Fear and wonder follow
Melvin
Manhoef wherever he goes.
The Mike’s Gym product will compete for the first time in nearly
two years when he challenges 2000 Olympic silver medalist Yoel
Romer in the
Bellator 285 light heavyweight co-main event on Friday at
3Arena in Dublin. A knockout artist of the highest order, Manhoef
has parlayed his devastating weaponry into a 32-15-1 record across
various organizations, from
Bellator
MMA,
KSW and
Dream to
Strikeforce
and
One
Championship. Those tools and his penchant for lightning-strike
violence have made him one of the most-talked-about mixed martial
artists of his generation. Manhoef last appeared at Bellator 251 on
Nov. 5, 2020, when he succumbed to a volley of second-round elbow
strikes from “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 19 winner
Corey
Anderson.
As Manhoef approaches his three-round battle at 205 pounds, a look
at some of the numbers that have accompanied him to this point:
46: Years of age for Manhoef, who was born in Paramaribo, Suriname,
on May 11, 1976.
29: Manhoef victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 91% of his career total (32). His list of victims includes
Denis
Kang,
Kazuo
Misaki,
Mark Hunt,
Kazushi
Sakuraba and
Evangelista
Santos (twice). Manhoef owns three other victories by
submission.
7: Sub-minute stoppage wins to Manhoef’s credit. He punched out
Mika
Ilmen in 28 seconds at an It’s Showtime event on Sept. 29,
2002, forced a corner stoppage against
Ladislav Zak
in 37 seconds under the Queens Fight Night flag on April 30, 2005,
cut down
Fabio
Piemonte with punches in 51 seconds at Cage Rage 13 on Sept.
10, 2005, knocked out
Ian Freeman in
17 seconds at Cage Rage 17 on July 1, 2006, laid waste to Hunt with
punches in 18 seconds under the K-1 banner on Dec. 31, 2008, buried
Kang with a knee strike to the body in 50 seconds at Dream 18 on
Dec. 31, 2012 and took care of Santos with punches in 46 seconds at
Gringo Super Fight 10 on April 27, 2014.
1: Draw on the Manhoef resume. He battled
Rodney
Glunder to a two-round stalemate at a
Rings show in June 1999.
11: Countries in which Manhoef has plied his mixed martial arts
trade. He has gone 12-4 in Japan, 6-2-1 in the Netherlands, 2-6
with one no contest in the United States, 6-0 in England, 1-1 with
one no contest in Singapore, 1-1 in Italy, 1-0 in the Czech
Republic, 1-0 in Russia, 1-0 in South Korea, 1-0 in Brazil and 0-1
in Poland.
10: Consecutive victories for Manhoef between Feb. 26, 2005 and
Oct. 9, 2006. It remains the longest winning streak of his 50-fight
career.
21: Calendar years in which Manhoef has fought at least once. He
went 1-0 in 1995, 0-0-1 in 1999, 1-0 in 2001, 2-0 in 2002, 1-1 in
2003, 1-1 in 2004, 5-0 in 2005, 5-1 in 2006, 4-1 in 2007, 3-1 in
2008, 1-1 in 2009, 0-2 in 2010, 0-1 in 2011, 3-0 with one no
contest in 2012, 0-2 in 2013, 2-1 in 2014, 1-0 with one no contest
in 2015, 0-1 in 2016, 0-1 in 2017, 2-0 in 2019 and 0-1 in 2020.
29: Rounds completed by Manhoef since he arrived on the mixed
martial arts scene in 1995. He has gone the distance six times and
owns a 3-2-1 record in those bouts.
3: Losing streaks endured by Manhoef as a mixed martial artist. He
suffered three straight setbacks between Jan. 30, 2010 and March 5,
2011, lost two in a row on April 5, 2013 and June 8, 2013 and took
back-to-back defeats on May 20, 2016 and April 8, 2017.
326: Combined wins between the 14 men who have beaten Manhoef:
Anderson, Glunder,
Rafael
Carvalho (twice),
Joe
Schilling,
Mamed
Khalidov,
Brock
Larson,
Tim Kennedy,
Tatsuya
Mizuno,
Robbie
Lawler,
Paulo Filho,
Gegard
Mousasi,
Dong Sik
Yoon,
Yoshihiro
Akiyama and
Bob
Schrijber. They boast a cumulative record of 326-140-12 (.682).