Jérôme Philippe Le Banner is a French kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler. Le Banner fought for most of his career in K-1 and became known for his aggressive fighting style and knockout power. He is a 2-time K-1 World Grand Prix runner up, a 2-time K-1 Preliminary Grand Prix champion, and is a multiple time world champion in Kickboxing and Muay Thai. He holds notable victories over Ernesto Hoost (twice), Francisco Filho, Mark Hunt, Sam Greco, Mike Bernardo (twice), Peter Aerts, Rick Roufus, Remy Bonjasky, Tyrone Spong, Stefan Leko (twice), Masaaki Satake, Maurice Smith, Gary Goodridge (twice), Musashi (twice), Cyril Abidi and Choi Hong-man (twice).
Andreas "Andy" Hug was a Swiss karateka and kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time, Hug was renowned for his ability to execute numerous kicking techniques rarely seen in high-level competition. Although he was usually smaller than his opponents, standing at 1.80 m and being barely a heavyweight, weighing around 98.0 kg in his prime, he made up for his lack of size with his tremendous athleticism and speed. A southpaw, his trademark kicks included the axe kick and the "Hug Tornado", a low spinning heel kick targeting his opponents' thighs.
Sem "Semmy" Schilt is a Dutch actor and former kickboxer, Ashihara karateka and mixed martial artist. He stands 206 cm and weighs 171 kg. Schilt holds the distinction of being the only kickboxer to have won 5 major heavyweight tournaments, being a four-time K-1 World Grand Prix Champion and one time Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam Champion. He also held the K-1 Super Heavyweight Championship and the Glory Heavyweight Championship titles. He is the only fighter in K-1 history to win the world championship three times in a row, and also shares the record with Ernesto Hoost for most Grands Prix won, with four.
Nobuaki Kakuda is a retired karateka and kickboxer and former K-1 Head referee.
Glaube Araújo Feitosa is a Brazilian former kickboxer and a kyokushin full contact karate practitioner who was competing in K-1. In 2005, Feitosa won K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Las Vegas tournament and was a K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 finalist. He has gone the distance with some of the top fighters in his time, such as Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt and Errol Zimmerman. An accomplished karate fighter, he was known for his use of the "question mark kick," utilizing the technique in several knockout victories in his career. Feitosa also holds wins over Cheick Kongo, Alistair Overeem, Ruslan Karaev, and Paul Slowinski.
Peter Graham is an Australian karateka, kickboxer, boxer and mixed martial artist.
Siala-Mou Siliga, often billed as Mighty Mo is a former American Samoan kickboxer, bare knuckle boxer, boxer and mixed martial artist who competed in the Heavyweight division. At the age of 22, he got his nickname from his former American football coach after the battleship USS Missouri. His K-1 achievements include winning the K-1 World Grand Prix 2004 in Las Vegas II and the K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Hawaii tournaments. In mixed martial arts, he has competed for K-1 Hero's, Bellator MMA, DREAM, Road FC and also participated in the Dynamite!! USA and Dynamite!! 2008 events. On September 24, 2016, Siliga won the Road FC Openweight Tournament at Road FC 33 by knocking out Choi Hong-man of South Korea.
Francisco "Chiquinho" Alves Filho is a Brazilian Kyokushin Karateka and kickboxer. He is one of the few karate-ka to have successfully completed the 100 man kumite more than once.
Errol Zimmerman is a Curaçaoan-Dutch kickboxer, representing the Hemmers Gym in Breda, Netherlands. He is K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Amsterdam and SUPERKOMBAT Fight Club tournaments champion. Zimmerman is also former Glory Heavyweight Championship and K-1 Super Heavyweight Championship challenger. In 2011 WIPU voted him the Kickboxer of the Year.
Aleksandr N. Pitchkounov is a former Russian heavyweight kickboxer and kyokushin karateka competing in K-1. He was the runner up at the K-1 World GP 2007 in Hawaii and K-1 World GP 2008 in Taipei tournament.
Nicholas Pettas is a Greek-Danish karateka, former heavyweight kickboxer and actor, who fought out of Team Spirit AE in Tokyo, Japan. Pettas mainly competed in the promotion K-1 between 1998 and 2007, and was the winner of the K-1 Japan Grand Prix 2001.
Kyotaro Fujimoto is a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 2011 to 2019 and a kickboxer. He began competing again as a professional kickboxer in 2021.
K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Seoul Final 16 was a martial arts event held by the K-1 on Saturday September 27, 2008 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, Korea. It was the Final Elimination tournament for top sixteen fighters. The winners qualified for the K-1 World GP 2008 Final held on December 6, 2008, at Yokohama Arena, Japan.
Andrews Nakahara is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer and kyokushin karateka currently signed with K-1. He made his MMA pro debut against Kazushi Sakuraba at the Dream 2: Middleweight Grand Prix 2008 First Round.
K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Seoul Final 16 was a martial arts event held by the K-1 on Saturday, October 2, 2010 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, Korea. It was the Final Elimination tournament for top sixteen fighters. The winners qualified for the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final held on December 11, 2010 at Yokohama Arena, Japan.
Mauricio "Baboo" Da Silva is a Brazilian kyokushin kaikan full contact karate practitioner and former professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He is a professional coach and trainer of K-1 and MMA, who has trained a number of world class fighters including Francisco Filho, Glaube Feitosa, Andrews Nakahara, Ewerton Teixeira, Ray Sefo, Aleksandr Pitchkounov, Takumi Sato, Jan Soukup, Kou Tasei, Jan Nortje, Doug Viney, Mighty Mo (kickboxer) and Akebono Taro. From 1998 to 2004 he worked as the trainer and sparring partner for Francisco Filho. He lived in Tokyo, Japan from 2005 to December 2010 and trained fighters from the IKO1 Kyokushin - Team Ichigeki and other fighters from visiting teams at the Ichigeki Plaza. He fought in the K-1 PREMIUM 2003 Dynamite!! and also in the Ichigeki events in Japan.
Yuji Nashiro (名城裕司) is a Japanese kickboxer who competes in the welterweight division.
Jan Soukup is a Czech karateka, the branch chief for International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan in Czech Republic, the president of the Czech Kyokushin Karate Association and the vice president of the Czech Fullcontact Karate Organization, and also a retired kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Soukup's first noteworthy accomplishment was a third-place finish at the European Kyokushin Championships in 2003 and he followed this by winning the All-Japan Kyokushin Championships the next year. After finishing as runner-up in the European Championships and in third place in the European Open in 2005, Soukup had his most successful year in 2007 when he won the European Championships and lost to Ewerton Teixeira in the final of the 9th Kyokushin World Open. Beginning in 2008, he embarked on a career in kickboxing which included a stint in K-1.
Michael Thompson is an English former karateka and kickboxer who competed in the cruiserweight and heavyweight division. After a long and distinguished career in Kyokushin, in which he won the British Open four times, the Commonwealth Championships in 1988 and the European Championships in 1991 as well as competing three times in the World Open, Thompson later switched to Seidokaikan and reached the final of the 1994 Seidokaikan Karate World Cup. During his time as a Seidokaikan competitor, he also fought as a professional kickboxer in K-1, amassing a 6–5 record and becoming the WKA European Super Cruiserweight Champion.
Jean Rivière is a Canadian former Kyokushin karateka, kickboxer and mixed martial artist. A heavyweight competitor fighting out of Montreal, Rivière reached the semi-finals at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in 1991 and later embarked on a career in the K-1 kickboxing promotion and the burgeoning MMA scene of the mid-1990s.
2nd Place - 10th Kyokushin World Open Karate Tournament IKO 1 (lost to Tariel Nikosheivili)
9th Kyokushin World Open Karate Tournament IKO 1 (Defeated Jan Soukup)
8th Kyokushin World Open Karate Tournament IKO 1(lost to Hitoshi Kiyama/Defeated Glaube Feitosa)
