Jean-Yves Thériault
Ottawa's Iceman: heavy hands, hard kicks, no emotion
- Born
- January 15, 1955, Paquetville, New Brunswick, Canada
- Nationality
Canada- Height
- 180 cm (5′11″)
- Style
- Hard-hitting puncher-kicker
- Weight
- Middleweight, Super Middleweight, Light Heavyweight
- Active
- 1976–1995
- Status
- Retired · age 71
The record
Wikipedia infobox and fight table: 76 pro fights, June 1976 to December 1995 (61 KO, 7 decisions, 1 DQ). His own Iceman Productions site gives 61 knockouts in its header but 60 in its text and fight list, and the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame also says 60; the difference is an April 1981 win over Rodney Batiste, a KO on Wikipedia and a unanimous decision on his site record
The story
orn in Paquetville, New Brunswick, Jean-Yves Thériault grew up in Ontario. He took up jiu-jitsu at 17, switched to full-contact kickboxing and won his first pro fight, against Serge Simard in Ottawa, in 1976. In 1980 he stopped Robert Biggs in Ottawa for the PKA world middleweight title, which he held into the 1990s, and he later added ISKA and PKC world titles up to light heavyweight. Rodney Batiste called him the Iceman because he showed no reaction when he was hit. Thériault beat future K-1 champion Ernesto Hoost twice and drew with Don Wilson before 7,000 fans in Montreal in 1984. He lost six of 76 pro fights and retired in December 1995, then taught, promoted amateur kickboxing and earned a jiu-jitsu black belt in 2008.
- PKA world middleweight champion (1980–1995)
- ISKA world champion at super middleweight and light heavyweight (1988–1995)
- PKC world super middleweight champion
- Canadian middleweight champion (1978)
- Black Belt Hall of Fame (1983)
- Voted Athlete of the Decade by New Brunswick sportswriters (1990)
- Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame (2001)
Defining fights
- 1980WINvs Robert Biggs (TKO, won PKA world middleweight title, Ottawa)
- 1984DRAWvs Don Wilson (12-round draw, Montreal; Thériault scored the only knockdown)
- 1986WINvs Ernesto Hoost (unanimous decision, 12 rounds, Montreal)
- 1989WINvs Ernesto Hoost (decision, 12 rounds, Geneva)
- 1992LOSSvs Rob Kaman (TKO 5, Paris; ISKA and WKA titles at stake)
Blend your hands and feet the way Thériault did: finish a punch combination with a kick, or follow a kick straight in with punches, and throw every strike to hurt rather than to score. When you get hit in sparring, show nothing; that calm is how he earned the name Iceman.
1972–1999
