Kyle Reyes Bows Out Honourably toFuture World Champion

Montréal, June 18, 2025 – Kyle Reyes, the last Canadian to hit the tatamis at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, saw his day come to an end when he was defeated by the future under-100 kg world champion on Wednesday.

Photo: IJF, Tamara Kulumbegashvili
Kyle Reyes (in blue) fighting against Matvey Kanikovskiy (in white).

Reyes began his day with an overtime victory by ippon over Serbia’s Bojan Dosen, before being eliminated by neutral athlete Matvey Kanikovskiy, who won by yuko. After opening the scoring midway through the bout, Kanikovskiy succeeded in holding on to his lead until the end of regulation time.

“Kanikovskiy is the one to beat in this category,” said Canadian coach Antoine Valois-Fortier, while the result of the under-100 kg final was still pending. “It was a tall order, and Kyle fought very well. In one sequence, Kyle’s opponent had to make an adjustment, but that just proved to me that Kyle was on his game today. He was able to hold his own against the world’s top judokas, and even the world’s best. But it was clear that [Kanikovskiy] was a cut above everyone else in the category.”

In the gold medal final, Kanikovskiy defeated Japan’s Dota Arai, who won bronze at the last world championships.

Valois-Fortier pointed out that Reyes, the under-100 kg runner-up world champion in 2022, followed his game plan to the letter in his first bout of the day today, prevailing in overtime through penalties over an opponent he has defeated three times in as many clashes since the beginning of his career.

“It was an opponent Kyle knows well. The longer the match went on, the more tired Dosen became, and he wasn’t able to keep up with the pace Kyle was setting. That’s how Kyle won. He had almost full control of the bout.”

In his first tournament of 2025, the 31-year-old Ontarian captured bronze at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in March.

A total of five Canadians were in action at the World Championships in Hungary. The team will depart Budapest with one silver medal, won by Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard in the under-63 kg weight class.

“Overall, I don’t feel there were any poor performances. We’re glad that Catherine won and that Kyle fought competitively. The younger ones in the group are progressing well and reaching the levels required to compete at some of the big, high-level tournaments. Now, we’re going to take a good look at what we need to accomplish and get back to work,” concluded the coach.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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