Stan Longinidis
Stan "The Man" Longinidis is a retired Australian kickboxer of Greek parentage, and 8 time World Champion of kickboxing.
Stan is one of the few fighters to have won World titles in three different styles, International Rules Kickboxing, Full Contact and Muay Thai, others being Fred Royers and Ernesto Hoost.
Contents
Biography
He was born June 25 1965 to Suzy and Steve Longinidis. He has a sister, Lana, and also a brother 10 years younger, George.
As a youngster growing up in Melbourne's western suburbs, Stan excelled in soccer and represented his home state of Victoria in under-age teams and played for Brunswick Juventus. He also played basketball, cricket and Australian Rules football. It wasn't until seeing a friend, who practiced the martial arts, fend off a group of attackers outside a nightclub that Stan gained an interest in the fighting arts.
Kickboxing was never Stan's dream as a kid. Throughout school he was a sensitive, non-confrontational kid who simply wanted to make his Greek parents proud. But Stan could never stick with anything long.
He had stints as a storeman and forklift operator, contemplated a promising soccer career and took up a lucrative IT job. He had also started to make a name for himself in kickboxing, winning two Australian amateur titles. Then one lunchtime everything changed.
Called into the boss' office one morning, Stan was informed that he was up for promotion at the IT company. He rang his parents with the good news. During lunch, however, Stan bought a martial arts magazine and came across an article on one of his recent fights. The article finished with the line, "Can Stan become Australia's first-ever world champion?"
Despite the fact that kickboxing at that time had a miserable reputation and minimal financial rewards, Stan went back to work and handed in his resignation.
"If you want to be good at something," he says, "the first thing you have to do is decide what you want to be. The rest is a matter of putting in the work, paying the price and seeing what creative ideas you can come up with to get you to that spot.
"It's the drive you have: the passion and the desire. Every day you've got to have a clear conscience and ask, ‘What productive thing did I do today that took me one step closer to my dream?'"
The decision to put everything on the line paid off. Stan had been noticed by scouts from the renowned training facility Jet Centre in Van Nuys, US, and in 1987 was offered a chance to train there. The years were hard, but Stan notched up a 17-win, zero-loss record taking a score of titles. It was a far cry from his first fight back in Australia.[1]
Kickboxing Career
Longinidis was honored in France at a martial arts expo in 2000, awarded a lifetime achievement award recognizing his major influential impact on the early days of the sport, and his status as one of the most famous names in the history of kick boxing.
Beginning his career in 1983, Stan the Man won two amateur titles before challenging for the World Light Heavyweight Title in 1987, a contest ending in a draw. After being approached by scouts from the Jet Centre in Van Nuys, California, Stan quit his day job and traveled to live and train in the USA where he became a cult favorite amongst local celebrities and kickboxing fans. He racked up 18 straight wins in the USA and won the North American and USA Heavyweight Titles as well as the Australian professional title.
His fame at home grew to huge proportions, a feat no local kickboxer had achieved, with Stan appearing on local talk shows and newspapers.
In April 1990 he became the first Australian to win a World Kickboxing Title when he took the K.I.C.K Full Contact Super Heavyweight Title. He added two WKA World Titles to his resume in 1991, one being a record 15 second knockout of American Melvin Cole in Queensland, Australia. In 1992 he defended his titles against legendary Croatian fighter Branko Cikatic and local rival Grant Barker, a top 10 heavyweight at the time moving up. After wins over Mitch O'Hello and Adam Watt he took on Dennis Alexio in the most eagerly anticipated superfight at the time and a huge media event in Australia. The fight was an anti climax, only lasting 6 seconds, with Longinidis dealing the famed American only his second loss in over 50 fights with a low kick in the opening seconds that broke the American's leg.
Stan would continue to fight and defend his titles as well as adding two additional titles in 1993 and 1994. He also became one of the K-1 corporations first contracted stars, appearing on many early K-1 shows where his rivalries with Cikatic and Masaaki Satake helped boost the companies profile. He also competed in early K-1 Grand Prix's.
In 1996 he became the first westerner to fight for and win a prestigious WMC World Heavyweight Muay Thai Title in Thailand where he was crowned by the King of Thailand. Stan kept fighting on despite a serious knee injury that threatened to end his career, he had a complete knee reconstruction in 1997 that slowed him down. He fought on until 2000 where he retired after beating Peter "The Chief" Graham in Melbourne, coming out of retirement for one fight in 2003 before calling it quits with an 83-8-4 record.
Stan Longinidis was awarded in France at a martial arts expo in 2000, a lifetime achievement award recognizing his major influential impact on the early days of the sport, and his status as one of the most famous names in the history of kick boxing.
Titles
- 1984 Australian Amateur Super heavyweight Champion
- 1989 North American Heavyweight Champion
- 1989 United States Heavyweight Champion
- 1989 Intercontinental champion
- 1990 KICK Full Contact Super Heavyweight Champion
- 1991 WKA World Junior Heavyweight Champion
- 1992 WKA World Super Heavyweight Champion
- 1992 ISKA Oriental Super Heavyweight Champion
- 1993 ISKA Free Style Heavyweight Champion
- 1994 WAKO World Super Heavyweight Champion
- 1994 Thaipan 1 tournament winner)
- 1996 WMTC World Super Heavyweight Champion
- 1998 WKBF World Heavyweight
Acting Career
Trojan Warrior, an Australian film with Stan in the lead role, was released on August 8, 2002.
Promoted as a gangster action adventure film, Trojan Warrior follows the exploits of Ajax (Longinidis), a one-man army who takes on a crime syndicate in order to keep his cousin Theo alive long enough to testify against them in court.
Filmography
- Trojan Warrior (2002)
- Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight (1992)
- Ring of Fire (1991/I)
- Angel Town (1990)
External links
- Official website
- Internet Movie Database: Stan Longidis
References
- ↑ Interview: Trojan Hero - Salvation Army's WarCry magazine
A portion of content for this article is credited to Wikipedia. Content under GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL)
