Mas Oyama

[JohnnyS]

Who did he ever fight though?

 

He fought some minor challenge matches in America, but no named fighters. If he was serious about proving what he could and his art could do, why not fight a top boxer in a NHB type match (like the Savage-LeBelle fight), or win a world Boxing title?

[sansoouser]

He did fight alot of people, 270 i think. Like they said in here, if you blocked you were broken if you didn't block you broke.

[Kirves]

Lots of people flocked to visit and issue challenges at his dojo because his dojo was known to be the toughest karate dojo around. These people were often foreigners and usually from other arts. They issued challenges, which was quite common back then (no death matches, just challenge matches). It was common that first the visitor had to fight a brown belt. If he beat the brown belt, then a black belt. If he beat him too, then Mas would take the challenge. There are a couple of stories where a big western man has come in and whooped the brown belt's rear end big time and Mas would come fight right on instead of sending another black belt student. John Bluming is one of the most well known people who went there like that. He was a judo and karate champ and became a long time student of Oyama, until broke away from Kyokushinkai because of politics. Oyama is also known for defending karate's honor against thai boxers. Thai boxers often challenged the karate organizations and all the karateka sent to the tournaments lost. Soon no karate dojo was willing to send any more fighters to the thai boxer challenges and Mas Oyama decided to go. He defeated the current thai champ at the time and "restored karate's honor" which was important back then.

[JohnnyS]

Sounds like my old TKD instructor, Big Mick. He was 6'5", 320lbs and there were a few black belts that broke their arms trying to block his kicks. If he hit you, your ribs or nose broke, even when he went light. He once knocked out 11 guys in a pub who were brawling because they kept bumping into him and spilling his beer ( I was told this by two different sources who were there).

 

Another time he took on seven bikies who fled after he knocked out the first one so quickly.

 

Does that mean Big Mick is the greatest martial artist ever though? I doubt it.

 

I think Mas Oyama was good, no doubt, but he would have met his match fighting someone like a heavyweight boxer such as Foreman, or Frazier etc.

 

Or how about a wrestler such as the Great Gama, or Hackenschmidt or Gotch?

[Kirves]

Sure, go through enough of big hairy western wrestlers and you may fing a guy who would've been at least equal match to Oyama. But what separates Oyama from them is how he affected karate and budo. Edited August 27, 2003 by Kirves

[sansoouser]

did big mac have skill or just strength? It is said that Mas broke river stones with his hands everyday.

[JohnnyS]

Mick was a 2nd degree black belt, at a time when it took over ten years to get your 2nd degree. So he had plenty of skill as well as power.

[Shotokan_Fighter]

Mas Oyama is a legend, thats all im gonna say.

[Gino]

Well done to you kirves for remembering the importance of Budo.

 

Mas Oyama's Kyokushin isn't only about wining tournaments.First and formost its a tool to help you perfect your charactor and be the best you can be.It is a budo style that also prides itself in being a practical and powerfull selfdefence system.

 

If you'd put Mas Oyama in a ring with ALI,foreman or Tyson for example it's true he may of found himself in some difficulties but no one I've heard of and certainly Mas Oyama himself ever said he was a boxer,take the gloves and the rules away put any of those in a room together and at a guess I would say the man that has dedicated the most time to unarmed combat, the man that has the right mental attitude,the man with most strength and mental fortitude will probably come out the winner.

 

OSU.

Edited July 22, 2003 by Gino

[ShirKhan]

I'm not a kyokushinkai man, but if someone asks me what martial artist I want to be like, Masutatsu Oyama is the first one that will come to my mind, every time.

 

Referring to a previous post, he did fight boxers, and wrestlers, and in Mexico he had a short career as the world's only unarmed bullfighter. I watched a 5 minutes clip of him on black and white 8mm film of Mas Oyama in a hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts entering the bullring and facing the bull. He broke the bull's horn off with a shuto in midcharge, then finished it off with hammerblows to the shoulder and ribs. Films of him killing bulls in the 1950's still exist, and his bullfighting career ended when the Mexican government stopped him for "humanitarian reasons". The bulls he killed were butchered afterward, and the areas where he struck the bulls were so traumatized and full of broken blood vessels that the meat was unfit for use.

 

I remember when I was a kid, I thought karate and martial arts were some kind of magic. People like Mas Oyama were very magical, and I know of no one else like him, past or present. Martial arts celebrities come and go, but I don't see any of them trying to repeat Mas Oyama's feats. He was absolutely one of a kind.