Gerard Gordeau

Gerard Gordeau (born 30 March 1956) is a Dutch former Savateur, Karateka, Kickboxer, and mixed martial artist. He is the 1991 World Champion Savate and holder of the Dutch Champion Karate title for eight consecutive years, but foremost known internationally for his fight against Teila Tuli in the first televised Ultimate Fighting Championship bout on 12 November 1993.

The second of six brothers, Gordeau lost his father when he was 11 and was forced to leave school in order to work for an income. He took up Karate at 16 by influence of an Indonesian friend at whose house Gordeau used to eat. Initially seeing it as just a hobby, Gordeau decided to train seriously after challenging and losing twice to an unassuming Japanese partner. After a year of training in several dojos, he sparred again with him and this time Gordeau won. Thanks to those skills, he held jobs as a bouncer for eight years. Due to the high criminality of the Dutch districts, he would reveal years later that he lived through constant danger of death.

Gordeau competed at the World Open Karate Championships. Later in his life, following the ideas of Kyokushin founder Mas Oyama, he trained in Wrestling and Boxing in an attempt to make his style more complete. He also learned Sambo, Silat, Muay Thai, Savate and Judo. Gordeau was a Dutch Karate Champion from 1978 to 1985, a European Savate Champion from 1988 to 1991 and a World Savate Champion in 1992, with an overall competitive record of 27-4 before his MMA debut. Gordeau also had some shoot-style wrestling matches under his belt, a Japanese professional wrestling style resembling proto-MMA, having previously had matches at shootwrestling organizations UWF and RINGS, both in Japan.

In 1993, Gordeau was scouted to take part in UFC 1, the first event of Ultimate Fighting Championship. The event's organizers had sought several high-level fighters in Holland, among them Kickboxing champion Ernesto Hoost, but Gordeau was the only one available and willing to do it. As he had been a Savate champion the previous year, he was billed solely as a Savate artist. According to him, he was initially pitted against Royce Gracie in the first round of the tournament, but when the organizers found out that Gordeau had previously competed in Fighting Network Rings, they changed the matchup: Gracie would fight Boxer Art Jimmerson instead, while Gordeau would face 400 pound Sumo expert Teila Tuli on the opposite side of the bracket.

In his first bout, also the first televised match in the history of UFC, Gordeau defeated Tuli in a fight that lasted only 26 seconds. When Tuli charged towards him with a tsukidashi attack, Gordeau eluded his opponent and allowed the sumo to crash against the cage wall. The Dutchman then took stance and threw a right roundhouse kick to Tuli's face, following with a right uppercut that cut Tuli's eye, before the referee intervened to stop the match.

Victorious, Gordeau advanced to the next round, although the bout left him injured, as the kick had knocked out three of Tuli's teeth and two of them had been stuck in Gordeau's foot. The announcers claimed that the third tooth landed underneath their table, although other reports say it landed on the crowd. Doctors attended him but, not wanting Gordeau to have an open wound, and having determined that it would get infected if they tried to extract the teeth, they simply taped his foot. Gordeau's punch had broken his hand as well, and he came to the next fight with a noticeably swollen fist.

In an unrelated matter, Gordeau's debut caused a minor controversy because he appeared to do a Roman salute before the match, gaining him accusations of being a neo-nazi, but it was explained that he was actually doing the traditional savate salute. In fact, Gordeau had a Jewish ethnic background through his father, a Jewish man from France. His grandfather was also shot at the Amersfoort concentration camp for being part of the Dutch resistance.

His next fight was against Kickboxing champion Kevin Rosier, who outweighed Gordeau again by almost 100 pounds and was in slightly better health. Still, Gordeau dominated the fight easily, driving Rosier against the fence with multiple leg kicks and jabs while keeping distance. After half a minute of harassment, Gordeau pushed Rosier down to the mat with knee and elbow strikes to the head, forcing him to cover down shielding his face, and then finished him with a stomp to the liver.