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MB667
21-11-2006, 20:49
The victor
At age 41, Ernesto Hoost is about to retire. But the shelf of the greatest champion in the history of K-1 still has room for another trophy
By Rafael Quintanilha / Photos: Courtesy FEG

He is the greatest fighter in K-1 history. Ernesto Hoost, who at age 15 began in kickboxing because he wanted to be cool and in 1989 was world savate champion, was born to fight like few others. With almost one hundred wins as a professional, this Suriname-born Dutchman, whose technique inspired the nickname Mr. Perfect, prepares to quit fighting at the end of the year and become the only five-time K-1 World Grand Prix. Unafraid to face off against this living legend, GRACIEMAG.com spoke with Hoost in an exclusive interview, from the Netherlands.

You’ve been training at Johan Vos’s academy for a long time. Have you ever thought of moving?
I’ve been training there now for 19 years. But I’m not training with Vos right now, we had disputes about some things, but he sold the academy, so right now I’m not training with him, but I’m training myself. Sometimes we need to make some decisions for ourselves.

That was unexpected!
I thought things were wrong for a long time now and now I could do something about it. Things were very wrong. But he sold the gym and I’m still training there.

Have you trained Jiu-Jitsu with him?
A little bit, some basics, but not really serious. I like it, but it’s not really my thing. I was too busy with kickboxing.

What about MMA? Still think about doing it?
I know I will never be as good at MMA as in K-1, so I don’t want to be second best.

You once said your loss to Francisco Filho got you feeling pretty bad. How so?
Francisco knocked me out quite bad and of course you never want to be knocked me out anyway. But when he knocked me out I couldn’t remember what had happened until I was in the dressing room. Then I saw the tape and saw the knockout was very heavy. To this day I don’t know how long I lay unconscious on the ground.

I even thought, “I don’t know if I want to go on fighting. Do I want this for myself?” My wife was pregnant and she gave birth five days later. It was just a lot of stress. But later I started looking at things from a different angle and I felt better again.


Why do you think you lost to Bob Sapp twice in 2002?
Both fights were a very difficult story. I came with an injury from the K-1 Grand Prix. I had fought Stefan Leko and injured my foot. Then I fought in April and in May I fought Leko again and knocked him out. I was in very good shape. Then I was told that I was going to fight Bob Sapp in July.

A week and a half before the fight I hear that the fight is not going to happen. So I put all of my program for the whole year, it messed my holiday and everything because I was supposed to fight Sapp on July 14 and on July 21 I would call a holiday. Then I could fight in August, so I decided not to go on holiday and keep on training for the other fight in August. So it was too much training and I got sick, because when I’m stressed too much I get skin problems. So I had the skin problem already in August and I did the fight first with the Giant in Las Vegas, then I fought with Semmy Schilt also in August in Tokyo and by that time I was sick.

So I didn’t want to fight anymore, but then K-1 came with a proposal for a fight with Bob Sapp, saying it would be a live fight on TV. I didn’t want to fight, but my trainer, Johan Vos, asked me to do the fight. I said, “I cannot fight.” And he told me to think about it and he would call me in two days or something.

Then he called me again and said that, even if I was very sick I should be able to beat Bob Sapp. And he put so much pressure on me that I decided to do the fight. I had everything against me: the referee, and no one in my corner supported me the right way. He hit me a few times after the referee said break. There were no rules for him, and it was okay, because I was supposed to be able to win that fight. I got a cut above my eye and I had to surrender the fight.

Then they made very much effort to let me do the fight with Bob Sapp again in the K-1 Grand Prix. Semmy Schilt was going to fight Bob Sapp, but I think they pulled him out and I was scheduled to fight Bob Sapp again. I knocked him down in the first round and I got too greedy because I really wanted to finish the fight. Then I started to make some mistakes and stopped moving, then he started hitting me and the referee said I couldn’t continue the fight.

Do you still have any goals in competitions?
There is one goal left. I will stop fighting at the end of the year, so there’s one tournament to go. I would be a great achievement in my career to be a five-time K-1 champion.

In 1995 you said that Benny Urquidez was a little old for high-class fighting, yet now you are almost as old as he was then. Are you perhaps getting too old for it too?
Of course when you are a younger fighter, you look at the older fighters in a different way. Benny was not fighting that much anymore, and I did a lot more fights than him, so it makes a big difference. For me, I’ve been in competition for a long time and always at a high level. And I think it’s real big time for me to quit fighting, so I want to do one more tournament and then I finish.

How did you manage to stay so good for such a long time?
First of all, I used my talent very well. I never took many punches at a fight, I think that is very important. I was very careful with my body. Preparing for the fights is very important to me. I think that’s why I was able to last so long.

Are you going to miss fighting?
Basically, I will be finished with fighting, but there are going to be a lot of things for me to do, I’m sure.

What kept you going after you were sure you already had all the titles you could get?
As I was already European and world champion, I thought that was as big as I could get, but of course I couldn’t know that K-1 would be as big as it is now.

Do you think huge fighters like Choi Hong-Man and Bob Sapp make K-1 shows interesting? Which big fighter do you like the most?
I think with Choi they can make it interesting, I think he is making a lot of progress.

I don’t know when it will come yet. What I do is I write something and put it in my computer. I’m not a writer. I want to write the book myself, but I don’t know if I’m good enough at writing books, so maybe I can talk to somebody who can be my ghostwriter to help me write it. I don’t want to do it with someone interviewing me and then writing about me.

You say your career really began in 1993 when you went to fight in Japan. What would have happened if you had never gone there?
I’m sure I would have stopped fighting. I’d be doing something else, I’m not sure what.

What do you think about Rickson Gracie finally coming back against Sakuraba?
I think if he is well prepared for it, it’s very interesting. He hasn’t been fighting, but I like his lifestyle. Not especially his fights, but the whole thing around it.

Have you been managing not to get much hurt in your fights, like you once said you find important?
If you fight a lot of course you get hurt sometimes, but I’ve succeeded in not getting hurt that much.

Was it important for you to train for two and a half years before fighting for the first time?
I think so when I look back, I had time to develop some skill. I think it was very important for me.

Do you like to visit other fighters to train with them?
Actually no. I like to train at my gym, and if other fighters want to train with me it’s okay. But I’m not looking to train with other fighters.

Amongst today’s top K-1 fighters, which do you admire the most for their skill?
I think Glaube Feitosa made a lot of progress, I was very surprised. He got very good at the combination with the kicking. I think he made the most progress.

Highline
22-11-2006, 02:38
leuk interviw! ik wist niet dat vos de sportschool had verkocht

Shytown
22-11-2006, 03:05
leuk interviw! ik wist niet dat vos de sportschool had verkocht

Is al een tijdje zo volgens mij.
Vos is nog wel trainer/manager, maar Hippo is eigenaar van de gym als ik me niet vergis.

Thomasmurda
22-11-2006, 03:16
Is al een tijdje zo volgens mij.
Vos is nog wel trainer/manager, maar Hippo is eigenaar van de gym als ik me niet vergis.


Vos is niet meer Hoost z'n trainer, dat is te lezen in bovenstaand interview ;)

In de Veronica gids van deze week staat trouwens ook een stukje over K-1, waarin Hoost wat vragen beantwoord.

Evilman
22-11-2006, 04:16
grappig die vraag over mma.
dat soort mensen moeten daar idd niet mee beginnen.
Die worden zeker weten afgebroken.

lekr zo laten .. mooie status opgebouwd!

Shytown
22-11-2006, 04:53
Vos is niet meer Hoost z'n trainer, dat is te lezen in bovenstaand interview ;)

In de Veronica gids van deze week staat trouwens ook een stukje over K-1, waarin Hoost wat vragen beantwoord.

Ik mankeer niets aan de ogen Thomas.
Heb toch niet neergezet dat Vos manager/trainer is van Ernesto?
Doelde op de rol van Vos algemeen binnen Vos Gym

Thomasmurda
22-11-2006, 06:01
Ik mankeer niets aan de ogen Thomas.
Heb toch niet neergezet dat Vos manager/trainer is van Ernesto?
Doelde op de rol van Vos algemeen binnen Vos Gym


Dat is goed om te weten :D

Ik dacht dat op te maken uit je post. Maarre, Vos die traint toch niemand meer bij Vos gym, volgens mij heeft Hippolyte die taak overgenomen.

marcelt
22-11-2006, 08:37
Ja al lang.

Maarre erg tof interview!

mossad
22-11-2006, 11:25
Het verbaast me dat hij zo ontzettend kritisch is over Vos in de pers. Er moet wel flink wat mis zijn gegaan dat hij zich zo uit laat over Vos.
Voor de rest leuk interview en succes Ernesto!