Tadashi Sawamura

In 1963 there was a competitive match between leading Japanese and Thai instructors, a karate vs Muay Thai tournament. Japan won the series although two of the Japanese participants Osamu Noguchi and Tatsuo Yamada wanted to create a full-contact sport similar to how Muay Thai is a sport in Thailand, and they started to create kickboxing. Sawamura was a young karate sports student at high-school and university who won numerous school championships and thought he was the best. He asked his hero Noguchi what he thought and Noguchi replied that the sports version of karate doesn't have the training to win in a full-contact fight and that he would lose if he traveled to Thailand to compete in full-contact.[1]

Sawamura went to Thailand to prove he couldn't lose regardless of the rules because he thought himself to have the samurai spirit. He lost the fight against the Thai fighter in round 2 and suffered three broken ribs and needed sixteen months to heal. Disheartened, Sawamura wanted to retrain himself in jujutsu and hold a rematch. Noguchi met with Sawamura while he was healing, and introduced him to Japanese kickboxing. Sawamura decided to retrain in this new martial art under the guidance of Noguchi and won his rematch in Thailand against the fighter who previously knocked him out. He became one of the sport's great champions and would help make it popular world-wide, retiring with over 200 knockouts.[1]

Hideki Shiraha was born in Manchukuo in 1943. He practiced rugby during university. Shiraha debuted as a professional kickboxer on April 11, 1966. He won the Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize in 1973.[2] After a career spanning eleven years, he retired on October 10, 1977. After retiring from professional sports Shiraha focused on managing his automobile-related company, while also teaching karate to children in his free time.

• 241 total fights
  • 232 wins
    • 228 by knockout
  • 5 losses
  • 4 draws

• Oriental Lightweight champion
• Oriental Middleweight champion

His exploits were the basis of an anime series called Kick no Oni[3] (which means "The demon of kickboxing", written by Ikki Kajiwara), and he was also a guest on an episode of the series Return of Ultraman as himself.

His anime series also became intensely popular in Brazil during the 70's and early 80's featuring 26 episodes under the name "Sawamu, o Demolidor". In this series, Tadashi Sawamu (Brazilian translation), was an arrogant karate fighter who was defeated by a kickboxer, leaving Sawamu in a mild coma. Once in the hospital and recovering from the coma, his opponent's kickboxing trainer Noguchi, came to his hospital room and convinced Sawamu to become a kickboxer. To which after some rigorous training, he learned a devastating finishing move: "The Jumping Vacuum Knee" (Shinku tobi hiza geri)

The Japanese name for Hitmonlee, a Pokémon character, is Sawamurā, which is a reference to Sawamura.[4]

In Cynthia: The Mission, a girl embraces a sandbag which was kicked by Tadashi Sawamura.

• List of male kickboxers