Biography and career
Ubeda began his career in 1980 and had his first title fight in 1986, losing to Andre Masseurs in their match for the Dutch Youth kickboxing belt. In 1992 he fought Sedou Kiatsongrit for the W.M.T.C (now W.M.C) world title but lost. He bounced back from that defeat by winning the I.K.B.F European title in Clermont-Ferrand, France, defeating his opponent by a knockout.
In 1995 Ubeda won the W.M.T.A world title. He defeated the reigning champion Azem Maksutaj, knocking him down three times on the way to a first round stoppage victory in Nijmegen, Netherlands. In 1996 Ubeda won a Taekwondo event in Tokyo, winning the All Japan Open Taekwondo Championship, winning all three of his matches by first-round knockout. This victory was made even more impressive as he was the lightest fighter at a tournament where some of the contestants weighed up to 90 kg (198 lbs). Later that year he defeated Rodney Faverus to win the W.K.A. Dutch title.
Between 1997 and 2000, Ubeda would take part in a number of high-profile bouts, defeating fighters such as Ashwin Balrak, Stephan Nikiema and Ivan Hippolyte (their final match of three) and winning the I.K.B.O. world title in 1999 and the World Professional Kickboxing League (WPKL) and I.M.T.F. world titles in 2000. He would also suffer a few defeats, losing his second fight against Hippolyte in 1998 as well as failing to win the W.M.T.C. world title against Sakmongkol Sithchuchok in 1999 – Sakmongol's relentless kicks eventually breaking Ubeda’s arm in the fifth round of their bout.
In 2002 Ubeda won two more titles, defeating Turkish fighters Şahin Yakut and Yücel Fidan to win the World Kickboxing Association (W.K.A.)and World Full Contact Association (W.F.C.A.) world titles. The W.F.C.A. title would be the last honour that Ubeda would claim, as years of damage from low kicks had taken their toll on his shins and meant that he would only be able to fight using full-contact style kickboxing from then on. In 2003 he met Rayen Simson in the first of their two matches at what would be his only K-1 appearance, winning by unanimous decision at the K-1 Holland Grand Prix 2003.
As a purely full-contact fighter, Ubeda would continue to win titles, winning the W.F.C.A. kickboxing world title in 2003. Later that year he entered the 8-man "Nuit des Champions" tournament, held annually in Marseilles, France where he made the final. In 2005 he retained his W.F.C.A. kickboxing world title before dropping down in weight to re-match Rayen Simson at the end of the year. He won their title fight in Nijmegen to add the 72.5 kg W.F.C.A. belt to his collection. Not one to be known to turn down a challenge, he also entered pro boxing and had reasonable success, winning the Pro Boxing Brill Ben Carré Amsterdam Cup. He had his last kickboxing bout against good friend Şahin Yakut at It's Showtime 2009 Amsterdam, losing by unanimous decision.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
