Rick John Roufus is a retired American kickboxer. He has also competed professionally in boxing and mixed martial arts. An accomplished professional fighter throughout his competitive career, Roufus has won multiple world championships across the globe in several weight classes, he was world champion as a super middle weight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. Roufus held titles for all the major kickboxing associations worldwide, and is known for his boxing skills and powerful kicks. He is the older brother of Duke Roufus who is also a kickboxer and a Muay Thai and mixed martial arts instructor. Rick Roufus is the Global Director of Fighter Development for PKA Worldwide. In 2012 Rick Roufus was inducted into the World Kickboxing League Hall of Fame.
James Nathaniel Toney is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the IBF and lineal middleweight titles from 1991 to 1993, the IBF super middleweight title from 1993 to 1994, and the IBF cruiserweight title in 2003. Toney also challenged twice for a world heavyweight title in 2005 and 2006, and was victorious the first time but was later stripped due to a failed drug test. Overall, he competed in fifteen world title fights across four weight classes.
Jörgen Ingmar Kruth is a retired Swedish professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He is a former two time World Muay Thai Council Heavyweight Muaythai World Champion. He is considered to be among the greatest Scandinavian kickboxers of all time.
Ray Sefo is a New Zealand fight promoter and retired kickboxer, boxer, and mixed martial artist of Samoan descent. He was the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 Runner-up, is a six-time Muay Thai World Champion, and was an eight time K-1 World Grand Prix Finals tournament participant. He is the president of MMA promotion Professional Fighters League. In kickboxing, he defeated world champions Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts, Stefan Leko, Mike Bernardo, and Mark Hunt. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers to have never won the K-1 World Grand Prix.
Cruiserweight, also referred to as junior heavyweight, is a weight class in professional boxing between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom.
Dennis Raymond Alexio is an American former professional kickboxer and actor who competed in the light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Starting out as a light heavyweight, Alexio kicked off his career with an extensive, knockout-laden undefeated streak before losing a decision to Don "The Dragon" Wilson in a World Kickboxing Association (WKA) World Super Light Heavyweight Full Contact Championship match in 1984. He rebounded from this by winning the Professional Karate Association (PKA) World Light Heavyweight title that same year before moving up to cruiserweight and taking the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) World Cruiserweight Full Contact strap. In the late 1980s, he began his transition to the heavyweight division where he won six world titles and was considered the undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. He faced the two toughest tests of his career in 1992 against Branko Cikatić and Stan Longinidis - both of whom were heavier fighters - fighting to a controversial draw with Cikatić and losing to Longinidis via an early low kick KO which resulted in a broken leg.
Maurice L. Smith is a retired American kickboxer and mixed martial artist. In kickboxing, he held the WKC world light heavyweight championship, the WKA world heavyweight championship, and the ISKA world heavyweight championship. In mixed martial arts, he held the Heavyweight championship in Battlecade Extreme Fighting and the UFC, and became a member of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2017. A professional competitor since 1980, Smith has formerly competed in kickboxing for the companies All Japan Enterprise and K-1, Pancrase, RINGS, PRIDE, Strikeforce, International Fight League and RFA.
Donald Glen Wilson, nicknamed "The Dragon", is an American martial artist, former professional kickboxer, and actor. An 11-time world champion who scored 47 knockouts in four decades, he has been called by the STAR System Ratings as "perhaps the greatest kickboxer in American history. He has disposed of more quality competition than anyone we've ever ranked". In 2015, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.
Stan "The Man" Longinidis is an Australian retired heavyweight kickboxer and 8-time world kickboxing champion. Born in Melbourne of Greek ethnicity, Longinidis is one of the few fighters to win world titles in four different styles of kickboxing competition: international rules, Oriental rules, full contact and Muay Thai. He holds notable victories over Branko Cikatić, Adam Watt, Peter Graham, Musashi and Dennis Alexio.
Dale Cook is an American former kickboxer who competed in the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions. With a background in karate and taekwondo, Cook debuted professionally in 1977 and spent the early part of his career as a full contact rules fighter. In the 1980s, he began fighting under Oriental and Muay Thai rules and took two world titles under the WKA banner. A short stint in shoot boxing towards the end of his career in the mid-1990s resulted in another world title in that discipline.
Marek "The Punisher" Piotrowski is a Polish retired heavyweight kickboxer and boxer. He is a former ten time kickboxing world champion.
Lee Hasdell is a British martial artist, promoter and former professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. Hasdell is considered by many to be a pioneer of mixed martial arts in the United Kingdom, particularly in the 1990s, when he drove a great deal of innovation in the field. Hasdell promoted the first professional mixed martial arts events in the UK and helped develop many of the standards within the British MMA scene of today.
Gary Turner is an English professional mixed martial artist who fought in the Cage Rage and K-1 promotions. Turner was the K-1 UK Grand Prix champion in 2003 and 2004. As a mixed martial artist, he currently holds a record of 4-2-1 with notable victories over Tank Abbott and former British Heavyweight boxing champion, Julius Francis.
Tosca Petridis is an Australian former kickboxer and boxer. He was born in Melbourne, however is of Greek ethnicity. He lives in Melbourne.
Przemysław Saleta is a Polish professional boxer, as well as a former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. Later he became an actor and sports commentator as well as a TV personality.
Andre Mannaart is a Dutch former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He was four times world champion in kickboxing and Muay Thai, having fought against K-1 legends such as Ernesto Hoost, Branko Cikatić, Maurice Smith and Ray Sefo. He is now a trainer at the Mejiro Gym in Amsterdam, where he has coached fighters of the calibre of Peter Aerts and Remy Bonjasky.
Dennis Alexio vs. Branko Cikatić was a heavyweight kickboxing bout that took place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on March 16, 1992, which ended in a controversial technical draw.
Denis Alexandrovich Grachev is a Russian boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist residing in the United States. Grachev was the IKF Muay Thai world light cruiserweight champion.
Patrick Nwamu is a retired professional fighter, who has held international titles in boxing, kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu. He has also coached and promoted boxing and martial arts, and has collected a small number of acting credits. His parents are members of the Nigerian royal family of Asaba, Nigeria, and Nwamu was given the title of crown warrior prince for his accomplishments in professional fighting and his promotion of Asaba traditions and customs, as well as the creation of Tri Fighting MMA (Kwab-Je).
Donald Eugene “Nakaya” Nielsen was an American kickboxer, professional wrestler, actor, and chiropractor. Best known for his lengthy tenure in professional martial arts, Nielsen was an international competitor who held the WKA US Cruiserweight Championship for much of his career and fought in one of the earliest mixed martial arts-style matches of Japan. As an alternative medicine practitioner, Nielsen played an active role in legalizing chiropractic practice in Thailand.
