Johannes Petrus "Hans" Nijman (September 23, 1959 – November 5, 2014) was a Dutch former professional mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. He competed in the heavyweight division. He was a RINGS Holland veteran and fought for many other top promotions such as Pride FC and It's Showtime. Nijman is believed to have had connections with Willem Holleeder and other big names in the Dutch criminal underworld. His name appeared in several police records and has also been used in big court cases.

Career

Fighting Network RINGS

A former Kyokushin karateka and kickboxing champion, Hans Nijman made his shoot wrestling debut in Japan for Fighting Network RINGS on December 7, 1991 as part of Chris Dolman's RINGS Holland team. The match was against Masaaki Satake, and the bout ended in a draw. Nijman also drew with Adam Watt, the following year. Nijman suffered his first loss on 25 June 1992 against Akira Maeda, due to submission. On 29 October 1992, Nijman defeated Georgi Keandelaki by knock-out, picking up his first win. 1994 was a good year for Hans, as he managed to gain knock-out victories over Mitsuya Nagai, Zaza Tkeshelashvili, Masayuki Naruse, Nikolai Zouev, and Dick Vrij.

On 25 January 1995, after RINGS started promoting purely competitive fights, Nijman beat Yoshihisa Yamamoto by TKO to win 3rd place in the RINGS Mega Battle Tournament 1994. Nijman lost to Tariel Bitsadze on 1 January 1997 at RINGS: Battle Dimensions. He beat Lee Hasdell by submission at RINGS Holland on 2 February 1997 before losing to Kiyoshi Tamura in Japan on 25 October 1997. Nijman's final fight for RINGS was on 7 March 1999 at RINGS Australia: NR 3. Hans defeated Danny Higgins by rear naked choke at 5:46 of round 1. He later entered the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, losing to Kazuyuki Fujita by submission at 2:48 of round 1.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout his RINGS career, Nijman picked up victories over fighters such as; Masayuki Naruse Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Mikhail Illoukhine, Volk Han, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Kiyoshi Tamura. Hans Nijman holds a RINGS record of 24 wins, 20 losses and 3 draws.^[1]

After RINGS

Nijman fought in Pride FC's open-weight tournament in 2000 at Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round. Nijman lost to Kazuyuki Fujita by submission. On 21 October 2001, Nijman lost to Barrington Patterson by KO at It's Showtime - Original. Hans Nijman's last fight was against Cheick Kongo at It’s Showtime on 8 June 2003. He lost due to an armbar at 0:59 of round 2. According to Sherdog, Nijman rounded out his professional mixed martial arts record with 9 wins and 6 defeats, although Hans had a few unsanctioned shoot fights in Japan a year following his retirement from mixed martial arts competition in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Death

On November 5, 2014, around 20:45, Nijman was shot dead whilst sitting in his 2013 Volkswagen Golf around the back of his Dutch Top Team gym "De Meer" in Beverwijk. Witnesses reportedly saw a Volkswagen Golf R32 parked on the parking lot next to his gym open fire on Nijman with automatic rifles whilst he was reversing his car out of the alley where he had parked his car. After the shooting, the Golf R32 took off with high speed southbound on the A22. A half-hour after the shooting two cars, the Golf R32 and a taxi bus, were found burning to the ground in Velserbroek. Both cars were stolen. The suspects have not yet been identified and the motive is unknown.^[2]

Mixed martial arts record