THE IKKF BOARD OF REGENTS

FIGHTING CHUCK NORRIS AND BRUCE LEE

Just last month I received a letter from an old student who had studied with me as a teenager more than twenty years ago. Two things still stood out in his mind - that I had fought Chuck Norris in a charity Karate bout, and that I was undefeated at the 1^st World Tae Kwon Do Championships in Korea in 1973.

I explained in my reply that, in fact, I had never fought Chuck Norris, but had only been his assistant at a free-fighting seminar that Sam Allred had promoted some 35 years ago. I went on to explain that a reporter from the local paper used the term ìundefeatedî to describe my performance at the National elimination championships that were held in Dallas Texas in 1972 for the purpose of selecting a US team to the 1^st World Tae Kwon Do Championships to be held the following year in Korea. The term undefeated has been used over and over again when describing what happened at that competition in Korea. Really, undefeated is a poor choice of a word to describe my tournament performance in Korea. It makes it sounds like I must have won every match, as well as the gold medal, which isnít true. The US team took the silver, and I was proud to be a small part of that excellent team.

In a similar vein, at a banquet a short time back a father was telling his son that I had competed with the greats like Bruce Lee, and that I was undefeated. It was a little embarrassing for him when I explained that Bruce Lee never competed in a single tournament, and that most of my tournament fights were in the southwest area of the US, so I missed the opportunity to compete with some of the really great fighters located in other regions.

If I was only as good as some say I was, I would have been truly undefeated.

F. Absher