Andy Ristie (born March 17, 1982) is a Surinamese-Dutchkickboxer who competes in the lightweight division. After an unremarkable beginning to his career, he came to prominence with a lengthy and entertaining winning streak in the It's Showtime promotion in 2011 and 2012. This earned him an invite to fight amongst the 70 kg/154 lb division's elite, competing in the K-1 World MAX 2012 Tournament and debuting in Glory shortly after.
Standing at 1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in), Ristie is tall for his weight class and is known to look for knockouts from the first bell. He utilizes devastating knee strikes to the body and possesses considerable punching power, especially in his left hook.[1] As of 2 November 2015, he is ranked the No. 2 lightweight in the world by GLORY.[2]
Career
Early career (2002–2011)
Ristie was born in Paramaribo, Suriname in 1982 and relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands where he was trained by Lucien Carbin at Fight Club Carbin. He began training Muay Thai at the age of 22, and while he won the World Kickboxing Network (WKN) Intercontinental Super Welterweight (-72.6/160.1 lb) Championship as an amateur, the beginnings of his professional career were fought in relative obscurity. Having built up an extensive record with an impressive knockout ratio fighting in smaller events in Suriname and the Netherlands, he was recruited by the It's Showtime promotion at twenty-nine years of age. He debuted with a first-round KO of Nick Beljaards at BFN Group presents: It's Showtime Brussels in Brussels, Belgium on March 26, 2011.[3][4]
He stopped Hinata Watanabe in the first round of their contest at It's Showtime 2012 in Leeuwarden in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, on January 28, 2012. After dropping his opponent in ten seconds, he sent Hinata to the canvas twice more, forcing a referee stoppage.[8][9][10] This win helped establish Ristie as a force on the world stage and earned him a contract with K-1. He was invited to compete alongside fifteen of the world's other top 70 kg/154 lb kickfighters in the K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament, and faced Gago Drago in the opening stage at the K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final 16 in Madrid, Spain on May 27, 2012. He began the fight by battering Drago with knees to the head and body and continued to put a one-sided beating on the Armenian throughout, winning a wide unanimous decision.[11][12][13][14]
He was expected to fight on an It's Showtime card in Yokohama, Japan, on November 17, 2012,[24] but the event was cancelled following the promotion's acquisition by Glory[25] and so he was transferred to Glory 2: Brussels in Belgium and put up against Nordin Benmoh. Once again, he stopped his opponent with a left hook.[26][27][28][29] A rematch between Ristie and Hinata Watanabe was booked as the reserve fight for the Shoot Boxing World Tournament 2012 in Tokyo, Japan on November 17, 2012, and ended like the pair's first match ten months earlier: Hinata was cut early on and dropped with punches twice shortly after, resulting in a referee stoppage and a first-round technical knockout win for Ristie.[30][31]
Ristie caused one of the biggest upsets in kickboxing history when he knocked out both Giorgio Petrosyan and Robin van Roosmalen to win the Glory 12: New York - Lightweight World Championship Tournament in New York City, New York, US on November 23, 2013.[49][50] Against Giorgio Petrosyan in the semi-finals, Ristie applied a lot of pressure and caused the Italian problems in finding his rhythm, but Petrosyan controlled the first two rounds nonetheless. Going into the third in need of a knockout, Ristie managed just that when he landed a huge right hand that had Petrosyan stunned only for him to follow it up with a combination of a right, left and another left that finished it, becoming the first man to stop Petrosyan and ending his forty-two fight, six year undefeated streak.[51] Riding the wave of momentum that saw him dethrone kickboxing's all-time greatest, Ristie continued his rich vein of form in the final against Robin van Roosmalen, dropping the Dutchman towards the tail end of round one before putting him away in two.[52][53][54][55] Ristie had some problems with his camp in the weeks prior to the tournament, leaving his longtime trainer Lucien Carbin to form his own Team Ristie.[56]
The Hollenbeck-Ristie fight was then scheduled for Glory 17: Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, US on June 21, 2014.[62] Andy Ristie knocked out Ky Hollenbeck thirty-five seconds into round one, stunning his American opponent with a jab before putting him away with a left hook.[63][64][65]
On the February 6, 2015, Ristie fought Steve Moxon in a Superfight on Glory 19: USA in Hampton, Virginia, USA. He won the fight via TKO in the first round.
Andy Ristie returned to kickboxing, following a four-year hiatus, to fight Kong Lingfeng during Kunlun Fight 81.[68] The fight went into an extra round, after which Lingfeng won a decision.[69]
