At the conclusion of ONE Fight Night 11, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong spoke to the assembled media members, including the South China Morning Post. Among many other things, he talked about the former pound-for-pound king and arguably the greatest kickboxer in the sport's history – Giorgio Petrosyan.
Sadly for fans of 'The Doctor', it doesn't seem likely that the Italian will ever show his craft in the ring again. The two-time K-1 MAX winner apparently still hasn't psychologically recovered from his knockout loss at the hands of Superbon, almost two years ago. "Giorgio has not been able to sleep since the KO loss", Chatri stated, "…he's taking all sorts of sleeping and anti-anxiety medication right now… 'Chatri, I'm going to retire', that was literally what Giorgio said to me two days ago."
While he was stopped on one previous occasion, by Andy Ristie in 2013, he remained awake, alert and got away without any major injuries. The Thai was able to completely separate Petrosyan from his consciousness, for the first time in his career, as well as break his jaw, which required extensive surgery to repair. It was furthermore the first time in 112 fights that he was outclassed by an opponent.
The 37-year-old has amassed more accolades and great names on his record than almost any other fighter in the sport. Although there are a number of interesting match-ups for him in the ONE Featherweight division, he's already proven himself to be an all-time-great, with a career that will be hard for anyone to supersede.
Giorgio Petrosyan hasn't made a personal statement on the matter, neither has he confirmed Chatri's statement so far.
