Branko Cikatić (4 October 1954 – 22 March 2020) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

kickboxer Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general ...

, the first Croatian-born fighter to achieve international success. He was the first K-1 World Grand Prix Champion. The tournament was held on April 30, 1993 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Biography and career

Cikatić began his

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

training at the age of 12 when he took up

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

, and later

Shotokan is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" throu ...

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

at 16. He eventually earned a black belt in both of these disciplines, as well as a blue belt in

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

. When he was 18 years old, he took up

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

before switching to

kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

. He surprised the martial arts world by taking the 1993 K-1 Grand Prix tournament by storm, knocking out all three of his opponents in one evening, including

Ernesto Hoost Ernesto Frits Hoost (born 11 July 1965) is a Dutch retired kickboxer. A four-time K-1 World Champion, Hoost is considered to be one of the greatest kickboxers of all time. Debuting in 1993 at the K-1 World Grand Prix 1993, where he came just on ...

in the final match. To date Cikatić is the oldest winner of the K-1 Grand Prix at 38 years and 208 days. He extended his athletic resume to include

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

in 1998, fighting in the

Pride Fighting Championships PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts even ...

. His PRIDE debut was fought against Ralph White under K-1 rules format. Cikatić lost via disqualification after kicking the head of the downed White. Cikatić returned at ''Pride 2'', fighting under MMA rules and facing Mark Kerr. He was again disqualified after holding the ring ropes when Kerr attempted a takedown, refusing to let go when directed by the referee, running away through the ring ropes, and delivering several illegal elbows to the back of Kerr's head. His next fight at '' Pride 7'' ended in a submission loss to Maurice Smith by

forearm choke A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza ( ja, 絞技, translation=constriction technique) is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking)''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' ( ...

. Towards the end of his sports career, Cikatić tried his hand at acting, playing a villain in a 1997

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

Skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

'', starring

Anna Nicole Smith Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan; November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007) was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith started her career as a ''Playboy'' magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 ...

. In 2018, Cikatić had a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain p ...

and whilst in hospital acquired an

infection An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

causing

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

and was later diagnosed as suffering from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. He died on 22 March 2020.

Titles

Professional Career: *1998 WMTA World Champion in Thai boxing (Zagreb) * 1994 K-1 Grand Prix 3rd Place (Tokyo) * 1993 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion (Tokyo) *1991 World Champion in Thai boxing 86 kg (Berlin) *1991 IKBF World Champion in kick-boxing 86 kg (Zagreb) *1991 WKA World Champion in kick-boxing 86 kg (Wiesbaden) *1989 WMTA World champion in Thai boxing 86 kg (Düsseldorf) *1987 WMTA World champion in Thai boxing 82.5 kg (Amsterdam) *1986 European champion in Thai boxing (Paris) *1985 European champion in Thai boxing (Amsterdam) Amateur Career: *1983 European Championships in Caen Med 1

(Full-Contact) *1982 European Championships in Berlin Med 1

(Full-Contact) *1981 W.A.K.O. European Championships in Dublin Med 1

-79 kg (Full-Contact) *1981 W.K.K.A. World Championships in Miami Med 1

79 kg (Full-Contact) *1980 W.A.K.O. European Championships in London Med 1

-79 kg (Full-Contact) *1979 W.A.K.O. European Championships in Milan Med 1

-79 kg (Full-Contact)

Fight record (Incomplete)

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, 0–2 , Maurice Smith , Submission (forearm choke) , Pride 7 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 7:33 , , , - , Loss , align=center, 0–1 , Mark Kerr , DQ (grabbing the ropes) ,

Pride 2 The year 1998 is the 2nd year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 1998 had 3 events beginning with, ''Pride 2''. Debut Pride FC fighters The following fighters fought their first ...

, , align=center, 1 , align=center, 2:14 , ,

References

External links