As with many other promotions during the pandemic, GLORY Kickboxing was drowned in a crisis. One by one, top Lightweight contenders were taken from them by ONE Championship, and the Featherweight division was nearly scrapped. The champion Petchpanomrung returned to Muay Thai as he could not get kickboxing fights, until 2021 when Japanese promotion RISE offered him a fight against their budding star Kento Haraguchi. A prelude to the RISE and GLORY partnership.
Then-23-year-old Kento Haraguchi was untested against international stars and looked lackluster against Tapruwan in his previous fight. Petchpanomrung was a massive step up in competition. The first fight went as expected, Haraguchi looked helpless against the infamous body kicks of the Thai. They would rematch just a year later in a 6-round thriller, where Petchpanomrung came out on top again.
On July 20, Kento Haraguchi and Petchpanomrung will rematch once again in Rotterdam at GLORY 93, this time for Petchpanomrung's GLORY title.
THE SECOND FIGHT
After their fight in 2021, Haraguchi would fight at a sold-out Tokyo Dome; his opponent: K-1 star Hideaki Yamazaki. Representing RISE, Kento Haraguchi stopped Yamazaki in the second round. A valuable experience and a big boost in confidence.
For his performance at the Tokyo Dome, Haraguchi was granted a rematch against Petchpanomrung. His first 5-rounder, and for the inaugural RISE 65 KG title. The fight was unexpectedly close, as the initial decision came down to a draw and had to be contested in an extra round. Haraguchi proved that he had the stamina for championship fights and the skill set to be the best, but it was again not enough. Petchpanomrung won a unanimous decision in Tokyo.
THIRD TIME THE CHARM?
Following his win, Petchpanomrung defeated top contender Abraham Vidales in the Netherlands and RISE Champion Kosei Yamada in a GLORY-RISE co-promotion in Japan. He then challenged Tyjani Beztati for the Lightweight title. The size difference on the night was apparent and the Featherweight champion was stopped in the fourth round. Petchpanomrung would go on to defeat GLORY top contenders David Mejia and Ahmad Chikh Mousa before facing and losing to Australian RISE star Chadd Collins in Japan.
On the other side, at the end of 2022, the Japanese fighter won a comfortable decision over former GLORY title challenger Serhiy Adamchuk. He then continued his momentum, knocking out Jérémy Monteiro, Anvar Boynazarov, and Abraham Vidales, rounding off a perfect year.
