For Wednesday night game Netherlands -Japan, World Port Tournament in Rotterdam requested Mr Ernesto Hoost to open the baseball game with his ceremonial first pitch. Mr Hoost is Dutch, but as a kickboxer he is best known in Japan. We asked the Japanese fan Kotaro Nagata, who as a baseball writer attends every WPT 2015 game, to explain to the readers of Mister-Baseball.com who is Ernesto Hoost. The photos were provided by WPT president Bart Volkerijk, who pictured his guest surrounded by the excited players of Team Japan before the game versus the Netherlands.
Ernesto Hoost is well-known as “Mr. Perfect”. The Dutch Kick-Boxer played an important role in Japanese MMA around 2000. In the Japanese 1990s and 2000s, MMA boomed. One of the most popular tournaments, K-1 was his main battlefield. With extreme technique, he has gained the K-1 Grand Prix title four times as the highest count. From the great fighting style, Japanese people called him “Mr. Perfect” Ernesto Hoost. Undoubtedly, he was the strongest at the time.
In addition to the high performance, his character made him more approachable. He speaks Japanese fluently. Actually, in the WPT, Team Japan and Japanese VIP guests talked with him in Japanese.
Ernesto and other Dutch kick-boxers and Karate players have extremely been active in Japanese MMA. Now, in Japan, Holland is also well known as a country of MMA.