Standing at 2.12 metres, Semmy Schilt doesn’t precisely mix right into a crowd. He is aware of it, too. “You possibly can see I’m large,” he says with amusing. “You don’t want to inform me that.” The four-time Okay-1 World Grand Prix champion and President of KWU SENSHI Europe was in Plovdiv forward of SENSHI 31 Gladiators, and in dialog he turned out to be as self-aware as he was dominant in competitors, which is saying one thing.
Semmy Schilt Talks PANCRASE and Yuki Kondo
Schilt made his skilled debut in 1996 inside Pancrase, the Japanese hybrid catch wrestling organisation based by Masakatsu Funaki that blurred the road between submission wrestling and what the world would finally name MMA. Certainly one of his first opponents there was Yuki Kondo, a scrappy Japanese fighter who went on to compete in over 100 skilled bouts throughout a profession stretching from 1996 to 2022.
Their first assembly got here on the 1996 Pancrase Neo-Blood Match on July 22 of that yr, with Kondo successful by break up resolution. “He was a powerful fighter,” Schilt remembers. “He was additionally upcoming, identical to me. We had been combating within the Neo Blood match, and in that point I had simply come into Pancrase. I believe my first, possibly two or three fights I had in Pancrase, after which there was a brand new blood match, which was actually nice as a result of I may battle in a match for the primary time.”
Their second bout, at Pancrase Alive 7 on June 30, 1997, went the identical approach, Kondo successful by unanimous resolution. However the rubber match, at Pancrase Breakthrough 10 on November 28, 1999, advised a unique story: Schilt submitted Kondo with a rear-naked choke within the first spherical at 2:28. Schilt doesn’t overlook the end. “The subsequent time I battle him, I may make a submission as a result of he walked into it, so I’m actually glad for that. However he was an excellent floor fighter.”
The period itself was not like something that got here earlier than or since. Pancrase used open-palm strikes slightly than closed fists, an method rooted in catch wrestling and karate, and Schilt introduced a putting background that set Dutch fighters other than the organisation’s Japanese core. “As a result of I’m coming from karate, and Bas [Rutten] additionally, our palm strikes are totally different. We all know hit. The catch wrestling guys hit with the fingers and it appears powerful, however we hit with the palm of the hand, and it’s like, there’s solely bone right here.” He faucets his hand for emphasis. “It’s actual energy.”
Schilt additionally spoke about how Pancrase pushed him to develop. He arrived as a karateka and Kudo champion, however floor combating in opposition to opponents like Kondo pressured him to adapt quick. “Each time it was a brand new problem. First the possibility for the bottom, then the punching on the bottom, after which got here kickboxing, as a result of I didn’t do kickboxing earlier than.” That late transition proved to be the appropriate name. Schilt gained 4 Okay-1 World Grand Prix titles between 2005 and 2009, turning into the one fighter in Okay-1 historical past to win the championship three consecutive instances, in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and later added the Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam in 2012.
SENSHI
Now he serves as President of KWU SENSHI Europe and holds a ninth Dan in Ashihara karate. Strolling across the SENSHI venue, he seen youthful fighters telling him it was the honour of a lifetime to compete in entrance of him. His response was quick: “It provides me goosebumps.” He sees SENSHI as a pure continuation of every little thing he constructed. “Since SENSHI began for me because the transition from karate to kickboxing, from novice to skilled, it’s precisely my path.”
SENSHI 31 Gladiators takes place on Might 30 on the Historic Theatre of Philippopolis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The headline attraction is a SENSHI Grand Prix within the 70 kg division, an eight-man knockout match the place just one fighter walks away with the light-weight championship title. Tremendous fights spherical out the cardboard, together with a 95+ kg conflict between Benjamin Adegbuyi and Daniel Dinev.
