Andreas Hug (7 September 1964 – 24 August 2000) was a Swiss karateka and kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time, Hug was renowned for his ability to execute numerous kicking techniques rarely seen in high-level competition. Although he was usually smaller than his opponents, standing at 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) and being barely a heavyweight, weighing around 98.0 kg (216.1 lb; 15.43 st) in his prime, he made up for his lack of size with his athleticism and speed. A southpaw, his trademark kicks included the axe kick and the "Hug Tornado", a low spinning heel kick targeting his opponents' thighs.
Raised in Wohlen, Aargau, Hug was a keen footballer in his youth. He gave up the sport to pursue Kyokushin karate which he began practicing at ten years old. Beginning his full contact karate career in the 80 kg/176 lb middleweight division, he rose to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s by winning numerous regional tournaments around Europe and made the transition to heavyweight in 1984. That same year, he competed in the Kyokushin World Open, knockdown karate's most prestigious competition, for the first time and made it to the fourth round where he was eliminated by Shokei Matsui. Returning to Europe, he won his first major title in the form of the 3rd European Championships in 1985 before entering World Open again in 1987. He became the first non-Japanese fighter to make it to the final of the competition but again lost to Shokei Matsui. Another European Championships win would follow in 1989 and he fought in his third and final World Open in 1991, losing a controversial bout to Francisco Filho in the third round.
Having become a popular fighter in Japan due to his technical diversity, aesthetics, tactics and strength, Hug made the switch from Kyokushinkaikan to Seidokaikan in 1992, completing the step from being an amateur to becoming a professional fighter and star in Japan. After winning the 1992 Seidokaikan Karate World Cup, beating Taiei Kin in the final, and finishing as runner-up to Masaaki Satake in the 1993 edition, Hug transitioned to K-1 kickboxing, scoring a first round knockout of Ryuji Murakami in his professional debut at K-1 Andy's Glove in November 1993. After a breakout win over K-1 Grand Prix '93 Champion Branko Cikatić in March 1994, Hug entered the K-1 Grand Prix '94 a month later as one of the tournament favourites but was upset by Patrick Smith via first round stoppage in the quarter-finals. Undeterred, Hug continued to improve his skills for the kickboxing ring and rebounded by winning the Universal Kickboxing Federation (UKF) World Super Heavyweight Championship in December 1994 when he knocked out Rob van Esdonk. He suffered another setback at the K-1 Grand Prix '95 qualifying round when he was stopped by Mike Bernardo but he would have his revenge the following year at the K-1 Grand Prix '96 when he won the tournament by finishing Bernardo with the "Hug Tornado" in the final. He continued to be one of K-1's top contenders in the following years, reaching the final of the K-1 World Grand Prix twice more (in 1997 and 1998) and becoming a three-time world champion by taking the WMTC and WKA titles under Muay Thai rules.
In early August 2000, Hug started feeling unwell in Switzerland. On August 17, while training in Japan, he was given a diagnosis of acute leukemia. He died, aged 35, a week later in Tokyo, the day after it was made public that he was comatose. Hug's sudden death shocked the martial arts world. His legacy remains in kickboxing and knockdown karate, as well as one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of both sports. Hug was the highest paid kickboxer in the world at one point and his matches in his native Switzerland, where he posted a perfect 6–0 record, drew a larger television audience than the tennis matches of Martina Hingis and the games of the Switzerland national football team. In addition to his in-ring accomplishments, he was also known for his articulation, humility and strong work ethic. Hug was ranked at #79 on The Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan, a television program aired on Nippon Television on May 7, 2006, which featured the results of a survey that asked Japanese people to choose their favorite great person from history.
His skill was such that some experts say that if karate had been an Olympic sport in his day, Hug would have consistently been a favorite for the gold medal.
Andreas Hug was born in Zurich, Switzerland on 7 September 1964. His father Arthur was a Swiss of French and Swiss descent and was a French Foreign Legionnaire. He died in Thailand under mysterious circumstances without seeing his son. Hug's mother, Madelaine Hug-Baumann, was German. She was forced to pursue gainful employment. Unable to care for Andy, she put him up for adoption and he spent the first three years of his life in an orphanage until his care was taken over by his grandparents along with his brother, Charly, and sister, Fabienne. His grandmother, Fridy, and grandfather, Herrmann Baumann, a bricklayer, raised them in Wohlen in the Canton of Aargau.
Hug began playing association football competitively at the age of six and went on to represent the Switzerland national under-16 football team. His home situation made him a target for bullying and at ten years old, he started practising Kyokushinkai karate at Wohlen karate school under Werner Schenker despite strong opposition from his grandfather initially. His grandmother saw his passion for the art and eventually convinced the grandfather to relent. By thirteen, he began to show promise as a karateka by winning numerous beginners' karate tournaments and his grandparents eventually forced him to decide between pursuing football and karate, since they were no longer in a position to pay for both. He chose karate and at fifteen won the 1979 Swiss Oyama Cup, a national Kyokushin competition. Although full contact karate tournaments carried with them a minimum age of twenty, he showed so much potential as one of the country's biggest prospects that the Swiss Karate Federation allowed Hug to compete nonetheless.
Following his breakout performance in the Oyama Cup, Hug earned himself a place on the Swiss national Kyokushin team and then became the co-founder of a dojo in Bremgarten aged seventeen. He completed his butchery apprenticeship in 1984 and took a job in Wohlen's main wholesale butchery. His need for time off work regularly to compete in tournaments and occasional injuries which hindered his work performance meant that a shadow was cast over his working relationship and he was released from his contract by mutual agreement in 1986.
After winning a number of beginners' karate competitions, Hug was selected to represent the Wohlen Karate School during the National Team Championships in November 1977. His breakthrough performance came at the Swiss national Oyama Cup in 1979 at the age of fifteen when he defeated several opponents much older than himself to take the tournament crown. In 1981, Hug had an upsurge in competition as he was part of the Swiss team that defeated the Dutch in the finals to win the 4 Countries Team Tournament and recorded his first international success by taking a bronze medal at the 5th Dutch Kyokushin Championships in the 80 kg/176 lb middleweight division in Weert, Netherlands as he lost out to Koen Scharrenberg in the semi-finals. He also won the Swiss Oyama Cup for a second time that year, beating Heinz Muntweiler in the final, before further establishing himself as the country's top Kyokushin fighter by winning the 1982 Swiss Championships at middleweight. After reaching the round of sixteen in both the 2nd European Championships and the 6th Dutch Open, being eliminated by Jean-Pierre Louisset and Kenneth Felter respectively, Hug closed out the year by being crowned champion at the 1st Ibusz Oyama Cup in Budapest, Hungary where he defeated Mark Niedziokka in the final.