Michael McDonald | |
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Born | Michael Anthony McDonald February 6, 1965 Birmingham, England |
Other names | The Black Sniper |
Nationality | Canadian |
Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
Weight | 211 lb (95.7 kg; 15.1 st) |
Division |
Light Heavyweight Cruiserweight Heavyweight |
Style | Kickboxing, Muay Thai |
Fighting out of | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Team | Team Sniper |
Years active | 1986–2008 |
Kickboxing record | |
Total | 77 |
Wins | 52 |
By knockout | 20 |
Losses | 24 |
By knockout | 10 |
Draws | 1 |
Mixed martial arts record | |
Total | 2 |
Wins | 1 |
By decision | 1 |
Losses | 1 |
By submission | 1 |
Other information | |
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
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Michael Anthony McDonald (born February 6, 1965) is a retired Canadian heavyweight kickboxer. Nicknamed "The Black Sniper", he is the former three-time K-1 USA Grand Prix Champion.
Michael was born in Birmingham to a Jamaican family, he was raised in Mandeville, Jamaica until age eight when his family later immigrated to Canada, he grew up in Edmonton, Alberta during his school years. While growing up Michael was active in a variety of sports including track and field, football, soccer, baseball and wrestling. At the age of 17 a friend introduced him to Muay Thai.
In 1996 Michael entered the K-1 fighting network and started to train with the 1992 Karate World Cup Champion, Andy Hug. He stayed with "Team Andy" for 3 years fighting in the K-1 Grand Prix throughout the world.
In 2000 Michael stunned a crowd of 35,000 at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 in Fukuoka by winning a unanimous decision over the heavily favored Nicholas Pettas. In 2002, Michael won both K-1 tournaments held in that year in United States, K-1 USA Grand Prix 2002 and K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 in Las Vegas. On December 7, 2002 he was selected for K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 Finals first reserve fight against Martin Holm.
In 2004 he re-claimed the K-1 USA 2004 North American Grand Prix Championship. He was knocked down by Marvin Eastman in the first round of the quarter finals, but got up and dispatched his opponent with a KO in the second round. Scoring another second-round KO in the semi-final against Kelly Leo, McDonald advanced to the final. In front of a packed house of 6,000 fans at The Bellagio in Las Vegas, Michael dispatched Dewey Cooper to win the title for the third time in three years. The award was presented to McDonald by Muhammad Ali accompanied by Mike Tyson.