(The Ristie vs. Petrosyan KO, set to some appropriately foreboding music.)
Heading into Saturday night’s Glory 12 lightweight tournament, two-time K-1 champion Giorgio Petrosyan was being heralded as “The Floyd Mayweather of Kickboxing.” The comparison was not without merit; Petrosyan was a dynamic, seemingly untouchable striker who was carrying a six year unbeaten streak into his semifinal contest with +650 underdog, Andy Ristie. As a casual kickboxing fan at best, even I was quick to chastise my roommates for having the gall to pick Ristie to win. “I’m here to tell you, that’s not going to happen,” I said, echoing Frank Trigg’s epic assessment of the Fedor vs. Zuluzinho fight, “Giorgio will dispatch this man very quickly.”
Less than ten minutes later, I was dining on a heaping plate of crow.
Giorgio Petrosyan, the Floyd Mayweather of kickboxing, had been knocked out cold in the third round. Even to casual fans of the sport like myself, this was a big deal. In 81 fights, this was the first time the Italian-Armenian had been stopped. The result was just one of many shocking upsets to punctuate the Glory 12: New York card, which also saw former rugby star Ben Edwards score a last-second KO over a gassed Jamal Ben Saddik and Mirko Cro Cop training partner Igor Jurkovic suffer a first round TKO at the hands of relative unknown Jhonata Diniz.
While Ristie was no slouch, to put it bluntly, the savage knockout was the last thing fans were expecting and provided Ristie with a clear edge in the momentum department heading into the finals against #2 ranked Robin Van Roosmalen. A gif of that fight’s finish is after the jump, along with complete GLORY 12 results.
(The Ristie vs. Petrosyan KO, set to some appropriately foreboding music.)
Heading into Saturday night’s Glory 12 lightweight tournament, two-time K-1 champion Giorgio Petrosyan was being heralded as “The Floyd Mayweather of Kickboxing.” The comparison was not without merit; Petrosyan was a dynamic, seemingly untouchable striker who was carrying a six year unbeaten streak into his semifinal contest with +650 underdog, Andy Ristie. As a casual kickboxing fan at best, even I was quick to chastise my roommates for having the gall to pick Ristie to win. “I’m here to tell you, that’s not going to happen,” I said, echoing Frank Trigg’s epic assessment of the Fedor vs. Zuluzinho fight, “Giorgio will dispatch this man very quickly.”
Less than ten minutes later, I was dining on a heaping plate of crow.
Giorgio Petrosyan, the Floyd Mayweather of kickboxing, had been knocked out cold in the third round. Even to casual fans of the sport like myself, this was a big deal. In 81 fights, this was the first time the Italian-Armenian had been stopped. The result was just one of many shocking upsets to punctuate the Glory 12: New York card, which also saw former rugby star Ben Edwards score a last-second KO over a gassed Jamal Ben Saddik and Mirko Cro Cop training partner Igor Jurkovic suffer a first round TKO at the hands of relative unknown Jhonata Diniz.
While Ristie was no slouch, to put it bluntly, the savage knockout was the last thing fans were expecting and provided Ristie with a clear edge in the momentum department heading into the finals against #2 ranked Robin Van Roosmalen. A gif of that fight’s finish is after the jump, along with complete GLORY 12 results.
Andy Ristie. Remember the name.
Glory 12 main card results:
Robin Van Roosmalen def. Davit Kiria via Unanimous Decision (29-28 x3)
Andy Ristie def. Giorgio Petrosyan via KO (Left Hook) :43 of Round 3
Ky Hollenbeck def. Shemsi Beqiri via Unanimous Decision (30-26 x3)
Ben Edwards def. Jamal Ben Saddik via KO (Punches) 2:52 of Round 3
Wayne Barrett def. Joe Schilling via Unanimous Decision (28-26 x3)
Andy Ristie def. Robin Van Roosmalen via KO (Punch) 1:44 of Round 3
Remember how we said the guy who replaced Aleks Emelianenko against Mirko Crop Cop at Legends 2 probably stood a better chance of defeating the Croatian than Emelianenko did? Well consider this the saddest “we told you so” in CagePotato history. And quite possibly the first.
But after watching his fight with Alexey Oleinik at Legend 2 last Friday, we think it’s safe to assume that Mirko has officially entered the “Money Up Front” phase of his MMA career.
Remember how we said the guy who replaced Aleks Emelianenko against Mirko Crop Cop at Legends 2 probably stood a better chance of defeating the Croatian than Emelianenko did? Well consider this the saddest “we told you so” in CagePotato history. And quite possibly the first.
But after watching his fight with Alexey Oleinik at Legend 2 last Friday, we think it’s safe to assume that Mirko has officially entered the “Money Up Front” phase of his MMA career.
Sure, it’s not like Mirko showed up at 300+ pounds or anything, and it’s not like he was fighting a scrub. But a neck crank? A F*CKING NECK CRANK?!
I say this as one of the biggest Cro Cop fans out there: Retire, Mirko. Retire for good and stop breaking my heart.
Elsewhere on the Legend card, UFC castaway Paul Daley saw a four fight win streak snapped via unanimous decision at the hands of Alexander “Bad Boy” Yakovlev, a 20-4 Russian who is now 21-4 (I dunno, that’s all I got). While Daley dominated many of the standup exchanges in typical fashion, his achilles heel of wrestling was once again exposed by Yakovlev, who mixed up some takedowns and decent ground-n-pound attacks to neutralize Daley for the majority of the fight.
In the kickboxing realm, Badr Hari picked up a unanimous decision victory over Alexey Ignashov in a K-1 Superfight that was as sloppy at times as it was enjoyable. Here’s a gif of Ignashov just missing a head kick in what looks like a poorly choreographed, B-movie fight scene (via Zombie Prophet).
And finally in people you’ve heard of who fought at this event, Melvin Manhoef was routed by Zabit Samedov en route to a unanimous decision loss in a 205 lb. K-1 sem-final tournament bout. Unfortunately, Samedov was not able to continue in the tournament due to a cut suffered during the fight and was replaced by Agron Preteni. It just goes to show that Melvin Manhoef’s legs are a threat to every living creature on this earth.
We’ve thrown a full video of the fight below. Enjoy.
CagePotato was in Chicago Thursday afternoon for the Glory 11 open workouts. We saw main eventers Tyrone Spong and Nathan Corbett murder some pads as well as a number of other world-class kickboxers in the Glory heavyweight tournament and on the undercard work out.
Unfortunately for this writer, I forgot to bring donuts in to the CagePotato office on my designated day last month so our leader Ben Goldstein had to think of a fitting punishment. Sparring with a pro kickboxer was what he came up with.
Originally Glory’s PR team said they’d try to get newly crowned middleweight champ and KO artist Joe Schilling to knock me around for a bit, but he was still a bit sore from his last win in late September. Kru Paul Mihas out of Toronto’s Ultimate Martial Arts was in the house because he has two fighters on the Glory 11 card and he offered to let another of his guys punch me for a round.
Matt Speciale took a break from warming up his two teammates who are fighting today to school me during some “timing sparring.” The idea behind timing sparring is to throw shots at well under half power just to be able to work on distance and timing without banging up one another too badly.
CagePotato was in Chicago Thursday afternoon for the Glory 11 open workouts. We saw main eventers Tyrone Spong and Nathan Corbett murder some pads as well as a number of other world-class kickboxers in the Glory heavyweight tournament and on the undercard work out.
Unfortunately for this writer, I forgot to bring donuts in to the CagePotato office on my designated day last month so our leader Ben Goldstein had to think of a fitting punishment. Sparring with a pro kickboxer was what he came up with.
Originally Glory’s PR team said they’d try to get newly crowned middleweight champ and KO artist Joe Schilling to knock me around for a bit, but he was still a bit sore from his last win in late September. Kru Paul Mihas out of Toronto’s Ultimate Martial Arts was in the house because he has two fighters on the Glory 11 card and he offered to let another of his guys punch me for a round.
Matt Speciale took a break from warming up his two teammates who are fighting today to school me during some “timing sparring.” The idea behind timing sparring is to throw shots at well under half power just to be able to work on distance and timing without banging up one another too badly.
In this particular case, the idea was for me to survive more than sixty seconds with my head still attached to my body. So, Speciale went at about 10% power and…his shots still hurt. Once nice straight left from the south paw followed by a body shot were all I needed to say, ‘thank you and good day.’
So, check out the video above and watch me get hit a couple times — if you’re into that type of thing. This, is what happens when you piss off your boss at CP.
Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.
CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?
Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.
Ten-time world champion Tyrone Spong made a name for himself punching and kicking people in the head as a kickboxer but has recently begun to establish a reputation for, well, punching and kicking people in the head in MMA competition. The Dutch striker is 2-0 in MMA but will next compete this Saturday under kickboxing rules at Glory 11 in Hoffman Estates, IL; you can watch the action live on Spike TV starting at 9 p.m. ET. CagePotato sat down with the “King of the Ring” and asked him five questions about his training, legacy, “real Muay Thai”, his upcoming opponent and his future plans.
CagePotato: What made you decide to branch out from kickboxing and start fighting in MMA as well? Was it just a matter of being able to make more money by fighting more and in different sports? And how hard has it been for you, physically and mentally, to balance it all?
Tyrone Spong: For me, being active in different disciplines — it’s a challenge but I enjoy doing that. Of course all pro fighters need to make money but what I’m really trying to do is build a legacy as one of the greatest of all time in combat sports. So far, everything is going well. But the training and fighting so often is hard. It’s hard. The key for me is to have my physical condition up there all the time. So, I always train. Then, once I get a fight, if it’s an MMA fight I focus on that or if it’s a kickboxing fight, I focus on that.
CP: You fight this weekend in Glory — which has basically replaced K-1 as the biggest kickboxing organization in the world. Some of the very best kickboxers in the world fight there now, but the rules are far from real Muay Thai rules. Extended clinching isn’t allowed and elbows are not allowed, for example. Do you ever wish that the big kickboxing organizations, like K-1 before and Glory now, used real Muay Thai rules?
Spong: Yeah, I grew up training and fighting with those rules. I fought real Muay Thai fights with elbows and everything and did that at the highest level. I’ve been fighting Muay Thai since I was 18. I’ve been in Muay Thai main events since I was 18 years old.
Spong: He’s very strong. Physically strong. And he’s experienced and so is able to put it all together well.
CP: After this fight, what’s next, another MMA fight or another kickboxing fight?
Spong: Well, we have to get through this fight first but I’m actually very active in boxing as well right now and I want to make my pro boxing debut before the year ends.
This past Saturday, Alistair Overeem suffered his second loss in a row at the feet and hands of Travis Browne on UFC on Fox Sports 1 at TD Garden in Boston. The fight, which ended at 4:08 of the first frame, and pre-fight were hauntingly similar to his last loss against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. […]
This past Saturday, Alistair Overeem suffered his second loss in a row at the feet and hands of Travis Browne on UFC on Fox Sports 1 at TD Garden in Boston. The fight, which ended at 4:08 of the first frame, and pre-fight were hauntingly similar to his last loss against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. […]
You remember how earlier, we were listing everything that was wrong with The Blackzilians while simultaneously stating that not everything is wrong with The Blackzilians? Case in point: Tyrone Spong, the world-renowned kickboxing powerhouse who joined the Florida-based camp prior to his successful MMA debut at World Series of Fighting 1. Given The Blackzilians “you are your own coach” philosophy, one could not ask for a better striker to spar with on a daily basis than Spong, who showcased his skills last Saturday by knocking out kickboxing legend Remy Bonjasky in the second round of their headlining bout at GLORY 5.
In the first round, Spong was content to take the lengthy Bonjasky’s legs out from under him with a series of punishing low kicks. Luckily, judges in the kickboxing world view leg kicks as something other than an annoyance, so Spong was awarded the round unanimously. The second round was an entirely different story, however, as both men opted to throw the kitchen sink at one another until one of them fell over. That man was Bonjasky, who crumbled to the mat following a vicious right hook by Spong. And just like that, it was good night my anus Irene, and another win for Spong over one of kickboxing’s greatest fighters.
We’ve thrown a full video of the fight above, so check it out if you get your jollies watching legends fall from grace. I’m going to go have a good cry.
You remember how earlier, we were listing everything that was wrong with The Blackzilians while simultaneously stating that not everything is wrong with The Blackzilians? Case in point: Tyrone Spong, the world-renowned kickboxing powerhouse who joined the Florida-based camp prior to his successful MMA debut at World Series of Fighting 1. Given The Blackzilians “you are your own coach” philosophy, one could not ask for a better striker to spar with on a daily basis than Spong, who showcased his skills last Saturday by knocking out kickboxing legend Remy Bonjasky in the second round of their headlining bout at GLORY 5.
In the first round, Spong was content to take the lengthy Bonjasky’s legs out from under him with a series of punishing low kicks. Luckily, judges in the kickboxing world view leg kicks as something other than an annoyance, so Spong was awarded the round unanimously. The second round was an entirely different story, however, as both men opted to throw the kitchen sink at one another until one of them fell over. That man was Bonjasky, who crumbled to the mat following a vicious right hook by Spong. And just like that, it was good night my anus Irene, and another win for Spong over one of kickboxing’s greatest fighters.
We’ve thrown a full video of the fight above, so check it out if you get your jollies watching legends fall from grace. I’m going to go have a good cry.
