Count Dante — The Father of Modern Martial Arts FraudsToday Martial Arts are full of frauds, s

Count Dante — The Father of Modern Martial Arts FraudsToday Martial Arts are full of frauds, scam artists, flim flammery, humbuggers, and bullshit peddlers. There’s George Dillman, an obese washed out karate champion who claimed to have trained Mohammed Ali, claims he can knock someone out by lightly poking them on pressure points, and claims he can even knock people out without touching them with what is essentially a hadoukan. You might remember him from the National Geographic show where scientists put his claims to the test and he ended up making a dumbass of himself. All over the internet there are viral videos of similar men who claim they can defeat opponents by manipulating their chi. In a few of those videos they challenge legitimate fighters to a real fight, the fighting ending in the “chi master” lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, urine, and tears. Then there’s Steven Segal, a famous Akido practitioner who claims he trained Anderson Silva and who does demonstrations where he pretends to throw people around.  How about Frank Dux, who supposedly knocked out 60 people in a row during a fake international championship involving the world’s greatest martial artists called “the Kumite”. Watch the Jean Claude van Damme movie “Bloodsport”, which is about Dux and the Kumite. The movie is almost as fictional as Frank Dux’s claims.  Even Mixed Martial Arts had to deal with frauds, such as Rafiel Torre, who claimed to be an undefeated MMA fighter and grew wildly popular, until in his only televised bout he had very clearly rigged the fight. Turns out he never participated in a fight, let alone won one. Frauds in the world of martial arts is nothing new, people have probably been bragging about their supposed combat skills since the dawn of mankind. However, the history of fraud in modern martial arts begins in the 1960′s with a Karate man named John Keehan.Asian Martial Arts were first introduced to the United States in the late 19th century in the form of Judo and Jiu Jitsu. However, martial arts didn’t become popular and maintstream until after World War II and Korea when US military serviceman brought back fighting arts such as Karate and Tae Kwon Do. Like many martial arts frauds, John Keehan started his career as a legitimate martial artist, and was among the first karate practitioners during the infancy of American martial arts. He also had military training in the Marines Corps, was a former boxer, and had some Jiu Jitsu training. Keehan earned his black belt in the 1950′s and became a sensei himself in the late 1950′s. He  even became the Midwest director of the United States Karate Association (USKA). He hosted and promoted full contact competitions among various different martial and fighting arts, thus being an early founder of Mixed Martial Arts. He operated perhaps the first integrated dojo, training students of all races and ethnicity. When the USKA refused to recognize black belts award to African and Asian Americans, Keehan resigned from the USKA in protest.  It seemed that Keehan was destined to have a great career in legitimate martial arts, however some time in the mid 1960′s he seemed to have lost his mind and went totally off the rails.Keehan began to become very belligerent to rival schools, sparking what was called the “Dojo Wars” in the mid 1960′s. On July 22nd, 1965 Keehan was arrested for attempting to burn down a rival school with dynamite caps. On April 24th, 1970 Keehan and his students posed as police officers and attacked a rival school, resulting in the death of one of his students. Amazingly Keehan was acquitted of wrongdoing in court. In 1967 Keehan legally changed his name to Count Juan Raphael Dante, claiming that he was descended from Spanish nobility, his family fleeing from Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It was at this time that “Count Dante” founded the Black Dragon Society, Count Dante’s new organization from which he taught his new martial art. Count Dante believed that traditional martial arts focused to much on tradition and not enough on practical application. Thus he created a new art he called “Dan-te”, also known as “Kata Dante” or the dance of death . Dan-te really only consisted of one drill. Essentially, an opponent would throw a punch, the practitioner would block it, then counter with a flurry of attacks that included gouging out the eyes, ripping off the ears, ripping out the trachea, and ripping off the testicles. If this sounds silly, just watch videos of people practicing Kata Dante (which will be posted later in this article). Count Dante also claimed that he could knock people out by poking pressure points, and even claimed to be able to perform the “Dim Mak”, or the death touch. Basically he claimed to be able to kill people with just a mere touch. Count Dante began marketing himself as “The Deadliest Man Alive” and advertised his techniques in the back of comic books alongside ads for X-ray glasses, fake mustaches, and tonic which can magically grow muscles. When you sent in for the ad and paid the fee you would receive a membership card for the Black Dragon Fighting Society and a 44 page booklet on Kata Dante. The booklet began with the preface,“Ladies and Gentleman what you are about to see is without a doubt the most savage self defense form known to man. It is composed of 27 of the deadliest hand techniques ever devised, each one is designed to kill, cripple, or maim any attacker. It is not for the squeamish, or faint of heart.”The booklet then contained hand drawn illustrations of each technique. Count Dante claimed that by merely learning those techniques on your own, one could quickly become an invincible fighting master.Now this all sounds silly and it’s hard to make out if Count Dante actually believed actually believed his own bullshit or if it was all just a money making scheme. But, unfortunately, many did, and his Black Dragon Fighting Society continued to grow. He was featured in Black Belt magazine several times, a publication notorious for featuring legitimate martial artists alongside frauds, con men, and woo woo. Count Dante died in his sleep on May 26th, 1975 from a bleeding ulcer. Although he is dead, the Black Dragon Fighting Society lives on, still teaching his methods and selling books and merchandise about the late Count Dante.http://internationalbdfs.com/Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there. In the 1980′s a man named Radford Davis began publishing a number (seval dozen) of books on “secret ninja fighting arts”. Claiming he is Ninja Grandmaster who trained under a master named “Tendai”, Radford AKA “Ashida Kim” also claims association with the Black Dragon Fighting Society, but claims that Count Dante hadn’t founded it, rather that is was an ancient secret society that originated with the lost city of Atlantis. Like Dante, Ashida Kim has made many fantastical claims, such as having invisibility powers, the ability to dodge bullets, and the ability to levitate. You can watch his videos on youtube, they are hilarious. What is interesting is that much of what Ashida Kim teaches is actually just repackaged and re-branded Counte Dante bullshit. In fact, This Black Dragon Fighting Society sued Ashida Kim for copyright violation. In court it was revealed that he lives with his mom, makes $300 a month, owes $600, and his only asset is a 1991 Ford pickup. Kata Dante is again rebranded but exactly the same, only renamed “Kinji-Te”, or the “Forbidden Fist of the Ninja”. -- source link

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