What a Legend!
Well what can I say! I got to meet and train with the Kickboxing legend, Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez. last Tuesday evening. He is currently in Australia conducting a series of seminars. For the young ones, Master Benny is one of the most unique martial artists in the world and has 9 Black Belts in different styles which was unheard of in the late 70's. He holds 63 World titles in Kickboxing with an impressive fight record of over 200 wins, zero losses and 57 knockouts. Nicknamed ‘The Jet’ because of his lethal jump spinning back kick. Since retiring from the ring, he has devoted his time to acting and movies. Have a look at this fight scene between him and Jackie Chan said to be one of the best fight scenes on film.
I was in the Instructor's change room, with Dr Chris, at the Liverpool KMA centre when Sensei Benny and Master Fari walked in. The first thing he said to me, as we shook hands, was “I remember you.” That’s after 15 years when I attended his seminar in Sydney! That's amazing.
There was a large attendance which goes to show he still draws a crowd. He impressed us all with everything he said, did, show and teach. The floor exercises were outstanding. It was an absolutely sensational evening. We were then invited, by Master Fari, to have dinner with the legend which gave us an opportunity to have a really good talk with him.
The man has a certain aura about him; everybody listens when he talks, he is quite spiritual and is also into healing. In a nutshell, a super nice guy! Our Aussie legend, Shihan Richard Norton, has trained under him for many years and their friendship goes back to almost 30 years. Dr Chris and I get to see and train again with the legend next week which I am looking forward to. There's a lot more to say about this man but it's going to be too much for the blog.
On two occasions, Benny was having coffee with Richard at Starbuck's when I called Richard in the US. There will also be two legends this weekend having a cup of coffee – Mr John Will, and me (lol).
GA