Retired American kickboxer
Manson Howard Gibson[1] (born May 5, 1963) is a retired American kickboxer and a 12-time world champion in kickboxing and Muay Thai. He was known for his vicious use of spinning techniques and wild, unpredictable style, mixing elements of kickboxing, Taekwondo and Northern Praying Mantis martial arts. He was sometimes referred to as the "Thai Killer" or the "Black Bruce Lee". Gibson was one of America's greatest kickboxers, and is credited with over 100 wins and more than 80 KOs, including around 40 via headkick.
Biography and career
After a series of early career wins and claiming titles such as the K.I.C.K. Super Middleweight World Championship, Gibson found the competition at home (aside from two losses to Rick Roufus) uninspiring. So in the late 1980s and well into the 1990s, while many American fighters were fighting one another for a multitude of so-called "world titles", Manson headed across to Japan where he fought and beat top fighters such as Caesar Takeshi, Tosca Petridis and Changpuek Kiatsongrit, often fighting under different rule sets such as Shoot Boxing, K-1 and Muay Thai.
During his period spent fighting in Japan, Gibson entered the inaugural K-2 Grand Prix in 1993. K-2 was a short lived series of tournaments held by the K-1 organization for Light Heavyweights and the 1993 event was held in Tokyo. In the tournament quarter finals he faced the highly decorated Ernesto Hoost, with Hoost, the recent K-1 Heavyweight Grand Prix runner-up, the strong favorite and on his way to becoming a legend. Gibson proved in that fight that he could hang with the world's best, knocking Hoost down with his trademark spinning backfist. However, despite the knockdown, the match went to an extra round where Gibson again knocked down Hoost, this time with a sidekick. Gibson lost a split decision.
Gibson returned to the United States around 1998, defeating a legend in Coban Lookchaomaesaitong. The match in Compton, was one in which Gibson had the MC announce himself as the "Thai Killer" and at the end of the fight did back flips next to the prone Coban. That year Gibson also won the I.K.K.C. Muaythai world title by defeating Maurice Travis, also in Los Angeles. Over the next couple of years he would defend his I.K.K.C. world title four more times with the highlight being a second victory over seven-time World Champion Changpuek Kiatsongrit – although as with the Coban fight his match antics left a sour taste in the mouth.
On April 7, 2000 Gibson won the I.K.F. Pro Muay Thai Rules Light Cruiserweight North American title in Green Bay Wisconsin when he defeated Phil Petit of Sik Tai, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada by KO with a spinning backfist in the first round. Gibson retired his title in 2005 when he moved up in weight. When Gibson won this title it was called the Light Cruiserweight title but the weightclass was different: 175.1 lbs. - 182 lbs. The weightclass range was later changed but Gibson's title remained Light Cruiserweight.
Around 2002 age started catching up with Gibson who was approaching his forties and he lost his I.K.K.C. world title to Frenchman Manu N'toh. A win against Heath Harris in 2004 for the I.K.K.C. proved he could still be competitive, although his opponent Harris had only had a handful of professional fights prior to the encounter. Always one to try different fighting styles Gibson had a brief foray into MMA in 2006. By the end of 2009, with the losses stacking up after a series of unsuccessful title fights, Gibson retired.
Shawn Yarborough
Edwin Aguilar
Denis Grachev
Clifton Brown
Manu N'toh
Nick Karagiannidis
Changpuek Kiatsongrit
Robert Sarkozi
Yoji Anjo
Luc Verheye
Bartolomeo Danbrosio