MAS OYAMA... TOUGHEST DUDE I EVER HEARD OF

I randomly came across this site about "fighting masters" throughout modern times, and I was impressed the most by Mas Oyama. He was a Korean-Japanese (when Korea was occupied by Japan, many Koreans would adopt Japanese names in order to survive and gain access to education in Japan) that founded Kyokushin Karate. I would have loved to see him in Pride, which I believe is a true test of fighting (K-1 is lame and not a real test of overall fighting skills). This nut would have done some damage. He killed 52 bulls with his bare hands!

Mas Oyama, in order to show the strength of his karate, tested his strength by fighting raging bulls bare-handed. It was a mismatch from the get-go for the bulls, not for Oyama. In all, he fought 52 bulls, three of which were killed instantly, and 49 had their horns taken off with knife hand blows. That it is not to say that it was all that easy for him. Oyama was fond of remembering that his first attempt just resulted in an angry bull. In 1957, at the age of 34, he was nearly killed in Mexico when a bull got some of his own back and gored him. Oyama somehow managed to pull the bull off and break off his horn.

In 1952, he travelled the United States for a year, demonstrating his karate live and on national television. During subsequent years, he took on all challengers, resulting in fights with 270 different people. The vast majority of these were defeated with one punch! A fight never lasted more than three minutes, and most rarely lasted more than a few seconds. His fighting principle was simple — if he got through to you, that was it.
If he hit you, you broke. If you blocked a rib punch, you arm was broken or dislocated. If you didn't block, your rib was broken. He became known as the Godhand, a living manifestation of the Japanese warriors' maxim Ichi geki, Hissatsu or "One strike, certain death". To him, this was the true aim of technique in karate.

Anyway, it also would have been interesting to see Bruce Lee fight in these tournaments. Always a topic of debate and fantasy among martial arts fans. Some question whether his size would have been a huge disadvantage, but all I have to point to his Royce Gracie defeating Dan Severns and others, who weighed 60-80+ lbs. more than him, during his string of Ultimate Fighting Championships victories. Also Benny "The Jet" Urquidez's defeat of Dana Goodsen at the World Series of Martial Arts. Benny weighed 135 lbs. and Dana weighed 225, and Benny kicked his ass. Bruce was an excellent all around fighter and a good grappler, so I could see him easily improving his ground skills for these fights and winning.

Actually, this is another area that Max and I bond with. I fought in Tae Kwon Do tournaments during my youth until early high school, and won some tournaments (yes, i'm bragging). Of course I stopped after I got fat and slow during my college years. Max also competed and he was a Tae Kwon Do instructor during his college and graduate school years. For MMA fans, one story he told me about was when he was sparring with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor with almost no restrictions. He got in the upper position, started to choke him from the front and the guy didn't know what to do (not allowed in Pride and other tournaments). Soon the guy tapped out. I thought it was pretty funny.

Hope the Korean government lifts this ban of blogging sites, so Max can comment soon and finally post something since he has some downtime from work. Yo! President Roh and the MIC, stop acting like a communist state!