History
Bill Wallace
The airplane from New York is one hour late and along with Bruno Munda I tremble at the thought of meeting Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, "the monster" as the press has termed him. Lemmens, Valera, Didier and Paschy have always openly praised him. However, I'm a bit skeptical of him, partly because this time the "Master" comes from the USA, not Japan. You can't blindly trust everything coming from America, especially when it regards the martial arts because it is a jungle that contains both the most serious professionals and the most unscrupulous con men.
After a while, we spot a typical American walking out of customs. Very short hair on top of a smallish face, beady eyes, a big neck out of his wide shoulders and powerful arms, he has an animal's gait, he's wearing a bright-colored striped T-shirt…that's him, Bill Wallace. Somewhat embarrassed, we exchange the usual formalities and then he puts down two rather heavy suitcases and takes two Baby Ruth candy bars out of his pocket and offers them to us, saying "they're mighty good!" Well, this is Bill Wallace all right, 31 years old, born in Portland, Indiana, and for some years now residing in Memphis, Tennessee, the Southern state famous for many American writers.
Bill has a Master of Science degree and teaches kinesiology at Memphis State University. But he's also a joker, a lively boy all too ready to have fun, to make faces, even play and run with my daughter, Francesca. He's very open, kind and willing to break the ice with perfect strangers, a slap on their shoulders and a Coke in his hand. At first you would think he's a little bit crazy, but when you start talking about karate or, any similar subject, he changes immediately into a very serious person. Thus, you understand that behind his childish mask there's a profound knowledge of our sport, its personalities, philosophy and technique. I believe he represents the synthesis of everything that is "fighting".
He has been this new sport's world middleweight champion since 1974. We saw him in Europe in Berlin in 1975 and then again in Paris last year, where he KO'd his rival with a lateral kick (yoko geri) after just 15 seconds. He has defended his title 9 times so far, winning 7 by KO and twice on points.
In our gym, Il Coccio, in Milan, we watched the video of his most recent title defense against challenger Blinky Rodriguez and we noticed that full contact is less violent than expected. It's somewhat like boxing for the use of the arms and karate for the legs. During the match, lasting nine 3-minute rounds, with intervals of 1 minute between rounds, Bill was almost never touched by his opponent. Wallace fights in an extremely intelligent way and his fighting style, technique and athletic ability enable him to do so. With his left leg he literally slaps his rival's face at will, at short range he uses his boxing skill and in clinches he throws his opponent with a hane-goshi or O-goshi. Thus, for Superfoot, full contact is a blend of boxing, judo and karate.
It was my pleasure to interview him during a training stage at our dojo "Il Ciocco".
Q. How did you get started in karate?
A. After four years in the Marine Corps. In college I had started wrestling and then Catch, but the Marines didn't offer any course in wrestling, so I switched to Judo. I got my first Dan belt, but during a match I suffered ligament and cartilage damage to my right knee (for this reason in karate I only use my left leg). I decided to drop Judo, but I still had the full use of my left leg so I took up karate in California. I studied for 2 years under a local Shorin Ryu master to whom I owe a great deal. In spite of the fact that this style forbids kicks above the waist, he encouraged me to create something of my own. I fell in love with karate at once because it was different. We always sparred against a partner and could immediately verify how well a technique was working against a real opponent. Had my instructor insisted on kihon alone, I would surely have dropped karate. In Shorin Ryu you work from in lateral stance and yokogeri and richen uchi are the most frequently used techniques. These two became the basis for my fighting style in full contact.
Q. Tell us something about your competitive career.
A. I started karate in San Bernardino, California and then continued it in Indiana where I found an instructor who stressed fighting and took me around to compete in tournaments. I liked it immediately and often won.
Q. And then?
A. My career took off rapidly. I captured and held the national tile from 1971 to 1973. Then, in 1974, before moving to on to full contact, I won two of the most prestigious tournaments in the USA, the Top Ten Nationals, pitting the best ten fighters in the country against each other, and the USA Championships.
Q. I remember from specialized American magazines like "Black Belt" that you always wore a black gi. Why?
A. Since in Shorin Ryu you can wear any color, I have always preferred black. It brought me good luck and furthermore, the white gi showed all the stains from kicking.
Q. At the time also Chuck Norris, a seven time world champion, was around, what do you think of him?
A. Chuck retired right when I was starting to win my first tournaments. When I still had my Memphis dojo he came to see me because he had begun organizing tournaments. I think he's incredibly powerful, but I have never faced him in a match.
Q. How did Full Contact start in the USA?
A. It started for various reasons. Traditional karate techniques and fights have never been credible because you cannot verify if a blow is truly valid in the absence of visible consequences. We Americans love reality and simplification, so it was decided to do without the central referee who was the absolute decision-maker on the winner. Moreover, we have a longstanding admiration for a match between two people facing each other like men should. We like to see a lot of action and nice fluid technique, not just violent blows. In traditional karate it is always more difficult to see all this, so in the USA when you mention karate people immediately think of kicks to the face, while in Europe, where by karate you mean open hands or bare fists. Lastly, Americans like watching real fights and being able to root and not being silent as if you were in a temple.
Q. This is true. I remember in 1968 when I was at the San Francisco Cow Palace, which could hold a crowd of 11,000, there were no more than 2,000 people present for the first World Championship, and even less at the WUKO World Championships in Long Beach. Certainly, very few people have attended karate events. What about Full Contact?
A. I shouldn't be the one to say this, but for my latest title defense, besides being the first match shown from beginning to end on TV, there were 11,000 paying spectators. In the South-Eastern USA, in Texas and Florida, Full Contact is very widespread and highly popular thanks to the efforts of organizers and promoters like Don Quine, who is my manager, and Joe Corley, his wife. The Professional Karate Association, of which Quine is president, includes the best pros such as Urquidez, Jeff Smith and others. It is involved with everyone and ensures the mass media coverage that is the key to success.
Q. Do you think that Full Contact has a future in Europe, what with the general skepticism and the opposition of official Federations that fear that Full Contact might deteriorate owing to bad fighters?
A. I'm very hopeful. Also in the USA, Full Contact's birthplace, there were people like Aaron Banks who organized fake World Championships, offering 100 dollars to fighters who had little to do with karate and the martial arts in general. If I removed from the Italian ski team champions like Thoeni, Gross and Radici, and replaced them with 4 th rate skiers, what would happen? The performance level and interest in the sport would plummet. The same is true for Full Contact. The problem is to guarantee good fighters who know their job well. Can you imagine a tournament where you see fighters who can't kick above the knee and who are out of wind after every exchange. That would confirm the traditionalists' negative opinions, but this is not the case with us. PKA fighters demand to be paid for their professionalism, but the spectacle is always guaranteed.
Q. Then what are the main problems in developing Full Contact?
A. Creating good fighters is the biggest problem. After my next match in Monte Carlo next year, I want to retire and devote myself to teaching. Already in the USA there are a few good kickers emerging, and even here at this training session I've noticed a few who could make it. But it takes time… and excellent instruction. There is still a lot of reluctance, but people will be convinced when they fully understand Full Contact. You fear only what you don't know.
Q. Many detractors (and I have some guilt here) say that Full Contact is not a martial art. What do you think?
A. It's false. I absolutely think Full Contact is a martial art. Just what is a martial art? It's a type of fighting with the practical purpose of defending against (or attacking) our aggressor and the theoretical-philosophical aspect which aims to spiritually elevate the practitioner through sparring. Well, Full Contact is the best self-defense around and I would pit a Full Contact fighter against anyone. Through fighting we gain all the values such as respect for your adversary and transcending pain, etc. which certainly improve the individual.
Q. People also say there's no religion or philosophy behind Full Contact, which is also why it's not viewed as a martial art, whereas Karate implies teaching a lot more than just technique.
A. I believe this is a big mistake. When fighting you and I gain respect for one another and for what we are doing, the art of Full Contact. Can you say that I'm not a religious person only because I don't go to church? I don't think so. Can't you see that I treat Full Contact like a religion and philosophy that engulfs my life entirely, for which I train 3 to 4 hours per day six days a week? My life revolves around Full Contact, which is my religion. If you say that Full Contact doesn't have anything to do with Bushido, I agree, but that's fine with me. Bushido is a backward notion for me, and so is the Japanese insistence on that outdated spirit of killing and its war-machine assassins. That's reactionary stuff. I believe in the Bushi spirit only for that special way we face danger or death.
Q. What do you think of the Japanese, since we're on the subject?
A. Many of them are excellent teachers, but they too have their share of clowns among them. Anyway, all of them have a huge defect in that they believe their style is perfect and immutable. They suffer from tunnel vision, while their own philosophy, Buddhism, teaches that life and reality are always changing. You see, they only teach gyakutsuzki and maegeri. I remember in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana, I fought the All Japan Karate Champion. He only attacked in a straight line. All I had to do was move out of his way and land my hook-kick (ura-mawashi). I gazed his head and he fell. He got up, looked at me in amazement and left. You see, I had done something that he might have never seen before, something that was not part of his universe. In America Full or Light Contact will take care of everything. Originally karate was taught by the Koreans and by the Japanese. The rules for scoring a point in Tae-kwon-do are the opposite of Japanese karate. If you don't use feet you score nothing, while in Japanese karate you must use punches. At a certain point we said ‘everything goes as long as its done well'. That was the beginning of Full Contact.
Q. Who developed Full Contact technique? You fight from a side stance while Urquidez uses a traditional frontal stance.
A. Each of us has developed Full Contact in the sense that Joe Lewis, Harold Jackson, Ross Scott, Jeff Smith and I have all had to take on all comers to prove that Full Contact works. We had to try everything, combining wrestling, judo, boxing and karate. Then each of us extracted the technique that was best suited to our physical abilities and ‘invented' his own style. But I imagine it's the same for you