“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.”“Before the fight it was getting a bit nasty. There were all sorts of things being said on Twitter and in pre-fight interviews and stuff from Joe’s side. I try to rise above all that. I just wanted to do my talking in the ring. I saw that for what it was. I think that Joe is a fighter who needs to do that to make himself feel confident and to try and draw me into his game and get inside my head. It didn’t work.”
“GLORY is an amazing organization, really professional and as you can see the presentation standard is just so high. The fights are great, all-action, and I really think that America is going to fall in love with this sport. Our job is to go out there and put on great fights and we did that tonight, all of us.”“I can’t lie, he did hurt me in round three with that knee he dropped me with but I just had to grit my teeth and get through it and get back into the fight. I knew I was winning because I had the two knockdowns in round two.”
ANDY RISTIE“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.”
“When Petrosyan went down I knew he was finished. I could feel it as soon as I hit him. I was really happy. People didn’t give me a chance in this fight but I proved them wrong. And I had the right tactics to beat Robin.”
“Who gave me the biggest problem? None of them. I didn’t have a problem with either of them. I was in control. But I like how Robin fights. I don’t like to watch Petrosyan’s style, he doesn’t like to have a war.”“I’m going to spend it on something special. I don’t know what yet. And no, you can’t borrow any money from me, ha!”
BEN EDWARDS“I knew I was behind going into that third round and I needed the knockout. He was causing me problems with his distance at first, it was kind of frustrating, but I kept chipping away and then I felt him wilt.
“After that I just kept the pressure on him and then I got him with those shots against the ropes. I felt one of them connect and I knew I had him, and then a couple more punches and the referee stopped the fight.”
“Getting the KO like that was a great feeling. I wanted to do it for the fans and I wanted to put on a show. The fact that it was a come-from-behind was even better.”
KY HOLLENBECK“To be honest I’m not happy with my performance. I got the win and I landed some good shots but I would really have liked that knockout. I was using a lot of clinch on him just because I was overpowering him with it and it was working really well for me. Same with the spinning backfirst; I noticed he was open for it so I threw like six or seven. He wasn’t getting out of the way of them.”
“I had the American flag across my shoulders at the end because I really believe that we’re doing something for American kickboxing here. We’re showing that we can hang on the world stage and against elite international opposition. There’s a lot of bad being talked about America right now and some of it is true but this is a great country and a great people. I am proud to represent it and I find it inspiring to carry the flag and represent my country.”
“If anyone was going to do it, Ristie was the guy. He has such an unorthodox style and he really puts pressure on guys. I didn’t know he was going to knock him out though. And then to knock Van Roosmalen out as well? That was a really big performance. The #1 and #2 guys in the world by KO in one night. I’d fight Ristie, sure. I think I have a pretty unorthodox style as well, so that fight would either be beautiful or beautifully awkward.”
