Early life Rob Kaman was born in
Amsterdam on 5 June 1960. In his early days, he played football for the
AFC Ajax Youth Team. Kaman was a good player, but never liked team sports. At the age of 16, he became interested in
martial arts and started training in the Indonesian style
pencak silat with Ruud van Weldam. Two years later, he watched a fight of kickboxer
Lucien Carbin, after which he started training in
Muay Thai and
kickboxing at
Mejiro Gym, first under Carbin and then
Jan Plas. In 1980, Kaman became an A-class fighter in the Netherlands. He won most of his fights by K.O. The turning point for him was his fight with Blinky Rodriquez, the cousin of
Benny Urquidez. Kaman knocked him out in the 2nd round with a low kick to the leg. That was his international breakthrough. From then on, Kaman started fighting in Thailand. His first fight in Thailand was against Dennoi, a local champion. Kaman won by K.O. and was asked to fight Lakchart, a Thai champion, in
Bangkok.
Winning world title Source: On 29 June 1991, Kaman fought against Luc Verheye in France for the world WKA title. Luc Verheye had beaten Peter Smit and was the new world champion. Kaman beat Luc Verheye and took the title back. Kaman fought in France against fighters such as
Rick Roufus, Mark Russell, Justin Ward, and Zito Polyo. One of Kaman's best fights was against
Marek Piotrowski, whom he beat by K.O. in the 7th round. On 25 January 1992, Kaman challenged his first professional MMA bout in
RINGS against
Nobuaki Kakuda. He won by TKO with a knee shot to grounded opponent in 3rd round. On 20 June, Rob fought "the fight of the fights" against
Jean-Yves Thériault. Rob won the fight by TKO and became the new
ISKA world champion. He was at the same time world champion in WKA kickboxing and world champion in Muay Thai. On 26 November 1993 Rob fought against another great Dutch champion Rick V.D. Vathorst. Kaman knocked him out in the 2nd round. After that he fought again in France, this time in
Marseille, again against a newcomer from the Netherlands, Orlando Breinburg. He won by TKO in the 3rd round. In 1995 he participated in the K-2 tournament in Paris, France. His first fight was against Lavelle Robinson and he won by KO. In his second fight, he fought the Australian
Tosca Petridis and was the winner again. In the finals, after two fights that night, he went against Jerome Turcan from France. Rob was full of injuries from his previous fights. During round four, he was bleeding heavily but knocked Turcan out with two high kicks at the end of the round. After all his world titles, he also won the K-2 tournament in Paris, France. After only a few fights in the later years, because of too many injuries and a new movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme (Legionnaire), Rob decided to end his career, back where it all started, in the Netherlands. On 2 September 1999 Rob married film writer artist Carlotta Torchia, and five weeks after, on 24 October 1999, he fought for the last time, against
Alexey Ignashov, a 21-year-old amateur world champion in kickboxing. Rob won the fight by points, but after the fight he said that his opponent was the real winner and gave his trophy to Ignashov. Kaman later trained
UFC light heavyweight
Brandon Vera on kickboxing for MMA. He also trained MMA fighter
Jason Miller.
Acting career Towards the end of his sports career, Kaman tried his hand at acting, playing in three movies with
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Legionnaire,
Maximum Risk and
Double Team with
Dennis Rodman and
Mickey Rourke. In 1993, Nikko Toshogu Press produced 8 videotapes on Muay Thai training with him and one videotape with highlights and knock outs of his career.
Prison sentence In 1985, Kaman was sentenced to 18 months in prison for robbing a bank in Eindhoven on 28 May of the same year. Police arrested Kaman and a 22-year-old accomplice in Best, only 29 minutes after the robbery. The two carried out the robbery armed and masked and looted 9000 Dutch guilders.
Death Kaman died on 30 March 2024, at the age of 63 from a blood clot. ==Titles==