I have had a great career in the martial arts; having won a world kickboxing title, represented my country in international competitions, created two popular martial arts fitness programs, Cardio Karate and the Ultimate Body Challenge (UBC), certified over 6,000 instructors, sold over 50,000 training manuals and licensed my UBC program to over 500 martial arts and fitness studios.
But none of that would have happen if it weren’t for the legendary Joe Lewis. I’ve had two relationships with Joe Lewis. First as a snotty nosed kid who saw Mr. Lewis come into the karate school my brothers, John and Mark (champions in their own right), and I belonged to in the mid to late 70’s and beat the hell out of anyone dumb enough to spar with him. Secondly, as a friend and mentor who took me to new heights in my martial arts training and made me into a champion.
Mr. Lewis was a close friend of my first martial arts instructor, Walt Bone. He stayed at Walt’s house when he was in Florida, in the 70’s, and he worked out at his karate school. I was just a 13 year old kid watching Mr. Lewis work out. Joe Lewis was already a legend in the martial arts and having him at the school that I trained at was like a football player watching Joe Montana workout. My hero was working out at my karate school – so very cool!
Fast-forward seven years later. I’m now 20 and running my own martial arts school with a financial backer and partner. Walt Bone had died two years earlier in a plane crash. I was without an instructor or any real guidance in the martial arts. I had done well on the tournament circuit, having achieved the number one fighter ranking in Florida, back when that actually meant something, but I was floundering with little direction and really didn’t know what the future held. I was even wondering if had made the right decision to try martial arts as a profession. Low and behold, who comes back to Florida? None other then the legend himself, Joe Lewis. Joe was at the end of his fighting career and had come back to Florida to work with Mike Anderson.
Mike had a good relationship with my brother, John, and they hired John to help set up Joe Lewis seminars throughout Florida. One of the perks that John got for working with Joe is that he got to train with him. This perk didn’t include John’s younger brother (me), but I was hungry and nothing was going to stop me from having the chance to work with Mr. Lewis. I convinced my business partner to hire Joe Lewis to train me privately. All I can say is Wow!
Mr. Lewis taught me how to train properly. He taught me how to workout with a purpose and to make sure that every round, whether it was on the heavy bag, showdown fighting or sparring, had a purpose and was improving my skills and getting me in great fighting shape.
Of course I didn’t learn all that in just a few private lessons. My business partner started balking at the cost of me training with Joe. I will never forget what Joe Lewis said to me when I brought up the fact that I could no longer afford the lesson. He said, and I quote. “Forget about the money. Let’s just workout”. Those simple, generous words changed my life forever. I trained under the guidance of Joe Lewis from that point on and went on to win my World Title.
I’m now involved as a member of the board of directors for the Joe Lewis Fighting Systems and I’m currently working on the white to Black Belt curriculum for them. I encourage you to look into becoming a member of JLFS. The organization is not style specific and welcomes everyone who wants to continue to grow as a martial artist and be influenced by a true legend.
