Martial arts are about honor, which makes lying about one’s education, prowess, or accomplishments an unforgivable sin. Real martial artists detest this kind of behavior, and actively condemn it. So what motivates anyone to attempt it? Especially in our Google-able times?
With this in mind, we took a look back at some of the most famous embellishers, frauds, and nutjobs in martial arts history. It didn’t give us many answers, but it at least offered us plenty of stories of no-touch knockouts, mail order black belts, fake Russian boxing matches, and melting babies.
John Timothy Keehan was a well-to-do young man who boxed as a teen, learned jujitsu techniques in the army, and earned his black belt in karate as an adult. Apparently none of these real life accomplishments were enough for Keehan, though, so he changed his name to Dount Jerjer Raphael Dante, invented a noble lineage for his family, and made up his own martial arts system called Dan-te, and founded the Black Dragon Fighting Society. He advertised Dan-te (“… the DEADLIEST and most TERRIFYING fighting art known to man”) and himself (“THE DEADLIEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED”) in comic books. In reality, the deadliest thing he ever did was instigate a fight with a rival dojo that lead to the murder of one of his students.