Jan Plas
founder - trainer
🌍 Dutch🥊 Kickboxing, Kyokushin Karate🎂 16-03-1945- 01-09-2010
Jan Plas was born on 16 March 1945 in the Netherlands and died on 1 September 2010. He is one of the founding fathers of Dutch kickboxing—co-founder of Mejiro Gym (1978) and co-founder of the Nederlandse Kickboks Bond (NKBB) in 1976, alongside Thom Harinck.
Plas learned Kyokushin Karate from Jon Bluming and kickboxing from Japanese master Kenji Kurosaki—a direct student of Mas Oyama—who founded the original Mejiro Gym in Tokyo. Plas brought this lineage to the Netherlands and built the Amsterdam Mejiro Gym into one of the most celebrated kickboxing gyms in the world.
As a trainer, he produced an exceptional roster of world champions, including Lucien Carbin, Rob Kaman, Fred Royers, Andre Mannaart, Ivan Hippolyte, Ernesto Hoost, and Peter Aerts. The Mejiro lineage is one of the most decorated in the history of Dutch kickboxing.
His contribution to establishing kickboxing as an organised sport in the Netherlands—through the NKBB—and his work developing world-class fighters made him an irreplaceable pillar of the Dutch combat sports scene.
Plas learned Kyokushin Karate from Jon Bluming and kickboxing from Japanese master Kenji Kurosaki—a direct student of Mas Oyama—who founded the original Mejiro Gym in Tokyo. Plas brought this lineage to the Netherlands and built the Amsterdam Mejiro Gym into one of the most celebrated kickboxing gyms in the world.
As a trainer, he produced an exceptional roster of world champions, including Lucien Carbin, Rob Kaman, Fred Royers, Andre Mannaart, Ivan Hippolyte, Ernesto Hoost, and Peter Aerts. The Mejiro lineage is one of the most decorated in the history of Dutch kickboxing.
His contribution to establishing kickboxing as an organised sport in the Netherlands—through the NKBB—and his work developing world-class fighters made him an irreplaceable pillar of the Dutch combat sports scene.