Classic K-1 Fights: Peter Aerts vs. Ernesto Hoost K-1 World Grand Prix '93

I'd like to introduce the second of this series for Head Kick Legend. Every week I will write about a classic Kickboxing or JMMA fight as well as post a video for readers to watch. The goal is to make people aware of the great fighters and fights that make these sports so enjoyable. The following fight is one of the all time greats between two of the all time greats. I hope you enjoy this weekly piece and any feed back on fights you would like to see discussed would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to present Peter Aerts vs. Ernesto Host at the K-1 Grand Prix '93 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

I briefly touched on this fight in the first part of History of K-1. I didn't want to go into any detail as I was planning to break down the fight in the Classic K-1 Fights section.

The K-1 Grand Prix '93 brought together eight of the top kickboxers in the world. This event would be the return of Kickboxing to Japanese television after thirteen years in the dark. The field included Branko Cikatic, the eventual tournament winner, who was the W.K.A. World Kickboxing Cruiserweight Champion as well as the Muay Thai World Light Heavyweight Champion and future UFC Champion Maurice Smith, the W.K.C. Light Heavyweight World Champion and W.K.A World Kickboxing Heavyweight Champion. Two other fighters who would become legends in the sport, Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost, were also apart of the field and would meet in the opening round of the Grand Prix.

Peter Aerts was a 22 year old kickboxer out of Holland who was the reigning WMTA Muay Thai Super Heavyweight and MTBN World Heavyweight Muay Thai champion. He was a member of the famous Chakuriki Gym under Thom Harinck. He came into the tournament riding a head kick knockout win over arguably the best American kickboxer Maurice Smith. Aerts was considered one of the top Dutch kickboxers at 22 years old and there were big expectations for the '93 tournament. 

Ernesto Hoost was a 28 year old, also out of Hollad. He was the reigning W.K.A. Kickboxing World champion, W.M.T.A. Muay Thai World Light Heavyweight champion, and Savate World champion. He was fighting out of the Vos Gym under trainer Johan Vos. He was 32-7 and the overall favorite to win the Grand Prix since he had both the youth and experience to win the three fights in one night. 

The fight itself is a classic. Picture this, you are one of 10,000 people packed into the Yoyogi National Gymansium, for the first K-1 Grand Prix. You have no idea what you are about to see as kickboxing was essentially in the dark for the past 13 years in Japan. The event is booked as the best kickboxers in the world in a one night tournament. The night also featured Andy Hug fighting Nobuaki Kakuda in a Karate Super fight. The crowd was treated to two KOs with Masaaki Satake stopping Todd Hays with leg kicks and eventual champion Branko Cikatic knocking out Changpuek Kiatsongrit in the first. After Maurice Smith's unanimous decision of karateka Toshiyuki Atokawa, the crowd was treated to one of the best fights of all time.

Japanese crowds today are very silent and respectful, only cheering loudly for great technique. However, back in the day, Japanese crowds were raucous, cheering wildly for great fights. The crowd was treated to perhaps on of the most technical slugfests ever to occur under the K-1 banner. The first round was fairly event with Aerts landing some nice boxing combinations and a nice trip wile Hoost work his phenomenal kicks. I'd say it was a 10-9 round for Hoost but it was close enough to see it as 10-10. 

In the second round Hoost picked up the pace and started to not only land cleanly with his punches but threw some super technical and heavy kicks to Aerts' legs. It was very one sided with Aerts taking the brunt of the punishment dealt out in the round. He did land some nice kicks as well but the round was clearly Ernesto Hoost's. 

The third round opened up and was three minutes of a technical slugfest. Both fighters land hard shots to the head and amazing leg kicks. For the first 30 seconds they trade kicks! It's amazing that neither fighter was knocked out with the stiff shots they took. I have the round favoring Aerts who had more desperation to finish the fight. He almost does so too landing a hard shot right at the bell that stumbled Hoost just a bit. If the round continued for another 30 seconds, the fight could have gone totally differently.

The official score cards saw the fight 29-28, 30-28, 30-30 all for Hoost. The fight itself became one of legend and is my pick for Classic Fight of the week. Enjoy it!