Petchpanomrung Kitatmoo9 has been one of the most dominant kickboxers in the past decade, having not lost a kickboxing fight since 2017. His historic run and ownership of the RISE Featherweight title ended at the RISE World Series 2023 Final Round where he was defeated by Chadd Collins. While the Australian was gaining momentum on the Japanese scene and quickly made his way up the ranks, beating Petchpanomrung was an entirely different task. A puzzle that ultimately every challenger failed to solve until December of last year.
Collins was struggling to find his footing and rhythm against Petchpanomrung's offense and power in the first two rounds. The Thai was able to blast his left kick quite consistently while also landing many hard crosses to the body. Collins was fighting back but didn't seem to have much of an answer. Once they reached round 3, the champion started to show signs of slowing down, resulting in Collins being able to pressure him with boxing, while also starting to block most of the incoming kicks. Collins measured approach of consistent body work, and applying pressure in the pocket paid off big time.
In the last round it was very obvious that the Thai was spent as Collins gained a second wind. Collins continued to move forward, backing the GLORY and RISE champion up to the ropes and landing right hooks to the body and punches to the head. Collins superior conditioning and resilience proved to be Petchpanomrung's demise.
This hard fought but well deserved battle earned Chadd Collins the Beyond Kickboxing 2023 Upset of the Year.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
TOKI TAMARU VS. KAZUKI OSAKI
Throughout 2023, the RISE 54 KG Grand Prix took place spreading across multiple events throughout the year. A heavy favorite to win the tournament was pound-for-pound No. 5, Kazuki Osaki. Up to that point he had gone on a 19 fight win-streak beating the top talent in the weight such as Issei Ishii and Kazane. Naturally, he was the favorite against the man he already had beaten in 2020, Toki Tamaru.
Toki fought an excellent fight keeping away from Kazuki’s devastating body shots for most of the fight while also catching him multiple times using his slick boxing and footwork. He even managed to momentarily hurt Osaki in the second round with a lead hook. Overall it was a very close fight, but it was moments like these that eventually gave Toki Tamaru the split decision victory. And to make the tale even more enticing, he then went on to win the tournament final against Kumandoi.
ANTONIO PLAZIBAT VS. TARIQ OSARO
Antonio Plazibat was set to challenge Rico Verhoeven for the GLORY Heavyweight title after his monstrous 4-fight KO win streak, but was called off due to Rico injuring his knee during training. This unfortunate delay resulted in one of this year's biggest upsets in European kickboxing. GLORY decided to have a one-day Heavyweight tournament to find a challenger for Plazibat during Verhoeven's injury recovery period.
Tariq Osaro ended up winning the tournament in impressive fashion beating both of his opponents by TKO and earning his fight against Antonio Plazibat. This bout was to take place in Rotterdam in front of a majority Croatian crowd, and was suspected to be a surefire win for Plazibat. But to everyone’s surprise, he ended up breaking his arm early on in the fight and as a result got completely dominated by Osaro. After the opening round, Osaro took control of the fight, dismantled Plazibat and stopped him in the fifth and final round to claimn the GLORY Interim Heavyweight Title and a shot at the title against Rico Verhoeven.
