1. Lee Hasdell was born on 13 December 1966 and is a British martial artist, promoter and former professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist.
78 Facts About Lee Hasdell
1. 2.
Lee Hasdell promoted the first professional mixed martial arts events in the UK and helped develop many of the standards within the British MMA scene of today.
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Lee Hasdell began his professional career in 1989, as a Muay Thai boxer, becoming a three-time British champion in kickboxing and Thai boxing.
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Lee Hasdell began martial arts in 1979, at the age of 12, learning taekwondo under Morris Young who was the European full-contact taekwondo heavyweight champion.
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Lee Hasdell later took up boxing and then karate as he felt that it was more of a mixed style that suited his stand up.
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Lee Hasdell was taught by Bryan Walker, who was one of Master Toddy's first generation instructors and would train under him until 1992.
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Lee Hasdell began his professional kickboxing career in January 1989, at the age of 22 as a super-welterweight Thai boxer.
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In 1991, Lee Hasdell went over to train at the Gym International and the Chakuriki Gym in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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On 9 March 1991, Lee Hasdell won the WKA British super-middleweight kickboxing title.
10.
Lee Hasdell fought Paval Rumas for the ISKA European light-heavyweight full contact title and lost by split decision after 10 rounds.
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Lee Hasdell later moved up to super light-heavyweight and challenged for both the WKA Commonwealth and European Muay Thai titles.
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Lee Hasdell lost the first title fight against Duncan Airlie James due to a cut in October 1993.
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Lee Hasdell was stopped near the end of the last round due to leg kicks.
14.
Lee Hasdell attended the K-1 Grand Prix '94 as a stand by fighter.
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On 17 October 1994, Lee Hasdell made a move to super-cruiserweight when he defeated French fighter Bruno Fariot by first round knock-out.
16.
On 15 April 1995, Lee Hasdell fought undefeated American fighter Curtis Schuster for the ISKA world super-heavyweight Muay Thai title in Paris, France.
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Lee Hasdell, who was significantly smaller than his opponent, lost in the first round by clinch knees.
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Lee Hasdell was first exposed to mixed martial arts in 1992, when teaching kickboxing at a Japanese Boarding School, he began cross training with the Japanese martial arts instructors in Judo, Karate and Jujitsu.
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On 15 October 1995, Lee Hasdell promoted a kickboxing event in Milton Keynes, England which featured three shootfighting contests.
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Lee Hasdell won the fight by technical-knockout due to a cut from a knee in round 2.
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On 18 February 1996, Lee Hasdell made his shootfighting debut for Rings Holland at Kings of Martial Arts against Dutch Thai boxer and multiple time world champion Andre Mannaart.
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On 20 April 1996, Lee Hasdell entered the world Oktagon challenge, an eight-man shootboxing tournament held in Milan, Italy.
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Lee Hasdell represented the UK and the art of freestyle fighting.
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Lee Hasdell went through to the final with two knockouts over American Jeet Kun Do practitioner Scott Dobbs and Italian Judo and Karate champion Paolo Di Clemente.
25.
Lee Hasdell would fight in a no holds barred match in October 1996.
26.
On 2 February 1997, Lee Hasdell made his second appearance for Rings Holland; now with Akira Maeda in his corner, fought Rings veteran Hans Nijman in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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On 4 April 1997, Lee Hasdell made his debut for Fighting Network RINGS in Tokyo, Japan.
28.
Lee Hasdell defeated American Sean McCully by guillotine choke at 3:59.
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Lee Hasdell returned to Tokyo two months later to compete in the Rings light-heavyweight tournament for the divisions inaugural title and lost to Masayuki Naruse in the quarter-finals by submission.
30.
On 5 October 1997, Lee Hasdell promoted his first official mixed martial arts event; the first in the United Kingdom, called Total Fight Night.
31.
Later that same month, Lee Hasdell competed in the annual RINGS: Mega Battle Tournament, a 16-man tournament to determine the first ever Rings open-weight champion.
32.
On 13 December 1997, Lee Hasdell made a brief return to kickboxing when he entered an 8-man tournament in Prague, Czech Republic.
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Lee Hasdell took on Mirko Filipovic in the quarter-finals and was defeated by TKO in round 2.
34.
On 29 May 1998, Lee Hasdell fought Hiromitsu Kanehara in Sapporo, Japan.
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On 21 September 1998, Lee Hasdell defeated future UFC Japan winner, Kenichi Yamamoto by KO in Yokohama, Japan.
36.
On 11 October 1998, Lee Hasdell re-matched Hiromitsu Kanehara, this time at Night of the Samurai II in Milton Keynes, England and after 15 minutes, Lee Hasdell lost again by decision.
37.
On 20 November 1998, Lee Hasdell began what would be a trilogy of matches with Yasuhito Namekawa.
38.
Lee Hasdell was trailing the fight by two points before knocking Namekawa out with a knee strike at 5:55.
39.
Lee Hasdell returned to Japan on 23 April 1999, defeating future DEEP Japan middleweight champion, Ryuki Ueyama via to disqualification and submitting Ricardo Fyeet four months later.
40.
On 15 September 1999, Lee Hasdell fought Satoshi Honma in Tokyo, Japan and after twenty minutes, the bout ended in a draw.
41.
On 28 October 1999, Lee Hasdell competed in the RINGS King of Kings Tournament 1999, in the round of 32 he defeated Achmed Labasanov by TKO in round 2.
42.
Lee Hasdell was eliminated in the following round by Brazilian fighter Renato Sobral by unanimous decision.
43.
Lee Hasdell became the first British fighter to compete in a major international mixed martial arts tournament.
44.
Lee Hasdell took a break after this tournament to heal an injured knee.
45.
In 2000, Lee Hasdell was awarded his blackbelt in Ju Jutsu and personally invited by the Prince of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates to compete in the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship on 1 March 2000.
46.
On 16 April 2000, Lee Hasdell made another kickboxing comeback at K-1 UK Battle of Britain 2000 held in Birmingham, England.
47.
Lee Hasdell defeated world heavyweight kickboxing champion Simon Dore by KO at 0:30 of round 3.
48.
Two weeks later Lee Hasdell rematched Joop Kasteel, this time in the Netherlands.
49.
Lee Hasdell lost the fight due to a dislocated shoulder in the opening round after knocking Kasteel down twice early in the match.
50.
Lee Hasdell returned six months later on 22 December 2000, and took on Rings veteran Volk Han in the round of 32 of the annual King of Kings tournament.
51.
Lee Hasdell lost by TKO in the second round after he suffered an eye injury from one of the punches.
52.
On 21 January 2001, Lee Hasdell won the Kamon European Brazilian Jujitsu tournament in London.
53.
Lee Hasdell was then scheduled to face British fighter James Zikic on 11 March 2001, at Millennium Brawl 2 but pulled out due to an eye injury he received in training.
54.
Lee Hasdell returned to competition in the Absolute Class Tournament at Rings World Title Series on 20 October 2001.
55.
On 21 December 2001, in the semi-final of the tournament, Lee Hasdell lost to Fedor Emelianenko by guillotine choke in the first round.
56.
At the age of 35, Lee Hasdell finished his 6-year career with Rings as the promotion would cease operating from 2002.
57.
Shortly after competing in his final mixed martial arts bout in Rings, Lee Hasdell competed in a shootboxing match on 2 February 2002, in Tokyo, Japan against French fighter Cyrille Diabate.
58.
Lee Hasdell lost by TKO due to referee stoppage at 2:18 of round 4.
59.
Lee Hasdell resumed his mixed martial arts career on 24 April 2004, at Pain and Glory, held at the NEC in Birmingham, England.
60.
At the age of 40, after a 3-year hiatus from the sport, Lee Hasdell made his Cage Rage debut at Cage Rage 22 on 14 July 2007, at Wembley Arena in London.
61.
Lee Hasdell fought Brazilian Mario Sperry in the light-heavyweight division and lost by rear naked choke in the first round.
62.
On 1 December 2007, Lee Hasdell fought Italian Ivan Serati at Cage Rage 24.
63.
Lee Hasdell lost again by rear naked choke at 1:34 of round 2 in what would be his final professional mixed martial arts bout to date.
64.
On 5 October 1997, Lee Hasdell promoted UTF's first professional event called 'Total Fight Night'.
65.
Lee Hasdell later promoted a fifth event called Total Fight KRG 5 on 3 October 1999.
66.
Lee Hasdell promoted many amateur Rings rules and Vale Tudo competitions between 1998 and 1999.
67.
In 2000, Lee Hasdell promoted the Ring of Truth series, these were three events featuring Vale Tudo and Rings king of kings bouts, it featured a Ring of Truth Vale Tudo tournament.
68.
On 9 June 2001, Lee Hasdell staged a Grassroots competition featuring grappling, Thai boxing and Rings king of kings bouts.
69.
Lee Hasdell insisted that the sport is adequately controlled and have an amazing safety record.
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Lee Hasdell's events were featured on many News programs such as LWT Nightlife, Trevor McDonald's Tonight programme on 22 July 1999 and appeared on Johnny Vaughan's The Big Breakfast show on 15 March 2000.
71.
Lee Hasdell founded the Combudo organisation in 2000, and has staged many amateur events since.
72.
Lee Hasdell promoted multiple amateur and professional kickboxing events between 1993 and 1995.
73.
On 15 October 1995, Lee Hasdell promoted Fighting Arts Gala in Milton Keynes.
74.
In 2002 and 2003, Lee Hasdell promoted the UZI-Cage Combat Evolution series, two mixed martial arts events held in a Cage.
75.
Between 2009 and 2018, Lee Hasdell was the new and first ISKA UK National Director for MMA.
76.
On 9 March 2012, Lee Hasdell took one of his students to compete at Fighting Network RINGS's first official event in Japan for ten years.
77.
Lee Hasdell's student defeated K-1 fighter Takayuki Kohiruimaki at RINGS: Reincarnation.
78.
In 2013, Lee Hasdell became a consultant for the ISKA sanctioned 'KT-MMA' promotion.