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Nicholas Pettas
Nickname
The Blue-Eyed Samurai
Nationality
Denmark USA
Date of birth
January 23, 1973 (1973-01-23) (age 35)
Place of birth
Mykonos, Greece
Fighting out of
Tokyo, Japan
Height
1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight
98 kg (216.1 lb/15.4 st)
Team
Team Spirit AE
Years active
17 (1991–present)
Kickboxing record
Total
19
Wins
9
By knockout
8
Losses
10
By knockout
8
Other information
Occupation
Martial Arts InstructorDojo Owner
Notable students
Koichi Watanabe
Official site
Nicholas "The Blue-Eyed Samurai" Pettas (Japanese: ニコラス・ペタス) (born 23 January 1973, Mykonos) is a Danish professional Heavyweight karateka, martial artist, and actor, fighting Team Sprit in Tokyo, Japan. Pettas mainly competes in top-level martial arts organization K-1 since 1998 as the winner of K-1 Japan Grand Prix 2001 champion.[2]
Contents[hide]
1 Biography and career
2 Titles
3 Filmography
4 See also
5 External links
6 References
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[edit] Biography and career
Pettas was born in Greece, however he moved to Denmark when he was just 3 years-old after his father's death. After getting a hiding in a street fight at the age of 14 he decided to join a Karate style. Not knowing which styles there were he was introduced to Kyokushin Karate by Michael Mattheson, a friend of Tony Pettas. He found himself a new following and needed no more schooling, and so at the age of 16 he decided to leave high school in order to save up money to go to Japan and study with Master Oyama. He was influenced by the movie The Karate Kid starring Ralph Macchio, and evetually wanted to present the next true Karate Kid in the movies by having actually done the real thing. After getting permission to join the Uchi Deshi program, a living in-student 1000 days training program, he moved to Japan from Denmark at the age of 18. At the age of 21 he completed the vigorous training course to become the first non-japanese ever.
After his graduation of the programme, he competed in several tournaments and achieved many significant titles and honours such as reaching the title in European Karateka Championships and 5th and 3th places in World Championships, respectively in 1995 and 1997.
Following his successful performances, he attracted Japan based, top-notch martial arts organization K-1 by 1998 at at K-1 DREAM '98 and made his debut against German kick boxer Stefan Leko. He made his K-1 peak at K-1 World Grand Prix 2001, held at Tokyo Dome in 12 August 2001.[3]
Pettas had an interval between 2002 and 2006 in K-1 and returned to the rings with his bout up against Dutch fighter Badr Hari at K-1 Dynamite 2001, the annual new year's eve gala held in Japan.[4] Pettas had been beaten 5 times consecutive by his opponents however he did not surrender fighting and clutched a sensational KO victory against South Korean fighter Kim Young-Hyun at K-1 PREMIUM 2007 Dynamite!! in Osaka, 31 December 2007.[5]
Pettas, as an expatriate person in Japan, also raised his fame in Cinema of Japan in recent years.

[edit] Titles
Pettas had several achievements in different tournaments related to Karate and K-1, successively:[6]
K-1 Japan Grand Prix Champion: 2001
7th World Open Karate Tournament 1999 (IKO-1): 5th Place (Lost to Alexander Pitchkunov)
6th World Open Karate Tournament 1995 (IKO-1): 5th Place (Lost to Francisco Filho)
1st World Weight Category Championships 1997 (IKO-1): 3rd Place
The 10th.Shin Karate World Championships Champion: 1999
26th All Japan Open Karate Tournament: 1994 (IKO-1)
'95 European Heavyweight champion

[edit] Filmography
House of Smack Down (2003)
Road 88 (2003)
Sibirian Express 5 (2004)
Wrestling Inferno (2005)
The Winds of God, Kamikaze (2005)
LoveDeath (2006)