9. The Mike Anderson Story Part 1

The Truth About the Martial Arts Business with John Graden

Mike Anderson is one of the most unheralded pioneers of sport karate and kickboxing around the world.

In 1973, he forever changed the sport of point karate by being the first promoter to require competitors to wear safety gear.

In 1974, he created the professional karate association (PKA) and hosted the first PKA World Championships in Los Angeles. The event was broadcast as an ABC Special and it was one of the highest-rated shows of the year.

The event audience was full of stars from movies and TV. They all saw Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Jeff Smith, and Isais Duenas as the first PKA World Champions. That show catapulted them into the sports first superstars.

After the show's huge success, Mike sold his shares in the PKA to his partners Don and Judy Quine for one dollar.

He then traveled to Germany to form the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations or WAKO with his friend and student George Bruckner from Berlin.

Over the course of the next few weeks, you're going to learn the stuff behind the stuff. Not only will you learn what famous black belts were hired by Mike to run secret CIA operations in Iran, why he sold the PKA for a dollar after its highly successful debut.

Mike has a 155 IQ. He speaks five languages and has lived a life straight out of a James Bond book.

He has been one of my best friends since the mid-70s as I described in my book, Who Killed Walt Bone.

After part 1 of my Mike Anderson series, you'll get your Teach Like a Pro teaching tip of the week straight from the MATA Certification program at MATACertification.com.

Quick warning, the audio on this interview with Mike could be better, but it's a question of style vs substance. The substance is so strong, a little warbling in the audio is not an issue.