Semmy Schilt produced a fascinating career during his time as an active competitor.
While the Dutch legend remains an essential figure in the kickboxing world, with the role of a referee at Senshi's first heavyweight Grand Prix on 13 September, his performance speaks for himself.
As the only man who has won five large heavyweight tournaments in kickboxing, Schilt was confronted with heavy batters and elite attackers in the ring.
Although he is best known for his success in promotions such as K-1 and Glory, the towering 6'11 competitor also has 41 MMA fights under his belt.
Schilt may have called Fedor Emelianenko as the most difficult opponent he had confronted, but 'The Last Emperor' was not the only feared hunter with which he crossed paths.
Semmy Schilt laughs while working with Senshi. Credit: Senshi
Semmy Schilt reflects in 1998 with Minoru Suzuki in Pancrase in Pancrase
Before he started fighting in the UFC and Pride, Semmy Schilt's MMA career largely took place in the Japanese promotion -Pancrase.
With all three founders of the promotion double as hunters and professional wrestlers, it is not surprising that the rules network combines elements of both.
In addition to Masakatsu Funaki and UFC star Ken Shamrock, Minoru Suzuki, a Japanese legend with 50 Pro MMA fights on his record that still competes as a professional wrestler to this day.
Although he struggled for promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling, Impact Wrestling (TNA) and AEW in recent years, Suzuki was a formidable hunter in the 90s.
In 1998 at Pancrase: Advance 1 he faced Semmy Schilt, where the Dutch kick boxer won the fight after obtaining a huge knockout.
Schilt thought about what his most important memories are of that meeting when he speaks with Bloody Elbow in a recently exclusive interview.
“For Suzuki I remember that he would continue to smile, even if he was eliminated. Even when I was in Pancrase, I was a long hunter … Minoru Suzuki was really dangerous. He was really good in bone and had a never given mind.
“This spirit, I miss it a bit in modern kickboxing. How much belief in yourself do you have to fight against a man who is one or two heads bigger than you and still have this charismatic, people believe in him. When I won this fight, people cried because this dream shared it.”
Semmy Schilt remembers how he perfectly set up Minoru Suzuki for the knee that ended the fight
While Semmy Schilt admitted when he spoke with Bloody Elbow that his ground game was never the strongest, the Elite Kickboxer was a heavy matchup for everyone while the fight stopped.
He remembered how he set up Minoru Suzuki before the finishing blow by perfectly timing a knee as soon as his opponent tried to come to him.
“I make a blind knee, almost blind. I almost made the same knee with Ernesto Hoost. It was the same situation. I know that when someone comes in the corner, they want to come to me, I only have to give the knee. He literally got in my knee. It was a crazy knockout.”
It is this incredible amount of striking experience at a high level that Schilt and the will of Ernesto Hoost makes invaluable instructors for young hunters, as they have proven in their work with Senshi.