Andy Hug in Full Contact Karate

Most people know the warrior that was Andreas Hug from his epic K-1 kickboxing bouts. Here is an earlier bout from full contact karate. His famous axe kick makes an appearance.

Raymond Daniels v Brandon Banda

Here is Raymond Daniels v Brandon Banda in the World Combat League or WCL, which was owned in part by Chuck Norris.

Andy Hug and the 1996 K-1 World Grand Prix

The 1996 K-1 Grand Prix which began with a field of 16 competitors, including Peter Aerts, Musashi, Cro Cop, Jerome LeBanner, Ernesto Hoost and Mike Bernardo.

The Opening Round took place on 3/10/96 at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan. Hug would fight Bart Vale, who took place in the infamous no holds barred fight against Mike Bitoni.

The next three rounds all took place on 5/6/96, again at the Yokohama Arena. Hug began by next fighting the lanky Duane Van Der Merwe, an alternate.

In the semifinals, Hug would meet Ernesto Hoost in a hard fought bout.

In the finale, Hug fought Mike Bernardo to complete his epic journey.

Who was Andy Hug?

Andreas "Andy" Hug was a superstar Swiss karate fighter who lived from September 7, 1964 - August 24, 2000. Andy was the first karate fighter to win the K-1 Grand Prix, which he did in 1996. K-1 is hands down the best kickboxing organization in the world. He was runner up in 1996 and 1997.

Hug was revered by the Japanese public, who admired his courage as he usually was the smaller fighter in the ring against much larger kickboxers. He was nicknamed "Blue Eyed Samarai" by the Japanese. Outside of K-1, Hug fought in numerous full contact karate matches, winning various titles around Europe and Asia.

His trademark axe kick was perfected to epic proportions as you will see in the highlight reels below. Andy also possessed a brutal spinning back fist, and nasty spinning high kicks and low kicks. In his last big K-1 match on June 3, 2000, he defeated Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic at K-1 Fight Night in his native land of Switzerland. Sadly, Hug died of leukemia a short time later. He was rewarded an honorary samurai title by K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii and was considered to be the bravest K-1 fighter of all by the Japanese public.

Hug notched K-1 wins over all the top K-1 stars in Jerome LeBanner, Musashi, Mike Bernardo and Masaake Satake; K-1 Champs Ernesto Hoost, Peter Aerts, Branco Cikatic, Ray Sefo; and UFC Champ Maurice Smith. He even KO'd Duke Roufus of Roufusport.

Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson versus Jeremy Joles

Here is the UFC's Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson fighting Jeremy Joles in his MMA debut at Fight Party - Greenville Kage Fighting which took place on 2/5/10 in Greensville, South Carolina.

Wonderboy (13-1, 8-1 UFC) will fight Tyron Woodley (16-3, 6-2 UFC) for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 205. Thompson has won 7 straight fights, defeating Rory MacDonald via decision, Johny Hendricks via TKO and Jake Ellenberger via KO with a spinning hook kick in his last 3 bouts.

Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson versus Jeremy Joles

Here is the UFC's Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson fighting Jeremy Joles in his MMA debut at Fight Party - Greenville Kage Fighting which took place on 2/5/10 in Greensville, South Carolina.

Wonderboy (13-1, 8-1 UFC) will fight Tyron Woodley (16-3, 6-2 UFC) for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 205. Thompson has won 7 straight fights, defeating Rory MacDonald via decision, Johny Hendricks via TKO and Jake Ellenberger via KO with a spinning hook kick in his last 3 bouts.

Video of the Day - Thompson v. Decore

Here is Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson kickboxing James Decore in Chuck Norris' World Combat League.

Wonderboy (13-1, 8-1 UFC) will challenge Tyron Woodley (16-3, 6-2 UFC) for the welterweight title at UFC 205.

Mark Hunt v. Melvin Manhoef - Dream

Here is Mark Hunt fighting Melvin Manhoef at K-1/Dream Dynamite 2008 which took place on 12/31/08 in Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Barry v. Lighty

Here is Pat Barry kickboxing Scott Lighty at Shin Do Kumate XI on 12/8/06 in Tampa, Florida.

Kickboxing records are hard to calculate due to such a wide selection in rule formats. Barry had 4 K-1 event wins and 3 wins in Chuck Norris' WCL. He had 4 wins in the UFC including KO's over Shane Del Rosario, Antoni Hardonk and Christian Morecraft while winning a decision over Joey Beltran.

Scott Lighty was a solid kickboxer in his own right, defeating Dewey Cooper and Sean McCully in K-1 events. Lighty was also an MMA fighter, being showcased on the TapouT reality show that was on the Versus network. He won fights in Strikeforce.

Video of the Day - Hall v. DeVore

Here is TUF 17's Uriah Hall fighting Josh DeVore at a WCL kickboxing event in 2008. Hall (12-5, 5-3 UFC) is coming off the best win of his career after he defeated Gegard Mousasi via 2nd round TKO.

Video of the Day - Comert v. Payakaroon

Here is Thai kickboxing legent Samart Payakaroon fighting Murat Comert on October 2, 1993.

In addition to being considered one of the greatest Thai boxers of all-time with well over 100 victories, Samart also was a professional boxer (21-2), winning the WBC superbantamweight title in 1986 KO'ing Lupe Pintor (56-14). He would defend with a TKO over Juan Meza (45-9) before losing to Jeff French.

Video of the Day - Foster v. Daniels

Here is UFC veteran Brian Foster in a kickboxing bout against WCL veteran Raymond Daniels at Glory 11 - Chicago, which took place on 10/12/13 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Foster (21-6, 3-2 UFC) has stoppage wins over Matt Brown, Forrest Petz and Brock Larsen in the UFC. He is currently 2-0 in 2014 having submitted Mitch Whitesel and Rodrigo Soria via armbar.

Daniels is a 6th degree black belt in American Kenpo and Shotokan Karate, possessing a 5th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Daniels was a stand-out in Chuck Norris' World Combat League, where he defeated Chidi Njokuani, Jamie Fletcher, Damion Caldwell and Andreas Spang among others.

(Raymond Daniels throwing an axe kick)

Video of the Day - Hassan v. Ngalani

Here is kickboxer Alain Ngalani fighting Mahmoud "Hellboy" Hassan at One FC 10 which took place on 9/13/13 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ngalani, a Kyokushin Karate black belt, has accumulated many Muay Thai and kickboxing titles over the years. He has defeated Michael McDonald, Carter Williams and Bob Sapp in kickboxing bouts. The fight starts around the 4 minute mark.

Video of the day - Urlacher v. Rutten

Here is Bas Rutten explaining a run-in with Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher at a charity golf event. Apparently Bas accidently stepped on Urlacher's footwear. Rutten is a former HW UFC champ and King of Pancrase.


Rutten on Jerry Springer: