Pro San Shou New York Showdown 4

San Shou 2001
The State of the Art

As we enter the second half of the year, there seems no question that 2001 is a historic moment for San Shou. The sport continues to develop both in the amateur and the professional divisions, increased media attention has exposed the art to the more mainstream martial arts community, the long discussed United States of America Sanshou Kungfu Federation finally became a reality, and the established programs continue to grow while new programs are developing. 2001 also saw all three major US kickboxing sanctioning bodies (USKBA, IKF and ISKA) establish legitimate, credible San Shou divisions by affiliating with topnotch promoters with top quality events. Of course, growth always produces some new problems and certain longstanding problems remain. Thus, this article will discuss both the good and the bad.

The amateur sport (tournament style)

Shawn Liu (center) Rudi Ott (L), Mike Altman (R)

Amateur San Shou is stronger that it has ever been in this country and continues to develop in several directions. The International Wushu Federation’s (IWUF) strong support of the sport, promoting both the world championships and now with the hope that San Shou will become an Olympic event in 2008, insures continuing interest in traditional amateur style competition as conducted on the Lei Tai (fighting stage), with full equipment and under IWUF regulation. There are more traditional style San Shou competitions that ever before including major events such as Shawn Liu’s US Open and Nick Scrima’s International Chinese Martial Arts Championships (ICMAC) and smaller events in locations around the country such as California, Texas, Puerto Rico, and Ohio. In an ironic twist, the USA WKF political situation has benefited many San Shou athletes if for no other reason that there are now two "national championships" they can compete in. However, it does appear that the USA WKF situation will be resolved by 2002.

Amateur San Shou continues to develop in other ways. The newly formed United States of America Sanshou Kungfu Federation (USASKF) has established three divisions for domestic San Shou tournament competition ranging from A division (for national ranking and/or open competition against international fighters) to a C division for beginners. The new format will allow more people to participate in San Shou, now knowing that they will not have to face a seasoned champion in their first fight of their first tournament.

In addition, the A division now allows continuous punching to the head except in the nationals and team trials (since these are both steps towards international competition where the IWUF rule is still be used, at least for now). Finally, for the first time an entire San Shou tournament was conducted in a boxing ring at the 5th US Open. Single matches in a ring have been done since the second "Full Contact Action" show in New York in 1997 but this was the first time an entire tournament was done in one. Many felt it was a step forward and makes the sport more spectator friendly.

In addition to the changing formats of competition, there have also been changes among the athletes. These changes can be summed up in three developments. First, the era when one or two programs dominated the sport has come to a close. Second, while established programs continue to grow there are also new programs being established which is important to the sport. Finally, the combined effect of these forces has resulted in more athletes competing than ever before.

In the United States, there has developed what has been called the "big six" of San Shou programs. The "big six" includes Boston San Shou, Cung Le’s San Jose team, NYKK, Scott Sheeley’s Iron Tigers, Mike Altman’s Houston San Shou and Brent Hamby’s EBM team. As they continue to produce top quality fighters, the competition between them is increasingly fierce and no longer does it seem that one team dominates. A good indication of this is the original composition of the US national San Shou team. The original team (sadly, Elan Schwarz injured himself training and will not be able to compete at the world championships) consisted of two Boston fighters, one fighter from Cung Le’s, one fighter from NYKK and one "independent" (Max Chen).

Individual San Shou (ring or "super fight" San Shou)

Single match or "super fight" San Shou, conducted in a boxing ring under conditions more similar to kickboxing, continues to build strength and gain fans. This type of San Shou is what attracted the attention of the kickboxing sanctioning bodies and currently all three major organizations have established legitimate, credible San Shou divisions with topnotch promoters providing top quality events. Of course, these events are also giving birth to the growing professional San Shou community.

Steve Fossum’s International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) has been interested in establishing a presence in San Shou for several years but experienced ups and downs. Fossum originally appointed San Francisco based Tat Mau Wong as president of the San Shou division and then briefly worked with the now defunct Draka organization (note: there is now another "Draka" group promoting shows but they are using Muay Thai rules. The original Draka group, promoting professional San Shou style matches is no longer active). Fossum also briefly worked with New York based promoters Steve Ventura and David Ross, pioneers of the ring San Shou movement. However, in 2001 Fossum appears to have made a successful alliance with professional San Shou champion Cung Le. As both the IKF and Cung Le are West Coast based, their alliance makes sense and Cung’s most recent event showed that he has what it takes to promote high quality shows necessary for the sport to grow.

Promotor Nick Scrima

Cung Le is perhaps the reason that the ISKA first became interested in San Shou. After ISKA officials saw Cung in a Draka event they realized that both the sport and the athlete would please kickboxing fans. The ISKA also experienced ups and downs in their attempts to establish a San Shou division. Early ISKA efforts mainly centered around Cung himself and a few of his top fighters. A major step forward for the ISKA was developing a relationship with Nick Scrima of Florida. At the 3rd ICMAC event held in March Nick Scrima organized 11 ISKA sanctioned San Shou bouts including one professional ISKA title and featuring some of the top fighters in the country. The fights were fantastic and the event a huge step forward for San Shou. In addition, the ISKA introduced their new "double 5" scoring method for San Shou. The so called "double 5" scoring system is perhaps the best method of transferring San Shou to a kickboxing "10 point must" system so far. Unfortunately, kickboxing politics being the way they are it is unlikely the other organizations will adopt this method if for no other reason than that the ISKA came up with it first.

Paul Rosner’s United States Kickboxing Association (USKBA) began entirely as an American rules, above the waist kickboxing organization. In fact, some even joked it was the home of the so called "kickboxing conspiracy", the term coined for the resistance of East Coast promoters to accept international styles of kickboxing such as leg kick, Muay Thai and most recently San Shou. Early USKBA shows were typically all American kickboxing but things changed because Paul Rosner saw the future of the sport and was open minded enough to evolve his organization. Rosner, to his credit, sought out the best people he could to work with him as he moved the USKBA to cover all forms of sport fighting.

USKBA began working with famous Kru Vladimir Borodin in order to expand it’s Muay Thai division and with Gene Fabrikant to develop a free style grappling division. In order to establish a San Shou division, Rosner allied himself with Steve Ventura and David Ross. As promoters, Ventura and Ross had promoted the first professional San Shou title match ever in 1997 and had pioneered ring style San Shou. Their current event, the New York Showdown series, has become one of the top international style kickboxing events in the country and features the best San Shou fighters consistently. The relationship keeps the USKBA well in the San Shou picture for many years to come.

Professional San Shou

Professional San Shou is still in its infancy but is growing fast. Professional San Shou began in 1997 with two events, the Pay-Per-View featuring Jason Yee vs. Cung Le and the first professional title match pitting Billy Maisonett vs. Keith Youngs at Ventura's and Ross' "Full Contact Action 2" show in New York. Since these events, the idea of becoming a professional San Shou fighter no longer seemed impossible and many former amateur champions have made the transition. Without a doubt, Cung Le has spearheaded the professional San Shou movement not only by fighting so many times but as acting as a spokesperson for the sport. Cung Le brought mainstream media attention to a sport only a few years ago no one had heard of.

The desire to secure a high profile, well paying match with Cung Le has also advanced the professional San Shou movement by bringing many non-San Shou fighters into the game. Recently, US Shootboxing Association champion and MMA fighter Jermaine Andre challenged Mohammed Leiman Keita for the ISKA cruiserweight San Shou title. Jermaine is a "name" fighter, not only for his titles and skils but also because he is a veteran of the UFC events. The ISKA wanted to position him fight Cung Le in a high profile championship match and hoped a win over Keita, whom Cung had defeated at the K-1 in a super fight, and an ISKA title would facilitate such a match. Jermain looked excellent in the match but the event was poorly promoted and conducted in out of the way West Virginia. In addition, Cung Le is no longer working with the ISKA. It makes the match highly unlikely.

Rudi Ott

Rudi Ott may be lower profile than Cung Le but nevertheless is one of San Shou’s top professional fighters. Rudi is a three time US national San Shou team member, multi time USA WKF national amateur champion and a former member of Jason Yee’s "dream team". Since turning pro, Rudi has a record of 7-1 and has defeated almost all of the American professional San Shou fighters in his weight class including Cary Nathan (twice), Doug Evans and KJ Noons. Rudi holds both ISKA and IKF professional San Shou titles and is the currnet captain of the US national San Shou team and is a favorite to medal at the world championships.

Yousef Taghizadeh

Professional San Shou has also benefited from a number of defections by members of top foreign teams. Iran, one of the top five San Shou teams in the world, was shocked when five of its national team members relocated to the United States. Currently, Yousef Taghizadeh is the highest profile Iranian fighter but others will probably soon make an impact on the American scene. For example, Reza Abasi will make his professional debut at New York Showdown 5. Abasi is in the 70 KG class and thus could match up well with a number of fighters including Doug Evans (California) and Peter Kaljivic (New York). Kaljivic has competed successfully in Japan in the Shootboxing and wants to become more active in San Shou. He could prove to be an important part of the evolving professional scene.

Under the guidance of NYKK, Yousef Taghizadeh has made a name for himself in the United States. Since arriving in the United States Yousef has defeated San Shou veteran Dan Garrett, Russian Muay Thai champion Vladimir Mrinsky and #1 ranked San Shou fighter James Cooper. The match against Cooper, for the USASKF world title, was held at the 5th US Open and was perhaps Yousef’s most important match because Cooper is so skilled and so strong. Despite the fact Yousef defeated Cooper, Cooper remains one of the top San Shou fighters in the country. Another highly anticipated match would be a match up between Cooper and Marvin Perry of Boston.

Marvin Perry

As expected, Boston San Shou produces excellent professionals as well as amateurs. Currentyl, Marvin Perry is their foremost professionl. Marvin may be the best pound for pound San Shou fighter the USA has ever produced (the fact that he and Cung Le are not close enough in weight to make a realistic match is quite unfortunate). Marvin has KO power with either leg (7 KO's in his last seven matches!) and a natural base which has made him extremely difficult to throw. Marvin’s hand skill is also rapidly improving, especially now that he has decided to fight under American kickboxing rules as well. Marvin is a phenomenal athlete and has won two USKBA professional kickboxing titles since turning pro.

The bad

While there is much to be optimistic about, San Shou still needs to resolve several problems that stand in its way. First and foremost, if it hopes to be accepted as a legitimate international sport, especially an Olympic one, it must address the issue of amateurs competing against professionals. Since first being introduced in this country, there has been a consistent problem of professionals competing in what are labeled as amateur tournaments. In 1997, Cung Le had already turned professional when he fought in the nationals and the organizers of the event had the poor judgment of matching him against an athlete who had never fought before. Similarly, James Cooper fought in the nationals in 2000 and was already an established professional fighter. Sadly, because the tournaments are still so low profile and poorly covered these problems are not addressed or slip through the cracks.

As professional San Shou grows and the kickboxing bodies become more involved, the issues become even more important because the profile is higher and the discrepancies easier for the public to see. Each sanctioning body must recognize the professional title holders of the others. A fighter who holds the professional title of one organization should not be fighting for the AMATEUR title of another organization. Things like this give a sport a black eye. Can you imagine Mike Tyson entering the local golden gloves?

Another short term problem has been caused by the USA WKF political situation. The internal split and the creation of two different events claiming to be "nationals" has produced West Coast and East Coast Champions. Fortunately, this is not the case in some divisions, Albert Pope and Marvin Perry won both events. In other cases, it is not an issue since one champion has met and defeated the other. For example, in the 60 kg Ejovi Nuwere won the West Coast title but has lost twice to Boris Yuganov the East Coast Champion. This still leaves divisions in which the "true champion" needs to be decided.

The immediate solution offered has been to run an "elimination series" and the New York Showdown series appears to be the venue. Already tentatively scheduled for the next New York Showdown show in September is a match pitting East Coast champion Julio Trujillo vs. West Coast Champion Rodrigo Zagal. Another possible match into the future would be West Coast Champion Max Chen vs. East Coast Champion Rob Shultz. Thus, the solution to the USA WKF situation may be the other organizations such as USKBA and the new United States of American Sanshou Kungfu Federation.

Finally, as the sport of San Shou grows and is taken up by many organizations, the US San Shou community must begin to self regulate and eventually establish written rules for all competitions. At present, the IWUF rules are largely unavailable except in Chinese and the "variations" are understood but not in writing. Paul Rosner's new professional wing, the World Sportfighting Association (WSA) has utilized a set of written rules for it's San Shou matches but the rules are not universally accepted and additionally are still in outline form. The need for standard written rules has been raised several times and was especially apparent at the "super fights" at the recent 5th US Open event.

The future still looks bright

In conclusion, the overall picture is very positive and the future seems quite bright for San Shou. More events, more programs and more athletes means that the sport will continue to grow and the possibility of San Shou becoming an Olympic sport in 2008 will only support these trends. The professional division has also grown and become established. The remaining problems are for the most part structural and can be easily resolved if the community sticks together as they have so far.