Giogrio Petrosyan won the K-1 World Max 2009 championship Monday at the Yokohama Arena in Japan and will likely face last year's champ Masato in his retirement fight at "Dynamite!! 2009" on New Year's Eve.
Petrosyan made quick work of his first opponent Yuya Yamamoto, knocking out the lone Japanese tournament representative with a right hook two minutes and nine seconds into the fight. In the finals (video above), Petrosyan won unanimously on the scorecards against two-time K-1 World Max champ Andy Souwer, who advanced earlier in the evening with a split decision over Buakaw Por.Pramuk.
In the Koshien quarterfinals, K-1's tournament for high school students, Hiroya, Katsuki Ishida, Shota Shimada and Masaaki Noiri won their respective bouts and will fight in a single-night tournament on New Year's Eve.
Kozo Takeda, perhaps most known to MMA fans as Tatsuya Kawajiri's first K-1 opponent at "Dynamite!! 2008," lost in his retirement match against Albert Kraus via TKO in the second round.
Results are below:
K-1 Koshien Quarterfinals:
Hiroya def. Ryuya Kusakabe via split decision
Katsuki Ishida def. Tsukasa Fuji via unanimous decision
Shota Shimada def. Hiroki Akimoto via unanimous decision
Masaaki Noiri def. Keisuke Miyamoto via unanimous decision
K-1 World Max Final 4:
Semifinal: Giorgio Petrosyan def. Yuya Yamamoto via KO - R1, 2:09
Semifinal: Andy Souwer def. Buakaw Por.Pramuk via split decision
Reserve: Yoshihiro Sato def. Yasuhiro Kido via KO - R2, 2:23
Final: Giorgio Petroysyan def. Andy Souwer via unanimous decision
Other Bouts:
Xu Yan def. Yuichiro Nagashima via KO - R1, 1:04
Jae Hee Cheon def. Kazuhisa Watanabe via split decision
Albert Kraus def. Kozo Takeda via TKO - R2, 2:10
Drago def. Taishin Kohiruimaki via unanimous decision
Artur Kyshenko def. Toofan Salafzoon via KO - R3, 1:50
Hinata def. Mike Zambidis via unanimous decision
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