Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Great Jim Kelly


Jim Kelly 1970 Tournament Fight


"Tattoo Connection"

Thanks to Bob over at "Striking Thoughts" for this tip on a 1970 Jim Kelly Karate tournament fight. Kelly was a well-rounded athlete in basketball, football and track and field at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. He went on to study Shorin-Ryu and Okinawa-Te Karate and later opened his own school after winning an international middleweight championship. Kelly is best recognized for his role as "Williams" in Bruce Lee's "Enter The Dragon". He later went on to star in "Black Belt Jones", The Tattoo Connection", "Three The Hard Way" and other films. The guy at THIS BLOG met Kelly recently at a Brew Pub in Huston, and found out Kelly is still getting movie offers, and runs his own Tennis club. It's a good "Where are they now" review, and has a few good pictures.
As far as Kelly's tournament fight above, he has great reach and it's a scrappy fight. I'd like to know who the other fighter is, they are pretty evenly matched and the outcome is unclear.

6 comments:

uchi deshi said...

Have you been checking out the series "Human Weapon"? They just had a program about silat, which I wasn't familiar with. Very interesting!

Sean C. Ledig said...

I like those old tournament films. Too bad that guy kept blocking the camera.

BSM said...

Man that second clip is a riot!

~BCP

Dojo Rat said...

No, I hate to say it but I haven't seen a single "Human Weapon". No Tivo, other things going on. Maybe I can catch it on google video or youtube...

Unknown said...

Kelly had a lot going for him - the look, the physique, speed. I agree that it's hard to tell who came out on top in this one. I had a couple of early points for Kelly, but then some nice reverse punches for his opponent.
Been loving your old school series.

John Wood said...

Pat's doing his promote 3 Meme again and since I'm near the bottom I can pick whomever to promote and you're one of the lucky 3. Keep up the great work.
http://mokurendojo.blogspot.com/2007/06/promote-three-meme.html