Jean Rivière

The Montreal-based Jean Rivière came to prominence as a Kyokushin fighter, with the most notable achievement of his karate career coming in November 1991 at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in Tokyo where he finished fourth in a tournament of 250 competitors.[1] He defeated Tatsuya Iwasaki (with an ushiro mawashi geri) in the round of thirty-two, Lars Bjorstrup in the round of sixteen and Johnny Kleyn in the quarter-finals before losing to Akira Masuda in the semi-finals.[2]

Rivière would later transition to mixed martial arts, making his debut in Brazil on December 1, 1995 where he knocked out capoeira stylist Mestre Hulk in nineteen seconds.[3] He then faced a nineteen-year-old Carlos Newton at Battlecade Extreme Fighting's second event in Montreal on April 26, 1996. Rivière had a large size advantage, reportedly outweighing Newton by 34 kg / 75 lb, but Newton dominated much of the fight with headbutts and superior grappling transitions before submitting due to exhaustion just over seven minutes into the fight.[4][5]

Later that year, Rivière joined the ranks of the Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1. In his first outing, he recorded a second round low kick stoppage win over Fred Floyd at K-1 Revenge '96 on September 1, 1996 before losing a five-round unanimous decision to Musashi at K-1 Star Wars '96 the following month. Rivière was invited to compete in the 1997 K-1 World Grand Prix, losing to fellow karateka Masaaki Satake in the tournament's opening round on September 7, 1997. The bout was scored a draw following the regulation three rounds and went into an extension round to decide the winner, after which Satake was ruled the victor by all three judges.

Rivière faced reigning K-1 World Grand Prix champion Ernesto Hoost at K-1 Braves '98 on May 24, 1998, losing by head kick knockout in the first round. In his final appearance in the kickboxing ring, Rivière competed at the K-1 USA Grand Prix '98 in Las Vegas, K-1's first event in the United States,[6] on August 7, 1998. He suffered a second-round knockout loss to Curtis Schuster at the quarter-final stage, bringing his K-1 career to a close on a 1–4 record.[7]

With his stint in K-1 at an end, Rivière returned to MMA on January 9, 1999 with a loss to John Dixson in Montreal. After an eight-year absence from the sport, he defeated Shaun Fukuhara in Hawaii on August 4, 2007.

• Professional MMA record for Jean Rivière from Sherdog
• K-1Sport profile