Is there anyone on the forum who received a dan rank?

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And if yes, from who? I am a former boxer but I also practiced kickboxing and karate.
 
I'm a former pro boxer as well who also has a black belt in kickboxing & a first-degree black belt in Kajukenbo ( aka Hawaiian Kempo ).

I actually began training in Isshin Ryu Karate when I was 13 years old & made it to the rank of green belt after two years but then the academy that I was studying at closed down so I switched to Tae Kwon Do. And I made it to my red belt test after almost two years which I failed because of my half-assed preparation for it. I just didn't practice my forms nearly enough as I'd become bored with it as I was far more interested in boxing by that point.

I began training as a boxer full time shortly after my 17th birthday & I had my first fight about two months later. Then three years later when I was training for my pro debut I switched from my amateur boxing gym at the local PAL to a pro gym. One that happened to be a hybrid boxing/kickboxing gym. So, I began crosstraining as a kickboxer as well & I earned my black belt in a year. In fact, I was awarded my black belt just after my lone professional kickboxing bout in Kingston, Ontario against Jersey Long who was the Canadian light middleweight champion at the time. I fought him to a draw & while I was training for my second pro kickboxing bout a few months later I blew out my knee which required reconstructive surgery & titanium screws to put it back together. So, that put an end to my kickboxing career.

I continued to box though & after 60 amateur & professional fights I retired in my thirties but I wanted to stay active so I began training with an old friend, Marc McIntyre from my kickboxing days who had opened his own martial arts school. And within about 18 months I earned my first-degree black belt in Kajukenbo.

So, now that I've bored you with my history, what about yours? I'm always interested in hearing about fighters like myself who boxed but who also have experience in martial arts as well. Did you fight as an amateur? How about as a pro? And what style of Karate did you train in? How far did go in its ranking system?

Looking forward to hearing back from you as well as any others with similar backgrounds & experience.

Peace.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
I'm a former pro boxer as well who also has a black belt in kickboxing & a first-degree black belt in Kajukenbo ( aka Hawaiian Kempo ).

I actually began training in Isshin Ryu Karate when I was 13 years old & made it to the rank of green belt after two years but then the academy that I was studying at closed down so I switched to Tae Kwon Do. And I made it to my red belt test after almost two years which I failed because of my half-assed preparation for it. I just didn't practice my forms nearly enough as I'd become bored with it as I was far more interested in boxing by that point.

I began training as a boxer full time shortly after my 17th birthday & I had my first fight about two months later. Then three years later when I was training for my pro debut I switched from my amateur boxing gym at the local PAL to a pro gym. One that happened to be a hybrid boxing/kickboxing gym. So, I began crosstraining as a kickboxer as well & I earned my black belt in a year. In fact, I was awarded my black belt just after my lone professional kickboxing bout in Kingston, Ontario against Jersey Long who was the Canadian light middleweight champion at the time. I fought him to a draw & while I was training for my second pro kickboxing bout a few months later I blew out my knee which required reconstructive surgery & titanium screws to put it back together. So, that put an end to my kickboxing career.

I continued to box though & after 60 amateur & professional fights I retired in my thirties but I wanted to stay active so I began training with an old friend, Marc McIntyre from my kickboxing days who had opened his own martial arts school. And within about 18 months I earned my first-degree black belt in Kajukenbo.

So, now that I've bored you with my history, what about yours? I'm always interested in hearing about fighters like myself who boxed but who also have experience in martial arts as well. Did you fight as an amateur? How about as a pro? And what style of Karate did you train in? How far did go in its ranking system?

Looking forward to hearing back from you as well as any others with similar backgrounds & experience.

Peace.
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Interesting. Not to derail the thread but I have a legit question as I don't have a lot of access to pro boxers: do you feel that afer 60 fights + all the associated sparring that you are suffering cognitive impairment/brain damage?

When I was 17/18 I had an amateur kickboxing fight where I got my ass kicked and never went that route again because I was always very afraid of brain damage/getting my face messed up. Sometimes I wonder if I may have been a little too cautious.
 
SalvadorCollie said:
“announce officially or publicly.”

or

“declare something one considers important with due emphasis“
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I don't feel like wasting my time with you because you are a little boring troll but you need to up your game because nobody with common sense will interpret the guy's statement in the context of this thread as corresponding to either of these definitions above.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Interesting. Not to derail the thread but I have a legit question as I don't have a lot of access to pro boxers: do you feel that afer 60 fights + all the associated sparring that you are suffering cognitive impairment/brain damage?

When I was 17/18 I had an amateur kickboxing fight where I got my ass kicked and never went that route again because I was always very afraid of brain damage/getting my face messed up. Sometimes I wonder if I may have been a little too cautious.
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Wot maks yu tink i have sum conitive damnig? :p

Apologies for my poor attempt at humor. But I couldn't resist. :D

Seriously though, no, I happen to be exceptionally fortunate in that I suffered no cognitive damage from my career in the ring. Why that is when I was a walk-in banger who took my fair of punishment & then some is beyond me. Especially when I've seen so many of my friends & peers that I trained with, some of who were better defensive fighters than I was & who took less punishment than I did in the ring, wind up in bad shape. Two of whom are now in assisted living facilities suffering from dementia &they're only in their mid-50s like I am.

The only thing that I can attribute my good fortune to is that I have a thick neck & a very hard head. I was never knocked down or out in any of my fights. I believe that some individuals are just more durable than others due to the physical attributes that they're born with & I just happen to fit into that category. Plus I always made sure that I was in excellent physical condition for my fights.

I didn't get out of the fight game unscathed though as I've got a good amount of scars, a deviated septum from having my nose broken twice, & I had to have reconstructive surgery done on my cervical spine due to degenerative discs & nerve damage from using my neck as a shock absorber for so many years. But, thankfully, my neurologist says that all my damage was just structural. I've had every sort of scan & imaging done on my head & I came back with a clean bill of health
I haven't experienced any slurring of my speech, no frequent headaches, memory loss or lapses & my IQ remains the same as it was back when I was tested in college. So I'm good.

As for you, I think you did the right thing. If you were concerned about taking too much punishment then the fight game likely wasn't for you. There's nothing wrong with exercising caution, my friend.

Peace.
 
We (europe) don't have belts/dan rankings (i never had one) in Kickboxing.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
Wot maks yu tink i have sum conitive damnig? :p

Apologies for my poor attempt at humor. But I couldn't resist. :D

Seriously though, no, I happen to be exceptionally fortunate in that I suffered no cognitive damage from my career in the ring. Why that is when I was a walk-in banger who took my fair of punishment & then some is beyond me. Especially when I've seen so many of my friends & peers that I trained with, some of who were better defensive fighters than I was & who took less punishment than I did in the ring, wind up in bad shape. Two of whom are now in assisted living facilities suffering from dementia &they're only in their mid-50s like I am.

The only thing that I can attribute my good fortune to is that I have a thick neck & a very hard head. I was never knocked down or out in any of my fights. I believe that some individuals are just more durable than others due to the physical attributes that they're born with & I just happen to fit into that category. Plus I always made sure that I was in excellent physical condition for my fights.

I didn't get out of the fight game unscathed though as I've got a good amount of scars, a deviated septum from having my nose broken twice, & I had to have reconstructive surgery done on my cervical spine due to degenerative discs & nerve damage from using my neck as a shock absorber for so many years. But, thankfully, my neurologist says that all my damage was just structural. I've had every sort of scan & imaging done on my head & I came back with a clean bill of health
I haven't experienced any slurring of my speech, no frequent headaches, memory loss or lapses & my IQ remains the same as it was back when I was tested in college. So I'm good.

As for you, I think you did the right thing. If you were concerned about taking too much punishment then the fight game likely wasn't for you. There's nothing wrong with exercising caution, my friend.

Peace.
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Thank you sir for this elaborate answer. Interesting that you highlight the importance of genetics / natural predisposition. In my experience discussing this topic, this is a critical variable which is not brought up enough, with most people having a more universal binary view on the matter. In any case it's very cool for you that you get to have it all. A career in pro boxing + an intact intellect ex-post. You belong to the blessed few, I suppose.

And yes for me I know I did the right thing. My upbringing and the career path I wanted were not very compatible with competitive boxing / kickboxing, generally speaking. That and if I am being perfectly honest with myself, my involvement in combat sport was never meant to go beyond the "week-end white collar tough guy" category. Fighters have this grit and will to prevail that I just don't have in combat sports, I think.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
Thank you sir for this elaborate answer. Interesting that you highlight the importance of genetics / natural predisposition. In my experience discussing this topic, this is a critical variable which is not brought up enough, with most people having a more universal binary view on the matter. In any case it's very cool for you that you get to have it all. A career in pro boxing + an intact intellect ex-post. You belong to the blessed few, I suppose.

And yes for me I know I did the right thing. My upbringing and the career path I wanted were not very compatible with competitive boxing / kickboxing, generally speaking. That and if I am being perfectly honest with myself, my involvement in combat sport was never meant to go beyond the "week-end white collar tough guy" category. Fighters have this grit and will to prevail that I just don't have in combat sports, I think.
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You're very welcome.

As for how I managed to survive my career without coming out of it cognitively compromised, I really don't know what else to attribute it to other than being fortunate enough to have been born with, as you said, a natural predisposition to withstand blunt force trauma. Because it certainly wasn't due to any defensive wizardry on my part.

I find it a fascinating subject as well because it's so random as to who becomes debilitated post-career & who doesn't. For instance, Muhammad Ali & Wilfred Benitez were considered to be defensively sound & very difficult to hit throughout most of their careers while George Chuvalo & Ray Mancini were fighters who often took two or three blows to give one back. And yet, it was Ali & Benitez who wound up dealing with tragic boxing-related conditions while Chuvalo & Mancini were seemingly unaffected.

Regarding your own choice to refrain from engaging in any more fights, that was, again, the most prudent course of action. You got to compete in a contest & test yourself against another individual in combat & you realized that it wasn't for you. There's no shame in that whatsoever. You displayed the courage to get in there & the intelligence to get out when you should have. That's something to be proud of.

Can I ask what career path you chose?
 
sweetviolenturg said:
You're very welcome.

As for how I managed to survive my career without coming out of it cognitively compromised, I really don't know what else to attribute it to other than being fortunate enough to have been born with, as you said, a natural predisposition to withstand blunt force trauma. Because it certainly wasn't due to any defensive wizardry on my part.

I find it a fascinating subject as well because it's so random as to who becomes debilitated post-career & who doesn't. For instance, Muhammad Ali & Wilfred Benitez were considered to be defensively sound & very difficult to hit throughout most of their careers while George Chuvalo & Ray Mancini were fighters who often took two or three blows to give one back. And yet, it was Ali & Benitez who wound up dealing with tragic boxing-related conditions while Chuvalo & Mancini were seemingly unaffected.

Regarding your own choice to refrain from engaging in any more fights, that was, again, the most prudent course of action. You got to compete in a contest & test yourself against another individual in combat & you realized that it wasn't for you. There's no shame in that whatsoever. You displayed the courage to get in there & the intelligence to get out when you should have. That's something to be proud of.

Can I ask what career path you chose?
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Yes sure : I work in financial services. Had to wear a tie and suit for most of my jobs (a significant part of which were client facing) and showing up with a black eye was never an option...

Interestingly at the moment I work for a small investment firm where it is more laid back so I guess I could pull it off, but it is very intellectually demanding as I do complicated models & other stuff that have major implications on investor money.....so that I need every single IQ point I can get, haha.
 
Legit ranks are given to signed certified certificates showing lineage .

My circles are from the all the way down to the main man himself handed down from Harold Long,to Mitchum to Master Seiber and ,the Dragon Man, founder of Isshin Ryu where the style stemmed from .......


Tatsuo Shimabuku.

 
Deaths Head said:
Legit ranks are given to signed certified certificates showing lineage .
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Well, in european KB belt rankings are not mandatory and are not used in all gyms or clubs but these that I do know were mainly sports achievments based + other stuff.
Belt rank in KB sometimes matters for an instructor.
One BB in KB get it when he had won Open Cup of Russia under K-1 rules, and he was real ammy, so for fights fans must be a bum automatically but he is with postgrad degree and doesn't needs fighting scene clientele or internet respect of business as main income.
No one cares about lineage or dan rank here, if about KB, another example is a pro boxer with 18-1-1 pro record and another "bum "eliglible for the Games in boxing. = of course not from Romania, so must be for pad holeders and noises a bums.
Pro boxers like Huck, Povetkin, Briedis were former ammy KBers and Drozd was former ammy MT guy.................... No belts.
 
Deaths Head said:
Legit ranks are given to signed certified certificates showing lineage .

My circles are from the all the way down to the main man himself handed down from Harold Long,to Mitchum to Master Seiber and ,the Dragon Man, founder of Isshin Ryu where the style stemmed from .......


Tatsuo Shimabuku.
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True that. Very impressive, bro.

My lineage in Kajukenbo goes back to Al Dacascos & Adriano Emperado.

While my kickboxing lineage goes back to John Longstreet.
 
For TMA belts system is mandatory, for KB in europe not and belt system does have their pros and cons too, everyhinhg isn't only bad or only good.
 
SandisLL said:
Well, in european KB belt rankings are not mandatory and are not used in all gyms or clubs but these that I do know were mainly sports achievments based + other stuff.
Belt rank in KB sometimes matters for an instructor.
One BB in KB get it when he had won Open Cup of Russia under K-1 rules, and he was real ammy, so for fights fans must be a bum automatically but he is with postgrad degree and doesn't needs fighting scene clientele or internet respect of business as main income.
No one cares about lineage or dan rank here, if about KB, another example is a pro boxer with 18-1-1 pro record and another "bum "eliglible for the Games in boxing. = of course not from Romania, so must be for pad holeders and noises a bums.
Pro boxers like Huck, Povetkin, Briedis were former ammy KBers and Drozd was former ammy MT guy.................... No belts.
Click to expand...
Lineage rankings are hard to come by , not everyone has access to do to that or such but anyone who really knows about martial arts knows when you receive a certificate that shows the Masters signed signature that verifies them it is not some candy coated title they are just handing out because someone was good in class and passed a Kata ,

Belts don’t make the practitioner nor the style it’s the person themselves. Belts are irrelevant if you don’t actually have the skills matching the color you are awarded ,belts in general don’t mean anything if you can’t fight so they aren’t really important to me however mine was giving to me by Master Seiber who is in the Martial Arts Hall of game so ,yea my little belt even if it were White is more dangerous then most because I’m not just some guy going through motions I have dabbled in all fighting a good 3 decades , in fact I basically fought him for that belt I didn’t do Katas to earn it ,I got it the hard way the way schools won’t do .

So I’m not sure who you are referring to about not caring about lineage here ? This isn’t for anyone but the OP who asked about dans which no one other then myself has brought this subject to his attention.
 
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