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K-1: ERNESTO HOOST

FOUR-TIME former K-1 champion Ernesto Hoost might not be fighting any more but he is still heavily involved in martial arts as a successful trainer, coaching the likes of Antoni Hardonk, Paul Slowinski, Patrick Barry and Jerrel Venetiaan from his base in Holland.
 
Fightnewz.net sat down with the heavyweight legend in Newcastle for a quick one-on-one ahead of Hardonk's 17-second blowout of Colin Robinson at UFC 80: Rapid Fire.

Ernesto.jpg

FIGHTEWZ.NET: How is retirement treating you Ernesto?
 
HOOST: Last year I was very busy. I travelled a lot to Japan, China, Hawaii, Las Vegas and I was coaching some fighters, like Paul Slowinski, Patrick Barry, Jerrel Venetiaan and Antoni Hardonk. I did some training with Japanese fighters, commentating for K-1 - I think out of the whole year I was away from home for three months. It was busy. On the other hand I did a lot of things because I still needed to find my way after my retirement. That’s why I did a lot.
 
FIGHTNEWZ.NET: A lot of fighters find it difficult adjusting to retirement. How did you find it?
 
HOOST: I didn’t find it difficult to adjust after retiring because I was through with fighting. I did it for 23 years and that was enough, I was done with it. I don’t miss fighting. I was training since I was 15 and that’s 27 years ago. That was enough.
And the last years of my career I also noticed that the feeling was different. In the beginning I wanted to become the champion and everything and in the end I was looking at the money. In the beginning it was 80% for the fight and 20% for the money.
Later it was maybe 60 to 40 or something, it became different. I really wanted to win the fifth title - that would have made it a little bit more complete than it is now. But still, I’m very satisfied.
 
FIGHTNEWZ.NET: What made you come back for one last crack at the K-1 Final in 2006? You always said you had finished with tournament fighting.
 
HOOST: I wanted to fight in 2005 but I was injured for the whole year, so I didn’t fight. I only fought on New Year’s Eve against Sem Schilt at
Dynamite. So that made me try for one more year, to give it a go.


FIGHTEWZ.NET: How pleased were you with reaching the semi-finals?
 
HOOST: The fight with Chalid Arrab was decent and the fight with Sem Schilt wasn’t good enough. Sem is a difficult fighter and he made me think too much. And when you have to think a lot in the fight, then it cannot be a good fight.
 
FIGHTEWZ.NET: At one time you didn't think Schilt would rule K-1 in the same way you and Peter Aerts have, but he seems to have won you over by winning the last three Finals.
 
HOOST: Sem has learned a lot in the later years, I must say that. For that I give him credit that he was able to do that and to change his fighting style and adjusted to K-1.
 
FIGHTNEWZ.NET: He is so dominant at the moment, the big question is who will beat him?
 
HOOST: I’m sure he can be beaten. It won’t be easy and it’s very difficult to beat him on points. You have to knock him out. His chin is not that good but it’s not so easy to find. Only Alexey Ignashov has been able to do it really and he knocked him out.
 
FIGHTNEWZ.NET: How does training someone to a win compare to being in the ring and winning a fight yourself?
 
HOOST: It’s a different challenge. Because you have to train the fighter to his ability. I know my abilities and I also know that the fighters I train have different abilities so you have to adjust to that.
I’ve not been surprised by the success I’ve had with training. If you train for something and you can prepare somebody before a fight and things work out the way you want to, I’m not surprised by it.
Because I know I have the capabilities to be a good trainer. I still do some training myself but not fight training any more - I do a lot of running.


FIGHTNEWZ.NET: Still, it must be rewarding when you see one of your fighters do well?
 
HOOST: If I look at Paul Slowinski’s last fight with Mighty Mo, we were training some strategy and if you see it works then I’m very pleased and satisfied.
 
FIGHTEWZ.NET: You must have worked hard with Slowinski on his low kicks? Some of them look as hard as yours.
 
HOOST: Paul kicks different to how I did and we were actually not concentrating that much on the low kicks. For Paul I’m concentrating on his defence, because it has to be better. It’s become a lot better since we started, in my opinion. And then of course we train all the kicks - high and low - but not especially. And he uses that himself. Of course I show him sometimes when we are training and sparring how effective it can be and he picks it up quite fast. Mighty Mo isn’t a good low kick blocker so of course he had to kick him to his legs. What I was more concerned about was his defence because if Mo hits you good one time it’s over. He was training for Ray Sefo and Ray has good hands too, so I wasn’t that concerned about it.
 
FIGHTNEWZ.NET: How good can Slowinski and Patrick Barry be in K-1?
 
HOOST: I think Paul and Patrick Barry can be decent K-1 top level. And I think Paul a little bit more than Patrick, but Patrick also has enough talent. He broke his nose in his last fight against Freddy Kemayo so now he is back in America recovering from that. I think he is coming back at the end of the month. It was a good move by Kemayo but when you get hit basically I think it’s your own mistake. He stood a little bit too straight to his opponent and I didn't realise Kemayo could knee that easy. But he will be back.


February 1, 2008