Jean Rivière

Jean Rivière (born July 2, 1971) is a Canadian former Kyokushin karateka, kickboxer and mixed martial artist. A heavyweight competitor fighting out of Montreal, Rivière reached the semi-finals at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in 1991 and later embarked on a career in the K-1 kickboxing promotion and the burgeoning MMA scene of the mid-1990s.

The Montreal-based Jean Rivière came to prominence as a Kyokushin fighter, with the most notable achievement of his karate career coming in November 1991 at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in Tokyo where he finished fourth in a tournament of 250 competitors.^[1] He defeated Tatsuya Iwasaki (with an ushiro mawashi geri) in the round of thirty-two, Lars Bjorstrup in the round of sixteen and Johnny Kleyn in the quarter-finals before losing to Akira Masuda in the semi-finals.^[2]

Rivière would later transition to mixed martial arts, making his debut in Brazil on December 1, 1995 where he knocked out capoeira stylist Mestre Hulk in nineteen seconds.^[3] He then faced a nineteen-year-old Carlos Newton at Battlecade Extreme Fighting's second event in Montreal on April 26, 1996. Rivière had a large size advantage, reportedly outweighing Newton by 34 kg / 75 lb, but Newton dominated much of the fight with headbutts and superior grappling transitions before submitting due to exhaustion just over seven minutes into the fight.^[4][5]

Later that year, Rivière joined the ranks of the Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1. In his first outing, he recorded a second round low kick stoppage win over Fred Floyd at K-1 Revenge '96 on September 1, 1996 before losing a five-round unanimous decision to Musashi at K-1 Star Wars '96 the following month. Rivière was invited to compete in the 1997 K-1 World Grand Prix, losing to fellow karateka Masaaki Satake in the tournament's opening round on September 7, 1997. The bout was scored a draw following the regulation three rounds and went into an extension round to decide the winner, after which Satake was ruled the victor by all three judges.

Rivière faced reigning K-1 World Grand Prix champion Ernesto Hoost at K-1 Braves '98 on May 24, 1998, losing by head kick knockout in the first round. In his final appearance in the kickboxing ring, Rivière competed at the K-1 USA Grand Prix '98 in Las Vegas, K-1's first event in the United States,^[6] on August 7, 1998. He suffered a second-round knockout loss to Curtis Schuster at the quarter-final stage, bringing his K-1 career to a close on a 1–4 record.^[7]

With his stint in K-1 at an end, Rivière returned to MMA on January 9, 1999 with a loss to John Dixson in Montreal. After an eight-year absence from the sport, he defeated Shaun Fukuhara in Hawaii on August 4, 2007.

Kickboxing record

1 win (1 KO), 4 losses, 0 draws
Date	Result	Opponent	Event	Location	Method	Round	Time	Record
1998-08-07	Loss	Curtis Schuster	K-1 USA Grand Prix '98, Quarter-finals	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	KO (punch)	2	2:52	1–4
1998-05-24	Loss	Ernesto Hoost	K-1 Braves '98	Fukuoka, Japan	KO (right high kick)	1	2:17	1–3
1997-09-07	Loss	Masaaki Satake	K-1 Grand Prix '97 1st round	Osaka, Japan	Extension round decision (unanimous)	4	3:00	1–2
1996-10-18	Loss	Musashi	K-1 Star Wars '96	Yokohama, Japan	Decision (unanimous)	5	3:00	1–1
1996-09-01	Win	Fred Floyd	K-1 Revenge '96	Osaka, Japan	KO (left low kick)	2	1:29	1–0
Legend:   Win   Loss   Draw/No contest   Notes

Res.	Record	Opponent	Method	Event	Date	Round	Time	Location	Notes
Win	3-1	Shaun Fukuhara	N/A	Island Warriors Fighting Championships	August 4, 2007	N/A	N/A	Wailuku, Hawaii, United States
Loss	2-1	John Dixson	N/A	IFC: Extreme Combat	January 9, 1999	1	5:13	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Win	2-0	Carlos Newton	Submission (exhaustion)	Extreme Fighting 2	April 26, 1996	1	7:22	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Win	1-0	Mestre Hulk	KO (punch)	Brazil Open '95	December 1, 1995	1	0:19	Brazil

• Professional MMA record for Jean Riviere from Sherdog
• K-1Sport profile