History
Benny "The Jet" Urquidez
I met Benny Urquidez in 1978 when I was in the USA on my exploratory trip to that country's martial arts situation. I had just recently joined WAKO in Europe. I had heard a lot of stories about “American-style karate” and it was clear to me that the only way to discover the “truth” was to go and see for myself.
Born in 1952, Benny was steered toward the martial arts by his brother Arnold. At 14 years of age he earned his first black belt and by 20 he was already a first-rate star in the Open Championships around the country. In 1973 he fought in a famous final of Ed Parker's Internationals against Natividad who finally beat him 13-12 in overtime. From point karate he soon moved on to full contact and then to Japanese-style full contact, using kicks to the legs. Always deeply in love with the martial arts, the event that drove Benny to this type of combat was an open tournament in Hawaii where there were practically no rules. He won in a final against an opponent who out-weighed him by 30 kilos. The fighting was bare-fisted and Benny won by KO.
When I met Benny he was working between professional matches as a full contact instructor at a centre bearing his name, the “Jet Centre” in Los Angeles, a beautiful gym he had opened with a developer friend and with his brother Arnold who, in 1976, founded the World Karate Association (WKA) together with Howard Hanson. The Centre was huge and the Urquidez brothers used it to host monthly full contact tournaments. They placed a ring in the centre of the building and put 4 or 5 hundred chairs around it. It was a nice showcase for a regular activity that was useful for drawing people in. I remember in those years dozens of fighters who went to the Jet Centre to take lessons from Benny. Among them was an Australian who I had a chance to know better years later, Stan “The Man” Longinidis! That year I wrote a story about Benny which appeared in many Italian and foreign magazines and we then kept in touch with letters. My dream was to bring him to Italy eventually.
The occasion presented itself a few years later, in 1983. Aware that he had a match in Holland against Ivan Sprang, I contacted him to see if it would be possible to extend his stay in Europe and come to Italy immediately after his match for a series of training sessions that I would organise for my organisation, which was then called the Federazione Italiana Arti Marziali (FIAM). Benny accepted and we agreed that I would go to Amsterdam to see his match and the next day we would leave for Italy.
I had never before seen Benny fight in person. I had admired him on videocassettes, in particular his most famous fights against Japan's Kusimatsu Okao, starting in 1977. He would wear his usual long full contact-style red pants against his opponents in shorts. I was always impressed by his continuity of action, his boxing skill and spectacular back kicks. But in Holland, even though he was past his prime, I witnessed one of the most memorable feats I can remember. He was facing Ivan Sprang from the Dutch Antilles, a fighter of Tom Harinck, the founder of the famous Chakuriki Gym, one of the best known in Europe. While Ivan normally fought at between 67 and 70 kilos, he lost weight to fight Benny at 64 kg, but you could see that he was much bigger than the American. Benny had never seen Sprang nor even heard of him before, but being a professional of such high calibre he didn't give it much thought. In the ring the victory goes to the best. Sprang got off to a fast start, especially with his superior low-kicks, which he landed incessantly on his adversary. Benny absorbed everything without flinching, but he kept on inching closer to his opponent, and when he could he attacked, mostly with punches. For three endless rounds Sprang went on, apparently demolishing the American. How Benny could withstand such punishment to his legs, only he could know. Very worried, I watched from ringside and saw a bad ending coming for Benny. But I was soon to discover that Benny was endowed with extraordinary inner strength. If you will, he was in the same situation as Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa when he faced that meat grinder called George Foreman. Ali took everything Foreman could dish out for six exhausting rounds. Then, he realized his opponent had punched himself out and he quickly landed two punches to his face and knocked Foreman out. Up to that point Benny had only been a shadow of what I had always admired on video. He left his corner in the fourth round and his opponent, moving forward to continue his attack, was nailed by a hard punch and fell to the canvas for the first time. After being counted, Sprang continued the match, but during those few seconds the situation had been turned upside down. It was Benny now who danced around Sprang and placed his blows with precision. Sprang ended up being ridiculed and by then, on the brink of psycho-physical exhaustion, only had to be hit by a small punch to collapse to the floor and never get up again. Incredibly, Benny had won by KO.
The following morning we left for Milan where 150 training session participants were waiting for him. I had rented the Palazzo dello Sport, the largest arena in the city for the event.
All of us know that after having fought in the ring and, above all, after such an intense match as Benny vs. Sprang, the next day your body is in great pain. Your muscles just don't want to stretch and any movement hurts, a real torture. But not for Benny. With the punctuality of a Swiss watch, Benny didn't go back on his word in spite of his badly bruised and traumatized legs. He taught us a memorable as well as historic lesson. He trained with the athletes, dutifully went through the warm-ups, stretching, basic moves and combination techniques and even sparring. He introduced “his system” of full contact with “kicks to the legs”, which in retrospect was his adaptation from karate systems, transformed according to the needs of modern concepts. Everybody was enraptured with him. We spent a few more days together, and then he flew back to the U.S.A. I invited him and his wife to come to Italy as my guests another two times for sessions in the centre and south of Italy. Later we kept on corresponding by letter.