USJA rules on Matthew Morton

[d1jinx]

this is all pretty good, and I'm following whats going on. but I am curious to know how this all got started. What started this. Who did he piss off or what did he do to get revieled as a fraud. I wish USAT would do the same. But if they did.... some of them would get revieled...

[crushing]

Originally Posted by d1jinx

this is all pretty good, and I'm following whats going on. but I am curious to know how this all got started. What started this. Who did he piss off or what did he do to get revieled as a fraud. I wish USAT would do the same. But if they did.... some of them would get revieled...

It is pretty much spelled out @ http://www.bullshido.org/Matthew_Morton in the section called "Background of Bullshido's Interest in Matthew Morton"

[Blindside]

Originally Posted by d1jinx

this is all pretty good, and I'm following whats going on. but I am curious to know how this all got started. What started this. Who did he piss off or what did he do to get revieled as a fraud. I wish USAT would do the same. But if they did.... some of them would get revieled...

It started of when a prospective student was looking for verification about Matt's supposed accomplishments sent a request to another judo instructor to see if he had any information. That judo instructor tossed it up onto Bullshido and things started getting questionable when they realized he was claiming a BJJ blackbelt as well. Things went downhill from there, with Matt posting increasing weird explanations as the thread continued.

[frank raud]

Originally Posted by shesulsa

I read the article. Just curious if someone else had done the editing and then given them to Matt. This was a claim of his to me, though those messages are now lost to the Great MT Data Loss of 2009.

What a mess.

In reference to Matt's BJJ black belt claims, he said he was essentially cross ranked, so it is POSSIBLE that someone else produced the certificates and gave them to Matt, he thinking they were genuine. Problem with that is he has two separate BJJ certificates. Fool me once...?

In regards to his judo certificate, it seems very odd that a legitmate judo teacher would give Matt a certificate that was faked off of Neil Ohlenkamp's online certificate.

Either multiple persons at different times defrauded Matt with essentially the same technique, or Matt made the forgeries. Occam's razor says....

[grydth]

Originally Posted by Blindside

That is true, he can. But should anyone take the time to do an online search for "Matt Morton Judo" you will hit two Bullshido threads and the MartialTalk thread about him in the top 4 hits, the fourth being Matt's own Judo website. If you google "Matt Morton Tae Kwon Do" you get 3 pertinent MartialTalk threads and a Bullshido threads in the top 4. So at least the consumer has the opportunity to find out that their potential instructor is at the very least extremely dishonest.

A rational observation on your part.....but with some care in creating his new ryu, Morton could largely defeat such a search.

Also, those who've been the subjects of Internet canings in the past appear to have prospered quite well in the physical world. I do not see that even highly controversial figures have been driven from MA.

The character who I believe set the neg rep record here, one Soke Calkins, has a website which shows a new dojo and more students than ever.

[Bob Hubbard]

And last I heard, Ashida Kim, George Dillman and HaHa Lung are all doing quite well for themselves.

[stevebjj]

In fairness, though, I think that there's a certain culling of the herd that has to occur. This idea that frauds are still out there making money keeps getting brought up as though it in some way negates the effort of exposing them. You can't save people who aren't interested in being saved and you can't argue with crazy people. Or as the old saying goes, you can bring the horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

Speaking from personal experience, I found bullshido to be extremely helpful for me when I realized I wasn't getting what I needed out of my old MA school. While I'm sure there are people out there happily giving their money away to frauds, I'm confident that there are many people who read the links and end up finding quality, reputable schools as a result.

[Xinglu]

Originally Posted by frank raud

In reference to Matt's BJJ black belt claims, he said he was essentially cross ranked, so it is POSSIBLE that someone else produced the certificates and gave them to Matt, he thinking they were genuine.

Possible? Sure, all things are possible. Probable? When considering ALL of the forgeries he was caught with, most certainly not.

[ciscodog]

Well he can start his own style, but seeing as he isnt qualified too, that would probably make life harder. Matt Morton supplied his certs, they where forged. If you pass yourself off with false rank, odds are your going to get caught eventually. If you make up your own style to justify false rank, well your even worse in my opinion.

[yorkshirelad]

He should have gone the USMA route. Phil Porter, sorry...uh..um..O'Sensei would've given him godan if he'd asked for it.

[Bob Hubbard]

Originally Posted by ciscodog

Well he can start his own style, but seeing as he isnt qualified too, that would probably make life harder. Matt Morton supplied his certs, they where forged. If you pass yourself off with false rank, odds are your going to get caught eventually. If you make up your own style to justify false rank, well your even worse in my opinion.

I agree with you. But. One only has to look at the cases of Tom Carnes and Soke Calkins to see what having unverifiable and fake creds can do. Carnes got hammered by the FMA and JKD community yet still is out teaching seminars, and Calkins got hammered for all his creds, yet continues to teach, referee and grow his schools. (threads on both in horror stories and great debate areas here)

I've been in enough schools when prospects walked in to know that almost nobody asks to see the certs, or asks lineage questions.

Worst case for Morton, he sends $400 and a vhs tape to some po box in Florida, gets back a shiny ring and is now a Soke of Morton-Ryu Judo. Instant cred.

[Humble Student]

Originally Posted by Dave Leverich

By the way, thanks for revisiting the rule Bob.
While we don't want witch hunts, it's also nice to have honesty and less bogus ranks.
I've never understood why people would 'pad the stats'.

Simple and answer to pad there bank accounts and there ego.

[iron_ox]

Hello all,

Wanted to chime in on this as I have been on the receiving end of some of Mr. Morton's misconceptions of the martial art I teach.

As of today, November 14, 2009, all his websites are still active - and still advertise him as the Judo teacher for the Moo Sul Kwan - now, for those that might not know, Morton's father is a high ranking member of this organization - YET they have taken no action, and allowed him to create websites using their name and his dubious credentials.

Why have they done nothing about this now? To me, it screams that the entire organization is questionable - or they would have acted - there are other members of this group here and elsewhere - they must have found this mess distasteful enough to have the higher ups know - but it does not seem that happened...

Frankly what annoys me most is the fact that Morton garnered sympathy from members of this forum for his "injuries" while lying to them the whole time...