Kobus Huisamen was born in Cape Town and grew up in Franschhoek, a little town just outside Cape Town.
His Dad was a construction worker on large scale projects such as dams and as such he and his family lived all over the country, however, he has always considered Cape Town his home.
As a youngster he very much enjoyed the great outdoors and pursuits such as horse riding, fishing and shooting with everything from a slingshot and bow and arrows to a rifle. In those early days he worked on the farm looking after the horses and livestock and for sport he very much enjoyed rugby following in the footsteps of his father a first grade player.
At the age of 9, he started wrestling – for fun. This lasted a mere four years as his dad had to relocate constantly. At the age of 14, he seriously started to train – just for the sake of health, fitness and the idea of obtaining a good physique. However, he had some friends who were very active in karate and they started teaching him. This was nothing formal – it was “karate in the backyard”! They lent him a collection of books and he started to study and read about various styles, philosophies, training methods, etc. He also learnt about the basic traditional martial arts weapons. This was his training method for 6 years – informal and mostly on his own.
His sporting interests changed considerably when he discovered martial arts. Kobus had the support and encouragement of his father who was a former Military Sergeant and Rugby player who promoted the value of hard training.
A friend of their family had a horse that was hard to handle and offered it to Kobus if he could control it as it had a nervous temperament. He handled the horse so well that he soon had people coming to him to get their horses broken in.
During high school Kobus tended to have friends that were of working class families and that were good with their hands fixing cars or building rather than the rich and popular students. His friends were the loyal type and usually older than him.
In his final year in high school he was Head Boy and assisted some of his older friends with their studies enabling them all to pass their examinations.
After high school Kobus joined the Military and selected the toughest unit available to him – the Elite Forces Parachute Battalion. He considers this one of the best learning and living phases of his life that set him in good stead for his future fight career. He could have selected the regular forces and had weekends off and far less extreme training but he accepted the challenge of the far more specialist and extreme. The hard out physical training and battle drills combined with the bastardisation and beatings built character and confidence.
Joining a parachute outfit he never told anyone he had a fear of heights, as this would have excluded him. He would, in the dark of night, spend time on the highest obstacles on the assault course, some three stories up, sitting there trying to defeat his fear of heights, without success. He managed to hide his fear during the parachute preparation training, as he knew to be found out he would be kicked out.
On the final preparation before his first jump, correctly named fright flight, where he had to stand in the open aircraft doorway with only the jump master holding his harness from behind he had to dig deep to hide his fear of heights. Then after six or so jumps he had overcome his major fear of heights and had found a new understanding and respect for fear – it had become his buddy.
The next stage of life for Kobus was University and immediately he started training in kickboxing and ring martial arts. Just one month after starting training he had his first elimination contest in the ring in a semi contact style where there were three in the division.
He first fought a solid fighter that he defeated on points and this put him in the final against another fighter from his gym who was a National Champion. The result at the bell was a draw and they had to fight an extension round that Kobus won on points, taking gold and defeating a National Champion in his first competition.
One month after this fight Kobus was back in the ring this time against the number five ranked heavy weight kick boxer in South Africa and fighting to full kickboxing rules. Kobus came out throwing everything in round one and took the round comfortably but ten seconds before the end of round two he found himself on the end of an eight count and on recovery the victim of a back spinning fist that ended the bout for him. He knew like falling off of a horse he must get right back on and trained like a man possessed to get ready for his next fight.
While at university he took a job in a hotel in the red light district, working reception. Before long the manager found out how capable Kobus was as a fighter and gave him the head of security position. This hotel was smack in the middle of a district well known for gangs, drugs and prostitution.
This was the beginning of a bouncing career for Kobus that saw him establish a professional bouncing business and working hotels and nightclubs. These were rough and dangerous venues where guns and knives were a real reality. Kobus and his crew had a rule that if you ever lost a fight you lost your job.
This bouncing work was to earn enough money to put himself through university and doubled as a reality check as to how badly people can act and not only the drug crazed and the scum bags but also professionals under the influence of alcohol. Kobus dealt out some tough justice and at one stage had no time or respect for anyone’s personal safety that faced him looking for trouble. He came close to kicking one such individual to death if it had not been for one of his crew stopping him.
Following a successful amateur kickboxing career and some three years after relinquishing his National amateur title Kobus got to fight for the National Professional heavy weight title belt. He fought Chris van Rensberg from Durban who was a former top line bouncer in tough dockside bars. He was a multiple title holder including being a former World cruiserweight champion at the time. This opponent had been a one-time fighter Kobus had admired and had the utmost respect for and now he was going to face him in a title fight.
The weigh in came around and Kobus and Chris both treated each other as true gentlemen but Kobus was quietly confident and his past admiration as a young fighter was a thing of the past and had little effect on his perspective of the upcoming challenge. He had done his homework with planning with his trainer how best to handle his opponent’s style of fighting.
By the middle of round three Kobus had taken control having already knocked his opponent down twice before delivering the final knock down that took from him his South African heavy weight title belt and made Kobus the new champion.
Kobus posing with his SA heavyweight title belt (obtained at the timid weight of 85.6kg back then).
Another development in his life came after trouble with a sailor while bouncing where a member of his crew had injured the sailor and they were waiting for paramedics to arrive. Another sailor was very impressed with the kick to the sailor’s head that Kobus’ partner had delivered and gave him the contacts for a K1 trainer and promoter in Cape Town.
Kobus and his bouncing partner moved to Cape Town to begin training at the K1 gym and met a guy in the gym that got them bouncing work and also worked security in a casino. Mike Bernardo was training in the gym at the time preparing for his world title fight against Andy Hug.
Kobus began to meet some very rich and corrupt people who paid him to be an enforcer and deal out tough justice to people that did not play by their rules and pay their dues. He knew he had to change his life style before it was too late and with a law degree should not be involved in such activities.
He decided to use his university education and got a position as a human resources professional. He soon learnt in business it’s another form of fighting and while his fists went silent his mind took priority.
This was a different type of fight from brawl to a boardroom but the fighting spirit never dies. He soon found out the realities of politics and poverty and how to negotiate swapping punches for tactics and kicks for diplomacy. He came to enjoy the challenge of a good fight on the political or business fronts.
He became the opponent of a businessman at one such meeting that thought he could intimidate Kobus but when Kobus faced him at point blank and demanded he sat down the businessman saw he was facing a formidable opponent and reluctantly sat down. This was not to be the end of it as Kobus had made an enemy that would cause him trouble indirectly and at another meeting when things were stalled and the situation volatile, Kobus took the door key and locked the door, stating, “no one is leaving until we can reach an agreement.”
The boardroom was a different kind of fight but after being a fighter bouncer and paratrooper, Kobus was not intimidated by this form of challenge and became quite a negotiator. He states that apart from the military, few things make you become a quicker decision maker than being a bouncer.
The military, as well as being a bouncer and a fighter have made Kobus what he is today and are a mix that he recommends to young men looking for very worthwhile challenges.
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Kobus on the movie set shooting a television series for Japanese and Korean TV, with Pancrase fight legend Masuktsu Funaki. |
Kobus with kickboxing legend Ernesto Hoost (4x K-1 champion) at his gym in Amsterdam. |
Kobus and coach Tobput from Thailand along with training partner Sebastian Troens. |
Current Information
He has a bachelor’s degree in law and a postgraduate degree in human resources management. He works as a consultant in Korea, at Yeeha Asia Corporate Training – a company that is also fully behind him, in his sport. He is married to Anerie and has one child, named Gunther.
He is also a writer (hobbyist) and has published academic material as well as poetry. He plans to write some books, fiction and non-fiction in the future. He loves to draw, go hiking in the country, horse riding and hunting.
And, of course, he likes martial arts. His fighting style is much like his business style – no flash, just business.
A New Direction
Working with several fighters from the Military has brought him into focus with Military fighting systems.
As he has discovered the military science of Close Combat is far removed from competitive fighting, he searched the professional help of Tank Todd, from New Zealand to qualify himself in this system. He now aims to work with military personnel around the world.
Kobus is presently undertaking an instructor intensive qualification course at the Todd Group in New Zealand. This qualification course includes both armed and unarmed specialist European military Close Combat training.
Kobus on range in New Zealand.
For a professional heavyweight champion to see the value in combative training proves his insight into realistic fighting.
When asked about the Todd CQB system Kobus said that he was awed at its effectiveness and labeled it the most devastating fighting system he has ever seen.
Fight Record
Name: Kobus Huisamen
Weight: 99kg
Height: 183cm
Nationality: South African
Date of Birth: 1971-07-17
Titles
Kickboxing:
South African Professional Heavyweight Champion 1997
South African Amateur Cruiserweight Champion 1994
Ring Contact Fighting Art:
National Fighting Champion 1993
National Fighting Champion 1994
National Fighting Silver Medal 1995
Fight Records
Kickboxing:
7 fights – 7 wins – 0 losses – (5 KO)
2003-07-17
Yu, Yong Rae
Win: KO round 1
2002-12-08
Yasuhiro Ambe
Win: 5 round decision
Kobus taking it to Yasuhiro Anbe (Japan heavyweight champ) – win on points
2002-10-17
Kazushi Nishida
Win: KO Round 2
2002-08-18
Cheon, Byeong Ho
Win: KO Round 1
1997-05-03
Chris van Rensburg
Win: KO Round 3
(SA Heavyweight Title)
1996*
Paul Rothman
Win: TKO Round 3
1995*
Joseph Kilani
Win: 4 round decision
* Exact details available from the National Full Contact and Kickboxing Council and Ring Contact Fighting Art International, South Africa
Mixed Martial Arts:
5 fights – 1 win – 4 losses
Coach Steve Kalakoda, Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge (on whose shoulders Kobus is sitting) and Jan “The Giant” Nortje (2.11cm + 140kg) after Kobus’ July 2004 fight for Pancrase in Japan (win by KO).
2004-07-25
Ryuta Noji
Win: KO
2004-06-12
Dennis Kang
Lost: TKO
2004-05-12
Kim Sin Gyom
Lost: KO
2004-03-20
Yoon Ho Sub
Disqualified
2001-08-18
Andrew van Zyl
Lost: 2 round armbar
