Outside of his inner circle, no one expected Andy Ristie to not only win the Lightweight tournament, but to knockout pound-for-pound king, Giorgio Petrosyan. As of the morning of the event, Ristie was by far the biggest underdog on the card at +550, while Petrosyan sat at a hefty -1050 according to 5dimes.com.
After two rounds of close action, Ristie would come out guns blazing, chasing down Petrosyan looking for the knockout; and surely, he would find it. A huge left hook only 43 seconds into the final frame would put Petrosyan down for the count. The loss to Ristie would mark only the second loss in Petrosyan’s career, the first coming in 2007, as well as the first time Petrosyan has ever been finished.
Ristie would go on to win the GLORY Lightweight tournament by defeating Robin Van Roosmalen in the tournament finals. Ristie once again would connect with a big left hand that would put Roosmalen away in round two of their bout.
After being crowned the Lightweight tournament champion, Ristie had this to say:
“I told everybody before this tournament that I would be number one. I knew I was going to win. 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.”
However, at GLORY 12 we didn’t just have one underdog come out on top in a huge fight, we had two. Although he may not have been as huge of an underdog as Ristie, New York’s own Wayne Barrett was still the underdog going into his fight against GLORY Middleweight champion, Joe Schilling.
Barrett is a young up-and-comer, who only had three professional fights (3-0) prior to his bout with Schilling was a +200 underdog to Schilling’s -280 favorite on fight night according to BetDSI.com.
Not only did the oddsmakers rule Barrett as the underdog, Schilling even made it clear he didn’t believe Wayne Barrett was on his level.
“I don’t think he has fought anyone who is anywhere near my level. I can’t remember the name of the guy he made his professional debut against,”
said Schilling.
Once all was said and done Barrett was able to prove him wrong. The fight was fairly even throughout, however, round two is where Barrett won the fight, knocking Schilling down twice in the round. In the end it would come down to the judges score cards, all three judges scored it the same, 28-26 in favor of Barrett.
“Now do you believe me? I told everybody that this was my destiny. The Middleweight championship is my destiny. I believe in myself and I am also strong in my faith, I believe God has a plan for me and this is all part of that plan.”
Barrett said after defeating Schilling.
All in all, GLORY 12 was a great event where the underdog reigned supreme.