Gilbert Yvel

Gilbert Ramon Yvel (born 30 June 1976) is a Dutch professional mixed martial artist.

A professional competitor since 1997, Yvel competed in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Affliction, the UFC, Road FC, the RFA, RINGS, M-1 Challenge, Cage Rage, K-1, and Showtime promotions.

He is the former RINGS Openweight Champion.

Yvel was born in the Netherlands to parents of Surinamese and Haitian descent.

He was raised as an orphan in the neighborhood of the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam.

He was promoted to black belt in BJJ in 2024 by Remco Pardoel.

Yvel came into contact with kickboxing and MMA through his brother, and after only two years of training he made his debut at 17 years of age, representing Vos Gym.

Gilbert was off to a flying start winning his first 9 fights, primarily fighting for the Fighting Network RINGS promotion, initially only in events hosted by its Dutch brand.

One of his first opponents would be Bas Rutten's apprentice Leon Dijk, whom he defeated by KO, as well as "dirty" Bob Schrijber.

In another of his performances, he squared off against Bas Jussen in an event promoted by RINGS Holland leader Chris Dolman.

This fight would become controversial because Yvel, after getting his leg embraced by Jussen in a missed flying knee, grabbed the fence to keep himself vertical and then, still hanging off the cage, delivered several knees and axe kicks on his opponent's head.

Yvel would go to win the match shortly after.

His first loss came in 1998 in a rematch against Schrijber, being knocked out in the first round.

Yvel had actually met his biological mother for the first time two days before the fight.

He would follow with a participation representing RINGS Holland in the Russian tournament Pankration European Championship, where he would face RINGS Russia fighter Karimula Barkalaev.

Although Yvel dominated the match, he was disqualified after Barkalaev's coach Volk Han noted the referee Yvel had illegally bitten his fighter.

In the following years Yvel came to be considered the best Dutch Heavyweight fighter active on the European fighting circuit.

He got a victory over teammate Valentijn Overeem by TKO, as well as a high level one over RINGS England chief Lee Hasdell.

In April 1999, Yvel was finally called to Japan by RINGS, where he fought Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

Through the match, Yvel left himself behind by five points due to multiple fouls, which included grabbing the ropes, hitting the face on the ground, striking against an opponent on the knees and, in spectacular fashion, hanging himself off the turnbuckle in order to land a knee to the face.

However, he rallied over in points with a palm strike and a tight guillotine choke, and finally won the match when it was stopped due to accumulated damage to Kohsaka's face.

He then would fly back to Holland in order to face Semmy Schilt in an interpromotional match.

The bout was particularly intriguing because Schilt belonged to Pancrase, RINGS's rival promotion in Japan.

The fight was met under special rules, with Gilbert keeping his gloves for punching while Schilt preferred to go barehanded and use open palm strikes like it was done in Pancrase.

Although Schilt was considered a heavy favourite, sporting a huge advantage in both weight and height and boasting victories over Masakatsu Funaki and Guy Mezger, Yvel proved himself at the first minutes of the match by scoring a shocking knockdown on Schilt by a flurry of hooks.

The Pancrase fighter recovered with knees to the body and took Yvel down repeatedly in an attempt to submit him, but the ruleset's quick stand-ups and Yvel's own defensive acumen impeded any advance in this field.

Meanwhile, while Schilt still won the earlier stand-up exchanges, Yvel eventually took over and bloodied Schilt's eye with punches and a possible eye gouge which was dismissed by the referee.

At the end of several grinding assaults, Yvel overpowered Schilt and landed a long series of unanswered punches, finally knocking Schilt out on his feet for the victory.

In his return to Japan, Yvel was scheduled in a rematch with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

This time, however, Yvel was forced to spend a rope escape by an early toehold, and shortly after had to defend on the ground after being thrown down by the judo specialist.

With Gilbert behind on points, the match was stood up, but then it was suddenly stopped when Kohsaka, trying another judo throw, made both them fall outside the ring and was rendered injured by the fall.

The bout was declared no contest, but as Yvel had lost a point while Kohsaka hadn't lost any of them, the Japanese was controversially declared winner by points.

In December 1999, Yvel qualified for the King of Kings world tournament.

He eliminated karate champion Tariel Bitsadze by armbar on the first round, and went to avenge his defeat to Kohsaka in the second, stopping him by a cut caused by a grazing punch.

Yvel would face eventual winner Dan Henderson in his block's final match.

The American controlled the wrestling and seemed to have an armbar locked, but Yvel rolled out of it and utilized a strategy consistent on trying to strike between takedown and takedown.

In one of those instances, he got a yellow card for landing an illegal elbow to Henderson's spine.

At the end, although Yvel landed solid shots, he couldn't finish Henderson and was eliminated by unanimous decision.

Yvel's last bout in RINGS would be against Kiyoshi Tamura in a match for the RINGS Openweight Championship.

Again, Yvel was taken down and positionally controlled on the mat, but he resisted successfully Tamura's scarce submission attempts and knocked him out via strikes.