During my early years of traditional Martial Arts training I kept hearing of an American point fighter with incredible kicking skills. A few short years later he made the transition to the Full Contact arena and became a pioneer of Full Contact Karate around the world. Known for his kicking prowess with his incredible left leg, he became my hero and I too joined the Full Contact movement and wanted to be like the man known as "Superfoot". Voted as one of the top fighters of all time by his peers (in fact he was the ONLY fighter to make everyone's list), he has been an inspiration to all Martial Artists alike. Early in my career and while I was still a youngster (25 years ago), I met my idol Bill when I was fighting on a card. He did not disappoint my expectations and was more than I expected him to be as a fighter as well as a person. The influence this man has had on my life is more profound than I suspect he even knows. I was the first one to bring him to Calgary to make one of his many rare appearances up here. I hope everyone likes reading this story whose goal during our meeting was to 'kick me in the head'. MIKE MILES
Mike Miles: How does it feel having retired almost twenty years ago to still be one of the most famous Martial Artists in the world?
Bill Wallace: I am thrilled about this but I feel there are other people out there who have done as much if not more to promote the Martial Arts.I am for the fighters, but the sad thing is that nobody remembers a fighter. I would like this to change because you went out there and I went out there busting our butts and getting our faces all beat in. Then people go and watch a movie with Van Damme and people say well how come you (the fighters) don't do it like they (the actors) do in the movies.
Mike Miles: Unfortunately, people mistake the movies for reality. I read a recent article about you which basically said, and it is true, that you are the human yardstick that everybody still compares their kicking skills to.
Bill Wallace: Wow, that is nice.
Mike Miles: Full Contact rules (kicking above the waist only) really seems to be taking a nose dive in terms of respectability around the world. Even the biggest recent name in that sport, Rick 'The Jet' Roufus has started fighting using leg kicks. That has to state something about the state of Full Contact rules when a bigger name like Roufus leaves Full Contact rules to fight in modified Muay Thai or Kickboxing (allowing leg kicks).
Bill Wallace: The problem with that is that in America when Full Contact rules first started we were throwing high kicks and punches. All of a sudden when you throw the low kicks, the fighters do not want to throw the high kicks or the jump kicks anymore. Leg kicking is very realistic and I believe in the power and the validity of the kicks but as a spectator sport in the USA I feel it takes away from being able to throw the high kicks. You know we have to realize one certain thing, that once we get paid for fighting, we are no longer athletes but entertainers. People go to the movies so they want to see the fighting, they want to see the action. When you and I fight we have a great time because you do not kick me in the legs and we both throw high flashy kicks and people like it. If you have two guys out there who do not have that type of athleticism, and now they throw the front kick across the ring, and they throw the low roundhouse kick, the spectator says what happened to the stuff I saw Van Damme do or Norris do and they keep waiting for it but they never see it.
Mike Miles: What about Peter Cunningham? Here is a kid who fights with low kicks and still throws multiple high kicks.
Bill Wallace: Sure does but he is a lightweight kid and though he is a phenomenal fighter he just does not have the publicity. I do not mean this harshly, but in Canada who really knows him anymore? He is not a household name in the USA. He is really only known by the fighters and a few hard-core followers of the sport.
Mike Miles: Well getting back to my first point, it is ironic almost twenty years since you have been gone and there are no real household names in Kickboxing. This makes it very unfulfilling to the athletes who are out there right now. Why do you think that is and what do you think the sport is lacking?
Bill Wallace: Heroes. You are a very good hero in Canada cause people like you, you are a nice guy and you can do all the flashy kicks and everything too. I think the reason I am still well known is because of my personality, joking around and laughing because it (Full Contact) was a game to me. I went out there and I never thought that I would lose, never thought that I would get hit or get knocked out so it became a game to me and I knew that I had to stay in good shape. I look at it like a twelve round game or point match. Some of the newer guys go out there just wanting to annihilate as fast as they can.
Mike Miles: What turned me off of (Dennis) Alexio and (Rick) Roufus was the fact that here are these hero's to kids and they are getting on national television and they are cussing and swearing, saying how they are going to rip the other guys face off. I think it has a negative influence on the sport.
Bill Wallace: Even though we are Kickboxers now, we start off in the Martial Arts. We are supposed to learn respect, confidence, to train hard and to be humble. I never say anything bad about anybody. But Alexio comes out there swearing and bad mouthing everybody and Roufus comes out there and does the same thing. Roufus in reality is a nice guy, I do not know why he does what he does out there in the public eye. Maybe he thinks he is going to get people to come and watch his fights.
Mike Miles: Even though we are Kickboxers now, we start off in the Martial Arts. We are supposed to learn respect, confidence, to train hard and to be humble. I never say anything bad about anybody. But Alexio comes out there swearing and bad mouthing everybody and Roufus comes out there and does the same thing. Roufus in reality is a nice guy, I do not know why he does what he does out there in the public eye. Maybe he thinks he is going to get people to come and watch his fights.
Bill Wallace: I really, really like Petey Cunningham. He is a really good fighter, a very nice kid and he is always in super shape. You I like. I know you do not fight as much anymore but I know you still fight and you do what I do and that is kick and use the combinations to kick with. Rick Roufus I used to like. It is because he is a really really good kicker and then he tried to bulk up and he wants to fight Alexio now. There is a kid who is a good point fighter who is on the East Coast and his name is Pedro Xavier. He is a really good point fighter but I do not know how well he would do in Kickboxing or Full Contact. As you know I am in Europe right now and I will be seeing some of these fighters in the next few weeks.
Mike Miles: Recently we have been seeing things with retired fighters making comebacks including Don Wilson. I know you have nothing left to prove but do you ever get the urge to do a comeback?
Bill Wallace: Never have. You see when I fought it was fun and when I did my exhibition with Joe Lewis and when I do my exhinitions with you, it is just for fun. You are not trying to kill me and I am not trying to kill you. Don Wilson told me about his comeback plans and he siad that they wanted to pay him a million dollars. Now come on, who is going to pay a million dollars to see a kickboxer fight? If he can get it then I am all for it, but he has not fought in six or seven years. I do not think somebody would pay a million dollars to see a Kickboxer fight, and I do not see it being feasible. Getting back to your question, it stopped being fun for me. I like to sapr getting together with a bunch of guys and we will just kick and punch and go and laugh and go "Hey you got me with this shot and I got you with that shot!" I do not want it to count anymore. I have done it for thirty five years. During our exhibition my goal is to kick you in the head and when I do I will have achieved my goal (ha ha).
Mike Miles: It's not going to happen (ha ha)! Some of the low kick fighters of today criticize you. How do you feel about this?
Bill Wallace: We have to have a basis to start with. Back in 1974 when we started doing this we wanted to make something that was viable and good for the public and not just the Karate people. I will be the first to admit that Muay Thai kicking is devastating , but the audience wants to see kicking like they see on television or in the movies. Fighting for me was fun and the Muay Thai stylists do not look at it as fun. It is not a game but a form of livelihood. In this day and age against the leg kicks and the way the guys are good at it, we might have lost. But one thing that we did have that you can not take away from us, we had heart. We would go out there and you would hit me and then I would go fine, now it is my turn. We could take the punishment.
Mike Miles: Without the leg kicks there is a tendency to become a head hunter and in the long run this has a more detrimental effect on the brain than bruised up thighs. What do you have to say about that?
Bill Wallace: If you do not like the game, do not play it! Both the head kicks and the kicks to the legs are so that your opponent can not continue. However, the kick to the head is neater for me. They want to ban boxing because they say the shots are detrimental to the health. If they do that then they should ban football. If they ban football, then they should ban wrestling. You can bang your head on sports like these as well.
Mike Miles: You commentated on the first UFC and now that stuff is getting banned all over. In my opinion, ground work is important, but as a fan I find this kind of competition boring.
Bill Wallace: Exactly, the most important thing there is that when you have a stand up fighter against a grappler you are always going to have a clinch. Name one boxing match where there was not a clinch or for that fact in Kickboxing. That is all the grappler waits for. Then you had the Gracie's come out and say that all fights end up on the floor. But most fights do not start with both fighters bowing to each other and stalking each other from 10 feet away for 10 or 15 seconds neither. Some guy is standing next to you and he decides to clock you. In reality you do not know how many of his friends are going to jump in and help him and vice versa how many friends are going to jump in and help you. You do not know what I have in my pocket and I do not know what you have in your pocket. All of those matches are fought on a really nice soft mat. It makes it very hard to step and hard to find leverage to kick. If you are lying on your back I can not grab your head and bang it on the concrete like I would to make you let go of me because the mat is nice and soft. Like you say, ground fighting is great but you can not believe that a 90 lbs. girl is going to get out from under a guy who is 6 feet 5 inches and 250 to 260 lbs.
Mike Miles: What do you think in terms of the Martial Arts, do you think the Gracie's (No holds barred competitions) have been good or bad?
Bill Wallace: It has not been good because when the Gracie's do work they do not hurt anybody. They do not make anyone bleed and they do not break anything. They just make you submit and I think Royce Gracie ie very, very super. None of the recognized fighters would fight him under his rules. Why should we because what do we have to gain? Grappling is their game and they have been doing this since they have been three years old. However, turning the tide, would Royce fight under our rules? On the very first UFC that I commentated on, they fought on a crash pad. It is very, very soft and you can not stand on it and fight, but you can fall on it real good and not get hurt. The mat is conducive to the grappler.
Mike Miles: The quality of competition they had at the first UFC or even the earlier ones was not very good. All of the fighters were not known.
Bill Wallace: I agree but now look at Maurice Smith out there. He learned to block the leg tackles and the leg take downs. He has the endurance and the strength to fight them off, and now when he stands back up with them, now it is his turn. Now the strikers are coming back. It took us a little bit of time to learn how to counter and defend against it. At one point all it became was grappling because the strikers did not know how to counter. Now they have had to change the rules because of the boredom to the audience. They go down for a period of time and if nothing happens they make them stand up again, They did find out that the roll around on the back for thirty minutes was boring to the spectators.
Mike Miles: What do you think in terms of it being banned all over?
Bill Wallace: I think it is great. Surprisingly nobody has really been hurt yet. Boxing, Kickboxing and even point fighting has had competitive deaths, and soon it will happen at one of these events.
Mike Miles: Is there anything you would like to close the interview with?
Bill Wallace: In regards to no holds barred competition, when you are 6 foot 5, weighing 290 lbs., you do not need an awful lot of technique. There is an old adage that is true forever, "A good big man will always beat a great little man." Having said that, I look forward to seeing you in Calgary and maybe we can hit some golf balls.
Mike Miles: There will probably be snow but maybe we can paint the golf balls black!