Standardized Tournaments And Ratings System

During the 1980s, the STAR System kickboxing world ratings challenged the major sanctioning bodies to behave more responsibly with their world rankings. We rejected the politics of any sanctioning body that would low-rate fighters who fought for a rival organization. Our ratings were independent: We had no financial interest in the advancement of any fighter or promoter. Our ratings were evenhanded: We rated top contenders regardless of sanction. And the STAR ratings were ever-present: We were syndicated into 15 magazines around the world.

We also won the ratings argument: Two of the three major sanctioning bodies for professional kickboxing, WKA and KICK, soon recognized the STAR System as their official ratings source. The third major sanction, the PKA, went out of business; and their successors at ISKA introduced a more open-minded approach to their organization. I shut down the STAR System at the dawning of the mixed martial arts movement because I believed our ratings had accomplished their purpose and because of my other business and family obligations.

Still, the STAR System documented nearly a decade of major kickboxing fight outcomes, frequently archiving the official WKA and KICK scorecards from important events. More than 250 live ring observers reported fight outcomes to us from around the globe. Although we turned over our world title documentation to preeminent martial arts author John Corcoran – a STAR System co-founder, current editor of Martial Arts Success and authority whose reference books we heartily endorse – our files still contain hard-to-find ring histories for many noteworthy champions.

This website responds to numerous requests from kickboxing trailblazers to make the STAR records public. Unfortunately, the STAR System had been maintained on a now-antique personal computer using giant floppy disks. When STAR ceased operations, we printed out paper copies of all event results and stored them, together with any original scorecards and photos, in banker boxes in a storage space that later flooded during a heavy rain.

The STAR records were destroyed. End of story. I thought.

Recently I bumped into a friend from the old days who made me aware that, absent access to our historic STAR ring record compilations, several world champions have been unfairly slammed on Wikipedia. Worse. A few wikipedians cited quotes I said or features I authored to spin their inflammatory speculation. I felt dumbstruck … like Rip van Winkle awakening from a time warp.

My life has been elsewhere and I sincerely did not know.

I immediately tore through my storage space once more and discovered in one lucky waterproof bin my complete set of original STAR System monthly ratings, world-rated bout outcomes, sports columns and, oh yes, the STAR System’s compilation of ring records for many major champions from the STAR era. 

Authenticated Ring Records

The startup of modern kickboxing as a sport was messy. Rules, equipment, sanctions, weight limits, division names – even the name of the sport itself – all changed more rapidly than a Wikipedia entry. Fighters would sometimes learn the bout rules from the referee at ring center moments before the opening bell. Official records were collected at most events, but few survived beyond the next day. Sports reporting was spotty and at best uneven. More precisely, because martial arts magazines had a two-to-three month lead time to the newsstand, the exact calendar dates of sports events were routinely removed from published accounts to prevent the magazine issue from being perceived as stale.

Often, however, the event was not covered at all.

Of course, you would think, we could always ask the fighters themselves and compare notes. But those of us who have had the privilege of discussing ring records directly with the champions quickly learn that, with very few exceptions, the fights have melded together in their memories. Typically, they met opponents only briefly before and after their bouts. How could anyone recall exact names, dates and outcomes? Professional fighters remember specific incidents more often than specific details.

Within this muddle, the STAR System attempted in the 1980s to reconstruct and verify the early ring records of major champions before a full decade had yet passed. We located old event posters and matched them to undated published accounts. We queried promoters and sanctioning officials. We also asked managers and trainers and, of course, interviewed the fighters.

We employed a method of “equalization findings” to distinguish between amateur and professional bouts, to exclude bouts from other related combative sports as well as to arbitrate any peculiarities that occurred in the unruly era of changing rules and uneven standards for competition. By arbitrate, by the way, we mean categorize bouts for the historic record, for comparative statistics, and for the STAR world ratings.

Qualifying Competition

Contests included in the STAR kickboxing records featured paid professional competitors who fought for a knockout or multi-judge decision with kicks and punches, over timed rounds with rest periods, where hit-and-hold techniques were prohibited and round judging was based on the international standard for overall effectiveness. Championship eliminations usually followed a system of world-ranked contenders and mandatory title defenses. Qualifying competition consisted of:

• Professional Kickboxing – Bouts contested inside a boxing ring with kicks and punches, wearing boxing gloves, usually over 5 up to 12 rounds.
• Professional Full-Contact Karate – Bouts from the 1970s startup period of the sport in which the rules and look of the sport changed frequently. Competitors sometimes contested on open mats wearing Safe-T-Punch and Safe-T-Kick equipment and often were required to throw a minimum number of kicks per round.
• Boxe Francaise Savate – Bouts contested inside a boxing ring, wearing boxing gloves and soft gym shoes or footpads, typically over 5 rounds.

Contests deliberately excluded from the STAR kickboxing records were:

• Amateur Full-Contact Karate or AmateurKickboxing – Bouts in which unpaid, inexperienced competitors contested usually over 2-3 rounds, often in specialized tournaments or as athletic commission-required filler bouts on the undercard of a professional main event. The STAR System regarded amateur as separate from professional.
• Muay Thai – Bouts contested with aggressive clinch-fighting where hit-and-hold techniques dominate, and the scoring favors classic Thai fighting techniques. The STAR System regarded muay Thai as a separate sport.
• Boxing – Bouts contested inside a boxing ring with punches only, wearing boxing gloves. The STAR System regarded boxing as a separate sport.
• Point Karate – Matches contested by scoring single-shot kicks or punches to legal target areas as immediately confirmed by judges, while pausing the competition, usually conducted on an open floor over 2-3 continuous rounds within a tournament format. Knockouts constituted a foul and resulted in forfeiture. Variations included Light-Contact (without safety equipment), Semi-Contact (with safety equipment) and Pro-Karate Invitationals (with a small purse at stake for the grand champion). WAKO (World Association of Kickboxing Organizations),  the European sanctioning body for amateur competition, branded point karate under the name Semi-Contact Kickboxing. The STAR System regarded point karate as a separate amateur sport.
• Wrestling – Matches contested without striking techniques, using clinches, throws, takedowns, joint locks, pins, submissions, chokes, escapes and/or groundwork. Professional exhibitions featured pre-arranged outcomes. The STAR System regarded all forms of wresting as separate sports.

Changed Outcomes

Infrequently, kickboxing fight results were changed after an event. The STAR System obtained confirmation from the responsible governing authority whenever a bout outcome was officially transmuted. Normally, bout outcomes were changed after the event for two reasons: 

1. Because an intentional or unintentional fight fixing scheme was at play whereby one contestant did not have a reasonable chance of winning other than by knockout.
2. Because a procedural inequality occurred that had materially impacted the contest, such as a scorekeeper tabulation error, faulty equipment or a surprise weight disparity.

The STAR System seldom transmuted an outcome. We limited STAR transmutation findings to bouts from the very early days of the sport where there had been no governing authority, no consistent rules, and a flagrant breach in basic fairness, such as when a contestant had been disqualified for knocking out his opponent with a fourth punch. For these rare findings, the STAR System polled a panel of five prominent ring observers who informed our actions. Beyond these distinctions, the STAR System never interfered with a competitor’s kickboxing ring record.

Wikipedia Slams, Jeers, Smears and Misconstruances

First, and unequivocally, I support Wikipedia. I really do. The benefits overpower the shortcomings: It’s a superb medium for communicating a first draft understanding of any subject, often in the moment.

But, second, the shortcomings can be substantial.

Wikipedia’s citizen journalists, though largely well-meaning, typically lack the resources to interview principals and eyewitnesses or thoroughly research responsible reporting, certainly as pertains to the early history of modern kickboxing. For example, in 1971 at the fourth-ever kickboxing match in North America, US champ Joe Lewis kayoed “Atlas” Jesse King in the first round when the referee counted out King on his feet. King, like everyone at the time, was unfamiliar with the rules and did not realize he was being counted out. Lewis granted him an immediate rematch, this time knocking him out in the second round. But the various sports reports at the time credit Lewis with a second or a third round victory. (See Lewis Wikipedia entry, Retrieved 18 May 2011) Unless you spoke with the principals, as did the STAR System, you could not make accurate sense of what happened. (See Lewis record, STAR Finding *4)

Meanwhile, any public controversy remains a scandal until it’s explained. So, with the STAR ring records in hand, I am ready to counterpoint the supercilious speculation in Wikipedia about a few kickboxing pioneers.

Because Wikipedia entries drift with each new wikipedian, I will leave my responses posted on this website so that they remain intact and available for those who need to read them or reference them.

Wikipedia and Hollywood Martial Artists

In Hollywood, every martial artist is a world champion. It’s a standing joke among casting directors. The demand for young actors to distinguish themselves for casting consideration is so intense that most actors exaggerate. That’s the norm. For martial arts actors, the exaggeration is particularly rampant. Also, there are enough variations in combative sports, enough “ABC” organizations and sanctions, enough jerkwater high school gymnasium weekend championships – both amateur and “professional” – that almost anyone can claim a world championship of something. And does.

Moreover Hollywood places tremendous pressure on its film stars to amplify their accomplishments. Studio executives consider such ballyhoo to be smart business. It bolsters box office.

Hence, no one should blindly accept a biography posted on IMDb by a movie industry publicist. Even a fan should seek independent corroboration, but not in Wikipedia. Because of its mass accessibility, Wikipedia is especially vulnerable to inaccuracies pertaining to a professional ring record.

Gary Daniels

Fortunately, Gary Daniels is more than a gym champ. He won a number of legitimate kickboxing matches and championship trophies as an amateur. The STAR world ratings, however, did not document amateur kickboxing competition, and STAR had been discontinued by the time of Daniels’ ring fights. Consequently, in May 2011, I spoke directly with Joe Corley, current owner of the Professional Karate Association, about Daniels’ PKA title.

Corley could neither confirm nor deny Daniels’ championship. After the PKA ceased as a major sanctioning body in late 1986, the PKA affiliate in Britain continued with its local promotions. Daniels’ title claim, he said, came out of those events. That means the title Daniels won was not a major professional kickboxing world championship of the type that previously had been supported by a world network of promotions during the PKA’s golden yesteryears.

I worked behind the scenes on two motion pictures with Gary Daniels in the early 1990s. He was always charismatic, personable and quite honorable.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

When future movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme auditioned for his debut theatrical role in No Retreat, No Surrender, I was the casting director who recommended him and who supervised his martial arts audition. It was my first Hollywood gig. The Hong Kong producer of Jackie Chan’s breakout comedy kung-fu hit Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow had sought me out precisely because I ran the STAR ratings, because I had been editor of Inside Kung-Fu magazine, and because I knew all the top fighters and their martial arts masters.

But I am not how we found Van Damme.

We did not spot Van Damme’s talent; Van Damme’s talent spotted us. In response to our Hollywood trade ad for black belt actors, he mailed in a photo of himself performing Chinese splits while suspended in mid-air with an ankle on each of two chairs. When he subsequently walked into our Raleigh Studios office for his preliminary audition, he instantly commanded everyone’s attention. His English at the time was just passable, but his energy was electric: sculpted physique, spectacular jump kicks, classic martial arts form, and an irrepressible determination.

Jean-Claude told me he patterned himself after Bruce Lee for the martial arts, after Arnold Schwarzenegger for the body building, and after John Wayne for the characters he wanted to bring to the screen. He envisioned exactly what he fancied from Hollywood on that very first day and, against incredible odds, succeeded larger-than-life beyond anyone’s expectations for an actor in a low-budget genre picture. Single-mindedly, he built an extraordinary movie career in an undeniably difficult industry.

He deserves full credit for that achievement.

The following analysis of Jean-Claude’s days as an amateur martial arts competitor is not intended as a slam against Van Damme but, rather, a denunciation of the Hollywood hype machine. For years, publicists have portrayed him as a living embodiment of his characters from Bloodsport and Kickboxer because they thought it would reinforce the marketing for his movies. Regretfully, following the theatrical release of No Retreat, No Surrender in May 1986, nothing written about Van Damme as a kickboxer can be accepted on its face without credible firsthand source substantiation. To paraphrase Bruce Lee, when it comes to Hollywood hype, believe half of what you see and none of what you read.

In 1984, STAR discussed Jean-Claude Van Varenberg with Mike Anderson (misreferenced in the above Wikipedia excerpt as “Mike Anders”). Anderson founded both the Professional Karate Association (PKA) and Professional Karate magazine, and he promoted the 1979 WAKO world championships at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. He remembered Jean-Claude as a flashy member of the Belgian semi-contact kickboxing team at that tournament. For those not familiar with WAKO, “semi-contact kickboxing” is the same as point karate, called semi-contact karate in America. In Europe, for reasons of legal branding, WAKO lumped point karate together with full-contact kickboxing. WAKO wanted to become the Olympic governing body for amateur martial arts. Then as now, branding was part of their process.

Of course, WAKO’s conflated terminology can mislead novice researchers, worshipping fans and Hollywood publicists who desperately want to reconstruct this celebrity martial artist’s difficult-to-substantiate amateur record. And their confusing information remains ever muddled with the Wikipedia approach.

In 1984, STAR further asked prospective WKA Middleweight World Champion Fred “The Gladiator” Royers in Holland to check Van Varenberg’s history with the Nederlandse Kick Boxing Bond (cited in Wikipedia’s record for Van Damme as the “Netherlands Kickboxing Federation”). Royers reported back that Van Varenberg had no full-contact fights with the NKBB; they did not keep records for amateurs. Royers provided a few of the press clippings contained in our Van Damme competitive history. We also checked with Jeronimo Canabate, founder and president of the European Professional Karate Association (EPKA), in Geneva and with PKA President Don Quine in Beverly Hills. Neither remembered Van Varenberg.

                Van Varenberg v Teugels

                Wikipedia’sKarate and Kickboxing Record

WIKIPEDIA chart - Retrieved 18 May 2011

These distinctions matter. The wikipedians have referenced largely multiple reiterations of Hollywood hokum to construct their questionable history. Combining all matches as though Van Damme had a professional kickboxing record is both deceptive and demeaning of Van Damme’s actual competitive accomplishments.

Ironically, the truth about Jean-Claude Van Varenberg is nearly as compelling as the Hollywood embellishments. The STAR System confirmed that Van Varenberg had been a successful tournament karate and team competitor in Europe. He had no professional kickboxing bouts. STAR did not document amateur kickboxing and can neither confirm nor dismiss any such bout. However, as a member of the winning 1979 WAKO Belgian national team, Van Varenberg’s point karate accomplishments were substantial … much akin to an Olympic athlete. 

Don “The Dragon” Wilson

Don Wilson also followed his sports career with a second career as Hollywood leading man in action films for cable-TV. Full disclosure: After discontinuing the STAR ratings, I produced a few of Don’s films, most notably the HBO world premiere movie Red Sun Rising.

Different from Gary Daniels and Jean-Claude Van Damme, The Dragon’s world championship kickboxing career was long, vast and legendary. It played out inside professional rings around the globe. Wilson possesses perhaps the best-documented ring career of the early kickboxing giants.

Recently I’ve found mentions on the Internet and on IMDb that Wilson once challenged Jean-Claude Van Damme to a kickboxing duel inside the pro ring. That’s not quite what happened. In Van Damme’s early movie career, he was a bit wild in his fight scenes. Van Damme believed a little hard contact made the sequences feel more real on film. One of Van Damme’s movie fall guys took offense at being forced to eat full-power jump kicks for multiple takes. That fall guy then became a free-lance publicist and convinced iconic “King of the Bs” movie producer Roger Corman to issue the challenge.

Since The Dragon was still defending his world title, Wilson told Corman if Van Damme wants to fight, why not?  The challenge offer was genuine, but it did not originate with Wilson.

(Top to bottom) Don "The Dragon" Wilson in the ring against Jaidee Pisnurachank (aka Panya Sornnoi), Jean-Yves Theriault, Fanta Attapong and Pongdienoi Prasobchai.

Don Wilson fought Bill Knoblock (correct spelling) on a concrete floor as part of his black belt examination. It was an amateur bout. The Professional Karate Association transmuted this outcome to a no-contest because of the primitive rules and conditions, and because it was amateur. The STAR System concurred with the PKA’s judgment. The event promoters (Wilson’s kung-fu instructors) and his opponent (Bill Knoblock) also agreed with the no-contest finding.

The fact that Don Wilson reminisced about his black belt examination bout demonstrates how forthcoming and guileless he has always been about his ring record. In the current era, this amateur bout would be summarily struck from his professional record altogether. The STAR System left it in place as a no-contest because of its historic significance as part of an early kickboxing event. (See Wilson record, STAR Finding *14)

Wilson v Attapong

Every time l look at the Wikipedia entry for Wilson, the outcome for this bout changes. First it shows a decision for Wilson, then a TKO for Attapong. Someone has been playing fast-and-loose with the facts. It’s obvious from Wikipedia’s own record count that the correct result originally had been posted. (See Wilson Wikipedia record, Retrieved 18 May 2011)

As WKA Ratings Commissioner, I maintained all WKA records during this period. The official WKA outcome for this WKA-sanctioned, non-title, 7-round, special-arrangement muay Thai bout was a decision victory for Wilson. The outcome was confirmed by both the event promoters and by WKA President Howard Hanson. Contemporary coverage of the bout in Official Karate magazine reported that Attapong fractured his left tibia sometime around the third round, and that it took great effort on Attapong’s part to hang in fiercely to the end. For his part, Wilson regretted that he did not push for a knockout, but if Wilson had lost this bout, he would be the first to say so.

He does not. (See Wilson record, STAR Finding *4)

Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

More than for any other champion, the Wikipedia entry for Benny “The Jet” Urquidez motivated the creation of this website. The misstatements, misinterpretations and inexactitudes have unfairly disparaged a very honorable man who was the first great champion to cast a truly international shadow for his sport. Apparently his Wikipedia entry has gone unchallenged for some time because these same disparagements have metastasized across the Internet.

200-0 Record

Okay, it’s true. Benny’swebsiteboasts a 200-0 fight record. Sounds inflated to most people, right? I suspect that boast prompted the scurrilous slams contained within his Wikipedia entry.

When I last spoke with Benny about fifteen years ago, if you asked him casually, he would tell you he had over 200 fights with a championship record of 63-0; he does not count the non-title fights. Urquidez is not being deceptive: He’s telling it how he remembers it.  In fact, Urquidez has much justification for the way he remembers his ring career.  

First, no one should doubt Urquidez’ claim of over 200 fights. Witnesses abound; at least they did twenty years ago when his STAR ring record was first compiled. The problem was that, between tournament events, pro-team events, street fights and ring fights, less than a quarter of his bouts were properly documented.

In the years just prior to the inaugural PKA World Championships in 1974, tournament karate promoters throughout the United States began to offer prize money to the grand champions of “professional karate” events. Competitors wore Jhoon Rhee’s Safe-T-Equipment and fought with “hard-contact” kicks and punches within the limitations of the traditional tournament karate scoring system. Follow-up combinations were interrupted. Urquidez entered many of these pro tournaments, fighting multiple opponents in a day.

Many of Benny’s 200 fights came from these early pro-karate events. Records were not kept of opponents nor even of many events. Later, after the modern kickboxing movement began under the name “full-contact karate,” Honolulu promoter Tommy Lee recruited Urquidez for his distinctive World Series of the Martial Arts Championships in good measure because of Benny’s reputation from Hanson’s team events. Urquidez also then participated in team full-contact karate events for the National Karate League, another early sanctioning body.

(Left to right) NKL "Los Angeles Stars" teammates Lenny Ferguson, Benny Urquidez, Manit Chaursan, Manuel Hernandez, Blinky Rodriguez and Ruben Urquidez in 1975.

The photograph on the left was snapped just prior to Urquidez’ team matchup against Demetrius “The Greek” Havanas in Ft. Worth, Texas. At the time, Traditional TaeKwon-Do magazine (Summer 1975, pages 50-52) reported that Benny had won five bouts by knockout in NKL team events of which STAR could only authenticate two. In this same year, I personally attended an NKL full-contact karate team event near Oakland, California, in which Benny’s team participated. I did not keep records, but I believe Benny fought on that card. Clearly, many of Benny’s fights remain lost to time.

The STAR System’s Authenticated Kickboxing Record for Benny Urquidez documents all professional full-contact bouts for which some evidence could be located, while excluding any transitional pro-karate tournaments. It also mentions 8 undocumented bouts which, based on the testimonials of WKAPresident Howard Hanson and Urquidez’ late brothers Arnold and Ruben, likely also occurred. (See Urquidez record)

 Urquidez v Suzuki

Beyond the badly written English in the above Wikipedia excerpt…  Let's examine Note [9] – BAB Japan. The Dave Cater Interview. 格闘技通信No.9 Kakutougi Tsuushin; "Martial Arts Network No.9", August 1, 1987, Japan.

In a 6 May 2011 personal email to me, the cited source [9] for the above account, former Inside Kung-fu editor Dave Cater, did not recall having made this statement and does not endorse it. In actual fact, as explained to me by WKA President Howard Hanson, the WKA broke away from the PKA because the two promotional entities could not come to terms about splitting television revenues. Consequently, while continuing to promote in the Western US and Canada, the WKA also ventured into Japan in search of new television arrangements.  

PKA Title Vacated

Clearly Urquidez could have continued to fight in the United States and, in fact, had defeated Rick Simmerly in South Lake Tahoe over NBC-TV within the previous two months and would fight again over NBC-TV from Las Vegas within the next four months. The champ’s answer to me was my first exposure to how professional champions think about their match ups. Urquidez had a wife and family to support.  Unlike his fight fans, Benny let pride play a secondary role to financial arrangements in his career choices. Throughout my subsequent decade of experience as a magazine journalist, professional ring observer and sports official, I found that most career fighters adhered to this same priority. (See Urquidez record)

Urquidez v Tagami

Urquidez v Narongnoi

What else were the governing officials supposed to do? At the event, a decision in either competitor’s favor would have exacerbated an already explosive situation. Later, of course, there were no scores available for round 9.

Understandably, over the decades, much speculation has elevated this bout in some circles to mythic proportions. It was, after all, the WKA’s premiere world title fight as well as the first time a major American kickboxing champion had been matched against a major muay Thai champion.

Then … no outcome: You couldn’t have a better lightning rod for conspiracy addicts.

In 1981, the STAR System investigated this bout’s official ruling. We questioned the California State Athletic Commission, the event promoter WKA President Howard Hanson, ringside judge Tom Schlesinger (also a PKA and WKA referee), and several eyewitnesses as well as Benny Urquidez. We determined the following facts:

1. RULES: Punching and kicking, including low kicks to the thighs, footsweeps and throws were permitted to legal target areas. Clinching was allowed only to the extent that it led immediately to a throw or footsweep. Holding and striking as well as knee and elbow strikes were prohibited.
2. KNOCKDOWNS: Urquidez scored flash knockdowns against Narongnoi in rounds 3 and 6. Narongnoi scored a flash knockdown against Urquidez in round 9. Each knockdown added an extra point advantage to the contestant who scored the knockdown.
3. THROWS & FOOTSWEEPS: Urquidez scored throws against Narongnoi in rounds 2, 3, 7 and 9. Urquidez also scored a footsweep against Narongnoi in round 8. Under the rules, throws and footsweeps did not affect the score as much as a knockdown. They equated more with a powerful kick and punch combination that connected.
4. WARNINGS: The referee warned Narongnoi for hold-and-hit knee strikes in rounds 5, 8 and 9, and for groin kicks in rounds 4, 5 and 8. Urquidez was allowed a short recovery period following a groin kick in round 8.
5. POINT DEDUCTION: The referee finally assessed Narongnoi with a 1-point deduction in round 9 for a hold-and-hit knee strike. The referee could have assessed penalty deductions with each of the previous warnings but showed leniency owing to the unaccustomed rules for Narongnoi. Referees today would not allow any competitor that much latitude.
6. NO-CONTEST: The official ruling was no-contest. Promoter Howard Hanson and ringside judge Tom Schlesinger separately told the STAR System that, aside from the knockdowns, throws and point deduction, the physical effectiveness of each fighter was fairly even.

Now, in light of the rules and rulings, I invite any fair-minded martial arts fan to watch the entire fight on YouTube (links provided below) from a poor quality home movie shot from the upper seating at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Set aside your emotions; refer to the official rulings cited above; then score each round on the 10-point must system (winner receives 10 points, loser 9 or less).

Rounds 1 to 3

Rounds 4 to 7

Rounds 8 to 9

 Just from the knockdowns and throws, Urquidez enjoyed roughly a 3 to 5 point scoring advantage over 9 rounds. Under WKA rules, Urquidez should have been awarded a unanimous decision. There is really no doubt: The Jet was robbed.

Urquidez v Billye Jackson

The November 1985 issue of Inside Karate transparently inverted the digits in Urquidez’ record to show 75 wins. The appropriate number at the time was 57 wins as was reflected in the STAR ratings. I was not editor of Inside Karate; I cannot speak for why a retraction was or was not printed.

Urquidez v Okao

Urquidez v Onuki

Urquidez v Prayud (Prayout)

The abridged STAR ring record in the book King of the Ring contains comments from a ghostwriter not affiliated with the STAR System.

The STAR System compilation of Urquidez’ record printed in the book King of the Ring (Pro Action Publishing, Los Angeles, 1995) was abridged from the authenticated STAR record and contains comments from a ghostwriter not affiliated with the STAR System. I do not accept responsibility for those comments. Review the complete STAR Authenticated Kickboxing Record for Benny Urquidez within this website. Neither the STAR System nor the WKA altered the New Combative Sports Federation (aka Shin-Kakutojutsu Federation) outcome for the bout: Urquidez lost a points-decision ... in muay Thai, not kickboxing. (See Urquidez record)

Instead, both STAR and WKA ignored it as irrelevant to the rated competition within their purviews. At their core, the rules behind the two sports serve different purposes: Muay Thai seeks to preserve the traditions of Thailand’s ancient national sport while, also, increasing its appeal for gamblers through more unpredictable TKOs within the happenstance of knee and elbow blows. Kickboxing, in contrast, seeks to attract a mass television audience in the West through clean visual action, a minimum of blood, and a preponderance of athletic skill over happenstance.

Immediately after this event, it should be mentioned, the returning Americans insisted that the bout was supposed to be a no-decision bout (meaning knockout or draw; no judges) because Urquidez's scheduled opponent cancelled on short notice and, instead, Benny fought a middleweight nearly 20 pounds heavier. The promoter, the Americans believed, had intended to use this no-decision as an opportunity for political advantage within the Japanese kick-boxing community by first awarding a deceptively-achieved win to Prayout Srisontob (aka Prayud Sittiboonlert). The New Combative Sports Federation was disbanded in 1981 after a yakuza-scandal infested kick-boxing.

Cancelled Rematch

At different stages in Urquidez’ career, there was also lots of talk about legendary dream matches against PKA World Champ Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Japanese Muay Thai Champ Toshio Fujiwara and even a mix-match against WBA/WBC World Boxing Champ Roberto Duran. Certainly the champions were willing, but the fights never happened. Likewise, rematches for professional fighters are cancelled as often as they occur, usually owing to compensation or promotional obstacles. For example, the long-anticipated Urquidez rematch with WKA Welterweight World Champ Howard Jackson also never materialized. The above Wikipedia statement constitutes naive and innuendo-laden speculation that should have no place in an objective encyclopedia entry. 

Urquidez v Asuka

The correct term for a competitive bout without judges that goes the distance is a no-decision.  In the West, no-decision contests have rarely been sanctioned since the early days of professional boxing.

When the Uquidez-Asuka bout occurred, the STAR System was preparing to cease operations and did not corroborate the reported outcome directly with Japanese sources. In the era preceding the Internet, verification from Japan required a burdensome procedure. We got this one wrong. This bout was a no-decision bout; the official outcome was a draw.  STAR accepts responsibility for reporting this one wrong. Urquidez does not control his STAR ring record. (See Urquidez record, STAR Finding *1)

Bottom Line

When Benny “The Jet” Urquidez reminisces about his remarkable championship career, if he misremembers, misstates or exaggerates at all, it’s not by very much.