Prepare for The Most Anticipated Kajukenbo (The Original MMA) Gathering of the Year 2008                    

     A Tribute   To Our Founder Sijo Adriano Emperado             

 The 1st Annual Council Of  World Kajukenbo Grand Masters Seminar & Tournament Event 

The KOA Grand Masters and The Sifu Society proudly present one of The Most Prestigious World Mixed Martial Arts, KAJUKENBO Tournament Ever.  July 17-19, 2008. 

Come train with among the World’s Best Kajukenbo Instructors at the KOA Grand Masters Seminar,  and Compete in Kata Soft & Hard Style Forms, Weapons, Self Defense and with Multiple Men Attacks, Escrima-Stick Fighting, Kickboxing/Muay Thai (Stand Up Fighting), Stand Up  and Ground Grappling-Jiu-Jitsu, Weapons Defense, Continuous Sparring, Point Sparring, Knife to Knife Sparring, PressurePoints, including Movie & Stunt Opportunities.

Click  on below links for more details on Tournament, Seminar, Dinner Dance Banquet, and Rules/Regulations:    

 http://www.kajukenbo-koa.com/forms

http://www.kajukenbo-koa.com/tournament_rules___regulations

 http://www.kajukenbo-koa.com/friday seminars party                                             

http://www.kajukenbo-koa.com/saturday tournament all day     

Guila’s Team G-Force on Discovery Channel’s “Fight Quest” Friday, Feb. 29th, 2008

“Fight Quest” a new show on the Discovery Channel to feature Kajukenbo-The Original Mixed Martial Art to be aired on Feb. 29th on the Discovery Channel at 8pm. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Photo from L-R  IKF World Classic 2007 Middlewt. Kickboxing Champion Team G-Force Fighter Logan Kauth, Fight Quest Star Host Doug Anderson,  Professor Dennis Guila,  &  Sibak Craig Guila on set of Discovery Channel Filming of Fight Quest.          

This episode will include some of Guila’s Fight Team exhibiting Fight Scenes of some of their Fighting skills from Stand-up Fighting  to Take Downs and Submissions that make up the total style of Kajukenbo.

Photos Below taken during filming of Fight Quest Fight Scene with Sifu Alex Guila and Aaron Zaballos in the “Bull Ring”

Photo above L-R Logan Kauth, Aaron Zaballos, Sifu Alex Guila and Sibak Craig Guila during break on film set of Fight Quest.

Photo above After Film day 3, A Long Day’s Work, Sibak Fos & Aaron Z. (Bottom Rt. Corner) Celebrate Memorable Moments During Filmaking of Discovery Channel’s Fight Quest.

(Photo above)  Celebrating with Fight Quest Stars-Doug Anderson & Jimmy Smith in Los Angeles, Ca.

Congratulations to Professor Dennis Guila for yet another milestone. On Saturday December 15, 2007 he was presented the prestigious “2007 Instructor of the Year” Award by the “World Martial Arts Masters”

The governing body of the W.M.A.M. consisting of Grand Masters Eric Lee,  Sid Campbell, and Master Mark Gerry nominated Professor Guila for the outstanding accomplishments he has led his awesome school and Team G-Force competitors in achieving in 2007, including countless local, national, and international competition awards, (4) World Kickboxing Championship Titles at the IKF World Classic Kickboxing Championships in Orlando, Florida (recognized as the Golden Gloves of Kickboxing) in which the International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) is known for sanctioning some of the best world championship bouts around the World and fighters in Muay Thai, American Kickboxing, Int’l Style Rules and Mixed Martial Arts (ISCF)  where many IKF fighters would later win and/or participate in other prominent events such as K-1, UFC, IFL.  Another recognized factor in Guila’s Instructor of the Year award is his Love, Passion, and Dedication to his pupils and to the Martial Arts. 

Last year’s World Martial Arts Masters nominee ”2006 Instructor of the Year” was John Hackleman, coach of UFC Champion Chuck Liddel.  And in “2005 Instructor of the Year” was Ernie Reyes Sr.

Hats off to Professor for an outstanding year!

Antioch, CA- October 28, 2007 - By IKF/PKB.COM (Int’l Kickboxing Federation/Point Kickboxing) President, Johhny Davis

This past Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007 IKF/PKB Promoter Dennis Guila of Antioch, CA hosted yet another successful IKF Point Kickboxing Tournament. An enthusiastic group of men, women and children came from across Northern California to participate in this growing semi contact action-packed event! Guila stated that “I’m pleased with the event and plan to continue to contribute to the growth of such an exciting sport and division!” Guila and his team set up an impressive padded floor ring where all of the fights took place. The action was hot as the packed house of spectators screamed to the top of their lungs for their favorite fighter…erupting often into an ocean of hands waving and chanting!

In the audience was IKF CEO Mr. Steve Fossum who came to support the event and speak to the fighters ” This is where it starts and you need to understand that its not about winning or losing its about showing up and walking the walk” he stated strongly. Mr. Fossum who is responsible for building the International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) that encompasses world wide Kickboxing, mixed martial arts (ISCF) and semi contact kickboxing events. “He has poured many years of hard work to grow the IKF and the benefits have been proven over the years as many IKF champions would later win and, or participate in prominent events like K1, the IFL and UFC” said promoter Guila about Fossum.

“This was certainly another exciting event and everyone seemed to have a good time” stated IKF West Coast PKB Representative Ms. Rubie Navarro who also had a group of impressive fighters on hand that gave notable showings in all of their bouts. IKF/PKB President Johnny Davis expressed to everyone the importance of following the rules as well as emphasizing the importance of knockouts not being allowed in this type of semi- contact competition. “Fighters and fans sometimes become anxious to see more contact and its up to the officials to make sure that contact is controlled no matter what. This must be a priority for the IKF/PKB Division as well as trainers to properly coach their fighters for this type of competition said Davis. He continued, this is a great competition and we look forward to starting our IKF Point Kickboxing Circuit in January 2008. We are currently looking at about one IKF Point Kickboxing event a month in 2008 somewhere in Northern, CA as it stands today. This point system will give fighters the opportunity to compete and win a certain amount points based on their performance and in the end of the year, the participants with the most points will receive awards and championship titles. Moreover, we have executed our new website www.IKFPKB.com to keep everyone up to date on IKF/PKB News, Circuit standings and more. I’m extremely excited about what IKF Point Kickboxing tournaments can do for the entire sport of kickboxing…the future is bright but only with the support of all of the fighters, trainers and fans that come out and make these events successful!”

Mrs. Guila who is the other/better half of the Guila Team said it eloquently, ” What the IKF has developed with the Point Kickboxing is becoming a trend. I mostly only heard positive comments about the event and the future of the IKF/PKB. Many of the old school martial artist are starting to recognize this event and want to get involved…its such a good thing!”

We at the IKF/PKB would like to thank Mr. Dennis Guila and his team as well as all of the trainers who stepped up to assist with the judging and referring . More on the IKF/PKB 2008 Circuit coming soon as well as the results from this past weekend’s excellent event.

The diagram below shows the lineage of Guila’s Hawaiian Kajukenbo Kickboxing, starting with the founder of Kenpo James Mitose. It shows the five members of the Blackbelt Society that started Kajukenbo, Sijo (Founder) Adriano Emperado (Kenpo), Co-Founder Peter Young Yil Choo (Karate-Tang Soo Do), Co-Founder Joe Holck (Judo & Jiu Jitsu), Co-Founder Frank Ordonez (Jiu Jitsu), and Co-Founder Clarence Chang (Chinese Boxing). You can click on the diagram to enlarge it.

And this is the Kajukenbo Family tree as of 2005. Click to enlarge. Warning - it is a LARGE file.

Master Dennis Guila on The Importance of Character “Search The Truth Not From The Surface But From Within”

On June 2nd, 2007, Master Dennis Guila was inducted in the U.S.A. Martial Arts Hall of Fame. This institution has been overseen by Dr. Jim Thomas since 1992; it evolved from a karate-specific honor roll under Thomas and the late Great Grandmaster Robert Trias that goes back to the 70’s.   Following a “silent” recognition process in which a previous Hall of Fame inductee anonymously nominated Guila, the June 2, 2007 ceremony took place in Los Angeles, California.  Guila’s induction came after his thirty-plus member competition team captured 304 wins in 2005 and 2006, including 43 grand champion titles, 165 gold medals, 67 silvers and 29 bronzes. “Competing is a big thing for us,” admits Guila. “We do a lot of competitions - full contact and traditional martial arts - on the national and international level.” However, the honors and victories are just part of the picture for Guila. “Its about putting to test each individual’s skill. Whether they win, lose or draw is not most important, its what they learned or gained to improve themselves. This is a crucial area where the character building process takes place in ones life and in martial arts.”

Master Guila started his warrior’s journey at age nine in San Francisco under Lenny Beliso then in Hawaii, under Grandmaster George Iversen, a dojo brother of Grandmaster’s Albert Dacascos and Alfred Dela Cruz, both under the Adriano Emperado’s Kajukenbo lineage. “They grew up in the martial arts together and always shared creative ideas”, recalls Guila. “Grandmaster Iversen would have Grandmaster Dacascos over to help his students. Where my experience comes from is such individuals like these.” Guila started teaching professionally at age twenty. As an assistant to Grandmaster Edmund Louis (also student of late GM George Iversen) of Leeward Kenpo Karate in Hawaii from approximately 1985-1995, Guila came to the mainland in 1996 with aspirations to open his own school. “I took in a handful of individuals who would be my core instructors,” remembers Guila. “Alex Guila, my son, is the backbone to our dojo and competition team, Team G Force. My wife of 28 years Roberta Guila has continuously supported my passion in life for the martial arts and has become a significant partner in our business. In addition, Fos Fiame another staff member, have been my support team. They too deserve a lot of the credit as well.”

With over thirty years of experience as a professional, Guila questions some of the current trends in professional martial arts today. “Growing up in the martial arts world in Hawaii and here, I had the opportunity of observing the evolution of many changes that have taken place in the martial arts community” says Guila emphatically. “I found that a lot of instructors out there in the newer generations have forgotten about the traditional purpose of martial arts. I guess that comes with commercialization of the business. My desire as a professional martial artist is that I like to make sure that what I offer as a service to my students, whether young or old, is that they get the type of training that covers not only the physical aspect of martial arts but also the philosophies - the moral value of the training, the character building - from the ancient times of martial arts, back when the monks from centuries past had started creating and developing ideas of martial arts through philosophy. In other words, know how to avoid confrontation by wisdom first.”

Character building is the hallmark of traditional training. Guila hopes that his legacy is more than just trophies and honors, but a reputation for carrying on the tradition of martial arts the way the ancient masters had originally intended. Guila stresses this in his approach to training in what he calls “a no-nonsense intent of giving what’s most important ” the character building process that martial arts offers ” to students young or old. Character building includes respect, honesty, integrity, loyalty, self control, focus, confidence and, of course, humility just to name a few.”

Coming from Hawaii half of his life, Guila was brought up surrounded by what Hawaiians call “ohana,” an ideal that stresses the importance of family. This is reflected in his approach to teaching. “What I strive to really do is to try and support parents that don’t have the time to raise their kids with certain discipline. The way society is today whereby parents are both working and kids come home to no supervision - We are faced with a lot of bad influences there on the television and the radio - children nowadays have it really hard. Many children are being pushed under severe peer pressure which gets them involved with things that are not suitable for any child ” sometimes drugs, sometimes gangs, alcoholism etc. My thing is that I enjoy the challenge of trying to instill good character in these students that don’t know otherwise, because they lack the guidance at home or at school to provide them with that. This all goes back to self control, discipline, focus, respect ” the ancient masters’ philosophies ” part of what they set out to develop in the martial arts. We train our students from the inside out ” spiritually, mentally and then physically. We talk about internal training and spiritual training; we talk about motivational, inspirational type, oral representations and to lead by example. To show physically a student how to execute is one aspect, but along with verbal communication to actually speak and communicate adds to the balance of spirit, mind and body.”

With the rise of mixed martial arts, it’s important for Master Guila to see positive character building maintained through teaching. Nevertheless Guila’s takes full advantage of his tradition and his personal winning record. “Our specialty is Muay Thai and Kickboxing. Our foundation is Kajukenbo. Kajukenbo is the first original mixed martial art ever born in the United States, particularly in Hawaii before becoming a state in 1947. Today, more than ever now that mixed martial arts are becoming a very popular entity for fight enthusiasts, we as Kajukenboists are proud to share we are the original mixed martial arts system/organization with the name of Kajukenbo. “Ka” for Tang Soo Do Karate, “ju” for judo and jujitsu, “ken” for kenpo and “bo” for Chinese and western boxing. We specialize here in kickboxing because I had personally fought in the ring. I retired as a reigning WKA full contact heavyweight champion out of Hawaii.”

So what’s the secret to getting into a hall of fame? Perhaps it lies in Master Guila’s personal objectives. “Perfect practice is my goal. When I teach, I teach with high caliber instructions. Training and practicing is one thing. That’s what we all set up and intend to do. But the difference in what separates champions and winners, I take it a step above that. This not only includes my more advanced students, but it also includes my beginner level that are all part of my team and my school. I’m not perfect (laughs). Nobody’s perfect. However, The better we can give our students from a teacher’s standpoint, the more perfect practice we can give our students, the more perfect they can be. It’s all about being the best we can be as a martial artist inside and outside of the dojo.”