Nicholas Pettas

Nicholas Pettas
Pettas in K-1 Turkey 07
Born	January 23, 1973 (1973-01-23) (age 38) Mykonos, Greece
Other names	The Blue-Eyed Samurai
Nationality	Greek Danish
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	98 kg (220 lb; 15.4 st)
Division	Heavyweight
Style	Kyokushin Karate[1]
Fighting out of	Tokyo, Japan
Team	Team Spirit AE
Rank	Black belt in Kyokushin kaikan
Years active	1991–present
Kickboxing record
Total	19
Wins	9
By knockout	8
Losses	10
By knockout	8
Other information
Occupation	Martial Arts Instructor Dojo Owner
Notable students	Koichi Watanabe
Website	http://www.nicholaspettas.com/

Nicholas "The Blue-Eyed Samurai" Pettas (born January 23, 1973 in Mykonos) is a Greek-Danish heavyweight karateka, kickboxer, and actor, fighting Team Sprit in Tokyo, Japan. Pettas has mainly competed in K-1 since 1998, and was the winner of the K-1 Japan Grand Prix 2001 champion.^[2]

Biography and career

Pettas was born in Greece, however he moved to his mother's home country of Denmark when he was just 3 years old after his father's death. After getting a hiding in a street fight at the age of 14, he decided to join a Karate school. Not knowing which styles there were, he was introduced to Kyokushin Karate by Michael Mattheson, a friend of Tony Pettas. He found himself a new following and needed no more schooling, and so at the age of 16 he decided to leave high school in order to save up money to go to Japan and study with Master Oyama. He was influenced by the movie The Karate Kid, and eventually wanted to present the next true Karate Kid in the movies by having actually done the real thing. After getting permission to join the uchi-deshi program, a live-in training of 1000 days, he moved to Japan from Denmark at the age of 18. At the age of 21, he completed the vigorous training course to become the second non-Japanese ever to finalize the program. He was last Uchi Deshi of Master Oyama who died soon after Pettas graduation.

After his graduation of the programme, he competed in several tournaments and achieved many significant titles and honours such as reaching the title in European Karateka Championships and placing 5th and 3rd^{[clarification needed]} place in the World Championships, respectively in 1995 and 1997.

Following his successful performances, he attracted Japan based, top-notch martial arts organization K-1 by 1998 at K-1 DREAM '98 and made his debut against German kick boxer Stefan Leko. He made his K-1 peak at K-1 World Grand Prix 2001, held at Tokyo Dome in August 12, 2001.^[3]

Pettas had an interval between 2002 and 2006 because he snapped his shin in a fight against the Belarus fighter Sergei Gur. It took Nicholas 3 years and 4 months to get back in the ring and it was on the show called, Bushido Europe in Rotterdam. He fought against Gohkan Saki and beat him in the second round by T.K.O. when Saki's corner threw in the towel. Eventually Nicholas returned to the K-1 ring with his bout up against Dutch fighter Badr Hari at K-1 Dynamite 2007, the annual New Year's Eve gala held in Japan.^[4] Pettas had been beaten 5 times consecutive by his opponents however he did not surrender fighting and clutched a sensational KO victory against South Korean fighter Kim Young-hyun at K-1 PREMIUM 2007 Dynamite!! in Osaka, December 31, 2007.^[5]

Pettas, as an expatriate person in Japan, also raised his fame in Japanese cinema in recent years. His continued work on TV and media has earned him several roles in both drama and movies, in 2008 he acted alongside the Japanese superstar Kimura Takuya from SMAP, in the primetime TV drama called Change. From 2008 to 09, Nicholas was cast for the series Samurai Spirit.

Titles

Pettas had several achievements in different tournaments related to Karate and K-1, successively:^[6]

• K-1 Japan Grand Prix Champion: 2001
• '95 European Heavyweight champion 1995
• The 10th.Shin Karate World Championships Champion: 2000
• 7th World Open Karate Tournament 1999 5th Place
• 6th World Open Karate Tournament 1995 5th Place
• 1st World Weight Category Championships 1997 3rd Place

Filmography

• House of Smack Down (2003)
• Road 88 (2003)
• Sibirian Express 5 (2004)
• Wrestling Inferno (2005)
• The Winds of God, Kamikaze (2005)
• LoveDeath (2006)
• Puzzle (2008)
• Change (2008)
• Fumō Chitai (2009)

Kickboxing record

9 Wins (8 knockouts), 10 Losses, 0 Draws
Date	Result	Opponent	Event	Method	Round	Time	Location
December 31, 2007	Win	Young Hyun Kim	K-1 PREMIUM 2007 Dynamite!!	KO (Right Punch)	2	0:41	Osaka, Japan
August 5, 2007	Loss	Peter Aerts	K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Hong Kong	KO (Right High Kick)	2	2:34	Hong Kong
December 31, 2006	Loss	Badr Hari	K-1 PREMIUM 2006 Dynamite!!	TKO (Arm Injury)	2	1:28	Osaka, Japan
October 8, 2005	Win	Gokhan Saki	Bushido Europe "Rotterdam Rumble"	TKO (Corner Stoppage)	2		Rotterdam, Netherlands
June 2, 2002	Loss	Sergei Gur	K-1 Survival 2002	TKO (Doctor Stoppage)	2	1:00	Toyama, Japan
April 21, 2002	Loss	Peter Aerts	K-1 Burning 2002	KO (Knee Strike)	1	2:50	Hiroshima, Japan
December 8, 2001	Loss	Alexey Ignashov	K-1 World Grand Prix 2001 Final	KO (Right Knee)	2	1:21	Tokyo, Japan
August 19, 2001	Win	Musashi	K-1 Andy Memorial 2001 Japan GP Final	Decision	4	3:00	Saitama, Japan
August 19, 2001	Win	Nobu Hayashi	K-1 Andy Memorial 2001 Japan GP Final	TKO (Right Low Kick)	1	1:26	Saitama, Japan
August 19, 2001	Win	Yusuke Fujimoto	K-1 Andy Memorial 2001 Japan GP Final	TKO (Right Low Kick)	1	2:57	Saitama, Japan
March 17, 2001	Win	Peter Varga	K-1 Gladiators 2001	KO (Right Low Kick)	3	1:39	Yokohama, Japan
October 9, 2000	Loss	Michael McDonald	K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 in Fukuoka	Decision (Unanimous)	5	3:00	Fukuoka, Japan
July 30, 2000	Loss	Jérôme Le Banner	K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 in Nagoya	TKO (Left Hook, 2 Knockdown Rule)	1	3:00	Nagoya, Japan
July 30, 2000	Win	Ricky Nickolson	K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 in Nagoya	KO (Right Low Kick)	1	1:27	Nagoya, Japan
July 18, 1998	Loss	Stefan Leko	K-1 Dream '98	KO (Punch)	2	1:09	Nagoya, Japan

See also

• List of male kickboxers
• List of kickboxing organizations
• List of K-1 Events

References

1. ^ "Pettas Profile". k-1fightclub.com. http://www.k-1fightclub.com/fighters_profile/nick_pettas.html. Retrieved 2008-07-27. 
2. ^ Monty DiPietro. "Nicholas Pettas Wins K-1 Japan GP". K-1. http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/d001_18.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-27. 
3. ^ Monty DiPietro. "World GP 2001 Final". k-1.co.jp. http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/btop.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-27. 
4. ^ Monty DiPietro. "Schilt Wins Again, Akiyama Beats Sakuraba at Dynamite '06". k-1.co.jp. http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/btop.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-27. 
5. ^ Monty DiPietro. "Sakuraba Still Dynamite!!". k-1.co.jp. http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/btop.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-27. 
6. ^ http://www.kyokushin4life.com/forums/retired/1569-nicholas-pettas.html titles at Kyokushin4life

External links

• Nicholas Pettas official website and blog
• Profile at K-1
• Nicholas Pettas at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Pettas, Nicholas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 23, 1973
Place of birth	Mykonos, Greece
Date of death
Place of death