Branko Cikatić - The first K-1 World Grand Prix Champion.

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Edge Guerrero
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Branko Cikatić - The first K-1 World Grand Prix Champion.

Postby Edge Guerrero » Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:51 pm

- Cikatić began his martial arts training at the age of 12 when he took up Taekwondo, and later Shotokan Karate at 16. He eventually earned a black belt in both of these disciplines, as well as a blue belt in Judo. When he was 18 years old, he took up boxing before switching to kickboxing.[1]

He surprised the martial arts world by taking the 1993 K-1 Grand Prix tournament by storm, knocking out all three of his opponents in one evening, including Ernesto Hoost in the final match. To date Cikatić is the oldest winner of the K-1 Grand Prix at 38 years and 208 days.

He extended his athletic resume to include mixed martial arts in 1998, fighting in the Pride Fighting Championships. His PRIDE debut was fought against Ralph White under K-1 rules format. Cikatić lost via disqualification after kicking the head of the downed White. Cikatić returned at Pride 2, fighting under MMA rules and facing Mark Kerr. He was again disqualified after holding the ring ropes when Kerr attempted a takedown, refusing to let go when directed by the referee, running away through the ring ropes, and delivering several illegal elbows to the back of Kerr's head. His next fight at Pride 7 ended in a submission loss to Maurice Smith by forearm choke.

Towards the end of his sports career, Cikatić tried his hand at acting, playing a villain in a 1997 B-movie Skyscraper, starring Anna Nicole Smith. In 2018, Cikatić had a pulmonary embolism and whilst in hospital acquired an infection causing sepsis and was later diagnosed as suffering from Parkinson's disease.[2][3] He died on 23 March 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branko_Cikati%C4%87

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Postby Masato » Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:12 pm

His fight with Kerr was hilarious!! lol

I remember


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Postby Luigi » Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:43 am

Branko knocked out all 3 opponents to win the first K-1 when his country was in the middle of a civil war, crazy times! The Kerr fight is my other big memory of him, blatantly cheating to not go to the ground lol His MMA stint gave him a reputation of a dirty fighter and its too bad because Ive heard great things about him. He may have left this world but one is never truly dead when they make history the way Branko did. May his name live forevermore!
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Postby Edge Guerrero » Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:40 am

- LIke you guys said. Brako mma fights is the first thing that pop up, when thinking about him. I dont know how they conviced him, to get a fight with Kerr at that time.

Back when the day, was very hard to find K1 content to watch here. So i first knew about Branko in old magazines.
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Don't be selfish, preserve this world for the next generations.

I'll never long for what might have been
Regret won't waste my life again
I won't look back I'll fight to remain


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