Lucien Carbin

Carbin was born in Para District, Suriname. In 1965, he moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. At the age of 18, Carbin joined the military where he took on unarmed combat training. He advanced quickly and after his military duty, two years later in 1972, he enrolled in the martial arts school of Jon Bluming for a Kyokushin karate class. After one year, Carbin mastered the brown belt.[4] He also practiced pencak silat.[5]

In 1976, Carbin was introduced to kickboxing by Jan Plas, a fellow student of Jon Bluming and one of the teachers at the Bluming dojo. Jan Plas went to Japan and learned about kickboxing, and when he returned to the Netherlands, he founded the Mejiro Gym, while Carbin became his first student. He became a professional and had a very successful career, winning several world and European titles. He lost only once in his career.[6][3]

In 1978, Carbin competed in London at the first European Kyokushinkai Championship at Wembley Stadium. There were two categories at the tournament. The first - from 65 to 75 kg, the second - over 75 kg. Carbin weighed 62 kg. During the weigh-in, he had to wear heavy clothes to be allowed to fight. He won the tournament and received the prize from Mas Oyama. According to Carbin, he could not walk after the tournament for several days.[3]

In 1987, Carbin retired from fighting and continued as a coach. He developed his own style, which he named "Carbin All Style Muay Thai". Some of his early students included future champion Rob Kaman. He founded his own gym Fighting Factory Carbin in Amsterdam, which is considered one of the best martial arts gyms in Holland.[7] Carbin brought up multiple world champions, such as Tyrone Spong, Alistair Overeem, Gilbert Yvel, Ilonka Elmont, Sergio Wielzen and Andy Ristie.[8] He also trained Fedor Emelianenko for his fight against Mirko Cro Cop, who came to Holland to prepare for the fight.[2]