The Best Heavyweight Kickboxer of All-Time?

[StonedLemur]

Hoost had the most wins when K-1 was the most popular, so it became a very standard answer that a lot of people remembered. As others caught up to his accomplishments it became harder to ignore the losses imo.

Beat analysis I have ever heard on the Hoost sir.

 

[Tayski]

Hoost had the most wins when K-1 was the most popular, so it became a very standard answer that a lot of people remembered. As others caught up to his accomplishments it became harder to ignore the losses imo.

Maybe it's harder for some to ignore the losses but I think considering Hoost was the "smallest" guy out of those best K-1 heavyweights, that counter balances his losses slightly. The guy was basically a light heavyweight fighting heavyweights, while Schilt for example was pretty much a Super Heavyweight fighting Heavyweights.

Ernesto Hoost was 1m89 (6'2) and fighting under 80 kilos (176 pounds) in 1990-1992 before he started fighting open weight in K-1 from 1993 onwards against guys usually taller than him sizing from 1m90 and above (6'3 and above) and weighting more than 100 kilos (220+ pounds).

Considering this and his accomplishments, that is for me why he's one of the best to mention, alongside Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt and Bonjasky.

Also, Peter Aerts had A LOT of losses too.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Maybe it's harder for some to ignore the losses but I think considering Hoost was the "smallest" guy out of those best K-1 heavyweights, that counter balances his losses slightly. The guy was basically a light heavyweight fighting heavyweights, while Schilt for example was pretty much a Super Heavyweight fighting Heavyweights.

Ernesto Hoost was 1m89 (6'2) and fighting under 80 kilos (176 pounds) in 1990-1992 before he started fighting open weight in K-1 from 1993 onwards against guys usually taller than him sizing from 1m90 and above (6'3 and above) and weighting more than 100 kilos (220+ pounds).

Considering this and his accomplishments, that is for me why he's one of the best to mention, alongside Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt and Bonjasky.

Also, Peter Aerts had A LOT of losses too.

For sure, its a good argument. It depends if you think of the best heavyweight as simply the best guy P4P who fits in the category of making their career at HW, or if you think of it more like a "Baddest KBer on the planet" type thing.

 

[Tayski]

For sure, its a good argument. It depends if you think of the best heavyweight as simply the best guy P4P who fits in the category of making their career at HW, or if you think of it more like a "Baddest KBer on the planet" type thing.

If we go strictly by record, wins, accomplishments and dominance then Semmy Schilt is the best heavyweight kickboxer of all times.

• 43-6-1 record
• Beat all the big names at least once and often several times
• 4 times K-1 WGP Champion
  
• Glory Heavyweight Champion
• Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam Tournament Champion

 

[Trabaho]

Shilt, Hoost, Aerts, Bonjasky

My picks.

Cikatic was already leaving his prime when he won the WGP.

Shilt 1 then Hoost 2.

Shilt simply cause he was like 2 categories above the rest, phisically. He was also athletic hard working.

 

[HHJ]

The way they are all matched up w each other constantly makes it hard to tell.

 

[jenst]

Hoost: beautiful pure style, straight out of a textbook
Schilt: looked a bit uglier, but wasn't 'just big' but used his size and fought smart
Aerts: could knock anyone out in any which way you which

Today I'm picking the Lumberjack, because he had the coolest look.
Aerts gave me his handwraps after his retirement fight (although he came back afterwards). Think my girlfriend threw them out because she thought that was a nasty souvenir. She's not wrong.

 

[Blazeblack]

If we go strictly by record, wins, accomplishments and dominance then Semmy Schilt is the best heavyweight kickboxer of all times.

• 43-6-1 record
• Beat all the big names at least once and often several times
• 4 times K-1 WGP Champion
  
• 3 times consecutive K-1 WGP Champion
• Fastest K-1 WGP victory/ 2009 WGP, 5 minutes 52 seconds
• K-1 Super-Heavyweight Champion/ 4 title defenses
• Glory Heavyweight Champion
• Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam Tournament Champion

There, fixed it for you.

 

[Robbocop]

It seems hard to pick one of Schilt, Aerts and Hoost, but I would lean towards Schilt as the greatest of all time. I think it's also worth mentioning that even though the glory days of kickboxing were in the 90s/00s, Rico Verhoeven's current streak of title defences is a remarkable achievement in kickboxing, if I'm not mistaken it's 10 title defences in a row, which none of the K-1 era guys did as far as I'm aware.

That being said, fighters used to fight a lot more frequently, and also fight in one night tournaments more often, so it's hard to compare across eras. Nevertheless, I think Verhoeven is up there in the conversation at this point.

 

[Snubnoze707]

Rico Verhoeven's current streak of title defences is a remarkable achievement in kickboxing, if I'm not mistaken it's 10 title defences in a row, which none of the K-1 era guys did as far as I'm aware.

You got to remember that the landscape back then was tournament based. They did have a HW title in K-1 eventually but it wasn't taken seriously, the WGP was how we judged fighters.

 

[Hypetrainhipsta]

It seems hard to pick one of Schilt, Aerts and Hoost, but I would lean towards Schilt as the greatest of all time. I think it's also worth mentioning that even though the glory days of kickboxing were in the 90s/00s, Rico Verhoeven's current streak of title defences is a remarkable achievement in kickboxing, if I'm not mistaken it's 10 title defences in a row, which none of the K-1 era guys did as far as I'm aware.

That being said, fighters used to fight a lot more frequently, and also fight in one night tournaments more often, so it's hard to compare across eras. Nevertheless, I think Verhoeven is up there in the conversation at this point.

Yeah, the current system of fighting less frequent and tiitle fights instead of big one night tournaments is different, so it's not that easy to compare. Rico is a great fighter who is kinda unlucky to be in a weaker era/not the golden age of HW Kickboxing.

 

[Blazeblack]

You got to remember that the landscape back then was tournament based. They did have a HW title in K-1 eventually but it wasn't taken seriously, the WGP was how we judged fighters.

Yeah, the HW and SHW titles were worth about as much as an interim belt in the UFC.

 

[Trabaho]

1 Hoost
2 Aerts
3 Bonjasky
4 Schilt
5 Lebanner
6 Cikatic
7 Hari
8 Hug
9 Hunt
10 Verhoeven
11 Sefo
12 Ignashov
13 Musashi
14 Overeem
15 Greco
16 Fietosa
17 Saki
18 Crocop
19 Leko
20 Ghita
21 Bernardo
22 Filho
23 Mo
24 Roufus
25 Kaman (hw lhw)
26 Manhoef
27 Spong (hw lhw)
Zamedov? Top 50/75?

You utterly forgot Greco and Bernardo. Mo is not top 27.

 

[Robbocop]

Yeah, the HW and SHW titles were worth about as much as an interim belt in the UFC.

On the grounds that I still think Verhoeven is up there with the best, a couple of other interesting relevant stats:

Verhoeven is currently undefeated for over 7 years, which is a record as compared to Schilt, Aerts, Hoost. Of course, it is true that kickboxers fight less frequently these days, especially with one day 3-fight tournaments basically being very rare or not existing anymore.

But also:

Highest win streak:
1. Aerts: 20 (ended 1996)
2. Verhoeven: 16 (current)
3. Schilt: 13 (ended 2008)
4. Hoost: 12 (ended 2002)

Pro Record
1. Schilt: 43:6 (1 draw) 88% win rate
2. Verhoeven: 60:10 86% win rate
3. Hoost: 99:21 (1 draw) 83% win rate
4. Aerts: 108:35 (2 draws) 76% win rate

Of course there is a story behind those stats, but Verhoeven performs very comfortably as compared with the greats.

 

[SuperLuigi]

^Interesting stats. If Rico wins the Plazibat rivalry with a few wins in between he will become the most statistically superior fighter to his opposition, at least.