Baddest Motherfuckers Ever: Ron Van Clief- Proof You Never Want to Fuck With a Blaxploitation Actor at Any Age

This started as a quickie bio for the Gram, but I’ll be fucked if I publish anything substandard, so I spent way more time on this than I intended to give a better idea of how cool this dude is, in spite of the fact that I’d intended to write about another totally unknown real-life martial arts badass who’s in an upcoming article. With all of the stupid shit going on, I’m going to write fluff shit until I can write about serious shit without stroking out. I know some of you guys are burned out on BMEs, but I am burned out on both writing and humanity, so I am giving you literally the very best I can manage at the moment.

With all of the treason and fear-induced unrest going on in the US these days, you might have missed the news segment in which Michael Jai White publicly offered to fight Mike Tyson in an exhibition for free. MJW is probably the most well-built traditional martial artist who’s never had a full-contact bout on record, but who trains constantly with the hardest motherfuckers in the UFC (like Jon Jones). Though I’ve been screaming MJW’s fight prowess praises from the highest rooftops I can for years, people are finally coming to find that dudes like he and Adkins are not just flash but substance, and MJW in particular comes from a great pedigree. The star of Black Dynamite was perfect for that rad neo-blaxploitation flick because he, like the dudes who’d come before him, is a black karate man with more swagger than Rick Flair and more smooth than Billy Dee Williams… and like those dudes, before him, he can fucking go.

You don’t know who Ray Van Clief is?

These are names you may or may not have heard: Fred Williamson, the mustachioed maniac throwing punches in bunches in From Dusk Till Dawn, was one of the most violent and terrifying defensive players in an era basically without rules and black belts in kenpo, shotokan, and TKD; Jim Kelly, the dude with the afro in Enter the Dragon, was a middleweight karate champion who fought in gloveless, full contact point fights (watch one by clicking these words); and Ron Van Clief, a full contact kickboxer who fought under the same weird mishmash of rulesets as his occasionally-still-celebbrated countrymen Benny “the Jet” Urquidez and Joe Lewis.

If you opened up a Black Belt magazine in the 1970s and 1980s, you could not miss the face of action movie star and full contact fighting champ Ron Van Clief. Van Clief (b. Jan 25, 1943, currently 77 years old) is best known for his dope blaxploitation era king fu flicks like the Black Dragon and the Last Dragon (for which he was the fight choreographer), but he should be better known for the fact that he is one of the baddest motherfuckers to have ever have been caught on celluloid. And like some of the other people I have mentioned in an effort to disabuse the internet of the man’s alleged superhumanity, Ron Van Clief stands among contemporaries about whom I’ve written like Benny the Jet, Rick Roufus, and Joe Lewis, all who possessed the size, strength, and skill to have trashed the much smaller Bruce Lee in a fight in his heyday.

In fact, Van Clief once made a point of saying Lee would make a great lightweight in the modern era, which is a solid point for the “Bruce was a rad fighter but was indeed human” demographic.  And like Bruce, Ron was a martial artist first and an actor second, having only decided to try his hand at acting after seeing karate champ Jim Kelly make the move himself. Kelly, whom you likely recall from his afro in Enter the Dragon, had been a replacement for Black Samson actor Rockne Tarkington (Lee must’ve really liked the visual of literal giants fighting tiny Chinese kung-fu superheros, as he cast similarly sized Kareen Abdul Jammar in Game of Death)).

By the time he hit the screen, Ron Van Clief had learned goju-ryu under the two founding masters of American goju-ryu (one of whom apparently  invented point fighting), then studied alongside Bruce Lee in Hong Kong under the founder of international wing chun.  While stationed in Okinowa as a Marine, Van Clief made the most of his time and honed the shit out of his skills battling the guys who were rapidly becoming obsessed with beating the Thais in the ring, so that by the time he was back in the states he was a vicious knockout machine bearing the best fighting techniques the Marines, the Okinowans, and the Chinese had to offer.

 You probably don’t know Ron Van Clief’s name because unlike the other two aforementioned blaxploitation ass-kickers is because he was a Hong Kong action star, where Kelly and Williamson became US stars. In a time when most Americans just sort of flailed their limbs and called that shit onscreen karate, Ron Van Clief was accepted in a country that resisted teaching foreigners their fighting arts and which held all foreign fighters in serious disdain.

That is fucking legit.

Over time, he earned black belts in gōjū-ryū karate, Japanese jujutsu, judo, wing chun and TKD, which he parlayed into 15 US karate championship titles. Van Clief fought in a shitload of pre-UFC organizations and won titles across Asia and the US, fighting under the weird mishmash of rulesets that existed at that time.  His sole mma fight was against Royce Grace in UFC 4, and ended in a rear naked choke in the first round… but in his defense, he was the oldest man to ever enter the cage at the ripe old age of 54, and at that point he’d never fought in bjj. 

Since then, he’s learned arnis and bjj, and he took silver in the blue belt category of the 55+ division in his first BJJ tournament at the age of 72 in 2015.  In short, the guy is STILL a fucking beast, and teaches his own version of goju-ryu (which in its Japanese form is basically just pointfighting karate) stripped of the nonsense and injected with more practical techniques from other styles to create a complete fighting style (which karate was before the Japanese became obsessed with fist fighting foreigners).

Ron Van Clief’s 1970s Workout

If you’re curious how his built the sick ass physique he rocked on screen (at 5’9″ and 190 pounds he was almost 30 lbs bigger than Bruce at his biggest and roughly the same size as Jason Statham in his bigger phases), his 1970s training routine looks pretty fucking 1970s, though it is a fun way to mix it up if you’re a person who’s gotten stuck in a rut with training and wants to do something about as different from your norm as you could imagine. 

All of his workouts were full body routines done as three giant sets, wherein you do each exercise one after the other without a break, rest for five minutes and repeat twice more.  There was no mention of the types of weights he used, so you’ll just have to act like a blind man at an orgy and feel this one out.

3 Giant Sets– Go from one exercise to the next back to back, with as little rest as possible. Once you’ve done all the exercises listed once, rest five minutes and repeat. In

Pushups – 30 reps
Pullups – 10 reps
Barbell Bicep Curls – 20 reps
Standing DB Shoulder Press – 20 reps
Chest Flies – 15 reps
Barbell Squat – 20 reps
Incline Bench – 15 reps
Dips – 20 reps

Abs– Do these as a single giant set.

Hip Thrusts – 50 reps
Bicycle Thrusts – 50 reps
Side Crunches – 50 reps
Hip Thrusts – 50 reps

To me, this workout appears to be inspired by Bob Gadja’s training, which was always a circuit-based system. As the above rep scheme horrifies me, I’d say I’d be more inclined to try one of Gadja’s routines, which he used to win the Mr America overall and most muscular titles in 1966. Gadja, if it helps, is also an accomplished martial artist (he’s currently 81) with a black belt in judo, and was good enough to serve as a combat judo instructor for the Strategic Air Command. I’ll write about Gadja’s methodology (which was also used by Bruce Lee) at some point, but he kept his reps to 10 for upper body stuff, 5 for thighs and 20 for calves. Do with that what you will- it never hurts to have another trick in the bag when you hit the gym… and that training method is what Gadja used to defeat his training partner Sergio Oliva for the Mr America.

Back to Ron…. When he saw the UFC hit the fight scene in the early 90s, Ron was 50 but zero fucks were given- he had to throw himself in there and see what came of it.  He trained his ass off for the event, defying naysayers like kickboxer Joe Lewis.  Ron’s issue with goju-ryu and other traditional styles is that they retained too many traditional moves in lieu of adopting practical fighting techniques, and the UFC scratched exactly that itch.  After cross-training his ass off for his debut against Royce Gracie, Van Clief broke his ankle a week out of the fight in training… which led to his subsequent defeat by rear naked choke at about 4 minutes into the first round.  

That old school warrior mentality appealed to the Gracie family, who hired Van Clief as the commissioner of the nascent UFC- he had, after all, hung in with the man touted as the greatest fighter on the planet at the time for four minutes rocking a broken ankle and a junior AARP card.  Van Clief then brought in all of the bad boys us old heads loved, like Tank Abbott, and greatly expanded the UFC’s reach with that and his introduction of the Superfight, but like Dr. Frankenstein, his creation proved his undoing. The maniacs he’d brought in turned his stomach because they lacked any semblance of professionalism, and he abandoned the UFC after seeing Abbott and three of his bodyguard goons trash Pat Smith in an elevator (Mo Smith and John McCarthy jumped in and saved him, incidentally).  Thereafter, he went back into film, acting in over 200 films and tons of television, including at least 20 episodes of Oz.

Ron Van Clief now teaches Chinese Goju (his hybrid version of goju-ryu) in the US Virgin Islands, teaching classes on the beach like a Final Boss in retirement fucking should.On the weekends he teaches classes, and as of the age of 65 still had a pretty sick training routine.

Ron Van Clief’s Elderly Final Boss Workout

• Three days a week are cardio, and he does a two-mile ocean swim (WHAT THE FUCK? I’d just tie a cinder block to my neck and get the drowning done quickly). If you’re unaware, your body works far harder in the ocean than the pool, because you’re fighting the current and the waves, in addition to the water temp. The salt water aids in recovery, however, so maybe it sends up a wash.
• Three days a week are straight Indian wrestler shit: 1500 reps of crunches, a couple hundred push-ups and chin-ups, and 250 burpees.

Did I mention he did a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Marine, and I would assume due to his arms got to lug a gigantic, twenty-three pound M60 around the jungle for all of 1965?  The dude is a hidden Final Boss of life about whom few of us knew but all of us should.  

If you want more info on this American fight sport and film badass, here’s a cool BBC documentary on him here:

If this article has any underlying message, it’s that there is a hell of a lot of rad inspiration and new shit to try right in front of your eyes if you look… and you can get to watch some dope movies while you’re at it. And, I guess, no sense in giving up on your abs because you’ve been around the block a few times.

Sources:
Probst, Jason.  Ron Van Clief: where is he now? Sherdog.  29 Jul 2009.  Web.  6 Jan 2021.  https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Ron-Van-Clief-Where-Is-He-Now-18699

Roberts, Funk.  Black dragon workout.  Fuck MMA.  15 Sep 2010.  Web.  6 Jan 2021.  http://funkmma.com/site/black-dragon-workout/

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