Plague of Strength

Although I have a BA in History and East Asian Studies, I’ve never considered to be more than a casual observer of martial arts- having gotten into this series, however, it seems I know far more than I ought to about the history of martial arts and fighting. As it seems that many of you guys are similarly interested, I figured I’d continue my nearly autistic tunnel vision deep dive on martial arts to give you bits and pieces that don’t fit into the training articles, but are interesting nevertheless. And I do not profess to be a martial arts or martial arts history expert. I’ve trained in a few styles and just happen to love Asian history and fight sports, hence the rationale behind this article series.

If you missed the first parts of the series, check em out here:

Part One: Pankratists, Pehlwani, and a Couple Less Ancient Fightsport Oddities

Part Two: Catch Wrestling

Part Three: Kickboxing Part 1

Part Four: Kickboxing, Part 2

The biggest surprise I’ve had in researching this topic was the bizarrely convoluted history of kickboxing. In researching the history of kickboxing I realized that a lot of the guys I think of only as stars of the unwatchable action movies you could only see on Sunday afternoon on the USA Network (which was almost exclusively terrible in the 90s) were in fact badass fighters in their own right. That, combined with the discussion arising out of this meme that I posted on Facebook (you fuckers can feel free to add me if you want-to me, it’s the less aggressively narcissistic version of Instragram, and the few pics I do take end up on there) led me to wonder who the toughest fighters in Hollywood actually are.

Of the guys in the meme however, only Michael Jai White and JCVD have fought in sanctioned matches, and both of them have proven themselves to be hard motherfuckers. As you can see above, MJW was a badass point fighter in the 1980s (full contact fighting was both frowned upon and fairly uncommon in traditional martial arts (TMA) until the MMA era began), while JCVD went 44-4 in point fighting and 18-1 (by disqualification) in an early European kickboxing federation that was essentially kyokushin with gloves (so no punches to the face, but you could kick to the head), and all but two of his fights were won by first round knockout. As you can imagine, both of those guys worked as stuntmen as well, so they can take a beating as well as hand one out.

As to the rest, they’re all accomplished martial artists and all do their own stunts, though Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa are heads and shoulders above the rest in terms of the falls they’ll take and their fighting prowess. They combine rubbery toughness, indifference to pain, and martial arts skills into a useful package for a bar fight, but Jaa’s 5’6″ 135lb physique and Jackie Chan’s 5’7″ 150lb body aren’t exactly the type of size you want on your side when confronted with some seriously uneven odds, especially when there are martial artists of similar caliber with far more size.

I’d say Simon Phoenix, aka Wesley Snipes, should be in that meme, as he at least weighs as much as a normal adult male, as should Billy Blanks. Snipes has a higher belt ranking than badass UFC karate man Lyoto Machida in Shotokan (5th Dan black belt to Machida’s 3rd Dan), has trained in a bunch of styles (3rd dan black belt in taekwondo, 2nd degree black belt in Hapkido, and trains in kung fu, capoeira, eskrima, and bjj), does his own stunts, and stands 5’9″ and 180lbs, making him likely more than a match for a little badass like Tony Jaa. Yes, yes, he was allegedly knocked out by Mike Tyson for fucking Iron Mike’s girlfriend, but you’re unlikely to encounter the heavyweight champ of the world in a bar fight, so that’s pretty immaterial.

Similarly (in both style and appearance), Billy Blanks should get a nod here. Considered by Michael Jai White to be near enough to a martial arts god as one can be without being named Bruce Lee, Billy Blanks was the bronze medal winner of the 1981 World Games heavyweight kumite open and a bunch of other shit, competing under various karate rules for seven years before getting inducted into the karate hall of fame as one of the sport’s winningest fighters. Backing that up was the fact Blanks fought as a heavyweight, and at 6′ and over 200 pounds this fighter/bodyguard/Tae Bo inventor also had the strength and cardio to back up his six black belts.

Finally, Mark Decascos could probably stand to be on this list. He’s one of my favorite martial arts stars of the 90s, having been in two of the coolest little-known flicks in that era- Drive (with the Cosby Show’s Kadeem Hardison) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (a rad French period piece), in addition to newer shit, like John Wick 3, in which he played Wick’s bald nemesis, and the dope Catherine Winnick Netflix show Wu Assassins. Though I cannot find his competitive record, Decascos is allegedly undefeated in both forms and fighting on the martial arts circuit and is the son of a man central to the development of two branches of kajukenbo, Al Decascos (USA Dojo). Kajukenbo is a hard as fuck hybrid street fighting style that focused on body toughening, because as it’s founder stated “if someone was afraid of pain they would be defeated the first time they were hit.” Al Decascos added soft style elements into this crazy-ass hardcore style (and I can attest to its brutality, having sparred a bunch of kajukenbo-stylist bikers back in the day), and Mark Decascos is currently a 4th Dan black belt in his father’s style, Wun Hop Kuen Do, and at 5’9″ and 160 pounds would have made a rad opponent for Chuck Norris and Joe Lewis in their heydays.

Having decided that my three would be two cast members of the preposterously awesome Undisputed series and JCVD, I realized that there exists a far more experienced cadre of fighters in the film world from which to draw (putting aside the pro fighters who only have bit parts in films). People who got little respect because they couldn’t act worth a shit, but they could fight. The 90s were lousy with these direct-to-video masterpieces (which were far better produced than the sword-and-sandal bullshit of the 60s and 70s that starred every muscular dude in LA, but not much better acted), and the 70s and 80s boasted their fair share as well. Thus, here is my list of nine badass from which you can choose to have your back against a reasonable number of people in a bar fight.

Here, then, are the nine actors from which I would have chosen for this intellectual exercise. If I had to pick three from this list I’d likely go with Nathan Jones, Dolph, and Sonny Chiba, and I am hoping there will be heated discussion in the comments, because this has to be far more interesting than what you’re doing on social media. So have it out here or jump on the Plague Facebook page to argue for your picks, over the initial nine, or any permutation thereof.

Sonny Chiba

Though many of you have likely never heard of Sonny Chiba, Chiba represented the ECW to Bruce Lee’s WWE. Considerably larger than Lee at 5’10, Chiba was a 4th Dan in kyokushin karate and fought for Mas Oyama’s team in international full contact karate matches (the sort of shit that became K-1 later on), during which time he also starred in a shitload of martial arts films ranging from the hyper-violent Street Fighter series (not the JCVD atrocity) to Kill Bill. To receive his 4th Dan, dedicated weight lifter and general bad motherfucker Chiba had to fight 50 men in consecutive one minute rounds in balls-out fights, and those followed 20-,30,and 40- man fights for previous black belt tests.

Nor were these contested with contested gear- a kyokushin kumite is full-power, 100% all in fighting that disallowed full-power punches to the face, groin strikes, and grappling on the ground. Thus, Chiba could take and dish out massive amounts of punishment wielding a far more formidable physique than guys like Donnie Yen and Jet Li, and he used the fact that his obsessive training in the hardest Japanese style of martial arts to bring another level of violence to his fight sequences. Whereas Lee was happy with knocking someone out, Chiba punched them so hard in the back of the head their fucking eyes popped out, or ripped off their dick and balls with his bare hands rather than simply ending the fight with a brutal groin strike.

Nor was he a one-trick pony- Chiba holds a 4th Dan black belt in the art of bullshitting the world about mythical martial arts (ninjutsu); 2nd Dan black belts in the less psychotic Okinowan Goju-ryu karate, the Japanese version of Shaolin kung fu (Shorinji Kempo), and judo (which was definitely the result of his association with Mas Oyama’s badass killer brobot Masahiko Kimura); and a 1st Dan in Japanese sword fighting (Kendo). If there was a problem, yo, Chiba would solve it, and the cleanup was going to require mops and buckets, many small biohazard bags for forcibly removed body parts, and a very unhappy cleaning staff.

Dolph Lundgren

Literally the only actor who should have played Jack Reacher in those films (he matches Reacher’s description perfectly), Dolph Lundgren was a statue-esque 6’5″ and 250 pounds when he filmed Rocky 4, this Swedish monster is definitely a badass you’d want on your side in a bar fight. As one Men’s Health writer put it,

“To be fair, it’s not completely irrational to be terrified by Lundgren. As Roger Moore, who worked with Lundgren in the James Bond film View To a Kill, once said “Dolph is larger than Denmark.” That’s hyperbole, but just slightly. Lundgren, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, stands at a golem-like 6 foot 5 inches and weighs in at around 250 pounds of pure neck-snapping muscle. Oh, and he also has a black belt in Kyokushin kaikan karate. While filming Rocky IV, he punched Sylvester Stallone so hard that he sent Sly to intensive care for nine days. If that’s not intimidating enough, he’s also smart. Lundgren has a masters in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney, and speaks five languages (Swedish, English, German, French and Japanese). He also dated musician Grace Jones during the 1980s, hung out at the infamous den of disco iniquity Studio 54, and lived in New York City when it was fun and dangerous.” (Spitznagel).

Like Chiba, Lundgren did goju-ryu (which is point fighting rather than the free sparring insanity of kyokushin) and played judo before switching to kyokushin, in which he competed internationally. The rules at that point allowed throws pulled punches to the face and throws, so there is little to no doubt Lundgren can fucking go.

Gina Carano

At 5’8 and likely close to 165-170 pounds (she was usually 4+ pounds overweight for her mma fights and looks thicker now than she was as a fighter), Gina Carano could trash most of the little guys in the above meme, and likely would have given Chuck Norris issues in a full-contact fight. Carano began her career as a muay thai fighter, racking up a record of 12-1-1, then switched gears and went 7-1 in mma before retiring and getting into acting full time. As Crush in American Gladiators, Carano proved she was capable of doing any kind of physical shit that they producers could throw at her, and her fight career more than proved her chops.

And before you people say “but she got trashed by Cyborg, so would anyone making that claim, and it’s highly unlikely that she’d be facing sober and highly trained, hyper-elite fighters in this scenario. And her weight gives her an advantage over the aforementioned little guys, because as studies comparing female and male punching power show, it’s the weight distribution and muscle mass that confers more punching power (Morris). As you can see above, Carano generated 650 pounds of force, which while not Francis Nganno-esque, is on par with the average punching power for elite male boxers (Adams). Moreover, chicks fight harder than dudes in uncontrolled situations. If you’ve missed chick fights on Worldstar, I can personally attest to the fact that heavy lifters who like to brawl go harder than guys their weight by far. Thus, you would be an idiot to pick a 135 pound man over this badass broad, or even a guy of the same weight without her power and brawling skills.

Don “The Dragon” Wilson

Though you likely have no idea who this man is, Don “The Dragon” Wilson is the star of such cinematic atrocities as Sci-Fighter and Bloodfist and considered to be the best American kickboxing fighter ever to lace up a glove. Standing 6′ and just under 200 pounds, Wilson fought as a light heavyweight and cruiserweight in pro boxing (6-3 with five or six KOs, including one of Mohammad Ali’s sparring partner), boxing vs kickboxing (3-0, with 3KOs, including one against Art “One Glove” Jimmerson, the boxer in UFC 1, who is now the UFC HQ’s head boxing coach), and kickboxing ranging in rules from MT to American kickboxing to modern kickboxing, with a career spanning the decades between 1975 and 2011, with a record of 72-5-3.

Interestingly enough, Wilson’s fighting roots lay in kung fu style in which Mas Oyama had a black belt. After the Dragon took fourth in Florida in wrestling in his senior year of high school, he began training in Goju-ryu karate (under karate legend Chuck Merriman) and Pai Lum kung fu / Shorinji Kempo, two styles in which Sonny Chiba himself was heavily schooled. His style was so unique and flashy when he began trashing opponents in kickboxing that his nickname was originally “The Flash,” and Wilson dominated nearly every fighter on the planet around 200 pounds he could trick into facing him. Though his fight against Kimbo Slice never materialized due to failed contract negotiations, it’s safe to say that a man who was willing to fight that monster (and do so over the age of 40), is still the wrong dude to fuck with.

Nathan Jones

Though just about everyone knows Nathan Jones for being the jacked psycho in Mad Max: Fury Road and a very similar character in Troy, and for absolutely dwarfing Brock Lesnar in the WWE, this mountainous motherfucker defeated Manfred Hoerberl and Magnus ver Magnusson at the World Strongman Challenge in 1996 (Magnus won the WSM that year), and fought in the inaugural Pride. Though he didn’t display his current levels of leanness and muscularity then that he does now, Jones was confident enough in his size, strength, and aggressiveness to take on a goddamn yokozuna in his only MMA fight, which ended in a loss but shows that Jones will throw down with anyone.

Looking like a live-action version of the Hulk, Jones stands a lean-as-all-hell 6’11” 320lbs, is a world-class arm wrestler and strongman, spent seven years in Australian prison for a string of armed robberies, and is perhaps the most jacked motherfucker to ever set foot in a wrestling ring. Leaving him off this list would be like leaving the Hulk out of the Avengers or Superman out of the Justice League- when Darkseid or Galactus comes calling, they’re fucked without their heavies. This bar fight would be the same way- unless you’re facing a mecha or a kaiju, there are likely few problems Nathan Jones cannot solve without the judicious use of this fists, feet, and forehead.

Ma Dong-Seok / Don Lee

You might recognize him as the one-punch zombie killer from Train to Busan, and Don Lee is starring in the Eternals movie alongside Angelina Jolie and the rest of that eclectic cast. At 5’10” and 200 pounds, Lee is still stout as fuck, but when he was the fight and weight trainer for Hammer House monsters Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman, he was tipping the scales at a Hammer House-worthy 265.

Though Lee seems to have never competed in fight sports, his tenure with the Hammer House is proof of his skills (and his love of gear). Lee trained in various martial arts growing up, and has served as the fight trainer and choreographer for Elektra and Peppermint (which was a far better Taken than the Liam Neeson bullshit), among others. To those of you who are fighters and want to call bullshit on his inclusion, here’s a quote from Lee himself in regards to fight choreography vs fighting:

“A lot of trained fighters will watch a film and they’ll always think that’s not real or I would never swing my arm out this far. I would never swing my leg up that far. And they’re correct about that.

You’ll watch boxing [and] you see a punch, and people are like that totally knocked him out [but] it looks like he moved half an inch. You have to watch the replay four or five times to see the guy got chin-checked. But that’s because the [other] guy put all his body weight into him and he actually knocked him out. People don’t realize that those kind of knockouts don’t read well on camera” (Frederick).

Thus, don’t get your panties in a twist- if he trained Randleman and Coleman, he can at least ground-and-pound half a dozen people into red paste before getting overly winded and collapsing from exhaustion.

Gary Daniels

Sky blue eyes, a sick tan, and a ripped physique helped Englishman Gary Daniels overcome a crippling acting handicap and become a leading man in b-movie actioners throughout the 1990s. Gary Daniels fought under various kickboxing rules from 1980 to 1991, and then again under MT rules at the age of 45 in 2008, racking up an impressive amateur kickboxing record of 31-4 with 30 KOs and a pro record of 4-0 with 4KOs under (what I think were American kickboxing rules), along with a decision loss in his muay thai fight.

At 5’8″ and 180 pounds, Daniels is a lean, mean fighting machine began his martial arts career with a rare hybrid martial art called “Mongolian Kung Fu” at age 8 after seeing Enter the Dragon. That little-known style combines wing chun, Western boxing, Mongolian Wrestling, and Wushu, skills he used to earn his black belt after only taking tae kwon do for 3 years, at the age of 15. After earning his 2nd Dan the second year, he started competing in semi- and full-contact karate. He joined Benny “The Jet” Urquidez’s gym in the late 1980s and began training in muay thai, at which point he became a professional kickboxer and the PKA Light Heavyweight World Champion within four years.

His film career is impressive as hell considering the fact you likely don’t know his name- he was the lead role in the badass Fist of the North Star live action film, starred in The Expendables, played Brian Fury in Tekken, and had dozens of starring roles in b-movies, including the Don Wilson series Bloodfist, which resulted in an exhibition match with Wilson (though I could not track down video)

Olivier Gruner

Of this bunch, Gruner is certainly the worst actor, but one of the coolest people. The star of such cinematic triumphs as Nemesis is also a bodyguard (Celine Dion being a notable employer), a helicopter pilot, a middleweight kickboxing champ, an mma trainer, and a French commando who served as a part of the hyper-elite Commandos Marine, which is essentially the French version of the SEALs.

After leaving the Commandos Marine to become a professional fighter in 1981, Gruner moved to the French Alps and began training while working four jobs in the ski industry. By 1986 he retired as the middleweight world champion in kickboxing to become an actor, and began screen tests the following year. Though his career never eclipsed one of his first movies, Nemesis, he was a fixture in direct-to-video martial arts flicks for a couple of decades as he expanded his martial arts acumen. Today, he’s transformed himself from a Shotokan karate man into a complete fighter, training and training people in his Machida-esque blend of kickboxing, MT, karate, bjj, boxing and wrestling (Dean Lister is one of the guys Gruner trained). Even now, pushing 60, Gruner looks like he can handle himself, though at 6′ he’s lighter than his shredded 165lb Nemesis form.

Chuck Norris

Awesome Chuck Norris facts aside, the man himself was a 5’8″ 160lb TSD/TKD (Tang Soo Do / Tae Kwon Do, which are more or less identical) fighter who was a hardcore rival of the previously-featured badass Joe Lewis (apparently in their second fight the promoter told them if they kept brawling rather than karate-ing he was going to fuck them up outside of the venue) and held the semi-contact middleweight championship belt in US karate for six years. Don’t ask what the fuck semi-contact means, exactly, because at the time no one understood it, and they just went ham half the time.

After taking up TSD while stationed in Korea with the Air Force, Norris became one of the best-regarded middleweights on the planet, dropping a decision to Joe Lewis on the path to becoming an international karate champion in open-weight fighting. While defending his title, Norris met Bruce Lee, who had recently had a falling out with Joe Lewis and needed a karate fighter for Return of the Dragon. Thereafter, Norris became a breakout star with his Rambo-esque Missing in Action series and his brutally violent Invasion USA films, along with a shitload of b-movie actioners on par with Stallone’s Cobra like the Hero and the Terror.

He might not be the biggest dude on the planet, but he was basically a smaller version of UFC-era Don Frye in his prime- lean, mean, throws punches in bunches, is always moving forward, and boasts a glistening, glorious man of chest pubes in most of his flicks.

Reasons I Didn’t Choose Some “Obvious” Actors Like Bruce Lee

As I mentioned, I tend to shy away from enlisting the aid of people under 150 pounds in this, for very good reason- I’ve been in bar fights and I’ve been 150 pounds. A small, skilled, strong fighter can brawl whoever and possibly win, but as soon as you’re in public fighting more than one person, that weight disadvantage becomes serious. Bruce Lee is conspicuously absent, because although he was a solid speed-and-dbol-filled 165 when he was filming Game of Death, his weight throughout his career was generally between 135 and 150. To those of you who say he never fought in full contact matches, you are in fact incorrect- there is at the very least evidence of him winning a Western boxing match in Hong Kong at the age of 18 (Scott).

“Though rumors that followed the bout would claim a knockout victory to Lee, the reality is that he seems to have bullied Elms around the ring – knocking his opponent to the canvas three times across three rounds – but Elms kept coming back, and he kept attacking. Reports from witnesses make it sound like an odd contest, with Lee throwing hybrid wing chun kung fu and boxing combinations, and struggling with the gloves, and Elms trying to stick to what he knew best – the established rules of the ring.”

“In the end, it was a unanimous points victory to Lee, and no pride lost for Elms.

By all reports, Lee took no great pride in the victory, frustrated at not being able to knock Elms out and vowing never again to be constrained by rules and regulations he found stifling. Such an attitude later drove Lee to create his own brand of kung fu – jeet kune do – and to encompass many forms of combat in the way he trained, and taught” (Scott).

And before you guys get all Sherdog on the deal and insist that lifting weights and size don’t matter in a fight, don’t be fucking stupid- if their skill sets are reasonably equal, there is no fucking way a little guy will defeat a big guy more than random chance would allow, and hoping for a piano to fall on someone’s head is not an effective fight plan.

And Speaking of Dolph…

Here’s an amusing excerpt from an interview with him, in which he addresses a comment he made 32 years ago in regards to him fighting Mike Tyson.

MH: You’ve said that you could’ve beaten Mike Tyson in a fight. Were you talking about Tyson in his prime, or the Tyson of 2012?

DL: Was I sober when I said that?

MH: I don’t know. You said it in 1988.

DL: There you go. (Laughs.) [Note: Dolph was a massive partier back in the day]

MH: Also, I got the quote from the Weekly World News.

DL: Are you kidding me?

MH: You’re telling me they’re not reliable?

DL: For the record, I don’t think I could beat Mike Tyson. Maybe if I could use some karate kicks. I could knee him in the head or something. No, even then, it’s probably a bad idea. And in his world, in boxing, forget about it, no way. Let’s put an end to that rumor right here.

Lastly, there is an early kickboxer I couldn’t wedge into the previous article but thought definitely worth mentioning- Nobuaki Kakuda. At 5’9″ and 209lbs, this kyokushin stylist was a one man wrecking crew in the early years of full-contact karate and kickboxing. Though he looked like a Japanese Mike Tyson, he fought more like Ali and used his explosive power to KO opponents with counterpunches. At 53, he switched to bodybuilding, and looks better than any of us at 58, which is fucking ridiculous.

Coming up, I’ve got a Valentine’s Day Massacre Killer Workouts on bodybuilder Sally McNeil that I am desperately trying to finish by 11:59 on Feb 14th, for which I interviewed the killer herself about blasting off her boyfriend’s face off via snail mail, and the Grimoire of Victual Incantations, a compendium of recipes from the Chaos and Pain years through the present dropping on you by V-Day as well. After that, I’ve set up an interview with Judd Reid, a jacked-as-fuck kyokushin fighter who is one of five men to complete a 50-man kumite (50 consecutive rounds of all-out sparring with no protection) about how he trained for that thing, and how he uses strength training to enhance his fighting abilities.

And as always, help a motherfucker out and hit up my Patreon if you feel like this shit is worth keeping porn-and-gore filled, rather than sanitized for advertising. If you already do, I really appreciate the support of strength sports counterculture- we’re the only motherfuckers keeping it alive at this point.

Sources:

Adams, Cecil.  The true force of a boxer’s punch.  Connect Savannah.  20 Jul 2010.  Web.  9 Feb 2020.  https://www.connectsavannah.com/savannah/the-true-force-of-a-boxers-punch/Content?oid=2133328

Frederick, Brittany.  Peppermint interview: Don Lee on coordinating Jennifer Garner’s fights.  Fansided.  15 Dec 1018.  https://fansided.com/2018/12/15/peppermint-don-lee-jennifer-garner-fight-coordinator/

Scott, Matthew.  Requiem for a Fighter: Meet the only man to officially fight Bruce Lee.  Bloody Elbow.  6 Feb 2020.  Web.  10 Feb 2020.  https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2020/2/6/21082215/requiem-for-a-fighter-meet-the-only-man-to-officially-fight-bruce-lee

Spitznagel, Eric.  MH interview with Dolph Lundgren.  Men’s Health.  15 Aug 2012.  Web.  9 Feb 2020.  https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a19555014/dolph-lundgren-interview/

USA Dojo.  Al Decascos.  USA Dojo.  Web.  10 Feb 2020.  https://www.usadojo.com/al-dacascos/

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