Glaube Feitosa

Glaube Feitosa reached the 2005 K-1 World Grand Prix final and is remembered chiefly for one technique: a left high kick of unusual height and speed for a heavyweight, thrown with the flexibility that Kyokushin training develops and most gloved fighters never acquire.

That kick is the direct product of a ruleset. In knockdown karate the head cannot be punched, only kicked, so competitors who want to finish above the shoulders build a kicking game most kickboxers never need to. Feitosa brought it into K-1 largely intact, and against opponents drilled on horizontal defences it repeatedly found a way through.

His even record reflects the honest arithmetic of that specialisation — the kick won him fights nobody expected and did not compensate for the areas Kyokushin leaves undeveloped.