I’m champion of my own street

Coincidence is a funny thing isn’t it? Just the other day I was saying to my pal, “it’s ages since I’ve heard about Andrew Tate. Has he not topped himself yet?” and then, just minutes later, a reader sends me a message about him.

Well, technically, the message was not about Tate himself but rather about one of his many online sock puppet accounts he uses to create the illusion of credibility. But before we get to that, let’s look at the man’s official accounts and do some simple online due diligence on one of his oft-repeated claims.

That’s a damn impressive bio isn’t it? K-1 World Champion. The world’s premier kickboxing event, held in Japanese stadiums such as Saitama Super Arena and Tokyo Dome, with crowds of 30,000+ and then televised on Saturday night TV at peak viewing times. Those champs were stars: Ernesto Hoost, Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky. True champions. Fantastic professional fighters.

So, I was curious which K-1 World GP Tate had won. I hadn’t personally attended a K-1 live event since the Bob Sapp era. I think the last GP finals I went to was when Kaoklai knocked Might Mo spark out with a flying kick (Hoost won the tournament). Well, I’m sure Tate’s kickboxing record will enlighten me…..

 

Ah!

He fought one fight on a K-1 card, in China, against somebody called Wing Ding [1]. As his only K-1 fight, that must be his championship. It seems the old adage of “I’ve never met a wrestler who wasn’t champion of something” would also apply to certain kickboxing circuits. Still, Tate won. Good on him. Beating another trained fighter in man-to-man combat is not an easily-done thing. So, I was curious just what his “4x Kickboxing World Champion” claim was based on. Clearly, it wasn’t the K-1 I knew and loved. So, I perused his record further as you can also at the above Wikipedia link.

I’ll be fair, it’s a statistically impressive one of 44-9 (34). Better than my own shitty 3-2 (0) on the Tokyo amateur circuit, by quite a margin. But as Teddy Atlas says, “boxing isn’t about your record and how many knockouts you have. It’s about who you beat.”

So, who did Tate beat?

Scanning his record you can see he came up on the UK regional circuit (semi-pro/amateur) and, as the wins piled up, he ventured to France, Belgium and a little further afield to Macedonia and Slovakia. Conspicuously absent are the professional kickboxing strongholds of Japan, Thailand, and Netherlands. The one time he tried Netherlands, he got sparked out inside a round. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing to be ashamed of in this. Everyone loses. It takes balls to get into the ring and dedication to get yourself to a level where Dutch promoters even invite you onto a card. Tate’s record does not suggest he’s a soft lad. Quite the contrary. But I was still looking for some evidence that would support his much-ballyhooed [2] claim to be a professional world champion. The centre forward of Stalybridge Celtic is ten times the football player I am, but he doesn’t write “Ballon D’or winner” on his Twitter profile and pass himself off as Cristiano Ronaldo, does he?

 

 

So, I found Tate’s first title-winning fight- the first X of his 4X claim- on YouTube against Jean-Luc Benoit. This is for the ISKA World Full-Contact 81.5kg title. It was a rematch from three months earlier, where the Frenchman took a twelve-round decision. Wikipedia has Tate winning inside eight rounds, though this is the only footage I could find of it [3]

Note the venue is a little smaller than Saitama Super Arena. You could be mistaken for thinking this is a small-hall semi-pro event.

There’s a lot more footage online of their first bout in France. Watch it below to see what “world class” kickboxing looks like on the semi-pro circuit. Tough guys, no doubt, but we aren’t looking at Floyd Mayweather Junior silky skills, or conditioning, are we?

So, I think the evidence is pretty clear. Tate’s world titles are closer to the FA Vase than the Champions League. It’s still an impressive achievement, so why try to spin it into something it’s not? On the subject of spinning a fantasy on social media to pretend you’re something you’re not, if people are interested I may do a follow-up post on his pick-up credentials.

Now, I’m going off to watch Saenchai and Buakaw fight for real world titles. Maybe I’ll email some of those manosphere podcasters and ask why they don’t do any due diligence before inviting that bullshitter onto their shows to big himself up as a K-1 World Champion.

If you’d like to purchase my products before the inevitable shitstorm hits, you’re probably best off starting with Daygame Overkill here. No third-world webcam whores were hired to pose as notches in the making of this video, nor hire cars passed off as my own.

[1] Liang Ling, actually.
[2] By himself, and apparently believed by all of the usual gullible manosphere podcasters

[3] I’m not for a moment suggesting he didn’t win inside eight. There’s another short camera-phone clip on YouTube of Benoit raising Tate’s hand, post-fight.