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Nobuaki Kakuda

Nobuaki Kakuda is one of the most oddly important figures in Japanese combat sports history--but not for his fighting. He was a legitimately skilled fighter, a black belt in seidokaikan karate who competed against the likes of Andy Hug, Stan Longinidis, Zane Frazier and, uh, Joe Son, and he took part in early Pride's midcard karate exhibitions, but he never won any formal titles nor did he reach particular acclaim. He did, however, reach the K-1 office, parlaying his minor combat sports celebrity into a career as a K-1 judge and referee. Unfortunately, he was also an executive producer.

There is no delicate way to put it, so I will put it indelicately: Kakuda was a fixer. K-1 was the world's premiere kickboxing organization but it was also notoriously corrupt, and Kakuda was one of the foremost figures in helping guide K-1 to the results it sought, be it through pre-decided judging or interfering in fights as a referee, waving off knockdowns and selectively enforcing rules when it benefitted the person K-1 wanted to win--he infamously refereed many of Bob Sapp's K-1 fights, including his controversial victories over Ernesto Hoost, while K-1 was pushing him as a ratings monster. K-1 once had to temporarily suspend Kakuda for too obviously enforcing corporate edict. But without his protection, Japan wouldn't have had a couple of its biggest combat sports stars.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pride 6 vs Kurosawa / K-1 '93 vs Hug / K-1 '95 vs Joe Son / K-1 WGP '05 vs Mavrick). Very little grappling, made mostly for S-1 rules.