Kumite Madness – The Crazy And Outrageous Claims Of Frank Dux

Frank Dux may not be a name that is familiar to everyone. This is especially true if you’ve only just started taking part in martial arts, or are under 25 years old – Frank Dux will not be instantly recognizable.

However, if you have any kind of interest in martial arts films or crazy stories, it’s likely you will at least know of the movie Bloodsport. To briefly summarise, Bloodsport is a movie in which Dux is played by Jean Claude Van-Damme. Although none of the claims in the movie have been proven, it is thought to be based on the life of Frank Dux and is largely centered around taking part (and winning) in an extremely large international kumite.

When we delve deeper into the details of the Bloodsport storyline, events in the movie go from becoming shocking and unbelievable to becoming near impossible. The claims Frank Dux has made during his life cast further doubt on the story since he has been caught saying things that weren’t quite true on a number of occasions.

Analyzing The Kumite In Further Detail

The details of Frank Dux’s kumite came to light when the story was published in an issue of Black Belt Magazine during the early 1980s. The story was so fascinating that it garnered a lot of attention. Due to the fact that there was no UFC or any kind of fighting tournament, this made people interested in how such an event would play out.

Perhaps the biggest hole in the kumite story is the logistics and mathematics of such a tournament.

By the own accounts of Dux, he claims that the kumite was 3 days long, with competitors having 20 fights per day. Not only this but the losers were sent home at the end of each day. A large 128-man tournament has 7 rounds if you reach the final. If a tournament had 10 rounds, it would have over 1000 participants. Bearing in mind that Dux claimed he was having 20 single-elimination fights per day, this would be a LOT of people in the Bahamas for a secret martial arts tournament and would require a huge amount of organization and staff to pull off. In fact, it would be by far the largest combat tournament the world has ever seen.

The logistics of a tournament would have been incredibly hard to pull off. As this tournament allegedly took place in the 1970s, even the brackets would be difficult to generate since it could not be done by the touch of a button and 10 lines of computer code. Then we have to factor in referees, medical staff, flights for the competitors, and even the venue itself. Obviously, this is a lot of money, time, and effort for a martial arts tournament that is so top secret nobody else has ever spoken about it.

56 Consecutive Knockouts

By his own accounts, Dux knocked out 56 men consecutively during the secret kumite. Anyone who has watched or competed in any kind of martial arts should find this confusing, to say the least.

To put this in perspective, Derrick Lewis has the most knockouts in the UFC (13). LaMar Clark has the most consecutive knockouts in boxing (42). Clark fought against very limited opposition and was knocked out 3 times by professional opposition.

Nonetheless, these records were set over a long period of time and are probably true. There is no dispute over these records and all of the fights had a live audience.

Frank Dux claims 56 knockouts over a 3-day period, which is really quite an incredible claim. The fatigue alone would be difficult to overcome in order to knock out 56 men in a row. Not to mention, if you’re fighting full-contact MMA, you’re likely going to have taken a lot of hits to your own head too.

Real Kumites Of The Time Period

It should be noted that a structured kumite for karate tournaments did actually happen during this time period. Such tournaments however were not international, nor secret. During these tournaments, there would be a time-limited bout in a round-robin format. Therefore it was possible to have 20 fights in a single day, but many of these would end in a draw. This kind of kumite happened almost exclusively in Japan and is still used to a lesser degree when grading students to higher belts.

It should go without saying however, that there would not be over 100 competitors in a karate kumite, let alone several thousand, or million as Dux claimed.

Japan & Learning Ninjutsu

Dux claims to have had a fairly normal childhood before meeting his Ninjutsu teacher Senzo “Tiger” Tanaka. Although Dux claims he was taken to Japan to train as a ninja aged 16, there is no proof that this trip ever happened. Not only this, but nobody in Japan Ninjutsu circles knows who Senzo Tanaka is, nor is there any record of this man ever training, competing, or being associated with martial arts.

Furthermore, Ninjutsu is a mixture of martial arts with legitimate ninja skills such as espionage, assassination, and sabotage. Whilst these skills are certainly useful for feudal Japan, they aren’t going to help a whole lot in a mixed martial arts tournament. The fact that you could be 19 years old with ninjutsu training and be able to defeat seasoned kickboxers, wrestlers, and judokas in a martial arts tournament is laughable. Not only this but there is no proof that the said training ever took place. Not a single photograph, flight ticket, or any kind of record at all.

CIA & Stolen Valour

One of the most outrageous claims from Dux is that he was an undercover CIA agent. Before this, he was also on a special operations team aged 18 in the Vietnam war earning a purple heart for his efforts.

Military records show a different story. Dux never actually left America and only had a single injury during his time spent at the marines – which was falling off a truck. The contrast between these two versions of events are quite different – as such Dux has been accused of stolen valor by a number of retired military personnel, most notably by Burkett & Whitley in a book literally titled “Stolen Valour”.

Sunglasses & Steven Seagal

Two unrelated, but equally bizarre claims by Frank Dux are about sunglasses and Steven Seagal.

You will have likely seen photographs and videos of Frank Dux wearing sunglasses during interviews in well-lit rooms and wondered why this was. According to the man himself, Dux claims this is a result of excessive blows to the head. As a result, he is sensitive to light, so needs to wear sunglasses indoors. This is actually one of the most viable stories that Dux has ever mentioned and is a legitimate physical condition known as photophobia. However, whether it is true or not can probably be calculated by examining his many other stories.

Even more strangely, Dux states that he was once offered $25 000 to assassinate martial arts movie director and actor – Steven Seagal. This story is so strange that it doesn’t even begin to make sense. Firstly, Steven Seagal is a low-level movie director and has no real vendettas or involvement in illicit activities. Therefore by this logic, we can assume that nobody wants him dead.

Secondly, if somebody did actually want to assassinate Steven Seagal, why would they approach Frank Dux as the hitman? This single story leaves us with more questions than answers.

Of course, this incident was never bought to the police, and there is no record of it other than what Frank Dux has to say. This fits the pattern of many of the other short stories we have heard over the years.

Summary

The life and many stories of Frank Dux are embellished at best.

Many of the aforementioned tales are provably incorrect, by either accounts of other trustworthy people, or by pure logic. Are you really going to win an invite-only martial arts tournament on a small Caribbean island with no footage ever released? Not to mention no other witnesses of the event other than one of Dux’s students.

If you’d like to learn more about the culture surrounding Kumite then check out this historical Karate book.