Michael Thompson (karateka)
Karateka and kickboxer, born 1962
Michael Thompson (born 23 June 1962) is an English former karateka and kickboxer who competed in the cruiserweight and heavyweight division. After a long and distinguished career in Kyokushin, in which he won the British Open four times, the Commonwealth Championships in 1988 and the European Championships in 1991 as well as competing three times in the World Open, Thompson later switched to Seidokaikan and reached the final of the 1994 Seidokaikan Karate World Cup. During his time as a Seidokaikan competitor, he also fought as a professional kickboxer in K-1, amassing a 6–5 record and becoming the WKA European Super Cruiserweight Champion.
Career
Michael Thompson established himself as one of the United Kingdom's best Kyokushin fighters during the 1980s, winning the British Open four times (1982, 1984, 1986 and 1990) and finishing in third place twice (1983 and 1985). He also medaled at the European Championships three times, taking bronze in 1982 and silver in 1987 and 1989 before eventually winning the tournament at +90 kg/198 lb in 1991. As well as winning the inaugural Commonwealth Championships in 1988, Thompson competed in the Kyokushin World Open on three occasions. In his best showing in the tournament, he made it to the semi-finals at the 1987 edition, losing out to Shokei Matsui.
After transitioning to Seidokaikan in 1993, Thompson fought his first match against Taiei Kin at the K-1 Grand Prix '93 in Tokyo, Japan on 30 April 1993, losing by majority decision after two extension rounds were needed to separate the pair. He bounced back with a first round knockout of Nobuaki Kakuda at K-1 Sanctuary III in Osaka, Japan on 25 June 1993. Entering the 1993 Seidokaikan Karate World Cup on 3 October 1993, Thompson rematched Kakuda in the tournament's opening stage and repeated his performance to score another first-round KO. It was another familiar foe and outcome in the quarter-finals, as Taiei Kin again beat him by an extension round decision to eliminate him from the competition.
The public source identifies “Michael Thompson (karateka)” as karateka and kickboxer, born 1962. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Michael, Thompson and karateka.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11339658. VIAF identifies the subject as 13234485. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1988, 1991 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Thompson (karateka)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.