Last night on Spike TV the impossible happened. It almost seems cliche at this point to call a huge upset in a tournament to be impossible, yet what happened last night at GLORY 12 really did seem to be the impossible. What was this impossible feat, you might ask? Andy Ristie not only defeated Giorgio Petrosyan, but he knocked out Giorgio Petrosyan. Yes, Giorgio Petrosyan, the now-former pound-for-pound king of the Kickboxing world has been usurped after five years atop of the throne by Andy Ristie.
It’s safe to say that Andy Ristie had not only a good night, but the night of his career last night scoring two knock outs against the #1 and #2 Lightweights in the world, Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin van Roosmalen. In a way, this echoes what happened at GLORY 11 Chicago’s Heavyweight tournament where Rico Verhoeven scored victories over Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita; the underdog just blew expectations away and claimed the #1 spot in a hotly-contested division. Hell, even at GLORY 10 Los Angeles Joe Schilling was able to overcome Middleweight kingpin Artem Levin.
Is there something in the water that they are handing out at these GLORY events that is leading the underdogs to do something incredible, or what? I don’t know, but I do know that 2013 has been the year of the shake-up in Kickboxing so far.
Here is GIF proof that Andy Ristie did the impossible last night, twice, courtesy of ZProphet.