With surprisingly little reaction from the MMA blogosphere, martial arts pioneer Jim Kelly passed away over the weekend at the age of sixty-seven years old. Odds are pretty good that you recognize Kelly as Williams from Enter The Dragon, but his legacy is far greater than just that one role. Armed with his signature afro, one-liners and arsenal of kicks, Kelly broke the color-barrier for black actors in martial arts films at a time when the genre was almost exclusively reserved for Asian martial artists.
Aside from being one of the most instantly recognizable martial artists on the planet, Kelly also found the time to become a professional tennis player, an enthusiastic MMA fan, and a popular draw at conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con International. So in memory of Kelly, we’ve compiled videos of some of his greatest fights, interviews, and even some footage of him playing tennis. Enjoy.
Kelly and Lee working on fight scenes for Enter the Dragon.
With surprisingly little reaction from the MMA blogosphere, martial arts pioneer Jim Kelly passed away over the weekend at the age of sixty-seven years old. Odds are pretty good that you recognize Kelly as Williams from Enter The Dragon, but his legacy is far greater than just that one role. Armed with his signature afro, one-liners and arsenal of kicks, Kelly broke the color-barrier for black actors in martial arts films at a time when the genre was almost exclusively reserved for Asian martial artists.
Aside from being one of the most instantly recognizable martial artists on the planet, Kelly also found the time to become a professional tennis player, an enthusiastic MMA fan, and a popular draw at conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con International. So in memory of Kelly, we’ve compiled videos of some of his greatest fights, interviews, and even some footage of him playing tennis. Enjoy.
Kelly and Lee working on fight scenes for Enter the Dragon.
“Please understand, if I missed anyone, it’s been a big day. I’m a little tired.”
Arguably the most famous line of his career. Don’t even dream about pulling this line off as effortlessly as Kelly.
Highlights from Black Belt Jones, a blaxploitation staple.
Since we’re still on Black Belt Jones, we might as well include this scene.
If we ever do a “Greatest Fight Scene” Roundtable, this gem from Three the Hard Way already has my vote locked up.
The Tattoo Connection, in its entirety.
Same thing for One Down, Two To Go.
Included for scenes and facts about his tennis career.
Kelly makes a special contribution to a Lebron James Nike commercial in 2004.
Kelly on Fedor and Strikeforce back in 2010. For more of Kelly talking about the Gracies and the UFC in 2010, check out this and this.
Camacho (white trunks) famously knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard in 1997. Leonard retired after the fight.
Puerto Rican boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho, famous for his aggressive style and flamboyant behavior in and out of the ring, was declared dead earlier today in San Juan, four days after he and his friend were shot in a parked car in the city of Bayamon. Hector Camacho, who was taken off of life support earlier this morning, died of a heart attack shortly afterwards, according to Dr. Ernesto Torres of the Centro Médico trauma center. His friend, Adrian Mojica Moreno, died immediately.
Details regarding the shooting are still being kept quiet. However, police have confirmed that Mojica had nine bags of cocaine on him when he was shot and that a tenth bag was found open in the car. No arrests have been made, and according to police spokesman Alex Diaz, neither man was expecting the attack.
Inside the ring, ‘Macho’ Camacho was one of the greatest to lace up the gloves. After winning three Golden Gloves titles as an amateur, he turned pro and quickly became a contender due to his aggressive, albeit cocky style of fighting. With Don King promoting him, Camacho would go on to win his first world title, the WBC Super Featherweight Championship, on Aug. 7, 1983. He would vacate the title to move up to lightweight two years later, capturing the WBC lightweight title by defeating Jose Luis Ramirez on August 10, 1985.
Camacho (white trunks) famously knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard in 1997. Leonard retired after the fight.
Puerto Rican boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho, famous for his aggressive style and flamboyant behavior in and out of the ring, was declared dead earlier today in San Juan, four days after he and his friend were shot in a parked car in the city of Bayamon. Hector Camacho, who was taken off of life support earlier this morning, died of a heart attack shortly afterwards, according to Dr. Ernesto Torres of the Centro Médico trauma center. His friend, Adrian Mojica Moreno, died immediately.
Details regarding the shooting are still being kept quiet. However, police have confirmed that Mojica had nine bags of cocaine on him when he was shot and that a tenth bag was found open in the car. No arrests have been made, and according to police spokesman Alex Diaz, neither man was expecting the attack.
Inside the ring, ‘Macho’ Camacho was one of the greatest to lace up the gloves. After winning three Golden Gloves titles as an amateur, he turned pro and quickly became a contender due to his aggressive, albeit cocky style of fighting. With Don King promoting him, Camacho would go on to win his first world title, the WBC Super Featherweight Championship, on Aug. 7, 1983. He would vacate the title to move up to lightweight two years later, capturing the WBC lightweight title by defeating Jose Luis Ramirez on August 10, 1985.
After taking a beating while defending his title against Edwin Rosario, Camacho toned down his aggressive style in order to fight more defensively. This would lead to his first loss, a close split-decision to Greg Haugen in 1991. This defensive style would ultimately lead to his downfall, as Camacho would drop a lopsided decision to lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez in 1992 and be widely criticized for his lack of action in the fight. From that point on, Camacho would stay around the top of the division, but would mostly be used as a litmus test for other contenders.
Overall, Camacho’s career spanned three decades and saw him win titles at three weight classes – super featherweight, lightweight and light welterweight. Aside from Julio Cesar Chavez, he has notably fought against Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad and Roberto Duran. His last major title fight was a loss against Oscar De La Hoya in 1997. He would continue to box until 2010, where he would drop a forgettable decision to Saul Duran in Kissimmee, Florida at forty-eight years old.
As exciting as Hector Camacho was to watch in the ring, Macho certainly had his share of demons outside of it. Former featherweight champion Juan Laporte described Camacho as “a little brother who was always getting into trouble.” As he told ESPN:
“He’s a good human being, a good hearted person,” Laporte said as he waited with other friends and members of the boxer’s family outside the hospital in San Juan after the shooting. “A lot of people think of him as a cocky person but that was his motto … inside he was just a kid looking for something.”
Laporte lamented that Camacho never found a mentor outside the boxing ring.
“The people around him didn’t have the guts or strength to lead him in the right direction,” Laporte said. “There was no one strong enough to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him how to do it.”
Camacho notoriously struggled with drug and alcohol problems after the prime of his career. His former wife, Amy, obtained a restraining order against him in 1998 after he threatened her and their two children. The two would later get divorced. In 2005, he was arrested in Mississippi after attempting to rob a computer store, possessing ecstasy when he was arrested. Although Camacho was sentenced to seven years in prison, a judge suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation. However, Hector Camacho would serve two weeks in jail after violating that probation. Camacho was also tried for child abuse by Florida authorities earlier this year. The trial was pending at the time of his death.
Let’s remember ‘Macho’ Camacho for the good times, though. We’ve compiled some of his best moments for you to enjoy:
Still Macho. We’d like to emphasize that we did not pick the music for this.
Sad news out of Brazil today, Potato Nation, as it has been reported that MMA legend Wanderlei Silva’s father, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, was killed in a car accident yesterday. Holando, who makes an appearance around the 1:20 mark of the above video that was shot just a few days ago, fully supported Wanderlei’s career as a mixed martial artist and claimed he was “bringing pride to all of Brazil.”
The father of MMA fighter Wanderlei Silva, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, died in a car accident this afternoon. The accident occurred in the region of Castro, where his father lived fighter. The body was taken to the Forensic Institute of Ponta Grossa, in the Campos Gerais region. According to relatives, Wanderlei Silva is in Las Vegas, United States, and was told of the accident by phone. The fighter comes to Paraná tomorrow.
After the jump: A tweet from Wanderlei regarding the news.
Sad news out of Brazil today, Potato Nation, as it has been reported that MMA legend Wanderlei Silva’s father, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, was killed in a car accident yesterday. Holando, who makes an appearance around the 1:20 mark of the above video that was shot just a few days ago, fully supported Wanderlei’s career as a mixed martial artist and claimed he was “bringing pride to all of Brazil.”
The father of MMA fighter Wanderlei Silva, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, died in a car accident this afternoon. The accident occurred in the region of Castro, where his father lived fighter. The body was taken to the Forensic Institute of Ponta Grossa, in the Campos Gerais region. According to relatives, Wanderlei Silva is in Las Vegas, United States, and was told of the accident by phone. The fighter comes to Paraná tomorrow.
Wanderlei was quick to thank all of his fans and followers for their support in this trying time:
Translated by Google: Thank you for the strength my brothers please pray for our family time and more difficult still as well that we have the support of God
I believe I speak on behalf of everyone here at CagePotato when I say that my thoughts and prayers go out to Wanderlei and his family. If you have a few minutes on your hand (and a Twitter account), make sure to extend your condolences to him as well.
While mixed martial arts gets ready for one of the biggest events in its history (UFC on FOX this Saturday night), the boxing world sits in mourning of one of its greatest legends. Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the first man to defeat the unsinkable Muham…
While mixed martial arts gets ready for one of the biggest events in its history (UFC on FOX this Saturday night), the boxing world sits in mourning of one of its greatest legends. Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the first man to defeat the unsinkable Muhammad Ali, passed away Monday after a battle with liver cancer. To […]
Tanner, who was open about his fights with alcohol abuse and his personal demons is said to have called his manager, John Hayner to let him know that his dirt bike had run out of gas a few miles from his camp and that his trip was going well besides the mishap. When he failed to answer calls from friends the next day, police were dispatched and after a brief aerial search, located Tanner’s camp and his remains a few miles away from his abandoned motorcycle.
Hayner told us at the time that the troubled 37-year-old had turned his life around thanks to a move to Oceanside and the rebirth of his career in the UFC where he recently re-signed. Tanner was hoping that the desert trip, which he planned for months and did hours of research for, would leave him feeling rejuvenated and ready to build on the mistakes he made in his last bout — a hard-fought split-decision loss to Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale that June.
“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com. Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”
Tanner, who was open about his fights with alcohol abuse and his personal demons is said to have called his manager, John Hayner to let him know that his dirt bike had run out of gas a few miles from his camp and that his trip was going well besides the mishap. When he failed to answer calls from friends the next day, police were dispatched and after a brief aerial search, located Tanner’s camp and his remains a few miles away from his abandoned motorcycle.
Hayner told us at the time that the troubled 37-year-old had turned his life around thanks to a move to Oceanside and the rebirth of his career in the UFC where he recently re-signed. Tanner was hoping that the desert trip, which he planned for months and did hours of research for, would leave him feeling rejuvenated and ready to build on the mistakes he made in his last bout — a hard-fought split-decision loss to Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale that June.
“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com. Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”
In an eerie bit of foreshadowing, Tanner spoke about the fact that he may not return from the trip in one SPIKE TV blog post before rebuking the opinions of reporters and fans who thought his planned expedition was reckless and dangerous in another.
“I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment,” he wrote. “I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/onceiwasachampion)
“It seems some MMA websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on, guys. It’s really common down in Southern California to go out to the off-road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego,” Tanner later explained. “So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn’t a version of ‘Into the Wild.’”
Unfortunately it turned out to be exactly that.
RIP Evan Tanner. Believe in the power of one.
If you get the chance to see the Tanner documentary Once I was a Champion, do yourself a favor and check it out.
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