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33-571: The STAR ratings helped internationalize the sport by encouraging transnational matchmaking, and by enabling free agent champions such as: Don "The Dragon" Wilson , Benny "The Jet" Urquidez , Rob Kaman , Stan "The Man" Longinidis , Dennis Alexio , Maurice Smith , Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham , Fred Royers , James Warring , Graciela Casillas and Lucia Rijker . STAR relied on a statistical technique adapted from international tournament chess competition. Competitors were ranked according to actual fight outcomes from rated contender bouts as opposed to

66-821: A ring name while competing in Japan. He attended Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton , where he was an MVP in football and basketball. Wilson also tried his hand at wrestling, in which he excelled enough to score a 4th place in the Florida State Collegiate Wrestling competition. After high school, Wilson was accepted into the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut in the fall of 1972. Wilson has stated that his brother challenged him to friendly sparring, which he imagined he would dominate since Wilson

99-497: A 10th-round knockout victory over Eddie Butcher on July 19, 2002, in Atlantic City, New Jersey . He defeated, among others, world champions Branko Cikatic , James Warring , Dennis Alexio , and Maurice Smith . Wilson fought to a draw with another champion, Jean-Yves Thériault . In 79 bouts, Wilson was only knocked out by Glen McMorris in 1980. Wilson's kickboxing record is listed as 72–5–2 (48 knockouts) with 3 no-contests. Wilson

132-492: A 5-round points decision to Herb Thompson in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The PKA overturned the decision, citing improper procedures and inappropriate equipment which impeded fair competition. Wilson was fairly notable thanks to his unique fighting style as used in the ring. He was ambidextrous, being able to switch stance on a whim and attack powerfully with either side, although he preferred to fight strong-side forward, which

165-520: A better script than the typical low budget action film. In his science fiction film guide Outer Limits , author Howard Hughes wrote that the film has "some impressive explosions and car crashes", but the sets look "suspiciously like 1990s Los Angeles". The film was briefly touched upon by Red Letter Media on an episode of "Best of the Worst" where they referred to the movie as being so unremarkable and boring that they didn't even want to review it. The film

198-408: A knockout or multi-judge decision with kicks and punches, over timed rounds with rest periods, where strike-and-hold techniques were prohibited and round judging followed the international standard of overall effectiveness. Muay Thai, point karate, boxing, wrestling and amateur kickboxing were regarded as separate sports. Mixed martial arts did not yet exist. Outcomes from these sports had no impact on

231-489: Is a characteristic of some Chinese Martial arts like Pai Lum Tao Ng Ying Kungfu (Chinese: 五形功夫) he was known for being very good at Indian leg wrestling also. He identified himself as mainly a kicker, claiming that was his forte and the reason why he never seriously considered boxing. He has a particularly devastating lead side kick, and was known to perform single-leg multiple kicks in rapid succession. Despite his focus on kicks, most of his KO's came through his punching, and he

264-592: Is an American martial artist, former professional kickboxer , and actor. An 11-time world champion who scored 47 knockouts in four decades, he has been called by the STAR System Ratings as "perhaps the greatest kickboxer in American history. He has disposed of more quality competition than anyone we've ever ranked". In 2015, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame . As an actor, he

297-685: Is best known for starring in several B movie martial arts films , such as the Bloodfist series (from Bloodfist to Bloodfist VIII: Trained to Kill ), the Ring of Fire series (from Ring of Fire to Ring of Fire III: Lion Strike ), Red Sun Rising (1994), and the Cyber Tracker series ( CyberTracker and CyberTracker 2 ). Wilson was born to a Japanese mother and American father in Alton, Illinois . He utilized his mother's family name, Hoshino (星野), as

330-578: Is listed as a 3-round no-contest. However, on page 52 in the same issue, Wilson said about his fight with Knoblok, "But Bill won the third round by a larger margin than I had won the first. So he won the bout." Today the official result of this fight was listed as a no-contest on Wilson's official fight record because when he decided to fight for PKA, Joe Corley felt the rules of the bout were quite different from those of PKA, Corley told Wilson to omit it. Wilson's kickboxing career spanned four decades; his first fight with Bill Knoblok in 1974 and his last fight,

363-482: Is secretly led by popular news journalist Connie Griffith (Foster). While being tracked by another Tracker and Dilly's head bodyguard (Norton), Phillips and Connie are able to break into Cybercore and steal secret files revealing that Sen. Dilly is in fact a cyborg. Phillips defeats the bodyguard and yet a third Tracker and then infiltrates a press conference to shoot Dilly, publicly revealing his mechanical nature. This, along with everything else UHR has discovered, causes

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396-848: The Florida Institute of Technology , but dropped out to pursue a professional fighting career, to the elder Wilson's disappointment. During this time, he trained in Pai Lum White Dragon Kung Fu, a form derivative of Shaolin Kung Fu , taught by Danny K. Pai. Wilson was trained by Fred Schmitz, Pai's first black belt in America. Don's nickname, "The Dragon" was used in his first professional kickboxing match in Orlando . He also had two other nicknames that were used at times during his long career. In July 1977, Wilson defeated Howard Hayden. A report of

429-551: The IKF , WKA , KICK , ISKA , STAR and the PKO. He won his IKF (www.IKFKickboxing.com) FCR Cruiserweight World Title on May 15, 1999, in Lowell, Massachusetts, when he defeated Dick Kimber. (Lynn, Massachusetts, USA PRO: 23-3/21, AM: 25-0/25 5'9" 197 lbs) At the end of the third round Wilson came alive and eventually knocked Kimber to the floor motionless. Referee Dan Stell counted Kimber out on

462-493: The Computerized Judicial System to be shut down and Cybercore to collapse. Production company PM Entertainment said that by the 1990s, action film fans were demanding higher budgets from independent films. To compensate, the company hired less expensive talent to star in them. PM Entertainment budgeted these films at $ 1.5–5 million. TV Guide rated it 2/4 stars and called it a Terminator knock-off with

495-525: The Reseda Country Club in California. Wilson had a 6–2–0 record in professional boxing going into this match, while Jones was winless in 6 bouts. Wilson lost by TKO at 2:58 of the first round. Dennis Alexio , who lost a kickboxing match to Wilson, had already defeated Jones. Jones lost his next 4 boxing matches, and retired with a 1–10–0 record. Wilson was a fight commentator and interviewer in many of

528-569: The STAR ratings expanded into professional kickboxing to pressure the sport’s major sanctioning bodies to rank world contenders fairly, rather than to protect favored champions or to punish less favored contenders. The STAR ratings in concert with the KI ratings encouraged tournament promoters to require safety equipment (hand and foot pads). If a tournament did not require safety equipment, their tournaments were not rated. Ed Parker agreed with these conditions, and

561-406: The STAR ratings. The STAR ratings began in early 1980 as part of a coordinated initiative by "Inside Kung-Fu" editor Paul Maslak , with newsstand rival "Karate Illustrated" editor Renardo Barden, to minimize injuries on the nation’s weekend tournament karate circuit. With the help of John Corcoran , a former PKA events coordinator and editor of "Inside Kung-Fu"’s sister magazine "KICK Illustrated",

594-506: The complete ring records of major champions. More than 250 live ring observers – including sports reporters, officials, managers, trainers and competitors – reported fight outcomes to the STAR System from around the world. Double-sourced corroboration was required for fight results reported from unofficial ring observers. Kickboxing contests included in the STAR ratings and kickboxing records featured paid professional competitors who fought for

627-467: The day of the bout by sitting in a sauna from early morning until two hours before the bout, leaving him dangerously dehydrated. Wilson had also negotiated for a 7-round fight, which the officials also neglected to honor. Furthermore, the Thai judges only recognized Muay Thai techniques such as Thai kick or those performed within the clinch, which meant that Wilson's only hope to win was to knockout Samart, which he

660-681: The early UFC events, beginning with UFC 7 in Buffalo. He stated several times that he would be willing to fight in the UFC himself if enough fans requested it, but it never happened. He went on to be a commentator for King of the Cage . Some movies to his credit include: Futurekick , Bloodfist 1–8, Ring of Fire 1, 2 & 3, Out for Blood , Operation Cobra , Blackbelt , Cyber Tracker 1 & 2, Terminal Rush , Redemption , Say Anything... , Capitol Conspiracy , Moving Target , and Batman Forever as

693-476: The entire martial arts community in the United States followed suit. The STAR ratings were administrated by Paul Maslak throughout its existence. STAR discontinued its tournament ratings at the end of 1981 and dissolved as an organization in 1989 before the start of the mixed martial arts movement. Don %22The Dragon%22 Wilson Donald Glen Wilson (born September 10, 1954), nicknamed " The Dragon ",

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726-747: The floor, a count that went into the round break. Kimber never stood during the count. Having never been challenged for his title, Wilson voluntarily retired it to move down to the Light Heavyweight Division, where he eventually retired from fighting a few years later. According to Inside Kung-Fu Presents Kickboxing Magazine (August 1992), Wilson's professional kickboxing record was listed as 69 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws, 46 knockout wins, and 6 kick-knockouts, and 3 no-contests. On page 64, Wilson's first match with Bill Knoblok in Orlando, Florida in December 1974

759-509: The future, Eric Anthony Phillips is the head of the Secret Service detachment assigned to protect Senator Bob Dilly ( John Aprea ). Senator Dilly is a champion of the recently implemented Computerized Judicial System (Computerized Justice for short), a product of Cybercore Industry, that uses data as evidence to determine the guilt of accused criminals, then carries out the sentence using cyborg executioners called "Trackers" (Maniaci). However,

792-499: The leader of the Neon Gang. CyberTracker (film) CyberTracker is a 1994 American science fiction action film written by Jacobsen Hart and directed by Richard Pepin. It stars Don 'The Dragon' Wilson with Richard Norton , Stacie Foster , Steve Burton , Abby Dalton and Jim Maniaci. The film was followed by a 1995 direct-to-video sequel , CyberTracker 2 , also starring Wilson, Foster, Burton and Maniaci. In

825-554: The match in Official Karate Magazine said, "Don Wilson's showboat tactics have seen him through a couple of fights, but the Flash won't last long when the going gets tough." Wilson said he was hugely insulted; a few people began to refer to him as Don "The Flash" Wilson, which annoyed him. He said this inspired him to prove something: "I got serious." Wilson won a total of 11 world titles with several sanctioning bodies, including

858-553: The more Phillips learns about Dilly and the Cybercore's ruthless plans, the more uncomfortable he becomes and he refuses to go along with the murder of a corporate spy. This leads Dilly and Cybercore to frame Phillips with the murder as they activate a Tracker to execute him. Phillips defeats the Tracker but is taken by a group of underground rebels called the Union for Human Rights (UHR). The group

891-417: The traditional opinion-of-the-judges approach. Rated contenders were considered the “standard” for world class competition. An unrated competitor had to defeat a top contender to move into the top ten ratings. STAR documented nearly a decade of major kickboxing fight outcomes, frequently archived the official WKA and KICK scorecards from important events, identified undisputed world champions, and reconstructed

924-662: Was honored with the U.F. of Legends Dragon Award at the Urban Action Showcase & Expo at HBO. Early in Wilson's career, he lost three fights by decision; these losses were changed into no contests by the Professional Karate Association. Wilson's first career match was against Bill Knoblock and he lost a third decision. This match was later turned into a no contest by the Professional Karate Association as they listed it as an "amateur" match. "This amateur bout

957-619: Was more physically imposing and athletic than his brother. To his surprise, he was easily knocked around by his brother's martial arts ability. He credits this experience for making a believer out of him, after which he would pursue martial arts. He began studying Goju-ryu Karate with Chuck Merriman for two hours a week for one year. In 1973, Wilson left the Academy and earned an associate degree in electrical engineering at Brevard Community College in Florida. He then enrolled at his father's alma mater,

990-451: Was noted for being an American-style kickboxer who challenged the fabled fighters from Thailand. He prevailed in most instances, only suffering one loss. However, the matches were always problematic, due to the differences in traditions, style and judging. For his fight against Samart Prasarnmit , the officials who arranged the fight broke the previous arrangement, placing Wilson against a lighter opponent and forcing Wilson to lose 8 pounds on

1023-613: Was part of Wilson's black belt examination." However, in a 2013 interview, Wilson recalled his first fight as a loss to Bill Knoblock on January 25, 1975, as a professional match in which he was paid $ 100. On May 28, 1976, in Tampa, Florida, Wilson lost a 5-round decision to Rudy Burney in a PKA sanctioned match. However, the PKA later overturned the decision for, "improper procedures that impeded fair competition." Finally, in September 1976, Wilson lost

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1056-476: Was particularly good with his lead (right) hook punch. Wilson had a brief professional boxing career. Wilson said in a 2015 interview that he had a 6–3–0 professional boxing record with all three defeats by first round stoppage. He admits a change in his style lead to only an average boxing career. His biggest victory was against Muhammad Ali 's former sparring partner John L. Johnson. Wilson's last boxing match took place against Tim Jones on October 21, 1986, at

1089-511: Was unable to do because of his dehydration. Wilson, a fighter used to 12 round fights, was exhausted in the 2nd round, a clear indication of the seriousness of his condition. Wilson was scheduled to make a comeback at 58 years old, against an unnamed opponent in a ten-rounder in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. However, at the last minute the fight in Istanbul was cancelled due to "breach of contract and non-performance of financial agreements". In 2014, he

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