Le Bannet, Jerome

Jerome Le Bannet was born December 26, 1972 in the French city ​​of Le Havre , Normandy region . At the age of 5, he began to practice judo . After watching Bruce Lee ’s film “ Fist of Fury ” at the age of 16, Le Banne changed judo to karate , from which he took his right-handed stance and began to practice punches. Despite the fact that Le Bannet is right-handed, he used this stance throughout his career. He also tried to transfer the techniques he saw from Jeet-kun-do to his own practice. At the age of 18 he came to kickboxing ^[1] Le Banne is the owner of a black belt in Kyokushin karate and judo . ^[2]

At the age of 18, Le Banne spoke at his first kickboxing competition, and at the age of 19 he already had the title of champion of France according to ISKA. Shortly thereafter, he won the European Championship belt in a fight against Andy Mayo and won the Intercontinental Belt, fighting in South Africa with Mike Bernardo . At age 21, he had a chance to meet with Richard Vince for the IKL World Kickboxing title.

K-1 Debut

On March 3, 1995, Le Bannet made his K-1 debut, winning a five-round decision with Nokwid Devi. The fight took place in the absolute weight category, so Le Banne weighed 107 kg, while Nokwid only 74. Two months later, on May 4, 1995, Le Banne made his debut in his first K-1 World Grand Prix tournament in Tokyo , Japan . There he knocked out Masaaki Satake and Mike Bernardo , and in the final he lost to Peter Artsu .

Champion title fight

In 1995, after performing in K-1, Le Banne went to serve in the French Army and did not train for almost a year. In April 1996, he returned to training, this time with a new coach. On June 1, 1996, in a fight against Curtis Schuster in Paris, Le Banne won the ISKA Muay Thai World heavyweight world title. On October 18, at the K-1 Star Wars '96 tournament, Jerome knocked out Ernesto Host in the second round.

K-1 and kickboxing

In 1997, Le Banne again had problems finding a coach. As a result, the fighter began to cooperate with the trainer of the boxer Christophe Tiozzo Jean-Christophe Courier. In 1998, Le Banne joined the American promoter Don King , who found him boxing trainer Don Turner. As a result, he was able to train in the same room with Evander Holyfield .

On July 18, at the K-1 DREAM '98 tournament, Le Bannet met with Sam Greco . Greco knocked out Le Banne in the first round, but he managed to pack up and in the second round knocked out Greco.

On September 19, Le Bannet spoke in support of Evander Holyfield 's fight against Won Bin . Le Banne defeated Espedito da Silva in the first round by knockout, breaking a haikik, which earned him the WKN Muay Thai world heavyweight title.

In professional boxing, Le Banne spent 6 fights, won 6 victories, with 5 by knockouts, 1 by disqualification of an opponent. He also wanted to perform according to the rules of boxing at Madison Square Garden in February and March 1999, but problems with Don King about the contract did not allow the fights to take place.

Return to K-1

Due to problems with contractual obligations, Le Bannet could not simultaneously perform in boxing and kickboxing. In 1999, K-1 producer Kazuyoshi Ishii was able to solve contract problems and Le Bannet returned to K-1. On October 3, he took part in the K-1 World Grand Prix '99 Opening Round tournament, which took place in Osaka ( Japan ). In the first round, he met with the Englishman Matt Skelton . Prior to this, Matt was considered a contender for the WBA heavyweight title, and in the WBO had the fifth number in the ranking. Skelton had never been knocked out before meeting with Le Bannet. In the first round after the clinch, Skelton fell and the judge began the countdown, but he quickly got up. Seconds later, Le Banne again sent Skelton to the floor and the situation repeated. As a result, after the “deuce” and finishing off the ropes, the Englishman fell, and Le Bannet finished the fight in 1:59 in the first round by knockout.

K-1 GP 99 Final Round Matches

The K-1 Grand Prix '99 final round was held in Tokyo Dome on December 5, in which Le Banne met three-time Grand Prix champion Peter Arts in the quarterfinals. Artsu managed to knock Le Banne down with his right hikik at the beginning of the battle, but he got up and continued the fight. Arts went to finish off the opponent, but Le Bannet fought back and did not miss another haikik. Le Bannet stepped on and caught Arts in the exchange at the ropes with a left hook, after which the fight was stopped at 1:11 in the first round. In the semifinals, Le Banne met with Ernesto Host . Le Bannet dominated, but lost by technical knockout in the third round.

The best technical knockout or KO Millennium

On April 23, 2000, Le Bannet took part in the K-1 The Millennium tournament, where he met with the current 1999 Kyokushin karate world champion, Francisco Filo . The year before, Filo won the 1999 K-1 Grand Prix champion Ernesto Host by knockout. However, Le Bannet knocked out Filo with a direct right-handed shot in the first round. The knockout was named the “Best Technical Knockout of the Millennium” (or KO Millennium by tournament name), as stated within the ring and Japanese media. The left hand and the left punch Le Banne after the fight was called the “Golden Left”.

On July 30, Le Banne defeated Mark Hunt , Nicholas Pettas and Ernesto Host and became the champion of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 in Nagoya. However, he was unable to attend the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 Final due to an infectious disease.

On April 29, 2001, Le Bannet won the 2001 K-1 World Grand Prix tournament in Osaka with three knockouts in the first rounds, setting the record for the tournament, spending just 4 minutes and 4 seconds on three fights.

On December 8, Le Bannet lost to Mark Hunt by knockout in the quarterfinals of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2001. The fight was one of the most notorious disappointments in K-1. After the fight, the Japanese martial arts magazine SRS-DX published a photo of the moment in which Le Bannet got his elbow in the face, but this did not lead to anything and the result was not changed. In the end, Hunt went to the semifinals, where he defeated Stefan Leko, and in the final, he defeated Francisco Filo.

K-1 and a Broken Arm

On December 7, 2002, Le Bannet began performing at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 tournament, where he defeated Musashi in the quarter-finals and broke Mark Hunt in the semi-finals. In the final, he was waiting for three-time champion Ernesto Host . After two hard rounds that took place in an equal fight, Host in the third round with three hi-kicks broke Le Banne's left hand. According to the rules, after three knockdowns, the battle was stopped, and the victory was awarded to the Host. The match referee Nabuhito Kakuda was criticized for not stopping the fight after the first knockdown or for asking a doctor to examine Le Bannet. As a result, Le Bannet received a complex fracture and a pin in his left hand ^[3] .

Career after injury

Despite the fact that the injury nearly cost him the end of his career, Jerome recovered six months later and returned to the ring at the 2003 K-1 tournament in Paris, where he beat Vitaliy Akhramenko from Belarus.

On December 2, 2006, after losing the fight to Sammu Schilt in the 2006 World Grand Prix finals, Le Banne announced his retirement from tournament fights, limiting himself to appearing in K-1 title fights.

In early 2007, after his fight in Yokohama at the 2007 K-1 World Grand Prix, Le Banner was forced to perform knee surgery. His return was expected no earlier than a year later. However, he quickly got better and decided to take part in the final of the 2007 K-1 World Grand Prix, which took place on December 8, 2007 in the Yokohama arena.

On December 8, 2007, in his 9th fight at the world K-1 Grand Prix, Le Banner defeated the “giant” Choi Hong Man in the quarterfinals by unanimous decision. In the semifinals, he met with the then-current champion Schilt Sammy . Le Banner drove on points after the first round, but at the beginning of the second round, Schilt hit the right knee of Le Banner, on which the operation was performed, thereby damaging him. As a result, the fight was stopped when a towel was thrown from the corner of Le Banner, in order to avoid further injury to the athlete.

Mixed Martial Arts Statistics

• lebannerofficial.com - official site of Jerome Le Banne
• Profile at K-1
• JLB on the Internet Movie Database