- Source: Taiei Kin
Kin Taiei (Korean: 김태영, romanized: Kim Taeyong; born July 8, 1970) is a Korean-Japanese light heavyweight karateka, kickboxer and mixed martial artist competing in K-1 and DREAM.
Before switching to MMA, Kin was a distinguished fighter in the K-1, praised by both Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost as the best fighter to come out of Asia.
Biography
= Early years
=Kin Taiei (金泰泳) was born as the eldest son in Amagasaki city of Hyogo prefecture, Japan on July 8, 1970. As he is the eldest son, he's got a younger brother. Both of his parents worked till late at night, he was sent to Karate dojo for combing the care with a nursery school. He took an interest in football (soccer) at 4th year of elementary school, and dropped out training karate at 6th year. He won the Japanese national championship for junior high schools at the 3rd year. When he was a student of Kobe Korean Senior High school, he tried to start practicing boxing because he had a longing for foreign boxers, but he joined karate team in his school because his parents objected strongly. For this reason, he also joined the karate team of Korea University in Tokyo when he became a university student. During his university life, he participated a full contact karate championship promoted by Sato juku, but he was beaten by Nobuaki Kakuda. Although he lost, he was evaluated highly by Kazuyoshi Ishii, and he was invited to Seidokaikan. Thus, Kin became a student of Seidokaikan in Osaka after graduation of university.
= Debut
=On January 31, 1993, Kin participated "The 2nd Towa Cup Karate Japan Open Tournament", but he was beaten by Masaaki Satake in the final.
On June 25, he fought against Changpuek Kiatsongrit from Thailand for the vacant title of UKF World Light heavyweight championship at the event of "Sanctuary III", but he lost by decision.
= Work as Trainer
=During the years 2006 and 2007, he trained Hong-man Choi in his K-1 career. Choi improved very much during the time Kin was in his corner. They worked together for almost two years in which Choi had nine fights. He won six of them and lost three, twice against Jérôme Le Banner and once against Mighty Mo (kickboxer). Among his six wins was a win over K-1 Dominator Semmy Schilt and a Rematch win over Mighty Mo, in which Kin changed Choi's fighting style from orthodox to southpaw to block Mo's devastating overhand right better.
Titles
2009 K-1 World Grand Prix in Seoul finalist
1996 WMTC World Junior middleweight champion
1995 Karate World Cup champion
1995 K-3 Grand Prix runner up
1994 UKF World Light heavyweight champion
1994 Karate Japan Open finalist
1993 Karate World Cup 3rd Place
1993 Karate Japan Open finalist
1992 Karate World Cup finalist (lost to Andy Hug)
Kickboxing record
Karate record
Mixed martial arts record
See also
Seidokaikan
List of K-1 events
List of male kickboxers
External links
Official K-1 website Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
References
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Taiei Kin
- Yoshihiro Akiyama
- Andy Hug
- Hongman Choi
- Zelg Galešić
- Orlando Wiet
- List of male kickboxers
- Azem Maksutaj
- Changpuek Kiatsongrit
- List of K-1 champions
