Orlando Wiet (born 24 October 1965) is a Surinamese-Dutch former world champion kickboxer, boxer and mixed martial artist.
Orlando Otmar Wiet started his career in Purmerend with Cees van der Velden and then trained in Breda with Ramon Dekkers and Cor Hemmers. He also trained in Thailand in Buriram Nonkee Payuthe with Mr. Pramote and fought in the Old Lumpini Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand for the promoter Mr. Songchai Ratanasuban, the first non-Thai fighter to win a fight by decision. Wiet has fought at K-1 and It's Showtime tournaments. In 1985, Wiet defeated Stephane Nikiema and won a European Muay Thai championship. In 1989, he defeated Omar Benamar and won a world title.[1][2][3][4] Wiet defeated Ivan Hippolyte in April 1995. He then defeated Azem Maksutaj and after that he took part in the K-1 Grand Prix tournament in July 1995, beating Franz Haller in the first round and losing to Taiei Kin in the second round. Ivan Hippolyte, who lost to Wiet in a previous match, won the tournament.[5]
In 1994, Wiet decided to take part in the tournament UFC 2, as the first fighter living in France. UFC 2 was a tournament with fighters of different styles. Wiet represented Muay Thai. He was the lightest fighter among the sixteen participants of the tournament, weighting 170 pounds. However, in the opening round, he could use his Muay Thai techniques and defeated 6.2 tall and 245 pounds Robert Lucarelli by TKO (Corner Stoppage) with elbow, knee strikes and punches. Then, in the quarterfinals, he faced the tallest and heaviest judo fighter of that tournament, 6.4 tall and 260 pounds Remco Pardoel. Pardoel could use his weight advantage and Wiet lost by TKO and got seriously injured. After he lost to Todd Bjornethun a year later, Wiet decided to focus on boxing and kickboxing.
Wiet started his boxing career with Jean Robert Pujol in 1996. He participated in boxing matches in parallel with kickboxing. After a four win streak, he was defeated by Aziz Daari. His next fights were not so successful as in kickboxing. He had matches against opponents such as Byron Mitchell and Bruno Girard.[6]
Wiet's career ended in 1999 when he sustained a critical groin injury throwing a high kick in training. Wiet retired from fighting in 1999 after 180 fights and number of injuries. However, he came back once in 2005, once in 2008 and once in 2011 to fight in MMA. He lost all three fights by submission. Wiet has subsequently worked as a coach, training fighters such as Karim Souda .[7]
Orlando Wiet was married to Valérie Hénin, female boxer with 2-0-1 record in professional boxing and kickboxer with 0–2 record. Valerie helped her husband in training for part of his matches. The couple broke up a little later. Orlando has two daughters, Magda Wiet-Hénin and Lena Wiet Mathis. Magda Wiet is a taekwondo world champion.[8][6]