Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 43: Seido Kaikan Kakuto Tensho Kakutogi Olympic II 7/30/92 Tokyo Yoyogi National Stadium
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 7/26/21

It seems that in any major endeavor, there is a brilliancy that bursts forth once a generation that will forever alter the dynamics of how that undertaking is perceived by its subsequent followers. Yes, true legends only come along once or twice in a lifetime, and they tend to be stars that burn far too quickly, but will be felt for many years to come. Andy Hug was one such star, a ball of energy that didn’t last half as long as it should have, but burned far brighter than anyone that has come after. Of course, anyone that has followed 90s kickboxing knows of this incredible talent, but we are now reaching an era where much of what he and his contemporaries did are starting to be forgotten, and hopefully, we can help change that. When we started this road of motley misadventures, we began in March of 1991, and while the history of MMA will always be our primary focus, we have always made it a point to try and cover kickboxing as well, not only is it a shared passion between myself and my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice, but is in even more dire need of historical analysis than even early MMA is.

Andy Hug was born 9-7-64 in Zurich, Switzerland, but was raised in the Wohlen municipality of Aargau, Switzerland. He took a keen interest in sports at a young age, starting with football (soccer) until the Kyokushin karate bug bit him at the age of ten years old. He instantly took to it, and trained hard until he was able to win various regional titles in the late 70s in the middleweight category (176 pounds). He eventually made his way to the heavyweight division in 1984, and that same year made it to the fourth round of the Kyokushin World Cup. The next year, he won his first major title by taking the crown at the 1985 European Championships. He continued to compete at a high level in the Kyokushin karate tournament scene before joining Sediokaikan in 1992. As we will continue to cover/discover in the days ahead, Hug was an incredible talent in the karate/kickboxing arena. Although barely a heavyweight, he was able to frequently perform maneuvers rarely seen in high-level competition, most notably the ax-kick. He also made up for his lack of size with an incredible athleticism mixed in with a lot of unconventional lines of attack, which eventually led to him winning the K1 World Grand Prix in 1996, and almost winning again in 1997. Sadly, his life was cut far too short due to a sudden bout with leukemia at the age of 35 in the year 2000.

The date is 7-30-92, and we now find ourselves with our first opportunity to look at Hug via his inclusion at the 2nd Sediokaikan Kakutogi Olympic. We witnessed the first of these events four months prior, which was an event co-promoted with RINGS and was essentially a full-blown MMA event minus the opening exhibition with Akira Maeda. This time around, though Akira Maeda is in the crowd, it does not appear that RINGS is involved, but it does appear that there will be some variance in the rules from bout to bout, and that grappling will be allowed in some of them.

The first matchup on this card is Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas and will be contested under Karate Semi-contact Special Rules, which if I’m honest, I must admit I have no idea what that means. The first thing that we notice is that not only is RINGS not involved this time out, but neither is an actual ring. Instead, we are back to the Sediokaikan norm of using an absurdly large square mat for close-quarters combat. Nishi fought in a very cautious style, but was scarily accurate when he chose to fire. Douglas appears to be the faster fighter, but is apprehensive about committing to anything. Rounds 2 and 3 saw Douglas get a lot looser and more into the groove but like myself, he didn’t seem to fully understand the rules, and was penalized for punching Nishi in the face, which is illegal. He was penalized again for taking Nishi down and punching him in the stomach while in his guard. Apparently, grappling and submissions are allowed on the ground, but either no striking at all or just not to the head? The match was a draw after three rounds. Quite interesting, but also uneventful. I suspect that Douglas would have been very dangerous if he understood the rules more.

ML: Cautious fight. Nishi kept coming forward, but Douglas backed away from his attacks rather than engaging, which can make for a difficult fight when there's maybe 50 feet to work with. Douglas mainly threw a quick low impact counter after getting hit with one or two strikes. Nishi landed more often, but never really connected with any solid blows. Douglas may have been the better fighter, but I'm not sure he knew the rules too well. He cut Nishi with a left hook in the 2nd round, the first good shot he landed, but punches to the face were illegal in this one. He caught Nishi's leg and took him down, but failed to score due to an illegal punch. Douglas seemed to finally be getting the hang of taking Nishi down by the end of the fight. Fair but relatively uneventful.

Toshiyuki Yanagisawa vs Andy Hug:

Our very first glimpse of Andy Hug is in a behind-the-scenes vignette where he is AX KICKING HIS TRAINING PARTNER!! I apologize for my enthusiasm, but this was a truly glorious preview of what’s in store for the next 7 ½ years. Before the bout begins, we get to see Nobuaki Kakuda taking on the role of referee, which is something he would continue to do well into the K-1 era, and for this we are thankful. This will be under normal Sediokaikan karate rules. The fight starts, and right away the ax kick returns, which is just one of many reasons why Hug was such a special talent, as in almost anyone else’s hands (or feet as the case may be), this would be far too impractical a maneuver. This was a fast-paced 5 round slugfest that saw Hug throw just about every variation of a kick that you could think of. He put a complete clinic on Yanagisawa as almost every time Yanigisawa would try to enter into phone booth range, he would eat about three kicks for his trouble. Yanagisawa would get the occasional punch or low-kick to land but was probably on a 6-1 losing end of any exchanges. Still, he had tons of heart and just would not quit. This fight was tons of fun despite being so one-sided.

ML: I give Yanagisawa credit for going the distance with Hug in this fast-paced bout. Andy was putting on a clinic at his expense, but there was no quit in Yanagisawa. No punches to the face is probably to Hug's advantage, as his kicking is so good he can be extremely effective essentially without throwing any punches, even just for the distraction/misdirection. Hug's flexibility is tremendous, for instance he landed a left axe kick and kept his leg extended in midair, coming right back with a left high kick (which I believe missed). That kind of technique also requires super one foot balance, which Hug regularly displayed, even changing pivot feet so quickly the right leg would be up with a strike the second the left leg was down. Hug cut Yanagisawa's left eye with a right high kick. At one point, he landed a left axe kick followed by a left high kick then put Yanagisawa down with a right leg sweep. Later he put him down with a spinning leg sweep. Good albeit onesided bout.

Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Andrei Artamonov:

This match will be under “Karate Glove Rules” which I’m guessing is an esoteric way of saying “kickboxing match.” Tagami was a fighter most notably seen in the early K-1 era, whose powers probably peaked around 1993. His most important contribution was his unquestionably awesome mustache, by far the best in kakutogi history. Artamonov, however, is completely unknown to me. Right away, Artamonov is looking super impressive, almost like Bruce Lee, both in speed and taste in shiny black pants. He is effortlessly moving in and out, kicking Tagami at will. Tagami seems to be the more powerful of the two and occasionally bullies his way into close enough range to land some hard shots, but most of the time, Artamonov can flee away. Round 2 was more of the same, with Tagami barely being able to land anything. Round 3 is when it all turned around for Tagami. Up to this point, he was playing the role of a counter fighter, trying to time his kicks around Artamonov’s attacks. The speed discrepancy was too great for this strategy to work, so in this round, he just went full blast and kept bum-rushing Artamonov at every opportunity. This approach worked splendidly, as Artamonov wasn’t able to handle the constant aggression, and eventually ate a high kick to the jaw, which ended the fight. Good fight, and a great example of smart strategy winning the day.

ML: Tagami is a very aggressive fighter who keeps the pressure on, but unfortunately, Artamonov could run all night. Tagami got off to a quick start then Artamonov was just in retreat mode. Artamonov tried being the aggressor at the start of R2, but resorted to running after taking a few kicks. Artamonov's big problem is he'd eat a left low or middle kick just about every time he tried to punch. Tagami eventually tired of Artamonov's hiding, chasing after him and landing kicks. Even a swift kick in the Jimmy couldn't slow Tagami down. In fact, it may just have made him more determined, as he knocking Artamonov out with a left high kick not long after. Surprisingly pretty good in spite of Artamonov's best efforts to avoid contact.

Manson Gibson vs. Taiei Kin:

This match will be held under “Karate Glove and Semi Contact Rules” which I’m guessing means that this is a kickboxing match with some degree of grappling/submissions allowed. Gibson is one of the mutual favorites of myself, and my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice, so any day that we get to see him in action is a good one. Taiei Kin, on the other hand, is perhaps one of the most underrated Japanese kickboxers when it comes to his importance in historical discussions. Never the flashiest, or most entertaining fighter, he was always a very tough opponent and one of the most consistently top performers out of the Japanese natives in the 90s K-1 era. He was also robbed of his rightful victory at a Sediokaikan 57-man kickboxing/karate tournament when Kazuyoshi Ishii (Sediokaikan/K1 founder) overturned an obvious judges’ decision in the finals. This travesty gave his golden boy, Masaaki Satake, another undeserved round and wound up tilting the contest in Satake’s favor.

The fight hasn’t even started yet, and Gibson is being both flashy and disrespectful. He went as far as to kiss him during the opening stare down while the announcer was speaking. We begin, and Gibson’s footwork and athleticism are off-the-charts. Here is a guy that once fought Ernesto Hoost with nothing but sidekicks and spinning back fists, and still managed to completely confound him in the process. Round 1 was weird in that no one really wanted to draw first blood. Gibson kept threatening a sidekick or spinning technique, and this seemed to befuddle Kin. Round 2 sees the gloves come off, which I can only assume means that there will be no face punches in this round. Kin was more aggressive in round 2, and landed a few good shots but spent most of his exchanges getting slammed. One spectacular moment saw Gibson just toss him over his back for some major hangtime. Gibson didn’t land much this round, but he didn’t have to, as every time Kin tried to do something he would either get taken down or slammed. Takedowns seem to be permitted, but they weren’t allowed to do anything on the ground once it got there, so I am still at a loss as to what format the rules are following.

Round 3 sees a lot more aggressiveness from Kin, who presses more of an attack and manages to duck a spinning head kick and follows it up with a great short punch to Gibson’s jaw. This change in fortunes made Gibson woozy, and it even seemed like he was in trouble, but he managed to regain his composure just in time to resume his sidekicks and slams. Kin was able to fare a little better here with a few strikes in the clinch before being tossed to the mat, but still didn’t have any reasonable answers to Gibson’s strange ways.

We are back to taped fists for Round 4. Gibson almost murdered Taiei with a head kick followed by a punch to the jaw, but this is now illegal as apparently, punches are illegal in even-numbered rounds (with no gloves). Kin recovers, only to get flatlined again with another closed fist punch. That’s game-over for Gibson, who is now disqualified. This is a hard fight to rate. On one hand, it’s always a pleasure to see Gibson operate, as he had to have been the most unorthodox kickboxer of his era to reach a high level of competition. However, this same uniqueness also led to an odd staccato rhythm in this fight where it was mostly a confused Kin trying to figure out what to do with him. Not much happened in the first two rounds, but it was a unique experience all the same.

ML: Gibson has excellent footwork, and is so light on his feet. He beautifully utilized his side stance to keep Kin off balance and on the defensive as he looked for his spinning kicks. Gibson would come in by repeatedly spinning, with Kin not even throwing as he was so baffled. Kin, who is normally one of the better counter strikers, backed away as usual, but was never able to go on the offensive out of his opponent's miss, and thus barely landed anything in the first two rounds. Kin landed a high kick in the 2nd, and tried to press forward, but Gibson countered with a suisha otoshi. In the third, Kin avoided a spinning kick and put Gibson down with a short right hand to the chin, which was legal because they wore kickboxing gloves in the 1st & 3rd. Gibson put Kin down twice in round 4, but unfortunately for him they were both with illegal punches at the end of the combination because they both fought with karate taped fists in the 2nd & 4th, resulting in a DQ. Kin was hurt fairly badly the second time, his eye almost immediately closed, and was rather unhappy with Gibson after the fight, as there was also a low blow and a few really slow breaks. That being said, Gibson is a kickboxer whose instincts are to punch to the head, so it had to be really difficult to remember every other round that he couldn't do what he always does. Certainly a disappointing finish, but the expected high level of fighting from two of the best. Entertaining fight, though more for people who enjoy quality defense and movement, as not that much really connected despite the aggressive high risk attacking.

Dale "Apollo" Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa

It’s Christmas in July over here, as another one of our favorites, Dale “Apollo” Cook, is here to surely show everyone else how this is supposed to be done. Cook was someone that always looks amazing, and has always looked about 60% better than his opponent in any fight I’ve seen him in. Sadly, many of his fights are lost to us, and one of our mission parameters at Kakutogi HQ is to locate more of his fights. This fight was 4 rounds of Atokawa getting owned by an excellent showcase of Cook’s skills. No mater what range of the fight it was, Cook was better than his opponent. Atokawa showed tons of heart, and to be fair, had some decent moments when he wasn’t wearing gloves, but this was almost a one-way show for Cook. Fun fight.

ML: Atokawa is one of those natives who seems to always fight a name foreigner who is more talented than him, but always gives his all, and that translates into a tough action packed fight. Atokawa was aggressive, especially in the final round, but Cook does such a nice job of making little movements that Atokawa rarely landed cleanly anywhere but to the leg. Cook is so great it doesn't matter much whether he's counterpunching or attacking to fill any lulls. He was way more accurate than Atokawa. Cook put Atokawa down early with a straight left counter, and had several good takedowns, mostly with the STO, but overall it was a lot closer than I would have expected. Atokawa didn't wear boxing gloves, so he wasn't supposed to be allowed to punch to the head, but of course, he accidentally did it anyway, with Cook punching himself in the chin twice to alert the ref to the infraction. Good match.

Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad

This was just two minutes of Satake beating up some random dude that had no business being there. Muhammad seemed to barely be able to move his feet, which caused him to just be a stationary target for Satake.

ML: I realize Satake was "good" in these days, or rather the pet of promoter Ishii, but this slaughter seemed more due to Muhammad being past his prime. I don't actually know anything about the guy, but his footwork stunk, and seemed to cost him the first knockdown. Satake then hurt him with a low kick for the second knockdown, resulting in Muhammad gimping around the rest of the bout. Satake kept the pressure on, and why not as he was hitting Muhammad at will.

Conclusion: Despite the bizarre and confusing rules this was a fun event. I wish it had more of the MMA feel that its predecessor did, but it was still a very worthwhile show, and it was a delight to see Hug in action.

ML: The fights were a bit all over the place with these weird rules that changed by the round, but there was a lot of talent of this show, with three all time greats in Cook, Gibson, and Andy all delivering typically fun matches. Especially given they weren't even fighting in a ring, or under kickboxing rules, this event greatly exceeded my expectations.

Thanks to our resident translator Hebisasori, we were able to have this event reviewed, and here is his translation of all the interesting details, in his own words:   

Introduction Narrator: Douglas is a wrestler, but has experienced some striking and is trying to form his own version of a complete fighting style.  Nishi experienced Kyokushin karate and Daidojuku karate and is founder of Keishukai.  Hug formerly from Kyokushinkai with his unbeatable axe kick; Yanagisawa of Seidokaikan has fought in many memorable bouts.  Artamonov is a full contact karate fighter from the ex-Soviet Union and is undefeated.  Tagami from Seidokaikan, light weight figher, mainly in kickboxing.  Gibson, is kickboxing world middle weight champion and the hawk weight champion in shoot boxing and has many other titles; Kin, a young hopeful fighter from Seidokaikan.  Cook is UKF world middle weight champion, experienced in kickboxing, but also in boxing with high KO rate. Atokawa from Seidokaikan, beat Satake in the Karate World Cup.  Muhammad, former WKA Super Heavyweight Champion; Satake of Seidokaikan, aiming for the top position on the martial arts road.

Ishii, Seidokaikan chairman’s opening speech: Thanks for coming, this is our 2nd  Martial Arts Olympics…We’re planning to continue doing these events every year over the next few years to make martial arts as popular as F1 [Formula 1 car racing… very popular in Japan at the time… inspiration for the term K1 he later comes up]… Please keep cheering and enjoy the show, thank you… Osu!

Karate Semi-contact Special Rule: Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas 3R (3min rounds):

By “semi-contact” they mean Kyokushin/Seidokaikan type karate rules that is bare knuckle full strikes without punches/hand strikes to the head.  Win by KO or referee/doctor stop or 3 downs in one round.  Escaping out of the mat twice is considered one down.  Grappling is allowed.  No hand strikes to head and no striking on the ground.

Nishi’s post-fight comments: “I could only use my left leg today, I’m not too happy.”

Seido Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Yanagisawa 5R (3 min rounds)

Narrator: Any Hug, after transitioning to a professional fighter, has been further perfecting his axe kick.  Yanagisawa would like to showcase his talent that he had shown in Seidokaikan tournaments.

“Semi contact” karate rules (meaning no face punches, full-contact); after a down if the fighter is unable to make a fighting pose within 5 seconds, he would lose (by ippon = full point); if he can make a fighting pose, he loses half point.  No throws, no face punches, and grabbing is allowed for one second.  Kakuda is the referee.  [I think this was Andy Hug’s first public fight in Japan after leaving the Kyokushinkai organization, and being picked up by Seidokaikan to fight professionally.]

Post fight interview with Atokawa: About his thoughts on Hug: “He’s strong… very strong.”

Karate Glove Rule: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Andrei Artamonov 5R (3 mins rounds) 1:58. 

Glove rules; Win by KO, TKO, or 3 downs in one round.  No headbutts, groin attacks, throws, or strikes to downed opponent.  Leg kicks are allowed but no elbows and knees to head.

Post fight comments of Tagami: “I did it! Alright!” When questioned about his opponent, he says, “After he punched me, I felt I could take his strikes, so while letting him hit me, I went on the offense.”

Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Manson Gibson vs. Taiei Kin 4R (3 mins rounds).

Mixed rules alternating between rounds: the gloved rounds are in muaythai rules, allowing elbows and knees; During the karate rounds [Kyokushin/Seido type rules, bareknuckle with no face punches], you can wear gloves if you want to.

Kin’s post fight comments… His seconds tell him “you won” and Kin says “I got one down from him!”

Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Dale "Apollo" Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 4R (3mins rounds). 

Mixed rules like previous fight (knock down bareknuckle karate (“kyokushin/Seidokaikan” rules) + kickboxing (“gloved karate”).  Gloved rules is muaythai rules allowing elbows and knees.  For karate rules the fighter can wear gloves he wishes (which is what Cook chose to do).

After the fight, narrator’s comment: Cook asks Atokawa for forgiveness for accidentally hitting his face during the karate rounds and they show mutual respect… And among the cheering spectators in the audience, there was also the face of Akira Maeda.  Cook wins by decision. 

Post-fight interview with Atokawa: “It’s true that in the first round I got knocked down, but for the rest of the rounds in content, my low kicks were hurting him and I hit him with my knees.  But unfortunately, he had already gotten me with a decisive down earlier.  But in any case, for myself, I’m pretty satisfied [with how the fight went].”

Karate Glove Rule: Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad 5 rounds (3 min rounds)

Narrator before the fight: the martial arts road in unfolding in 1992 with this man Satake as the leading player.  He is now in the process of treading the path to the peak.  However for Satake, who is still uncertain about fighting with gloves, this fight weighs heavy as an anticipation of his many to come future bouts with formidable opponents.  He cannot lose.

Full contact karate rules: Win by KO, TKO, and 3 downs in one round counts as a KO.  No headbuts, throws, groin attacks, attacks to downed opponents; no elbows and no knees to head/face.

Post fight narration: The former WKA superheavy weight champion was no match for Satake.  The fighter who had conquered the world on this day was lacking as an opponent for Satake.  Responding to the “Satake” chant, Satake was already looking past the horizon of Muhammad.

Postfight interview with Satake: “The Seidokaikan fighters today were doing so so, so I wanted to make a big bang to end today’s event, so it was good. With this I will continue to improve [“step up”] and I’ll continue training hard for my next fights.  Plus the younger fighters [in Seidokaikan karate] are coming up too, so it will become interesting…”

Narrator: summer of 1992 at the Yoyogi Gymnasium, the battle has ended… the 2nd  martial arts Olympics has closed its curtain… but this will be a prologue to a coming future 3rd  battle ground. "

*Kakutogi Rewind*

Now, to end this month with a bang, we decided to go way back into our vaults and pull out the oldest footage we have of Andy Hug, at a karate tournament from 1989! The event in question was the 4th All Europe Karate Championship, which featured several talents that would become notorious in later years, most notably Gerard Gordeau, Michael Thompson, and of course, Andy Hug. I should also note that while going over this video, it was a lot of fun to notice Kyokushin Karate founder, Mas Oyama, hold a press conference, because of the unbridled joy that could be seen on his face, when he was talking about karate to the press and public. Both Andy Hug and British karateka, Michael Thompson, made it to the finals of this event. Both Thompson and Hug have been here before, Hug won this event back in 1987, and Thompson took 3rd in 1982 and 2nd in 1987. This time frame was probably at the peak of Thompson’s karate powers, whereas Hug wasn’t quite into his absolute best version of himself. As the 90s continued, Thompson continued to compete in both Sediokaikan karate as well as K1 kickboxing, and did very well, but never quite got to the top echelon.

Even as far back as 89, we can see that Hug is already a very special talent. He starts the fight by bum-rushing Thompson with an attempted flurry of punches (which Thompson was able to quickly avoid), and when Thompson started to press his attack, he was almost decapitated by an effortless spinning roundhouse from Hug. Thompson then spent most of the match trying to keep his distance and utilize well-time his attacks, which worked some of the time, but also served to give Hug distance, and play the role of the counter-striker. What it really came down to in this fight was Hug’s variety. He was constantly shifting his attacks and his range. Sometimes, Hug would fight from a distance, and then just as quickly, rush in to fire some offense off from the clinch. Hug’s continuing variations seemed to take Thompson out of his game, although he did manage to sneak in some of his game in, especially a brutal punch to Hug’s midsection, and a surprise high-kick to his face. The match went to a decision, which was awarded to Hug. Nice fun fight. 

ML: Hug was fighting at 176 pounds here, which is reasonable, if these days even small for a fighter under 6 foot. He was certainly not one of the bigger fighters in the weight class, although he is about the same size as Thompson, who was billed at 5'11". Hug just has so much diversity though, and the speed and flexibility to incorporate a lot of kicks that other people wouldn't be all to pull off in a competitive situation. One of the highlights of the tournament was a beautiful spinning high kick knockdown that Hug scored in his 2nd round match against Dejan Zelesov. Thompson was more than a worthy adversary, a 3 time British Open winner here, who also won the title again in 1990, and later joined forces with Andy in Team Andy Hug. He did a good job of using punches to the liver, and that eventually opened up a high kick, but he certainly didn't have as many weapons as Hug. This was definitely an interesting and competitive match, but in the form that it was shown in here, I wouldn't want to be in charge of picking the winner.