My first has to be Benny Urquidez (aka: Benny `the jet`) who went to the east and took on there fighters at there own game and won ... for those of you who may have seen the old film "Kings of the Square ring" you will know what I mean

Bill `superfoot` Wallace who overcame an injury to his right leg and still went on to be a champion ...

I have been lucky enough to meet both the above and even sparred very shortly with Bill Wallace before he got in the ring and did a demo fight with one of the British champions at `the york hall` in Bethnal Green London. He was a lot older than any of us but his physical condition and ability was outstanding ... His famed left leg believe me in real life is/was something to behold oh and I did find out he can use his right leg lol

Sugar Ray Leonard: In the ring for me put the word art in artist. The way he moved and his combination punching make him my favourite boxer of all time. Tyson in the early years was also special.

Nigel Benn: The British ex middleweight champion of the world .. The Dark Destroyer was a true warrior not the most elegant like sugar Ray but had the heart of a lion and his fights have to be some of the most exciting of all time ... I trained with Nigel as did many others but what a lot of people do not know is that he was a Brown belt in chinese boxing and had practiced other martial arts before moving on to what turned out a fantastic career in boxing.

Regards

In modern times I would have to put Roberto Duran at the top of my list but if you went back a hundred years I would rate Jimmy Wild higher than any of them.149 fights with 144 wins,most by KO.Wild also ko'D 23 opponents in one afternoon whist fighting in the boxing booths.He only weighed 7 stone but was capable of KO'ing light heavy weights.

Hi,
Thats why I said Favourite fighters, Jimmy Wilde was way before any of us ... Rocky Marciano record is better than any modern heavyweight so you could argue he is the best ever .... Another question is could they live with todays fighters?

Fantasy Fights has some interesting/amusing match ups

Regards

Kyosta Tzyu - for speed, agility, foot work and power. Above all he is a great man, who has the interests of all fighting arts at heart. (he has even been to my dojo to promote martial arts and boxing locally)

Anthony Mundine - A surpurb athlete (shame about the mouth) A very good Fighter and extremely hard trainer.

Reno Zurek .............. MAN ONE HARD HITTER, fought Tony Mundine and my first boxing coach.

But for all time hard hitting, bad attitude and a killer left hook (back in his time) you cant beat Tyson for a good fight.

In the Martial Arts ring - Bill Wallace. Againe a fine athlete and a gentleman.
Stan Longinedes - A tough man with a good heart
ME - A gentleman, but still workin on the athlete bit....... Ha ha ha
(Souhtern Australian Champion NSW, VIC, S.A & W.A, 2002 - Riverina Champion 2002, North Eastern Region Champion 2003, Riverina Champion 2003 - all full contact titles)
Workin through a fractured back at the moment - hopin for a entry in 2006.

Junior Le fevre and George Kotaka. The people you have mentioned are products of marketing and opportunistic timing.

These guys if you ever see them compete are the real deal in karate-do

Aussie Joe Bugner

Fav fighters:

Boxing: Kosta Tszyu - mainly because he actually boxes and doesn't brawl or hug...

BJJ: Royce Gracie - Invincible in his prime. Any see his new years eve fight last week? Gracie's 6'0/81kg (and 38yo) and he beat a 6'8/220kg guy in 133sec.

MMA: Quinton Jackson and Bas Rutten

GKR: Anthony Ryan

I love a comedian at least Joe was far from the worst heavyweight ever

Ali and Bruce Lee

Ali for his amazing hand speed and brain in the ring to take on a man mountain in Foreman and still win.
Bruce for his lightin fast side kick, the guy was 5 foot 3 but his speed was and is unsupassed.
forget all the UFC champions etc Bruce Lee was and is the greatest Martial Artist who has ever lived (bear in mind he died aged 32) who knows what he could have acheived.

Point: he did 5000 hand spear thusts onto a block of wood a day. I encourage all martial artists to read his words you will learn alot

PS All due respect to the others mentioned before this post. They too are great Fighters

Concerning Bruce Lee, he certainly is the most famous martial artist and one thing he said I always pass on and that is "Absorb what is useful" ... which for me meant try lots of styles and take from each something that you like and works for you .... That way I found IMO who had the best hands and who had the best kicks for fighting (not kata) ... Bruce was an inspiration for so many people and still is but was he a real fighter??? ... I still watch his films and enjoy em, they always bring a smile to my face. I will say this though (I swear on my sons life) I have heard on more than one occasion chinese masters (well 2) call him technically very poor ..... Dont know about 5000 spear thrusts per day but when I used to train 7 days a week I used to do 1000+ roundhouses per leg each day ... but only managed 250 each leg last two days mainly cos I am very unfit

Bruce was a great showman and had some very sound theories on combat but his theories were never pressure tested against opponents from other styles.Would he have fought in the UFC?In my opion he would have had difficulty living in such company mainly due to his size.He had speed but did he have power?Again there is no real evidence apart from his one inch punch which is quite easy to replicate with a bit of training.The average GKR yellow belt could be taught to do the same thing in a matter of weeks.His thumb puish ups were another stunt thats almost impossible for people to do until they study the photos.Again its down to simple body mechanics and once someone has pointed out the "secret" its easy to replicate.I am still a big Bruce Lee fan and was a teenager during the years he was really famous.Bruce was a real influence on martial artists in the seventies. Despite him being more of a fil star than a fighter his theories do stand up when put under pressure.His 45 degree theory really works when you put on head gear and gloves and go for a real attack.

I am a bit surprised to hear about the 5000 spear thrusts a day into wood.His hands were very smooth and didn't resemble those of someone who did heavy conditioning.Compare them to the hands of Morio Higaonna.

Dont know about Bruce's hands but I work in the building game and I see your point ... also working on the punch bag a lot means I am always missing skin off the knuckles, same goes for my son who does far more boxing than me although not wearing wraps causes a lot of it

Regards

Bruce Lee fav move was the spear thust he basically jabbed his fingers into a wall/block of wood.
He didnt use a maikwara or such, but point on the hands is chinese IROMPALM conditioning does not result in knarled missshapen hands, but rather the gradual transformation of your hands to a forceful hand target.
The palm strike or tiger crawl strike are deadly when performed by an experineced practinoner.
I have even seen a person break a paving stone with the back of their open hand raising the hand no higher then their shoulder. A point here is useing soft targets agaist hard targets .

i must agree with what ironpalm is saying there about the IRON PALM...
i was actually wondering if your user name had anything to do with the study of chinese arts...

There is a legend of a chinese kung fu practitioner who stopped a wild horse from killing people during it's "tantrum" by slapping it across the neck using his own iron palm.
he killed the horse on the spot...

There are lots of wonderful legends out there but who is to say what is the truth ... maybe the horse was stopped like you said or maybe the horse was having some kind of fit and just died from a heart attack or brain seizure?

I dont have knarled missshapen hands but from pressups on the knuckles and hitting the bag, your hands do indeed change. The job you do also effects your hands ..... Hitting with the palm is indeed very powerful and if you look at Sumo it is one of the major techniques but it is also I think quite limited and of course hitting something solid with your palm is so much less painful than a fist which is why breaking things is also so much easier

Regards

Hi Guys - We all have our fav fighters, however does anyone have any aspirations to become a great fighter? Good body conditioning, being able to take the hard knocks, testing yourself by jumping in the ring with a kick boxer, boxer, ring fighter and do the rounds full contact?

I recently flew to Perth with my lovely wife (shodan) and trained with a friend (ex GKR UK) My wife who has limited reach (Im 6'6" she's barely 5'5") pulled one out of the bag and got my nose square on!!! Well done to her. My UK friend was amazed with the lack of fuss as we just kept sparring/fighting as you would in the ring or on the street. He said afterwards that a blow like that would have stopped him for at least 30 seconds........hmmmm the limitations of being strictly non contact.

He found it easy to "score a point" (sport karate) on me, but couldn't land a hard blow. (no point ducking a weak technique) and he was happy that I could maintain "control" when striking him.

Back to the original question - does anyone have the aspirations to test themselves for real?

yes.
for me punching would be more effective than a palm strike

but for someone who has been dedicating YEARS of training to develop an iron palm, their palm becomes a more lethal weapon than any other part of their body.

hmmmmn Interesting I am curious to know what you find most effective in a fight?

Regards

ooooh great question well my son fights in the ring both at boxing and kickboxing although at the moment he is studying at college, he has already proved himself see here .... Now in my opinion unless you have taken in a fight 30+ full Thai style leg kicks to the thigh (thats without knees and elbows) or been on the receiving end of punches thrown by a boxer have you really been in a fight? ... the nerves are not the same if you know you are not going to be hurt unless by accident ....... What is interesting is that Kyle spars full contact with a knock down Karate chap who has fought in the world championships the knockdown chap is totally defensive because he cant mix it in the boxing department but can take the leg kicks because he has trained that way for soooooo long ... Now down at the boxing club its the opposite they are great with there hands but really dont like being hit to the legs no matter how big they are because there legs are just not used to it ........ In a fight being able to absorb a blow is just as important as being able to give one .... we were always told train to fight fighters and anything else is easy

Regards

Good posts by all but on the topic of fav fighters,

It is interesting on this topic as when we see a fight most of it in on TV or the movies and I guess people get the impression they last for ages ALA Jakie Chan,Bruce Lee etc but the fact is they dont.
I have been in the bar buisness for 15 years and 99 percent of bar room fights last 10 seconds. Person A pushes Person B then person B hits person A then eventually after unplanned hay makers or hook punches one of them is knocked out.
What MA teaches us is block and instanly return with a hard quick punch that HURTS, no fuss no mess. So my point i Guess is that any well trained, well prepared MA or has used a bag and the wieghts etc will after years be able to defend themselves and end the fight quiclkly. Lets not loss sight of the fact that Martial Arts are a deadly method of defence developed to disable an oppenent with the lest amount of fuss.

It is on this point I guess the debate about fav fighters is so open to debate. I liked Bruce because he based his style on economy, for him a low kick to the knee was the effective answer in some situations, he liked the use of the finger jab to the eyes or throat.
AS for those who train in hard styles well I DO admire them hard kicks to the thigh etc and K1 Kickboxing are hard core and it will make your a more hardened endurace fighter but for me personally I hope never to be in the situation where i need to cop 30 kicks to the thigh, It is horses for courses.
Does my post answer the question, no. But it is what you look for in your fighter and what you want as a Fighter. However I do do hand contioning in case one day i do have to defend myself, I dont want to break my hands on some ones head

You are quite right Ironpalm when I first got into MA it was just because I loved the training/fitness ..... I had to laugh at what you said about door work because you were spot on10/30 seconds and a lot of name calling and most of its over ahahhaha .... I am coaching a doorman Adam who is 21 years old and weighs 20 stone he used to be a full on body builder and is still very strong and all he does is grab the person in the club puts there arm up there back and frog marches them out, the thing is he cant fight!! but gets away with things with his size and a plenty of bullshit, he managed to dislocate his thumb on the bag in the first session and I got him to spar my son with no kicks or hitting to the head, my son weighs 10 and bit stone and Poor Adam cracked me laughing when he gave up within a minute saying "I got hit so many times I thought I was surrounded" ... but he will learn and the size of him could make him quite formidable.

Regards

Your son sounds very talented!! I have boxed for just over ten years, am a kick boxing coach but have concertrated on ring karate.

There is no other feeling than the sickening thud of a good cutting kick to the mid thigh.

The best challenge I had was my san dan. 50 2 min rounds, full contact.
I sent out invitations to boxing, kick boxing, kyokushin clubs for them to bring fighters to my grading.
On the day I had martial artists, street fighters/pub brawlers, boxers and even a biker all dressed up in gi's so I couldn't tell what they did.
It was the hardest thing thet I have ever done. was out cold on my feet twice, bruised - my writs to elbow was black from blocking as was my shin from knee to ankle.
My thighs were black from thigh kicks, I was absolutley fatigued but kept taking it to them and remained standing at the end!!! (for a few mins anyway)

Can I take a punch? Yeah I know it for a fact!!

However Bigben I cant just box, Unlike your son I end up throwing a kick, I can no longer just kick box, I will end up grappleing or throwing my opponent. Give him my best regards for his future.
Dave

Hi,
Kyles early years were also spent in a Judo club, I took him to so many clubs so he could see and absorb good things from all styles and try to keep his mind open. What is interesting is how someone reacts to a given situation, I have copied and pasted from another site what happened to my boy last year:

2 teenagers tried to mug Kyle on his way to training With his bag over his shoulder and his headphones on he was halfway there and took the underpass route that he has taken for many years now and took no real notice of the two people coming from the opposite direction, both of whom were wearing hoodies and baseball caps ... One was in front of him and the other was to his right hand side, he thought nothing of this as he see's this all the time ... He felt a blow to the right side of his face which took him by surprise and caused him to take a few paces backwards... All I can say here is thank someone? for all the years of boxing and Thaiboxing training that kicked in as a natural instinct ... The bas**rd in front got a kick in the bollox and went down like the sack of sh*t he is, the one on the right was about to throw another punch but Kyle got a left hook in first which caused him to double over and he then hit him with a kick that landed right under the jaw which he thinks (and I hope) has done some damage .. He then jogged off as he did not know if any others were about or if they had any weapons on them.

Kyle has been fighting/sparring with adults since he was around 13 years old and especially at the boxing club has got used to taking a hit from people who can punch. When these kind of incidents happen the fight or flight instict kicks in big time especially for a 16 year old

Kyle was lucky to have had such good training and natural instincts...

...I just hope I never have to find out how good my training really is...

When was this BB? Just recently or is this a past event? How is Kyle now?

What is it about muggers and hoods!!
Your stoty is not the first I have heard of a teenage boy getting mugged by some kids in caps and hoods. I mean do they go to some mugging school to learn that
As for me I lived in New York for a couple of years and walking home late I was always thinking and looking is that person going to Mug Me? How would I handle it?etc. It is on this point about your son wearing headphones I never wore mine at night on the street for the worry what if, now it may seem a litttle over cautious (AND IT WAS) but on the broader scope training in a fighting form should teach us to be aware but at the same time dont take risks because you can handle ourselves.

An example might be someone who was scared to walk through a dark park at night (and lets say for good reason) and instead took a longer route but after some MA training became confident to handle themself so as a result walked through the park. Now the person may be trained but the initial danger is still ther in the park that hasnt changed, what I am getting at is the method and message of Martial Arts is so WE DONT HAVE TO FIGHT, and by that I mean we train so that we become tottally aware of our own mind and body and therfore able to percive danger and thus avoid it. All to often some people dont get this and can end up placing themselves in harms way.
In an interview with Bruce Lee once he was asked about MA in the modern world and basiclly siad it is not as easy to win as it once was in times past when asked why he extened his 2 fingers and cocked his thumb in the shape of a gun and placed it at the camera with a wry smile on his face.
In closing the point of this post is mainly for the youg kids and teenagers who read this post, Big Bens boy is and was well trained so try and learn from his experince and the ways he may have avoided the situation before he had to give an Ass Whoopin
Alll respect

Kyle had travelled the same route for 5 or 6 years but now he does not wear the headphones because it simply gets in the way of your senses although I notice he still wears them during the day ... Kyle is young and confident maybe over confident in his ability (quite laid back) but he has learnt to watch people. He was lucky all he suffered was a bruise under his eye which being male and young he wore like a badge of honour (must be a testosterone thing) he got lots of sympathy from the girls but lots of men said what they would have done (oh yeah) ..... But what if that initial punch had been a knife?

Regards

Kyle was 16 when it happened early in 2004, he is 17 now (April birthday) ... Kyle is fine but if it had all gone bad for him who knows how it could have effected him ... these types of incidents are I think even harder for the ladies to deal with (also the normal man) mainly because of the power of the surprise initial blow, shock, pain etc some maybe most people just freeze because these people try to pick on what that they see as an easy target, they wont wait outside the local boxing club trying to mug people who leave. women are more vulnerable so punch, kick, knee, scratch, bite (very effective and leaves evidence) pick up something hard and hit em and of course run My sister in law who is a post woman and out early carries mace with her but if she does not see the attack what good will it do

Regards

Hit it right on the head there BB...
Styles that teach you to have a go and take out attackers are totally irresponsible IMHO. Any 'self defence' oriented style should teach enough to take control of the situation and either subdue attacker or do enough to get the hell out of there.
You never know how many lie in wait and you never know how much the other bloke knows.

Totally agree Matt anyone smart person would run before fighting, if 2 blokes come up on you then run it is alot safer and less fuss.

On this note people( young Men ) in particular note this story, Recently last year a guy was sent to jail for 8 months due to a road rage incident he attacked two guys who cut him off at the lights he broke one guys jaw and the other guys nose.

This went on while the guys wife and one year old child were in the car witnessing him beat up two blokes,(GREAT role MODEL)
the reason here got such a heavy sentence was that he had a long martial arts backgroung and the fact that he knew how to fight was used against him in the trial.
Point being dont beat up two guys at the lights IN FRONT oF YOUR KID, unless of course you want to end up behind bars , and let me tell you NO matter how tough you think you are and how good a fighter YOU think you are, everyone cops it in jail

there's always someone better than you