Giorgio Petrosyan is the new MAX GP Champion

by Fraser Coffeen on Oct 26, 2009 12:12 PM EDT in K-1 MAX Comment 8 comments

Giorgio Petrosyan, 2009 World MAX Champion

Congratulations to Giorgio Petrosyan, the 2009 K-1 MAX Grand Prix champion. Petrosyan earned the title with a one round destruction of Yuya Yamamoto in the semi-finals, followed by a unanimous decision victory over Andy Souwer in the finals - his second defeat of Souwer in 2009.

Petrosyan has been making his name in the European kickboxing scene for the past 5 years before making his K-1 debut at the start of 2009. At this highest international level of competition, his rise to the top has been nothing short of meteoric, winning the Grand Prix in his first year as a MAX fighter. With only 1 decision loss to his name, Petrosyan suddenly is the fighter to beat in MAX, and at 23 years old has the potential to be a dominant champion for some time to come.

We'll have much more on his victory and more analysis of the MAX finals in the days to come.

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Egg on FEG's face

for calling Petrosyan boring and hoping he wouldn’t win.

I wonder if they’ll run Masato/Petrosyan or just run Masato/Souwer as rumored. If they do its a slap in the face of Petrosyan, I think.

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by D.W. on Oct 26, 2009 12:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Tanigawa always has egg on his face for his stupid declarations.

by omigawda on Oct 26, 2009 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What’s next for MAX? They’re doing the GPs every two years now right?

by omigawda on Oct 26, 2009 1:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The “every other year” rumor was regarding the regular K-1 GP, not MAX. That’s not to say that if K-1 does go to a GP every two years, MAX wouldn’t do the same, they just have not yet said anything about it. And, in all fairness, this rumor is pretty vague at this point.

I think we’ll have to wait until the year is out to know what is next. There’s a lot that could change with Masato leaving, rumors of Buakaw leaving and Yodsaenklai coming in to take his place, a new face at the top. It’s definitely a transition time for MAX and it will be interesting to see how they deal with it.

by Fraser Coffeen on Oct 26, 2009 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Love it.

Knew he had the talent.

by Meshuggeth on Oct 26, 2009 2:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The talk now..

Is that he had an “easy” road to the finals.

While I agree that Souwer/Buakaw was a far more competitive bout, Petrosyan against either guy would’ve left somebody else to fight and probably slaughter Yuya.

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by D.W. on Oct 26, 2009 3:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Buakaw

I still want to see a fresh Buakaw Vs Petrosyan. Styles often make matchups and I think Buakaw is the man to beat Giorgio

by Infinite_Jest on Oct 27, 2009 1:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely

That was the fight I wanted the most, and sadly it didn’t pan out. I think Buakaw’s aggressive style and using kicks to keep the distance would be able to neutralize Petrosyan.

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Twitter @HeadKickLegend

by D.W. on Oct 27, 2009 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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