, but Ignashov chose more often than not to cover up and move away when Hari pressed the attack.
Badr Hari for his part appeared to show up physically and mentally fit for a fight. Indeed, Hari possibly looked to be in his best shape since coming out of retirement last year. Hari also seemed to do a good job of tempering his aggression in this fight which gave an already reticent Ignashov even less opportunities (and motivation) to throw more counters. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough engagement in this fight to really say much else about where Badr Hari’s form is at. Is he still trying to get it together? Is he back on track? Those questions will have to wait for another fight, but at the very least Hari has managed to draw a line under his shock defeat to Zabit Samedov.
Full fight below:
For fellow fans of Alexey “The Red Scorpion” Ignashov, it’s been a while since we’ve seen the Ignashov of old. Watch the clip by StillW1ll below and keep the faith.
Catalin Morosanu floors Daniel Lentie with a right hook.
SuperKombat put Romanian kickboxing stars Raul Catinas and Catalin Morosanu on the Ploiesti card in the weekend and neither fighter disappointed as they both scored big KO victories. Sure, neither fighter was facing stiff competition, but these kinds of squash matches certainly whet the appetite for the upcoming WGP Final.
Full results:
Super Fight – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): Catalin Morosanu (Romania) won by KO in Round 1 (2:20) against Daniel Lentie (Cameroon)
Super Fight – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): Raul Catinas (Romania) won by KO in Round 1 (1:40) against Ricardo Van Den Bos (Netherlands)
SUPERKOMBAT® Cruiserweight Title Eliminator – Cruiserweight Bout (-92.00kg): Igor Bugaenko (Belarus) won by Unanimous Decision against Jorge Loren (Spain)
SUPERKOMBAT® Super Cruiserweight Title Eliminator / Spot 2 – Super Cruiserweight Bout (-95.00kg): Ondrej Hutnik (Czech Republic) won by TKO in Round 2 (2:05) against Massinissa Hamaili (Algeria)
Final Elimination / Spot 4 – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): D’Angelo Marshall (Suriname) won by KO in Round 2 (0:20) against Pacome Assi (Cote D’Ivoire)
Final Elimination / Spot 3 – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): Redouan Cairo (Suriname) won by Unanimous Decision against Jegish Yegoian (Armenia)
Final Elimination / Spot 2 – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): Frank Munoz (Spain) won by Split Decision against Muamer Tufekcic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Final Elimination / Spot 1 – Heavyweight Bout (+96.00kg): Giannis Stoforidis (Greece) won by TKO in Round 3 (2:58) against Mathieu Kongolo (Belgium)
SUPERKOMBAT® New Heroes Middleweight Title Eliminator – Middleweight Bout (-71.00kg): Amansio Paraschiv (Romania) won by TKO in Round 2 (0:00) against Mohamed Ben Ali (Morocco)
According to Steve Moxon, he will be fighting Andy Souwer at Shootboxing Ground Zero in Tokyo on the 16th November.
Moxon is not only facing a kickboxing legend, but doing so under the strange but awesome rules of Shootboxing. As Andy Souwer fans know Shootboxing is Souwer’s bread and butter.
Can Moxon pull of the win of his young career or will Souwer give Moxon a lesson in Shootboxing?
