Peter "The Dutch Lumberjack" Aerts (born October 25, 1970) is a professional Super heavyweight Dutch kickboxer and martial artist. He is three time K-1 World Grand Prix and Muay Thai World Champion. Aerts is best known for his powerful strikes and high kicks.

Biography

After playing football for seven years, in 1983 Peter Aerts started to practice Tae-Kwon-Do. His interest in fight sports came from his grandfather as well as an uncle who were active in that field. In 1984 he picked up kickboxing and started training in "Judoka-Kickboxing" in Best, Netherlands with Mikki Benazzous. After a year Aerts fought his first match, and soon one victory succeeded the other. He won his first world championship title when he was nineteen.[1] 

Peter Aerts then switched to club "Champs" in Eindhoven, with Eddy Smulders, where he became world champion for the second time. After that he moved to the famous Chakuriki gym of Thom Harinck, where he had his greatest successes. In 1994 Peter Aerts became the K-1 World Champion for the first time, following up his success in 1995 and 1998.[1] His win in 1998 was the fastest tournament win in K-1 history, when he knocked out all of his opponents in the very first round in a record time of 6:43 minutes, until August, 2009 where Daniel Ghita won the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP in 5:15 minutes. In 2009 Semmy Schilt also surpassed Aerts fastest World Grand Prix win after winning the 2009 World Grand Prix Final in 5:54 minutes. He also competed in more K-1 World Grand Prix then any other K-1 fighter in history. He currently has competed in 16 consecutive World Grand Prix from 1993 to 2009.

In 1997 He broke the work relationship wth Thom Hainrick. He later moved to train with Andre Manaart, a former K-1 fighter himself. Currently Aerts has his own Team Aerts, training out of Kops Gym in Amsterdam under Jan Plas and Henry Hooft.

In December 2, 2006 Peter Aerts entered the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 as a reserve fighter, defeating his opponent Musashi by first round knockout. After Remy Bonjasky was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an injury, Aerts met Glaube Feitosa in the semifinals, winning his fight by TKO in the second round. His opponent in the finals was reigning World Champion Semmy Schilt, Aerts lost the fight by unanimous decision.[2]

In June 23, 2007 at the K-1 World GP 2007 in Amsterdam Aerts faced Bob Sapp in a much-anticipated Superfight. Peter Aerts struck Sapp with the left knee, Sapp fell down and the fight was over in 0'25" in a first round.[3] In June 2007, Aerts extended his contract with K-1 for another two years.

On September 29, 2007 Aerts met Ray Sefo at the K-1 World GP 2007 in Seoul Final 16 in Korea. He won the fight at the end of the first round by TKO corner stoppage when Ray Sefo did not answer the bell and qualified himself for 15th consecutive year to K-1 World GP 2007 Final held in December 8, 2007 at the Yokohama Arena, Japan.[4] In quarterfinals, Aerts knocked out Junichi Sawayashiki from Japan in the first round. In the semi finals, he defeated two time K-1 World Grand Prix winner Remy Bonjasky by unanimous decision. He then moved on to face two time defending champion Semmy Schilt in the finals. Aerts lost the bout by TKO in the first round after suffering a knee injury.

Aerts entered the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 Final after beating Schilt by majority decision where he was unexpectedly beaten in the second round by Badr Hari.

At the start of 2009 Peter was back to training again with Thom Harinck. Back with Harinck in his corner Aerts had two very impressive fights, a extra round unanimous decision win to Errol Zimmerman and a 3rd round KO win over Yosuke Nishijima. In both fights Aerts looked as though he would easily capture the K-1 World GRand Prix Title for a fourth time in the awesome shape he was in.

Aerts fought at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final 16 as a huge favourite against MMA heavyweight Alistair Overeem. However in a huge upset Overeem shocked the world by defeating Aerts by unanimous decision. Aerts stated after the fight that after the first minute he had lost virtually all of his power and felt no shame in his first Final 16 defeat. Aerts said he will return to training as usual. After the Overeem fight Peter dropped more weight under a diet that Harinck set for him, dropping to 103 kg as opposed to his usual 109–112 kg. He was still picked as a reserve fighter where he beat Gokhan Saki by Unanimous decision.