User:Luchuslu/Remco Pardoel

Remco Pardoel (born May 23, 1969) is a retired Dutch mixed martial artist. He is a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championships and Pancrase, won numerous national and international Judo and Jiu-Jitsu titles and is credited with introducing shootfighting to his native Netherlands. He is also credited as the first European to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Early career
Pardoel began his martial arts career at age 4 when he first began training in Judo. At age 7, he began training in Taekwondo and took up Jiu-Jitsu at age 11. He won gold at the 1988 Junior National Judo Championships in the Netherlands, followed by a number of Judo and Jiu-Jitsu titles across Europe. He first came across Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1993 when the sport's first World Championship was held in Denmark. There, he met Jiu-Jitsu legends Fabio Gurgel and Romero Cavalcanti who taught him some of the sport's techniques. He would invite Cavalcanti back to Holland on numerous occasions to teach classes and do seminars in him hometown of Oss.

Mixed martial arts career
Pardoel first heard about the Ultimate Fighting Championship from an advertisement in KO Magazine and had a desire enter in order to show that Thai boxing isn't the only martial art in Holland. He made his MMA debut on March 11, 1994 at UFC 2 in a 16-man tournament. His first fight was against Silat stylist Alberta Cerra Leon, which ended in an armlock submission roughly ten minutes into the bout. Next up was a contest vs. Thai boxer Orlando Wiet. Despite Wiet never having been KO'd in his martial arts career and being a 40-1 underdog, Pardoel was able to secure a takedown and land a series of elbows on the ground, knocking Wiet out and advancing to the semi-finals vs. Royce Gracie. Although Pardoel had some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experience, he was easily taken down and submitted via lapel choke inside two minutes.

Pardoel then traveled to Japan, splitting two fights in Pancrase: defeating journeyman Vernon White and getting KO'd by Pancrase co-founder Minoru Suzuki. He made his Shooto debut on July 29, 1995 vs. Hawaiian grappler Carl Franks. Pardoel tap out due to strikes at the end of round one and Franks was declared the winner. However, it was determined that the punch which led to the tap out was an illegal strike to the back of the head, so the decision was changed to a No Contest.