Andy Hug
Epic Axe Kick on Peter Aerts
People come into our academy every day because they saw a UFC, want to learn to defend themselves, saw something in a movie, or just simply want an alternative form of fitness. What really got me into martial arts was watching K-1 fights in the late 90’s on ESPN 2 at 3AM. This was before you could check out all the fights on YouTube or other websites. Now as I was watching UFC 115 a couple weeks ago I saw Mirko CroCop unleash a sweet axe kick (or Otoshi Geri I believe ask Sam for confirmation) on Pat Barry. This made me want to post about one of the best practitioners of the axe kick and unfortunately little known early K-1 stars, Andy Hug.
Most people know Ernesto Hoost, Peter Aerts, Mirko Filipovic, Badr Hari, and Remy Bojansky. Unfortunately Andy Hug was at his best before K-1 was accessible by the masses. Our very own Sam Radetsky had a fight against him and I will let him tell you about it. Andy Hug was the first practitioner of kyokushin karate to compete against and beat the best kickboxers and thai fighters in the world. Andy won the ‘96 K-1 Grand Prix and finished second in ‘98. He holds wins over Hoost, Le Banner, Cro Cop, Leko, and Aerts to name a few.
Andy Hug died unexpectedly in August of 2000 from leukemia. Andy was the embodiment of what a martial artist is and should be. If you have some time read up on Andy Hug he really was a great man.