| Jean Rivière | |
| Birth Date: | 2 July 1971 |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Weight: | 130kg (290lb) |
| Weight Class: | Heavyweight |
| Style: | Kyokushin |
| Stance: | Southpaw |
| Fighting Out Of: | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Rank: | Black belt in Kyokushin Black belt in Judo |
| Years Active: | 1995–1999, 2007 (MMA) 1996–1998 (Kickboxing) |
| Kickbox Win: | 1 |
| Kickbox Kowin: | 1 |
| Kickbox Loss: | 4 |
| Kickbox Koloss: | 2 |
| Kickbox Draw: | 0 |
| Mma Win: | 3 |
| Mma Kowin: | 1 |
| Mma Subwin: | 1 |
| Mma Otherwin: | 1 |
| Mma Loss: | 1 |
| Mma Otherloss: | 1 |
| Mma Draw: | 0 |
Jean Rivière (born July 2, 1971) is a Canadian former Kyokushin karateka, kickboxer and mixed martial artist. A heavyweight competitor fighting out of Montreal, Rivière reached the semi-finals at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in 1991 and later embarked on a career in the K-1 kickboxing promotion and the burgeoning MMA scene of the mid-1990s.
The Montreal-based Jean Rivière came to prominence as a Kyokushin fighter, with the most notable achievement of his karate career coming in November 1991 at the 5th Kyokushin World Open in Tokyo where he finished fourth in a tournament of 250 competitors.[1] He defeated Tatsuya Iwasaki (with an ushiro mawashi geri) in the round of thirty-two, Lars Bjorstrup in the round of sixteen and Johnny Kleyn in the quarter-finals before losing to Akira Masuda in the semi-finals.[2]
Rivière would later transition to mixed martial arts, making his debut in Brazil on December 1, 1995 where he knocked out capoeira stylist Mestre Hulk in nineteen seconds.[3] He then faced a nineteen-year-old Carlos Newton at Battlecade Extreme Fighting's second event in Montreal on April 26, 1996. Rivière had a large size advantage, reportedly outweighing Newton by 34 kg / 75 lb, but Newton dominated much of the fight with headbutts and superior grappling transitions before submitting due to exhaustion just over seven minutes into the fight.[4] [5]
Later that year, Rivière joined the ranks of the Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1. In his first outing, he recorded a second round low kick stoppage win over Fred Floyd at K-1 Revenge '96 on September 1, 1996 before losing a five-round unanimous decision to Musashi at K-1 Star Wars '96 the following month. Rivière was invited to compete in the 1997 K-1 World Grand Prix, losing to fellow karateka Masaaki Satake in the tournament's opening round on September 7, 1997. The bout was scored a draw following the regulation three rounds and went into an extension round to decide the winner, after which Satake was ruled the victor by all three judges.
Rivière faced reigning K-1 World Grand Prix champion Ernesto Hoost at K-1 Braves '98 on May 24, 1998, losing by head kick knockout in the first round. In his final appearance in the kickboxing ring, Rivière competed at the K-1 USA Grand Prix '98 in Las Vegas, K-1's first event in the United States,[6] on August 7, 1998. He suffered a second-round knockout loss to Curtis Schuster at the quarter-final stage, bringing his K-1 career to a close on a 1–4 record.[7]
With his stint in K-1 at an end, Rivière returned to MMA on January 9, 1999 with a loss to John Dixson in Montreal. After an eight-year absence from the sport, he defeated Shaun Fukuhara in Hawaii on August 4, 2007.
|-|- bgcolor="#FFBBBB"| 1998-08-07 || Loss ||align=left|
Curtis Schuster || K-1 USA Grand Prix '98, Quarter-finals || Las Vegas, Nevada, USA || KO (punch) || 2 || 2:52 || 1–4|-|- bgcolor="#FFBBBB"| 1998-05-24 || Loss ||align=left| Ernesto Hoost || K-1 Braves '98 || Fukuoka, Japan || KO (right high kick) || 1 || 2:17 || 1–3|-|- bgcolor="#FFBBBB"| 1997-09-07 || Loss ||align=left|
Masaaki Satake || K-1 Grand Prix '97 1st round || Osaka, Japan || Extension round decision (unanimous) || 4 || 3:00 || 1–2|-|- bgcolor="#FFBBBB"| 1996-10-18 || Loss ||align=left| Musashi || K-1 Star Wars '96 || Yokohama, Japan || Decision (unanimous) || 5 || 3:00 || 1–1|-|- bgcolor="#CCFFCC"| 1996-09-01 || Win ||align=left| Fred Floyd || K-1 Revenge '96 || Osaka, Japan || KO (left low kick) || 2 || 1:29 || 1–0|-|-| colspan=9 | Legend:
|-| Win| align=center| 3-1| Shaun Fukuhara| N/A| Island Warriors Fighting Championships| | align=center| N/A| align=center| N/A| Wailuku, Hawaii, United States| |-| Loss| align=center| 2-1| John Dixson| N/A| IFC: Extreme Combat| | align=center| 1| align=center| 5:13| Montreal, Quebec, Canada| |-| Win| align=center| 2-0| 
Carlos Newton| Submission (exhaustion)| Extreme Fighting 2| | align=center| 1| align=center| 7:22| Montreal, Quebec, Canada| |-| Win| align=center| 1-0| 
Mestre Hulk| KO (punch)| Brazil Open '95| | align=center| 1| align=center| 0:19| Brazil|