Hero's was a Japanese

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 ...

promotion operated by Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent entity behind

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 ...

organization

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

. Grown from and branched off of K-1's earlier experiments in MMA, including the ''K-1 Romanex'' event and various MMA fights on its regular K-1 kickboxing cards, it held its first show on March 26, 2005. The promotion was handled by former Rings head

Akira Maeda (born Go Il-myeong (Hangul: 고일명, Hanja: 高日明), January 24, 1959) is a Japanese mixed martial arts promoter, writer and retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist of Korean descent. Maeda was also known by the ring name K ...

. At a press conference on February 13, 2008, FEG announced that they discontinued Hero's and were creating a new mixed martial arts franchise, Dream, in collaboration with former Pride FC executives from Dream Stage Entertainment.

History

Although not as popular worldwide as the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

or the now defunct

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 ...

, Hero's was very recognizable in the Japanese mixed martial arts scene, thanks in large part to the visibility and resources of FEG and K-1. Hero's events were sometimes co-sponsored and broadcast on the TBS national television network in Japan. In contrast to PRIDE and the UFC, Hero's promoted only three weight classes: middleweight (-70 kg/-154 lbs), light heavyweight (-85 kg/-187 lbs) and heavyweight (+85 kg/+187 lbs)

United States

On March 27, 2007, FEG (the Fighting Entertainment Group) held a press conference at the Los Angeles Coliseum to announce their first US event which was to be held on June 2, 2007. The show, named ''K-1

Dynamite!! USA ''SoftBank presents Dynamite!! USA'' was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event co-promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), the promoters of K-1 kickboxing events and Hero's MMA events, and EliteXC. The event was held on Saturday, June 2, 2 ...

'', was a joint operated venture with the newly formed

Elite XC Elite Xtreme Combat, also known as EliteXC, was a United States-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization owned and operated by ProElite. It was founded as a partnership between Showtime Networks and ProElite and officially announced on Decembe ...

, British MMA organization

Cage Rage Cage Rage Championships, also known as Cage Rage, was a United Kingdom-based, mixed martial arts promotion that premiered on 7 September 2002 in London. Cage Rage went into liquidation and is now no longer trading. Cage Rage had been owned and ma ...

, BoDog Fight and the Korean-based Spirit MC. The show was broken down into two parts, with the first part (made up of three fights) being aired for free Showtime and the second part on

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

Reformation into Dream

At a press conference on February 13, 2008, FEG announced that they discontinued Hero's and were creating a new mixed martial arts franchise, Dream, in collaboration with former Pride FC executives from Dream Stage Entertainment. In addition to established Hero's stars, (such as Calvancante, Akiyama, and Yamamoto) many other top fighters from around the world (such as Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović and Shinya Aoki) joined the new promotion.

Notable fighters

Many notable mixed martial artists competed in Hero's, including: *

Sam Greco Salvatore "Sam" Greco (born 3 May 1967) is an Australian retired full contact karateka, heavyweight K-1 kickboxer, mixed martial artist. He was the 1994 Karate World Cup champion and holds notable kickboxing victories over Branko Cikatic, Ern ...

* Antônio Silva * Gesias Calvancante * Hermes Franca *

Lyoto Machida (born 30 May 1978), is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and karateka, who currently competes in the Light heavyweight division. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was a former UFC Light ...

* Rani Yahya * Royce Gracie * Vítor Ribeiro *

Carlos Newton Carlos Newton (born August 17, 1976) is an Anguillian-born Canadian retired mixed martial artist. He is a former UFC Welterweight Champion and Pride FC Japan MMA Legend. Known as "The Ronin", he competed worldwide in the biggest MMA organizatio ...

* Denis Kang *

Ivan Menjivar Ivan Menjivar (born May 30, 1982) is a Salvadorian-Canadian mixed martial artist who formerly fought in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Background Menjivar was born in La Paz, El Salvador, in 1982. Fleeing the ...

* Caol Uno * Genki Sudo * Hideo Tokoro * Hiroyuki Takaya * Kazuo Misaki *

Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission wrestler, currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was formerly one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugiura. ...

Kiuma Kunioku is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently fighting at Welterweight. A longtime veteran of the Pancrase organization, Kunioku captured the King of Pancrase Middleweight Championship and King of Pancrase Welterweight Championship before leavin ...

* Michihiro Omigawa * Norifumi Yamamoto *

Shungo Oyama Shungo Oyama ( 峻護 ''Ōyama Shungo'' ; born April 11, 1974) is a Japanese former professional mixed martial artist. A professional competitor from 2001 to 2014, he competed for the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Pancrase, RINGS, DREAM, K-1, a ...

* Yoshihiro Akiyama * Yushin Okami *

Jerome Le Banner Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

* Alistair Overeem * Melvin Manhoef *

Peter Aerts Peter Aerts (born 25 October 1970) is a Dutch semi-retired kickboxer. Known for his devastating high kicks, which earned him the nickname "The Dutch Lumberjack", he is widely considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time ...

* Ray Sefo * Joachim Hansen * Sergei Kharitonov * Jan Nortje *

Kotetsu Boku Park Kwang-cheol (Hangul: 박광철, Hanja:朴光哲), better known by his Japanese name , is a retired Japanese-born South Korean mixed martial artist and kickboxer, competing in the Featherweight division of Rizin Fighting Federation. He has ...

* Gary Goodridge * Brad Pickett *

Antonio McKee Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

B.J. Penn Jay Dee "B.J." Penn III (born December 13, 1978) is an American former professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Penn competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and in K-1. Penn was the first American Go ...

Bob Sapp Robert Malcolm Sapp (born September 22, 1973) is an American mixed martial artist, kickboxer, professional wrestler, actor, and former American football player. He is currently under contract with Rizin Fighting Federation. Sapp has a combine ...

Don Frye Donald Frye (born November 23, 1965) is an American former mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, and actor. In MMA, he was one of the sport's earliest well-rounded fighters and won the ''UFC 8'' and ''Ultimate Ultimate 96'' tournaments an ...

Heath Herring Heath Herring (born March 2, 1978) is an American professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Heavyweight division of Rizin. While perhaps best known for competing in PRIDE, he has also formerly competed for the UFC and K-1. Bac ...

Jake Shields Jake Sequoyah Shields (born January 9, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist and submission grappler. He was the last Rumble on the Rock Welterweight Champion, the only Elite XC Welterweight Champion, a former Shooto Welterweight ...

* Nam Phan *

Rich Clementi Richard Thomas Clementi (born March 31, 1977) is a former American mixed martial artist. Clementi has fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championships, Bellator, K-1 Hero's DREAM, King of the Cage, and Titan FC. Background Clementi was born in Ed ...

Brock Lesnar Brock Edward Lesnar ( ; born July 12, 1977) is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, former mixed martial artist (MMA), amateur wrestler, and professional American football player who holds both American and Canadian citizenship. He is ...

Hero's Grand Prix Champions

Events

Event locations

* Total event number: 19 *

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 ...

(13) :

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

– 5 :

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

– 3 :

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

– 3 :

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

– 1 : Saitama – 1 *

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

(3) :

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

– 3 *

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

(2) :

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

– 2 *

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(1) :

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

– 1

References

External links

Hero's official websiteBushido FC's official website
{{MMA organizations K-1 * 2005 establishments in Japan 2008 disestablishments in Japan Organizations established in 2005 Organizations disestablished in 2008 Mixed martial arts organizations