Kin Taiei in Hero's LHW GP

[oOkami]

Kin Taiei will fight Judo stylist Yoshihiro Akiyama in the first round of the Hero's LHW GP.

Taiei is from the same gym as Musashi (seido kaikan). He has a 15-2 record in K-1, he hasnt fought in K-1 for a few years, but he is 35-36 years old, so he can still compete.

It will be a hard fight making your MMA debut against Akiyama. I would say that he's just there to assure that Akiyama advances, but you never know, he might catch him.

[kenjikurosaki]

Osu!

In my opinion, Kin Taiei was the best japanese karateka to step in k-1, and is very sad (and stupid) that he never became the ace fighter of seidokaikan. He is a much much much better karateka and kickboxer than Musashi and Masaaki Satake.

[Fire!]

His name doesn't sound like Japanese, more like chinese person's name. or korean. How old is he now? osu

[Shura]

He's a Zainichi Korean. I agree, Taiei Kin was Seidokaikan's better representative.

[oOkami]

Originally Posted by Fire!

His name doesn't sound like Japanese, more like chinese person's name. or korean. How old is he now? osu

He was born in 1970, so either 35 or 36.

[Decadent~!]

I know there are alot of ethnic Koreans in Japan that get into the combat sports (others being Rikidozan and UWfi worker turned RINGS fighter Kanehara Hiromitsu) but what about Chinese ethnics? I know that Sokun Koh who used to be with Wajutsu Kesyukai is Taiwanese but are there others. What is frequent Pancrase heavyweight Lee Segaku, aka Sehaku, aka Hideki Tadao's ethnicity?

[Fire!]

Apparently, Nobu Hayashi from K-1 is Chinese.

[spanky11]

Agreed. I trained with Kin Taiei at the Seidokaikan honbu in 1995, and he was a great instructor and person. BAck then he ran a great Korean bbq restaurant near the dojo.

Technically strong (without the arrogance of Sataake).

I hope he does well.

[kenjikurosaki]

Osu!

Hey Spanky, did you know why Taiei Kin, never had a chance to become the ace fighter of seidokaikan in K-1?

[spanky11]

not too sure to be honest..I guess K1 at the start was focussed so heavily on the heavy weight fighters and Kin Taiei has always been around 80kgs..

So Satake and Mushashi were always given the best opportunities in that dojo.

I was only 18 when I was there and didn't really get everything out it as I could...it sure was mindblowing meeting all of the pros back then when K1 took off.

Another great karate fighter from that dojo was/is Toshiyuki Atokawa.

[Decadent~!]

Satake was chosen probably because of his KO power. Musashi was probably chose because he was politically with Kakuda. Does anyone know how long Kakuda was with RINGS, by the way?

[Shura]

The only event I remember Kakuda in was RINGS 1992 Battle Tournament.

K-1 should've definitely adressed the need to have lower weight divisions back when it was starting. It made no sense to have natural middleweights and light heavyweights bulk up against cruiserweights and heavyweights. K-2 and K-3 were good ideas, but they never really stuck, partly becuase of marketing reasons and that was a mistake. If the Japanese wanted a domestic K-1 champion back then, they should've allowed allowed lower divisions (albeit MAX produced Masato, but that was only after finally designing a 155 lb group). A 170 and 185 lb division would've been interesting to see, and many good fighters in those classes wouldn't have been overlooked or forced to become heavier. Too many Japanese fighters were fed to the lions especially karateka.

[spanky11]

Satake has always had a very low KO rate - even when he was just fighting karate events.

He has always been involved with TV and other media events (same as Kakuda), so Kancho Ishii made a great promotional thing out of those 2 guys.

I think that Kin Taiei was always a better tactition than those 2.

Just my .02c.

[nzproud]

When Satake was fighting Musashi was a lot skinnier and young. He has improved a lot ever since. I just don't like the judging sometimes.. but he is skilled.

[spanky11]

incidentally I sparred Musashi alot when I was there (this was in 1995) and his karate skill was excellent.

He was being groomed then for K1 and was a regular sparring partner of Andi Hug back then.

[Decadent~!]

http://www.k-1usa.net/docs/fighters/...p?fighterID=30

Just my 6 cents, of Satake's 21 wins, 13 have come from KO or TKO (I think. Its hard for me to count on a screen. They should really do win percentages like Sherdog MMA).

http://www.k-1usa.net/docs/fighters/...p?fighterID=30
MUSASHI has only 1/3 or 13/37 KO wins.

http://www.k-1usa.net/docs/fighters/...p?fighterID=59
Kin has only 3 KOs out of 15 wins though he has the highest win percentage of the three at 15/17, whereas MUSASHI has 37/57 and Satake 21/35. Thus Satake has the most KO wins and Kin the most wins.

[spanky11]

i didn't realise he had ko'ed so many of the big names...my mistake

[oOkami]

Originally Posted by Decadent~!

[url]Its hard for me to count on a screen. They should really do win percentages like Sherdog MMA).

http://k-1sport.de/en/database/show_fighter.php?id=21

That site has the percent of (T)KO's and also more complete than K-1usa site.

[Shura]

I remember that Musahi used to fight in Muay Thai in the early 1990's. Does anyone know what his weight class was back then, and any significant names he fought?

[spanky11]

Actually noyiced last night that Kin Taiei is HONG-MAN CHOI's ringman in the K-1 events.