Stephen Tapilatu (ITF Taekwondo champion in MMA)

ITF Taekwondo champion in MMA The best Taekwondo ITF fighter in 90’s. He became ITF World Champion in 1990 and 1994 and won two European titles, in 1990 and 1992. In 1991 he won a silver medal at the WTF World Championship in Athens. After completing his taekwondo career he took up kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), notably challenging leading figures including Dutch karate champion Ronny Rivano, Brian Lo-An-Joe. His only two losses were to Ronny Rivano, and he lost one via injury. In both, he dominated the striking. Despite only 7 fights, considering the talent and more-experienced individuals Tapilatu was going up against, his amatuer MMA career a success, at the very least modestly so. He beat up two Muay Thai kickboxers with more experience than him in MMA (one of which had more wins), dominated the striking both times he fought a Karateka (the only one to beat him in MMA, once via previous injury on Tapilatu) and won the Dutch MMA title (Tapilatu himself is Dutch), also finally went the distance with a successful pro MMA fighter. He proved Taekwondo to be effective and remembered the important values of Taekwondo, such as Respect and Humility, despite retiring so soon. Stephen Tapilatu was appointed national coach of ITF Netherlands in November 2012. On 7 November 2015 Tapilatu was promoted to the rank of 6th Dan black belt, joining an elite group of only 8 other ITF taekwondo practitioners currently holding this rank in the Netherlands.