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.
Before he became one of the biggest action stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Steven Seagal was an Aikido instructor – and the first American instructor– in Japan. That much is verifiable, but his own training is under a certain amount of debate.
His most questionable martial arts-related behavior, though, has been his association with various UFC fighters like Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Daniel Cormier. (He’s also tried to pal around with Jon Jones and give him tips, but the champ turned him down. This has clearly become one of the UFC’s more amusing in-jokes, but it’s less clear who is in on it. Silva was, but then began to distance himself from Seagal when the muumuu-sporting action hero started taking way too much credit for teaching him the kick that knocked out Vitor Belfort and Cormier definitely had his tongue in his cheek when he learned from the master before his fight last weekend. But Seagal himself either believes that he really is teaching these UFC whippersnappers something new, or he believes that we all believe him. And both of those options are uncomfortably sad at this point.
He also denies that Judo Gene Lebell ever choked him out despite all evidence to the contrary.
