‘The Machine’ terminates Hollenbeck early

Andy ‘The Machine’ Ristie is back on the world title trail.

The lightweight contender came close to capturing the vacant belt at GLORY 14 ZAGREB but fell short, losing by way of knockout to Davit Kiria in the fifth round of the fight.

Kiria’s win will almost certainly turn out to be the Comeback of the Year 2014; Ristie had been all over him in the first three rounds. Afterwards, a rueful Ristie said he had learned “an expensive lesson”.

That lesson related to cardiovascular endurance for when fights go into the later rounds. We didn’t find out tonight whether it had been learned or not, because Ristie ended the fight with Ky Hollenbeck in just 35 seconds.

“I saw when I was hitting the jab that he was kind of lowering his hand to parry it,” Ristie said afterwards.

The Surinamese man then drew a laugh as he got his English-language animal metaphor slightly confused.

“So I made him parry the jab again and then I hit him with a pussycat… no, wait - a tiger-swipe? Yeah, a tiger-swipe. The left hand.”

Press conference attendees erupted and Ristie beamed that wide smile of his. He smiled even wider when the subject of title shots came up.

Kiria’s first defense of the belt will likely be made against Robin Van Roosmalen. That pleases Ristie because he knocked Van Roosmalen out at GLORY 12 NEW YORK last year and came close to doing the same against Kiria in March.

“Yeah I am ready to fight for the belt again. That is my belt, I am coming for it, I don’t care who has it, Kiria or Van Roosmalen. I am taking the belt, it belongs to me,” he said.

On tonight’s evidence, he has a solid argument. Ky Hollenbeck is a tough Muay Thai stylist who can take big shots and has one-punch finishing power of his own.

He didn’t get a chance to land one though. Hollenbeck backed up as Ristie came forward, wanting to take a look at him, then found himself on the ropes. They got into an exchange and then Ristie’s infamous left hand landed on Hollenbeck’s jaw.

Coming up at a weird angle which makes it a cross between a hook and an uppercut, it was the punch which finished Giorgio Petrosyan and Van Roosmalen at GLORY 12 NEW YORK and now Hollenbeck joins its list of victims.

The San Francisco fighter’s legs bucked as the punch sat him down. He didn’t go completely unconscious but he was out of it for a good few moments and clearly wasn’t going to beat the ten-count.

‘The Machine’ is becoming a Terminator, an opponent to give his fellow lightweights nightmares.

“CroCop” silences Miller

Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic got a hero’s welcome when he entered The Forum arena for his rematch with Jarrell Miller.

The fight headlined the GLORY 17 LOS ANGELES and had Filipovic, surprisingly given his long career, making his US kickboxing debut.

Miller and “CroCop” fought under the K-1 banner in early 2013. The fight took place in Croatia and ended with a controversial decision for Filipovic. A furious Miller swore revenge, setting up tonight’s bout.

As it turned out, Miller’s vow went unfulfilled. “CroCop” used his experience and his power to keep the boxing stylist at bay in between meaty exchanges. Miller was the younger fighter by 15 years but wasn’t able to use that youth to his advantage - “CroCop” actually out-boxed him.

He also landed his famous left kick several times, drawing a lot of appreciation from the crowd. One left head kick in particular rocked Miller and brought “CroCop” closer than ever in recent years to scoring one of the knockouts which made his name in his Japanese days.

“I feel very good about the fight. I am happy to have beaten Jarrell Miller after all his trash talk, although I don’t take that kind of thing personally,” he said after winning a unanimous decision, 30-27 on two cards and 29-28 on the other.

“To be honest I very nearly pulled out of the fight, I have a bad infection in my elbow and I was lucky the athletic commission didn’t see it when they were doing the medicals.”

A two-sport athlete, “CroCop” will next find himself fighting when he heads to Japan in a few weeks to compete in an MMA bout. He also has an MMA fight booked for a New Year’s Eve event in Tokyo.

But he says he is happy fighting for GLORY and is open to more fights in the future.

Miller will return to professional boxing after this fight, which he took just for the chance to try and avenge last year’s loss to “CroCop”. After the fight he paid respects to the veteran kickboxer and said that, despite the loss, he had enjoyed fighting for GLORY and would be open to offers down the line.