Stephen Tapilatu (ITF Taekwondo champion in MMA)

Рет қаралды 13,108

Жыл бұрын

ITF Taekwondo champion in MMA
The best Taekwondo ITF fighter in 90’s.
He became ITF World Champion in 1990 and 1994 and won two European titles, in 1990 and 1992. In 1991 he won a silver medal at the WTF World Championship in Athens.
After completing his taekwondo career he took up kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), notably challenging leading figures including Dutch karate champion Ronny Rivano, Brian Lo-An-Joe. His only two losses were to Ronny Rivano, and he lost one via injury. In both, he dominated the striking.
Despite only 7 fights, considering the talent and more-experienced individuals Tapilatu was going up against, his amatuer MMA career a success, at the very least modestly so. He beat up two Muay Thai kickboxers with more experience than him in MMA (one of which had more wins), dominated the striking both times he fought a Karateka (the only one to beat him in MMA, once via previous injury on Tapilatu) and won the Dutch MMA title (Tapilatu himself is Dutch), also finally went the distance with a successful pro MMA fighter.
He proved Taekwondo to be effective and remembered the important values of Taekwondo, such as Respect and Humility, despite retiring so soon.
Stephen Tapilatu was appointed national coach of ITF Netherlands in November 2012.
On 7 November 2015 Tapilatu was promoted to the rank of 6th Dan black belt, joining an elite group of only 8 other ITF taekwondo practitioners currently holding this rank in the Netherlands.

Пікірлер: 29

@Rammsteinfanboy2 Жыл бұрын

I'm glad this channel exists to remind us newer combat sports fans about the greats that dared to try when mixed rules was still a new thing.

@AndreaStoppa72 Жыл бұрын

I met him in Japan in 2001, where he took 2nd place at 1st Karate Daido Juku ( now Kudo) World Tournament, he was really a great fighter.

@AndreaStoppa72 11 ай бұрын

@@Traditional_Sanda at the time he come to Japan with Golden Glory team, together with Semmy Schilt, so I suppose he was exposed to different training too

@crisalcantara7671 10 ай бұрын

Wait kudo as kyokushin karate match 😮 ,this guy is the real life hworang with his powerful kicks 😮

@azraelknightquest5754 Жыл бұрын

Awesome tribute and an awesome fighter. In my opinion, the first to truly adapt TKD to MMA. He stepped away from the sparring style and made it an effective form of striking in MMA. I love this guy. He joined late in the game but still did well by winning the RINGS Dutch MMA championship.

@mythiclunar5761 4 ай бұрын

For you and all the others ignorant on the comment section. It's ITF taekwondo he literally did not adapt anything, that's just how the martial arts is. ITF and WTF (Olympic taekwondo) has the same name but has literally nothing to do with each other. ITF is the original and traditional style.

@avimanyubanerjee2134 Жыл бұрын

Oh Man!! What a ferocious fighter

@eozack1957 Жыл бұрын

Taekwondo make history

@CheeseMachine17 Жыл бұрын

Dude you deserve so much credit for your videos. God bless and happy new year from SC.

@anbernicguy Жыл бұрын

Still waiting for a Andy Hug highlight.

@bikrambaruah7216 Жыл бұрын

Although , he's from Taekwondo he carries a different form of aggression which in Taekwondo guys you normally don't get to see. He can be definitely a high level Pro Fighter. Is he still fighting? 🤔🤔 . Thanks for sending such a rare and unique fighting video. Please continue making such type of Super Amazing Videos Bro 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍👍👌👌👌

@ayemjake Жыл бұрын

That's because he's using ITF taekwondo which has more practical uses in actual combat. The common Taekwondo being practiced especially by people who compete for olympics is WTF Taekwondo.😅

@bibabutzemann5661 8 ай бұрын

ahhh the jelaous anti WTF TKD comments. all couch potatos and too lazy to train to their limits and stay basic. go watch your 1980 TKD vs Thai videos where no one knew how to block a leg kick.

@IlyuuJrry34 8 ай бұрын

@ayemjake this isn't true at all. ITF may say its all based on self-defense, but even then, their self-defense techniques are similar to krav maga they just aren't practical. Having ITF taekwondo fighters visit my local mma gym and sparring them (kickboxing and boxing sparring) they are fast but lack any sort of real technique in boxing and power in their kicks (besides the spinning ones ofc) they're not too hard to out box but they are VERY fast. The only person who's taekwondo i couldn't beat was my kickboxing coach, but he explained that it took him years of cross training in different martial arts for his techniques to actually work.

@bryanking1428 9 күн бұрын

@@IlyuuJrry34 Sparring hard (high impact, not tempo) in training is really irresponsible. Top martial arts coaches don't encourage that, so judging based on someone holding back is silly. Irish ITF girl is going to the Olympics for boxing in Paris, so the boxing standard varies depending on the level of athlete.... and since you don't specify which ITF people visited you, how the hell do we know if they are even real ITF or what level they compete at...