Kin Taiei (, Hanja: ; born July 8, 1970) is a Korean-Japanese light heavyweight karateka, kickboxer and mixed martial artist competing in K-1 and DREAM. He's also a karate instructor and a trainer for professional fighters. His name is sometimes pronounced as "Kim Tae Yong" in Korean. Before switching to MMA, Kin was a distinguished fighter in the K-1, praised by both Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost as the best fighter to come out of Asia. Biography Early years Kin Taiei (金泰泳) was born as the eldest son in Amagasaki city of Hyogo prefecture, Japan on July 8, 1970. As he is the eldest son, he's got a younger brother. Both of his parents worked till late at night, he was sent to Karate dojo for combing the care with a nursery school. He took an interest in football (soccer) at 4th year of elementary school, and dropped out training karate at 6th year. He won the Japanese national championship for junior high schools at the 3rd year. When he was a student of Kobe Korean Senior High school, he tried to start practicing boxing because he had a longing for foreign boxers, but he joined karate team in his school because his parents objected strongly. For this reason, he also joined the karate team of Korea University in Tokyo when he became a university student. During his university life, he participated a full contact karate championship promoted by Sato juku, but he was beaten by Nobuaki Kakuda. Although he lost, he was evaluated highly by Kazuyoshi Ishii, and he was invited to Seidokaikan. Thus, Kin became a student of Seidokaikan in Osaka after graduation of university. Debut On January 31, 1993, Kin participated "The 2nd Towa Cup Karate Japan Open Tournament", but he was beaten by Masaaki Satake in the final. On June 25, he fought against Changpuek Kiatsongrit from Thailand for the vacant title of UKF World Light heavyweight championship at the event of "Sanctuary III", but he lost by decision. Work as Trainer During the years 2006 and 2007, he trained Hong-man Choi in his K-1 career. Choi improved very much during the time Kin was in his corner. They worked together for almost two years in which Choi had nine fights. He won six of them and lost three, twice against Jérôme Le Banner and once against Mighty Mo (kickboxer). Among his six wins was a