25 Facts About Nobuaki Kakuda

Nobuaki Kakuda is a retired karateka and kickboxer and former K-1 Head referee.

Nobuaki Kakuda subsequently worked as a dishwasher, ramen chef, and construction worker.

Nobuaki Kakuda retired following a loss to Michael Thompson at the Seidokaikan Karate World Cup in 1993, but revisited the sport occasionally in later years.

Nobuaki Kakuda's most recent karate fight to date was a decision loss to Hiroki Kurosawa at Pride 6.

From December 1991 to July 1993, Nobuaki Kakuda performed in RINGS, an organization which promoted professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.

Nobuaki Kakuda lost the fight when, in the third round, Kaman smashed his knee into his downed opponent's face and a technical knockout was ruled.

Nobuaki Kakuda's triumph was followed by a more sobering encounter with multi-time world champion Stan Longinidis, who controlled the match with powerful combinations before defeating Kakuda with low kicks.

Nobuaki Kakuda rebounded with several consecutive wins, including a dominant victory over wing chun practitioner Joe Sayah.

Faring better in his following six matches, Nobuaki Kakuda endured no worse than a draw to mixed martial artist Ryushi Yanagisawa and gained his only victory over a world champion by defeating Duncan Airlie James.

However, after eight years as an active kickboxer, Nobuaki Kakuda sought retirement to focus on his other duties within K-1.

Nobuaki Kakuda endured four knockdowns in the final two rounds and lost via unanimous decision.

Nobuaki Kakuda returned from retirement to take part in the first kickboxing tournament of his career - the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Seoul.

Nobuaki Kakuda was left with little opportunity to strike back and lost by unanimous decision.

Nobuaki Kakuda redeemed himself of the loss later that year with his most dominant win yet over mixed martial artist Mavrick Harvey.

At the time of his second retirement in 2005, Nobuaki Kakuda was the oldest and shortest participant in the K-1 tournaments.

Nobuaki Kakuda has served as an executive producer for K-1 under the Fighting and Entertainment Group.

On September 26,2015, Nobuaki Kakuda entered the world of competitive bodybuilding by participating in the Japan-Guam Goodwill Bodybuilding Championship, where he placed third in the master class.

Nobuaki Kakuda has two children; he named his son Kenshiro and daughter Yuria after characters of Fist of the North Star.

Nobuaki Kakuda is a licensed high school instructor and speaks Japanese, English, French, Thai, and Korean.

Nobuaki Kakuda is superstitious, believing in ghosts and spirits and possessing a variety of charms, including a stone from the emperor's grave.

Nobuaki Kakuda repeatedly set Guinness world records for breaking the most wooden baseball bats with his shin in one minute: 27 bats in 2001,33 in 2002, and 54 in 2009.

Nobuaki Kakuda's record was eventually beaten by German martial artist Kerim Duygu, who managed to break 65 bats in 2017.

Nobuaki Kakuda is primarily a defensive fighter, his style and technique having been molded by his career in karate.

Nobuaki Kakuda's punching power is considerable, as demonstrated by his single-strike victory over Mavrick Harvey.

Nobuaki Kakuda's technique isn't upset by an opponent's size alone, as he's repeatedly defeated fighters much taller and heavier than he.