FRIDAY, March 23rd, 2001, 11:40 AM

IKF
The INTERNET Kickboxing Federation?

• To Sanction:
  1. Authority: A penalty to ensure compliance.
  2. Authorization: To officially approve an action.
  3. Support: To provide updated and correct information as a support structure to those within the organization.
  4. Decree: An authoritative and formal order or decision; a judicial judgement of correct decision making.
  5. Ratification: To approve something in an official way.

To begin with, we would like to first apologize to those of you who might have developed negative thoughts about our organization because of our "Blowing The Whistle" tactics towards people in our sport or other competitive sanctioning organizations that might have produced questionable tactics, ethics, actions etc.. To those of you who don't like the IKF, we're sorry to hear this. However to all of you whether you like us or not, we truly appreciate hearing about areas of our organization where you feel we need to improve in, more than what we are doing good in. We feel that what we are doing good for the sport should be "EXPECTED" in a "Sanctioning Body" not praised as if it's never been done before or finally done right after so many years.

Over the last couple of years, we've heard people like Paul Ingram, WKA President call us the "INTERNET" (IKF) Kickboxing Federation or the Internet Sanctioning Body... He and others think such a tag is insulting to us. However not to us, because unlike a lot of other organizations, we make full use of the Internet for YOU, the fans and players of the sport of Kickboxing.

We make full use of the internet to post IMMEDIATE news and information as we know it. When we talk negatively about the other organizations, sure, it puts the IKF in good light. But at the same time, its how we hope to challenge them to do a better job for people like yourself. Sadly though, no matter how many times we bring things up, they never improve. On the other hand, when the IKF is attacked for various things, we either explain why if we feel the reason was fully justified or we work hard to improve our standards in every way we can. This is what EVERY Sanctioning body should do... LISTEN to their people!

Let us take a moment to try to address some of the issues brought to our attention over the last year in hopes that we can determine more about where we need to improve for fans of the sport such as yourself.

• Some have made comment that they don't care much for the IKF because of the attitude of it. All the talk about whining and back stabbing in the sport at the expense of the IKF, but also somewhat hypocritical. (AX, 3-23-01 Nickos)
  • Let us address several points in our reply:
    • Hypocritical in its meaning defines as, deceitful, deceptive, deceiving and or misleading. Knowing this as the definition, with all due respect and not being sarcastic, can someone please give us an example of or explain in more detail where we, the IKF have been, deceitful, deceptive, deceiving and or misleading when it comes to reporting the works or actions of any other Sanctioning Body? Please prove to us that what we wrote somewhere was simply deceitful, deceptive, deceiving and or misleading. This we believe is a simple case of, "The Truth Hurts." It just happens to be us, the IKF who has stepped up to the plate and started bringing all these things to your attention where as before, no one knew a thing about them or they were afraid to question them. Would you rather we sweep it all under the carpet and hope everyone forgets about it when it happens? What if some of these things we talk about happen to you? Do you feel you would have a different response? You bet you would. Let me offer a true example of Personal Involvement for you all:
      • A few years back, I was asked to judge a contest. Us judges were asked to ask the contestants various questions that would reveal their true individual personality and thoughts. My question was in regards to a high school here in America that was attacked one day by 2 boys that decided to shoot people at random. On April 20th, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado, USA we watched in helpless anguish and horror as innocent lives were senselessly and violently silenced or changed forever.( http://www.redhare.com/columbine) After the tragedy, the 2 boys responsible for the shooting killed themselves. They were both under 18 years old. From the shooting, a topic came up and I asked each individual, "If the 2 boys were still alive and facing their sentencing and you were the judge about to hand down the sentence, would you recommend the death penalty?" All of them said "No", thinking it was the right thing to say. I next put them "Personally" into the situation. I asked them, "What if your little sister was one of the girls killed in the shooting by these boys? What would you suggest be their fate now?" ALL of them said, "The Death Penalty."
        
        
      • My reason for this is to make each and every one of you aware of the vast difference between reading an article and simply having a personal opinion (I hate the IKF because of reasons I don't know, I just do... etc.) and being PERSONALLY Involved in the situation the article is about. Reading is not done with passion. But if your the one getting your title stripped for no reason, or getting ripped off from a fight purse, lied to about something etc. etc, you become VERY PASSIONATE about the issues. This is where I AM in regards to issues we post. In fact, I'm VERY PASSIONATE about Everything in this sport because I'm simply tired of seeing people get ripped off or short changed for their work. Paying sanctioning fees for what... letters? Your title was stripped because of why... because YOU couldn't promote your own fight?? etc. etc. We are VERY Involved in each issue we bring up and in every aspect of our sport. It's part of our job as a Sanctioning Body and we would expect other sanctioning bodies to work just as hard, that is, if they want to call themselves a "Sanctioning Body." If not, they should call themselves a Promoter and promote their own titles. But if your a sanctioning body, we suggest you WORK like one! The IKF World Team works hard at our job everyday. How many times have you seen that we updated our web page on a Sunday or a holiday? Lots of times. We report the news of the sport and it happens somewhere around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Midnight here at the IKF Headquarters is 7 PM somewhere else and an event is about to start. We don't get to always go home at 5 PM... but many organizations do, that is, if they even came in the office that day... We report the good news as well as the bad news. Why the bad? For ANY other reason it's done anywhere in the world. Because it's wrong and someone needs to stop it. As a self defense instructor for well over 20 years, I see this attitude in one main area, a rape. If you saw a rape being committed, shouldn't you try to stop it or at the very least, call and report it? OK, you say no, because you don't want to get involved. But what if the attacker was raping someone you know, or worse yet, you? Different situation when your directly associated to it isn't it. Our negative news is to draw attention to the person doing wrong and we want something to be done about it. Do you suggest we simply turn our backs on it all? Even when those in the sport, maybe you, complain about something you don't like in the IKF? We don't do that with our organization so why would we do it for other organizations? To us here at the IKF, finding ones fault is a BLESSING! It directs our attention to where we MUST IMPROVE. So again, we bring it to your attention so your aware of it. So it becomes a bit closer to you. Never once has any person who has been a victim of other organizations wrong doings complained about ANY of our articles. Why? Because they know what it feels like to be done wrong, to be the victim, not just the reader of the news. We urge everyone to "GET INVOLVED" so we can clean our sport up! I ask a simple question to all of you in our sport... "How hard is it just to DO THE RIGHT THING?"
        
        
    • In other organizations, fault to many of them is best forgotten and not talked about. THIS is why our Opinion page and other hot issue topics are a love-hate relationship with those in the sport. Think about it... WHO Oversees Sanctioning Bodies around the world? Let us answer for you, NO ONE! Sanctioning bodies of any kind whether they be the IKF, ISKA, NFL, NBA, MLB, IOC etc. etc. have NO ONE to answer to except YOU, the people of our sport. Fighters (Players) Trainers (Coaches) Promoters (Team Owners) Officials etc. as well as the fans, where is YOUR voice heard? I'll tell you where, right here on the IKF pages. If an organization refuses to listen to YOU, who assures their work? NO ONE! So the ABC letters just keep existing and title after title is handed out to first time fighters against the guy across the street. Who assures the ethics of them? The judgement? Who is their advisor? Again... No one.
      
      
    • Chris Wright of England holds 3 World Titles. IKF, WKA and ISKA. He's not only never lost any of them, he's also never been challenged for any of them. However, last year, for no reason at all, the ISKA took Wright out of their rankings. He's not even ranked. When asked why, Cory Schafer of the ISKA simply said, "Our web pages are being updated. We'll look into it." If your not Wright, this story means little to you, but what if you were?
      
      
    • The same thing was done to Dennis Alexio last year. His name was taken off as ISKA World Champion and he's not even ranked. Again, love or hate Dennis, you could care less. But what if you were him? He won the title, has never lost it so who gives ANYONE the right to strip him from it with no explanation at all? Heck, you ask them why? No one ever gets an answer, an explanation... Don't you feel this is wrong? How could you not? This has happened MANY times in the ISKA and the WKA.
      
      
    • Other fighters include Don Wilson and Kevin Rosier and the list goes on and on. Heck, with Wilson, he fought on an un-sanctioned ISKA event when he was sick. He kept choose not to pull out of the fight to help the promoter out. He lost. Monday morning, ISKA called him up and told him, "You just lost your World title." Don replied, "The event wasn't even ISKA sanctioned." He was told, "The Promoter paid the ISKA sanctioning fees today and we are accepting it as a title defense. " Do you think Don's a bit mad about that? Need we go on? Ask Cory Schafer about all this. He's the one steering the bus over there. But ISKA isn't the only one doing things like this.
      
      
    • If you or your fighter is an IKF Champion, do I have the right and the power to strip you or your fighter of their title for no reason? Of course not! If I ever do such a thing string me up and hang me! However, it seems that Paul Ingram of the WKA makes such decisions. Last year, Ingram lost a lot of respect from a trainer (Michael McCulloch) because of his decision to ignore the wrong doings of a WKA Sanctioned event and the event Promoter. It all happened on an event entitled Dynamite 1 promoted by WKA Promoter Steve Humphries in England. Humphries wanted McCulloch's fighters title (Willie Robbies) on the line against his fighter, Sean Mallett. Humphries told Steve Gosden that Robbie weighed in at 72k when in actual fact he was directly on 76k. McCulloch was told that Mallett was 69k when he was actually 63.5k. When the trainer told the story on their gym page, this was Ingram's response:
      • From: World Karate & Kickboxing Association (WKA)
        • [mailto:info@wka.co.uk], Sent: 24 August 2000 10:50, To: 'Michael McCulloch', Cc: Stephen Humprey, Subject: RE: Dynamite 1
          • I am sorry that you have not printed a apology for maligning the the WKA and myself. I will not tolerate these insults and in accordance with the WKA rules I notify you that Wullie Robbie will be stripped of his title on the 1st September 2000 unless an apology is received and your web page amended publicly apologising for the malignant. Paul Ingram
    • Every other organization answers to someone, why not in kickboxing or boxing? The IKF may "APPEAR" to be Steve Fossum, but I am a very small part of the organization and only a "PIECE" of the puzzle of success the IKF has experienced. I don't promote fights. I don't train fighters. I don't fight the fights. I don't referee, time-keep or even judge. To do ANY of these things would be a conflict of interest. My job is to LISTEN to all these people and do what THEY all feel is best for the sport as well as the IKF. "TOGETHER" WE ALL Make up the IKF. Without the work and support of all of us, there would be no IKF and no IKF Team. If I or someone else writes a negative article about another person or organization, it's backed up with more than 1 reference. Everything that goes on our news pages is checked and re-checked. If we report something in error, we CORRECT it IMMEDIATELY!
      
      
    • Here's just 1 Example. There's a fighter named Greg Kirkpatrick who runs the boxing and kickboxing program here at the IKF ( RINGSIDE GYM) Greg is now a Professional boxer but was a past US & CA Kickboxing Champion. He had a fight on May 31st, 1997 in San Jose California against Hank Doughton (Henry of San Jose, CA, ) for the ISKA California State Heavyweight FC Rules title. Greg won the 4 round bout by unanimous decision. A few weeks later an article was posted on the internet which can still be found at this page link HERE - http://www.martial-arts-network.com/strikeforce.htm.
      (NOTE: In 2009, this site FINALLY corrected the results of this bout WHY? Because they read about their mistake HERE... On the Internet!)
      In the article, it reads: "In the amateur men's division, it was Travis Johnson over Jamie Comstock, Hank Doughton stopped Greg Kirkpatrick, etc. " When someone discovered this error they brought it to our attention. We thought it best to simply e-mail the webmaster and ask for it to be corrected. We e-mailed them "4" times, each time getting a response back, "Thank you, we will make the changes right away." However 4 years later, 5, 6, 7 years later it still hadn't been corrected. it wasn't corrected until 2011...
      Lets go one step more. Greg turned "PRO" in June of 1999 and had his first pro fight on August 5th of 1999. The IKF retired his amateur title directly after his first pro bout (The actual bout officially makes him a pro, not just the filing of paperwork with the California State Athletic Commission) and since then, he has fought probably 5-7 pro fights. However, to this day, he is still listed as a current ISKA Amateur California State Heavyweight Champion. However again, who knows what he's listed as, because unlike the IKF, Not ONE other Kickboxing or Muay Thai sanctioning body lists their champions, and IF they list anything, you have no idea as to when they won their title, against who, where, etc. The IKF, even keeps track of EVERY PAST IKF, Champion, PRO "AND" AMATEUR....
      So in knowing this, the point were trying to make is, The Internet is a GREAT tool for our sport.....IF it's used correctly.
      
      
    • Whether posting upcoming events, past event results, rankings, rules, regulations or even the negative works of others in our sport, we feel it's our duty to bring all the news we can to everyone's attention. ESPECIALLY if someone is doing wrong in the sport and ESPECIALLY after all the things that have hurt our sport in the past. Think about this for a moment... If things have been done correctly, ethical, legal etc. for our sport over the last 20 years don't you think kickboxing should be in better shape than where it is today? Why isn't kickboxing on TV more? Why do major sponsors hesitate when asked to sponsor kickboxing events? Why are fighters STILL getting paid so little? Let me pause there because I'd like to explain to many of you about a pro fighters purse. In the past, I've seen news boards slam "Sanctioning Bodies" for not producing bigger paydays for fighters. Let me inform you all, Sanctioning bodies don't pay the fighters.... Promoters do. Again, a Sanctioning Body is suppose to provide updated and correct information as a support structure to those within the organization.
      
      
    • But how many promoters out there are willing to pay their fighters more and more? I'll tell you... "1"... Mr. Ishi! Which is why we TRULY SUPPORT the K-1 Events. Mr. Ishi and his team have worked HARD to not only create a great event, but to offer a bigger payday for fighters. Through his works, K-1 is the only promotion that can offer great paydays. If someone tells us of something that is posted incorrectly or wrong, it's changed IMMEDIATELY! All we ask is that others do the same...
      
      
    • We can agree that we do bring up negatives in the sport more than other organizations do in their news. However since no other Sanctioning Body produces an "Active" news page, it wouldn't take much to do more than they do.
      
      
    • Not plugging the IKF here, that's just the simple truth. The use of the world wide web has changed this game dramatically. We hear from some that we are sometimes called the "Internet Kickboxing Federation" (IKF) by our critics. They think such a tag is insulting to us. However not to us. We make full use of the internet to post IMMEDIATE news and information as we know it for fans of the sport such as yourself.
      
      
    • When we talk negatively about the other organizations, sure, it puts the IKF in good light. But at the same time, its how we hope to challenge them to do a better job for people like yourself. Sadly though, no matter how many times we bring things up, they never improve.
      
      
    • A prime example is one of our recent article written on 3-17-01: Darrin Morris & Andy Hug. The article brings up that Morris and Hug were in other ratings still, months after their deaths. We looked today (March 23rd, 2001) and STILL found Andy Hug ranked #2 in the ISKA Heavyweight Division. Worse yet, WAKO has a NEW Website, not even a month old and Andy Hug is ranked #3 in their Low Kick Super Heavyweight Division, #2 in their MuayThai Super Heavyweight Division and #3 in their Full Contact Super Heavyweight Division. The WKA just took Mr. Hug out of their rankings within the last month. How did we find this out? THE INTERNET.
      
      
    • Mr. Andy Hug past away at a Tokyo hospital at 6:21 PM JST (5:21 AM EST) from acute myeloid leukemia & bone marrow disease. On our news page within 24 hours after his passing on August 24th, 2000, AT 7:20 PM (PST) we posted the article announcing his death and in addition, out of respect, he was removed from all our rankings the same day. A credit was also given to those who provided information for the article. The AX Website via Zach Arnold's article, posted on submissionfighting.com website's message board. Mr. Arnold wrote the article to be posted on Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer web site. How did we find this information? THE INTERNET.
      
      
    • Now, we don't like using Mr. Hug as one of these examples, however, we just wanted to make two important points. One, that with the use of the internet today, it's VERY EASY to find out anything we want to about anyone anywhere in the entire world. Whether from a web page like AX or by an e-mail. In our reporting of our news, we check and DOUBLE CHECK all our information. For the FIRST TIME, someone is pointing out the wrong doings of organizations that have been taking advantage of all of us in the past before the Internet.
      
      
    • Before the internet, both ISKA and WKA had "SEVERAL" Champions of the United States in a single weight class and fighting style. However, we're starting to see less and less of this. Why? THE INTERNET.

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