Who Are Your Martial Art Heroes?

[Chucksmanhood]

BRUCE LEE - You know why

CHUCK NORRIS - Normal, cool guy, no nonsense - and i'm named after him

STEVEN SEAGAL - Love his earlier films, some of the best MA films of all time in my opinoin

DANIEL LARUSSO - A bit of an inspiration when i was younger - great film

Today in the UFC there are a lot of guys that act like thugs when they walk into the ring and when they defeat their opponents - guys like Tito Ortiz and Matt Hughes. So its great to see guys like ANDERSON SILVA who bows when he gets into the ring and shows respect for his opponent before and after the fight. GEORGE ST. PIERRE is the same and he also wears a gi on his way to the ring - i think thats pretty cool. [/b]

[bushido_man96]

I never really thought that Hughes acted like a thug. I always thought he was a pretty straightforward guy.

[Throwdown0850]

I never really thought that Hughes acted like a thug. I always thought he was a pretty straightforward guy.

yeah, that was one of the reasons why I liked Matt Hughes? is cause he is not like a "thug"

[ravenzoom]

I'd have to say Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris are my two main martial arts inspirations

[bushido_man96]

I always like Segal as well. Van Damme was popular when I was growing up in the MAs as well.

[ravenzoom]

Oh yeah I have to add Van Damme as well!!

[NightOwl]

Jigoro Kano- Founder of Judo and top class martial artist- great training philosophy

Wong fei hung- Anybody who has been portrayed this much in Kung fu films had to be one bad dude. SHADOWLESS KICK!!!

Masahiko Kimura- Seriously. THE KIMURA. The only guy whose very name rises up from the grave and shoulder locks any judoka, wrestler, or Bjjer who dares to challenge him. Widely considered one of the best Judoka of all time.

Anderson Silvia- One of the best MMA fighters out there, who has no signs of slowing down after his recent win in the UFC. Both a BJJ and Muay thai master, he is one to contend with.

George Foreman- Both a really nice guy and a former Heavyweight pro, he had a mean punch that is only matched by the delicious food that he grills.

Mas Oyama- The karateka who took on the world and created the famously hardcore 'kyokushin' branch of karate.

Teddy Roosevelt- There's no way around it; Big 'T (as his friends called him) was probably the coolest American president since Honest Abe in his old catch wrestling days. No, you don't have to agree with his politics- just that he probably could beat you up while making a quip about some African proverb. The man was a winning boxer no doubt, but he knew he was weak on his clinch and ground game (terms he used...look it up). So what did he do? Become a judo master and singlehandedly scare the Russians and Japanese into a peace agreement that's what! Afterwards he set up the National park system because girls dig a nature sensitive guy. He promptly made up for it by shooting up half of Africa. Awesome.

[bushido_man96]

Teddy Roosevelt would probably have been an awesome person to know. He was into just about everything Martial. I have even read about him and some buddies clearing out some furniture in one of the White House rooms so they could have some stick fighting matches. He was into some swordsmanship as well.

Very cool.

[a_ninja]

My number one is bruce lee (for obvious reasons) but i am also fasinated with jet li because of his amazing feat on winning the mma championship of the world when he was only 11

[bushido_man96]

My number one is bruce lee (for obvious reasons) but i am also fasinated with jet li because of his amazing feat on winning the mma championship of the world when he was only 11

When did this happen? I don't know of any such feat...could you elaborate?