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Greatest Karate Fighter Of All Time: Joe Lewis And His American Karate Systems

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Such an incredible martial artist, but such a poor job of relating his life. The book is too short and the info too sketchy. It's a good start, but it leaves you wanting more.

Loren W. Christensen, author of Fighting Power and Speed Training.

This book, by Joe Lewis and Dr. Jerry Beasley, is divided in two parts. The first section is a biographary on Joe Lewis, considered by many in the martial arts world as the gretest karate fighter of all time; hence the title of the book. This section is at times, written in the first and third person, so the reader gets an idea as to what goes inside the mind of Lewis. This part is frank and sincere and many things said may not be well like by traditionalist.

Lewis speaks about his training in Okinawa, the states and with Bruce Lee. He talks about pioneering full-contact karate (aka kickboxing)and point karate. The next section, American Karate Fighting is the bulk of the book.

It also is a let down. The quality of the photos is average. The book works, but for someone who has studied the martial arts for over 20 years, nothing new is really mentioned. The traditional fighter may see something new, but, I doubt many traditionalists, who are not into contemporary fighting ideas, will probably not be interested in this book anyway.

The book is average at best (Probably could rate it lower but think that to get a little inside the mind of Lewis is worth the average rating)and for a skilled writer like Dr. Beasely (The Way of No Way), I expected a lot more.

Joe Lewis and Dr. Jerry Beasley provide insight to Joe's American Karate System, starting with Joe's youth to his USMC days to his training with Bruce Lee and finally on to Joe's own personal system. The writing is good although Paladin Press could have done a better job with the photos. (I point out that if you buy such a book strickly for the photos you bought it for the wrong reason.) I have known Joe Lewis personally for many years and have attended his Black Belt Conferences; I have observed him up close on many occasion and I still find this book is well worth the cost. I recommend any books written by Joe Lewis and/or Dr. Jerry Beasley; you can always pickup pointers from any of their writings.

I first met Joe at the Raleigh, NC YMCA in 1981. Joe had a room there. He liked be close to the gym and his training partners. I went down to train with the karate legend often in the eighties. Usually we would spar for an hour or so, clean up, go out to eat and then return to his room to record an interview. I had rolls of photos and hours of tape so I decided to type up the interviews and organize the chapters for a book. I kept the better photos for magazine articles that appeared in many of the martial arts magazines in the eighties and nineties. I think we may have had 20-30 Joe Lewis articles published over the years.

As Joe was talking about his early life I could tell there were good feelings and bad. I focused only on what I thought would be favorable for his public image. Joe has a sense of humor that I tried to convey. He was very proud of the book and sent copies to his friends.

The title was a given. In 1983 Karate Illustrated magazine had queried 22+ former karate champs and asked each to list their top ten. Joe's name appeared on every list. Chuck Norris' name was on every list except one or two. About two years later Black Belt ran the same article but deleted the two that did not include Norris. So technically Norris and Lewis tied in the Black Belt rewrite. I felt like I should put Joe as the lead author since I basically edited the interviews I had recorded into a book. I think Joe wrote the last chapter on American Karate. I also signed over all royalties to the champ. It was a fun, quick and easy book to write. I considered it to be a publicity piece but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think it's worth reading. It is out of print so if you can find a copy better get it.

As someone who has been around the martial arts scene for quite some time, I still have old Black Belt issues from the 1960s when a young Joe Lewis just out of the Marines began competing in Karate. I recall he made black belt in six months when he was stationed in Okinawa. This book presents a closer look at Joe Lewis but it did lack depth. I know he was initially into wrestling but there was little information on that part of his life. I have always admired him for entering the full contact kickboxing field and becoming a champion in that full contact sport. Since I began my karate training with Shotokan, and we never entered outside tournaments I never had an opportunity to see him in action in those early years of karate.

In any case, this is a book that will be of interest to anyone who desires to know something about the historical karate legend Joe Lewis.

Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Shotokan Karate Self-Defense Techniques: Combat Karate for the street).

The Book is way too short and he never talks about catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. Joe Lewis was a good fighter in his day.....as far as karate types go but equip wrestlers with submission holds and the karate types just fall by the way-side. Again, he never talks about wrestling at all!