Martial Arts Autographs

Below is a gallery of all my martial arts autographs – click to enlarge.  Who are these guys, you may ask?

Mark Hatmaker — No disrespect to the other great martial artists I’ve had the pleasure to train with, but Hatmaker is the most complete — boxing, wrestling, combatives, knives, tomahawks, pistols, doesn’t matter.  Choose your poison and he’s got you beat.  A martial polymath, a scholar, a paragon of fitness, and a true Renaissance man.  I’m an affiliate instructor in his Rough ‘n’ Tumble program.  Sign up for his RAW program and you won’t regret it.

Jhoon Rhee — The man who brought Taekwondo to America in 1956, the inventor of dipped foam sparring gear, and organizer of the first Karate tournament in the U.S.  When I met him he was 66 and built like a pro boxer.  As part of his demo he did 100 Push-ups in a minute.

Joe Lewis – Karate point fighter, kickboxer, and martial arts instructor.  Bruce Lee called him “The greatest Karate fighter of all time.”  I trained with him many times.  He was a remarkable personality and a natural fighter.  Look at his knuckles in the photo.  They are specifically engineered by the manufacturer to smash in people’s faces.

Olivier Gruner – Former French Naval Commando, All-France kickboxing champion, two-time world kickboxing champion, and film star.  So shy he was almost bashful.  He hated being on display when promoting movies.  The ladies didn’t mind at all though.

Robin Shou – Martial artist, actor and director in over forty films, known in the US mostly as the star of the Mortal Kombat film franchise.  He’s the only one I never actually met.  A work colleague got this one for me at a VSDA meeting.

Ron Marchini — US Army vet and world-renowned tournament karate fighter.  Former magazine editor to whom I submitted some articles — thus the autograph “keep writing.”  Very quiet guy whenever we talked, and plainspoken.

Don “The Dragon” Wilson — 11-time professional kickboxing world champion and one of the greatest kickboxers in history.  We were sitting around yucking it up at lunch and somebody suggested we should put on “a sparring demonstration.”  We both reacted as if somebody suggested we stand up and do the Macarena or the Electric Slide, as if we were trained monkeys.  Please.

Billy Blanks — Fitness guru, martial artist, former tournament karate champion and bodyguard.  People joke about Billy Blanks, but if you know anything about athletics and body mechanics, and you get close to him, you just know the truth about whether or not he can fight.  Shaking hands with him was like shaking hands with the bumper of a truck.

TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!