Semmy Schilt was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 27 October 1973. He is a former Dutch Ashihara karateka, kickboxer and MMA fighter. Having won four K-1 world titles (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009) and winning the Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam in 2012, he is considered the most successful heavyweight kickboxer of all time.
Semmy was under contract with Team Golden Glory as a professional fighter. Characteristic of his style were exploiting his huge height of 2.12 metres and the use of jabs and front kicks. In MMA, Schilt appeared in fights from PRIDE, UFC and Pancrase. He won the title King of Pancrase three times and was daidojuko champion twice.
Life course
As a young boy, Semmy does mechanical engineering training and then machine benching in mechanical engineering. He likes sports by then, keeping himself busy with karate. From the student system, he goes back to school anyway, to have time to train. He then attends secondary technical school. At the end of that course, he does an internship at a design agency. Not his field at all, but he mutually likes it so much that he can start working there after his internship. But first he wants a whole month of nothing but sports. For four weeks, he is "beaten off" He proves successful in competitions and decides to continue in them.
The design agency takes that very sportingly: "It's good that you have ambition and want to be world champion, because we want that too, but with designs. If you want time off, you get time off." At some point, however, he needs more time off, leaves the design office and joins his father, who owns a transport company. He becomes a world karate champion.
Then he is challenged in Japan by a wrestler from the Free Fight Organisation. He wins. Semmy becomes world Free Fight champion (Pancrase). Professional matches come into focus. He wins some, he loses some and makes the decision to come to Zuidlaren and train with Dave Jonkers. At that point, Semmy earns part of his money teaching and the rest comes in with the competitions. At some point, Semmy teaches so many classes that he decides to found Budokai. This marks the beginning of entrepreneurship for him on 1 January 2001.
Entrepreneur
However, Semmy is also approached by a management team Golden Glory who make him a good offer regarding competitive fighting. He competes in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and then the Pride Fighting Championship. All bigger, more professional and more commercial. From there, he is 'loaned' to K-1, a Japanese martial arts organisation. This is how he rolled into kickboxing.
In 2002, he qualified for the first time, but it was not until 2005 that he came out in the K-1 Grand Prix. He becomes world kickboxing champion. He does so three years in a row. In 2005, he meets his wife. In 2008, they have a son, buy a house and they. In 2009, he qualifies again and wins K-1 for the fourth time.
Film
In 2011, something completely different comes his way: he is asked by Reinout Oerlemans for the film Nova Zembla. He plays the role of sailor Claes. He spends three months on that. At the same time, it is also a year in which no tournament will be held. Then in 2012, a new kickboxing organisation will emerge: Glory. In 2012, he starts competing again and subsequently wins the world heavyweight title.This makes him the first world champion of the new organisation Glory.
At the end of the year, instead of the K-1 Grand Prix, there is a four-man tournament instead of three. Fighting three matches in a row is already very tough, now there are four. That, says Semmy, is the toughest of all time. But he also pockets that tournament. This makes him champion for the fifth time. Unique, as four times was the maximum until then.
Fight Game Academy
And now there is the Fight Game Academy Semmy Schilt. The Fight Game Academy is a platform for cooperation and sharing knowledge in various martial arts. After being professionally active in martial arts for many years and winning many titles, including five world titles in kickboxing, Semmy's dream is to share his experience as a top athlete with others, so that they in turn can find inspiration in it to transfer their knowledge to a wide range of athletes, both recreational and competitive.
