He has twice been voted the greatest fighter in karate history, and has attained the titles of “United States Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion,” “World Heavyweight Karate Champion,” and “United States National Black Belt Kata Champion
As head of the Joe Lewis Fighting Systems, Joe Lewis has surrounded himself with a growing organization dedicated to the core principles he has used for decades to forge a career second to known as a black belt, fighter, coach, instructor, leader of men, and always, always a student.
Joe Lewis was born on March 7, 1944 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
He was raised on a farm in Wilmington, NC as the youngest of three Lewis brothers.
Though Joe was quiet and perceptive his older brothers were rebel rousers.
While he was not a troublesome son or student, his brothers’ reputation for trouble branded him as the same.
So, rather than follow in his brother’s footsteps, he lied about his age and joined the United States Marine Corps in 1962 and was stationed at Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina.
He was one of the first Marines stationed in Vietnam, there meeting Rocky Marciano
Despite his historic success in martial arts, Joe Lewis’ real passion is strength and fitness.
Speed, strength, power, and internal fortitude to never quit earns his respect much more than degrees of black belt or titles.
Always fascinated by strength and body building, a karate class captured his attention while in Okiniwa.
There he studied Shorin-ryu Karate with Eizo Shimabukuro, John Korab, Chinsaku Kinjo and Seiyu Oyata in Okinawa.
He quickly earned a reputation as a gifted athlete and became obsessed with training.
If he had to work late, he would sneak into a storage closet to get his workouts in while his platoon mates slept.
He earned his first black belt in a black belt in just three months time and a second in seven. He worked out between 3 and 5 hours per day
In 1966, with only 22-months of training, Lewis won the grand championship of the 1st tournament he entered, The U.S. Nationals promoted by Jhoon Rhee.
Lewis defeated 7 opponents before defeating Thomas Carroll by 2-0 decision.
Lewis reigned as the U.S. Nationals grand champion from 1966-1969.
At the 1967 Nationals in Washington, Lewis won the championship just 18-months after his first class.
Joe Lewis was the first “non-master and only competitor” to ever be photographed cover of Black Belt magazine .
Previous covers had been drawn or painted
In February, 1968, Lewis and five other top rated fighters (Bob Wall, Skipper Mullins, J. Pat Burleson, David Moon, and Fred Wren) fought in the 1st World Professional Karate Championships (WPKC) promoted by Jim Harrison.
This was the first “professional” tournament in karate history and took place in Harrison’s dojo in Kansas City.
The rules allowed “heavy contact.”
Lewis won the tournament and was paid $1-dollar, thus officially making him the first professional champion in karate history
Lewis was paid $600 for his title winning effort. Joe Lewis was voted by the top fighters and promoters as the greatest karate fighter of all time in 1983.
Chuck Norris and Bill Wallace tied for second place. Gene Lebell has credited Joe as the person who “brought us full-contact karate.”
Lewis continued with his acting career and starred in Jaguar Lives in 1978 and Force Five in 1981 and has guest starred in films as late as 2011.
He was also a featured guest star on “The Fall Guy” playing himself in the episode, “The Japanese Connection
From 1967 to 1968, he studied privately with the influential martial artist and Jeet Kune Do founder Bruce Lee.
Lee was turned down by Lewis as an instructor for about 8-months when Mike Stone finally convinced Lewis that Lee was a talented instructor.
Lewis also turned down the roll of Colt in true Bruce Lee film, Way of the Dragon
The part then went to Chuck Norris.
Lee had Lewis test out his theories of fighting at tournaments.
Lewis also began training boxing with Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Orbillio, enhancing his skills
In late 1969 promoter Lee Faulkner contacted Joe Lewis to fight in his upcoming United States Karate Championships.
Lewis had retired from point fighting at the time but agreed to fight if Faulkner would promote a full-contact karate bout with Lewis and an opponent who would fight to the knockout.
Faulkner agreed.
As Lewis and Greg Baines entered the ring wearing boxing gloves the announcer identified the fighters as “kickboxers”.
That night Joe Lewis won the first-ever kickboxing bout in North America on January 17, 1970 with a second round knockout over Greg Baines.
On January 24, 1971, at the 2nd Annual United Nations Open Karate Championships promoted by Aaron Banks, Lewis knocked out Ronnie Barkoot at 1:25 of the first round.
At another Banks promotion; United States Championship Kickboxing Bouts, Lewis scored a 3rd round knockout over “Atlas” Jesse King.
In total, Lewis defended his United States Heavyweight Kickboxing title with 8 straight knockouts (10 since two were double knockouts in same fight etc) between 1970/71.
Lewis is the first kickboxer to be featured in both The Ring boxing magazine and Sports Illustrated.
Lewis retired as undefeated United States Heavyweight Kickboxing champion in 1971.
His record as the undisputed United States heavyweight kickboxing champion was a perfect 10-0 with 10 KO’s.
September 14, 1974 on ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment promoter Mike Anderson introduced PKA ‘Full-Contact’ Karate.
In the bouts, competitors wore foam hand and foot protection and fought to the knockout (Kickboxing rules allowed for leg kicks: full-contact karate rules did not permit kicks to the legs).
Lewis, the retired US Heavyweight Kickboxing champion was accustomed to full contact fighting.
In 1974 he beat his only opponent with a 2nd round ridge hand knockout over Yugoslavia’s Frank Brodar in Los Angeles, California to win the Professional Karate Association (PKA) Heavyweight full-contact karate title.
The original 1974 PKA world champions, including Joe Lewis (heavyweight), Jeff Smith (light heavyweight) and Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace (middleweight) received so much fanfare from the PKA title wins and resultant publicity in popular martial arts magazines that their status as “legends of the karate world” was guaranteed.
Lewis advanced his public persona the next year by appearing on the cover of Playgirl magazine with then wife actress Barbara Leigh.
In 1975 Joe Lewis was inducted into the Black Belt magazine Hall of Fame as the 1974 full contact karate “Fighter of the Year.”
In 1984, Lewis moved to Madeira Beach, FL where he began to train and mentor John and Jim Graden and later with Mark Graden.
According to Lewis, no other family has had three world kickboxing champions.
In a 1992 Black Belt cover story, “Passing the Torch” Lewis named John and Jim Graden as his torch bearers.
