Best Kickboxers From New Zealand

New Zealand is known for producing some of the most popular kickboxers in the history of the sport. Numerous great fighters have come from the island nation to win multiple titles and put on incredible fights.

Here is a list of the best kickboxers from New Zealand in kickboxing history. Check out the list of legends below and click on 10bet to bet on the next big night of fights.

Ray Sefo

You can make a list of the best kickboxers from New Zealand without mentioning the legend Ray Sefo. Ray fought in the golden age of K-1 Kickboxing and knocked out numerous legends in the sport.

Sefo beat everyone from Cyril Abidi, Jerome Le Banner, Stefan Leko, Melvin Manhoef, and Peter Aerts. Not to mention his legendary war with another one of the best kickboxers from New Zealand in Mark Hunt.

Ray is a true legend and now helping improve MMA as the current president of the Professional Fight League(PFL).

Mark Hunt

We just mentioned him, so let’s talk about one of the best kickboxers in New Zealand in Mark Hunt. Before Mark was a fan favorite in the UFC, the KO artist was one of the best kickboxers in the world.

Mark is known for his legendary power, and he knocked out a who’s who of legends in the sport of kickboxing. In 2001, Hunt marked his name as the best kickboxer in the world by winning the 2001 K-1 GP Championship.

Any time you saw Hunt enter the ring or cage, you knew you were going to see an exciting fight.

Doug Viney

Next up on the list of the best kickboxers from New Zealand is multi-time champion Doug Viney. During the 2000s, Viney was one of the top kickboxers from New Zealand next to Sefo and Hunt.

He competed in numerous K-1 tournaments during his long career and earned 9 

KOs in 21 wins. Doug’s biggest win came in 2007 when he won the K-1 Las Vegas by winning multiple fights in one night.

After his career, Viney has had an even more successful career as a coach by co-founding City Kickboxing in Auckland. The gym is considered one of the best in the world, which has produced multiple UFC and kickboxing champions.

Jordan Tai

Another one of the best kickboxers from New Zealand during the golden age of the sport was Jordan Tai. Jordan was a bit overshadowed by fellow countrymen, who fought at heavyweight, but the welterweight had a great career.

After winning multiple amateur boxing and kickboxing titles in the late 1990s/early 2000s Tai entered the pros. He became a 2x K-1 Max New Zealand Champion and won a national pro boxing title. 

During his successful fighting career, Jordan had a combined 37 KO wins between boxing and kickboxing.

Israel Adesanya

We’re wrapping up our list of the best kickboxers from New Zealand with one of the all-time greats in Israel Adesanya. Before Stylebender was one of the world’s best MMA fighters, he was one of the world’s best kickboxers.

Israel fought all over the world and beat the best kickboxers in the world. In his 80 professional kickboxing matches, Israel was defeated in just five of those matches and earned 29 KO wins.

His biggest feat as a kickboxer was winning the 2016 Glory Kickboxing Middleweight Tournament before entering the UFC.