Aerts, discounting the DQ. The final between Aerts and Hug lasted just a minute and ten seconds as Aerts knocked him out with a trademark high kick to win his third K-1 World Grand Prix. This was the fastest tournament win in K-1 history, as he knocked out all of his opponents in the very first round in a record time of 6:43 minutes, until Semmy Schilt won the World Grand Prix in 2009 in 5:54 minutes. 1999–2002: Poor showings at the Grand Prix Peter Aerts began 1999 in a rich vein of form, finishing Michael McDonald, Jim Mullen, Matt Skelton, Maurice Smith and Sam Greco, respectively, over the course of five months. At the K-1 World Grand Prix '99 Opening Round, the qualifying round for the 1999 K-1 WGP, on October 5, 1999, he took a unanimous decision victory over Lloyd van Dams. In the quarter-finals of the K-1 Grand Prix '99 Final Round on December 5, 1999, Aerts went up against Jérôme Le Banner for the third time. Just fifteen seconds into the first round, he dropped the big Frenchman with a high kick. Although dazed and clearly hurt, Le Banner was able to make the count and came back to knock Aerts out with a devastating left hook at just over the one minute-mark of round number one, sending the reigning champion crashing out of the tournament. Following this loss, he returned to the ring against Japanese star Musashi at K-1 Rising 2000 a little over a month later on January 25, 2000. Aerts won by technical knockout when Musashi's corner stopped the fight at the end of round four. On April 23, 2000, he defeated Ray Sefo via low kick KO in round three at K-1 The Millennium. This would be the first of three fights between the legends. Aerts continued his win-streak when he knocked out Andrew Thomson in fifty-six seconds at K-1 King of the Ring 2000 in Bologna, Italy, on May 12, 2000. This run came to an end, however, when he came up against Cyril Abidi, a promising young French fighter, at K-1 Spirits 2000 on July 7, 2000. Abidi managed to drag Aerts into a brawl and caused a huge upset by KOing him in round one. Aerts was then given the chance to prove this loss was simply a fluke when he rematched Abidi in the quarter-finals of the K-1