Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie is the world’s new #1 lightweight kickboxer.
Incredible back-to-back knockouts of Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin Van Roosmalen in the GLORY 12 Lightweight Championship Tournament saw him climb from #4 in the rankings to take the division’s top spot.
Ristie earned 350 for winning the tournament. He displaces Robin Van Roosmalen, who he stopped in the second round and who himself had only been elevated to #1 after a win over Shemsi Beqiri at GLORY 10 in September.
Van Roosmalen gets 150 points for being tournament runner-up but falls to the #2 position. Still, he has 1021 points to Ristie’s 1041 so the two are close and Ristie will have to stay active to secure the top position.
Petrosyan’s knockout loss was possibly the biggest shock of the year in any fight sport. The Italian-Armenian took a 78-1-1 record into the bout. His sole loss came six years ago under controversial circumstances and he had never been knocked down in his career until Saturday night.
He now sits at #3 in the rankings and Davit Kiria, who lost to Van Roosmalen in the semi-finals, sits at #4, down one place. He and Kiria receive 50 points for their tournament participation but that will be of little consolation to them.
Tournament reservist Ky Hollenbeck defeated Warren Stevelmans by way of a 30-26 decision (10-9, 10-8, 10-9 on all three judges’ cards) to earn 65 points and climb from #8 to #6.
The headline fight saw GLORY Middleweight Championship Tournament winner Joe Schilling face his rival Wayne Barrett in a Los Angeles vs. New York encounter. The fight was close but Barrett secured two knockdowns to Schilling’s one, taking a 28-26 decision win and gaining 198 points to move from #6 to #3.
He now sits one place below Schilling, who remains at #2 despite losing 74 ranking points for the loss to a lower-ranked fighter. Artem Levin remains in position at #1 despite himself having lost to Schilling in the GLORY 10 tournament.
In the heavyweight division, Ben Edwards has cracked the top ten thanks to a last-minute, Hail-Mary KO of Jamal Ben Saddik. The win gives Edwards 140 points and moves him up from #15 to #10. Ben Saddik loses 24 points and drops from #11 to #12.
Also in the heavyweight division, Croatia’s Igor Jurkovic suffered the quickest loss of the evening when he was TKO'd in 61 seconds by young prospect Jhonata Diniz. The 22-year-old Brazilian gains 98 points and moves from #17 to #14; Jurkovic drops eight points and falls one place to #17.
Francois Ambang scored a stoppage win over Eddie ‘Showtime’ Walker by scoring four knockdowns. Walker’s lead leg took a hammering and the final blow came at 1:41 of Round Three. Ambang gains 80 points to move from #12 to #10.
Brazil had a lot of success at GLORY 12. All three Brazilian fighters on the card scored wins but the biggest by far was the KO that Saulo Cavalari put on the veteran Mourad Bouzidi. Just 87 seconds into the fight he knocked Bouzidi out so badly that the Tunisian was unconscious for nearly five minutes.
Having debuted with a win over #3 ranked Filip Verlinden at GLORY 11 to go to #9, and now having stopped #4 ranked Bouzidi, Cavalari rockets up the rankings and takes the #3 spot and 230 points. Bouzidi falls to #7.
In the light-heavyweight division Brian ‘The Lion’ Collette faced the Warren Thompson, a part of The Ultimate Fighter season 11, and took him out in just 63 seconds via an amazing close-range head kick. He gains 121 points and rises from #8 to #5.
In the event’s opening bout, Argentinian welterweight Paul Marfort lost to Brazilian debutant Thiago Michel by decision but retains his #14 ranking position.
