Ernie Reyes Jr.

He's mainly a Taekwondo guy, but he's done a bit of a lot of other things. I know he had at least one Muay Thai fight.
 
He's been doing TKD (more of "old school" hardcore rather than modern Olympic style) since the age of five. He's been doing the FMA's since he hit red belt (iirc 1981) under instructor's such as Jimmy Tacosa, Mike Innay, Jeff Elliott, and some work w/ Remy Presas. He has been serious about muay thai for several years and has won several fights under MT rules (and most recently, the week before the shooting of the FINAL FU, won a fight under K-1 rules at a Strikeforce/K-1 USA event in San Jose), including KO'ing a guy who went on to win some major titles in his weight class. He's also trained in western boxing extensively.

I'm a 6th dan under his Dad and was around when he first began training. We also performed in a LOT of demos together over the decades. Ernie, Jr. ALWAYS stays in shape and trains really hard year round. He mostly does his own thing down in LA and works out a lot w/ his younger brother, Lee. Still, when he tested for 5th dan, he had to be solid on all of our cirriculum which includes BJJ (originally from Ralf and Cesar Gracie), Submission Grappling and NHB (under Frank Shamrock and Bob Cook), as well as the MT under the trainers at Fairtex (including the late Alex Gong). Also, on that test we were tested in American Kenpo (under John Sepulveda and Jeff Speakman). None of these guys would ever put their reps on the line by giving their stamps of approval unless he was up to par with the rest of their people just because of who his father is or because he was in the movies.
 
Thanks for the additional info, Kwan Jang. I knew you would have the most acurate info.:asian:
 
Wow. He's come a long way since "Sidekicks." Awesome.
 
Ernie has accomplished a great amount. He is a good martial artist. I saw him on ESPN Classic a while back winning a kick boxing match in the ISKA rule set. Very good indeed.
 
He's been doing TKD (more of "old school" hardcore rather than modern Olympic style) since the age of five. He's been doing the FMA's since he hit red belt (iirc 1981) under instructor's such as Jimmy Tacosa, Mike Innay, Jeff Elliott, and some work w/ Remy Presas. He has been serious about muay thai for several years and has won several fights under MT rules (and most recently, the week before the shooting of the FINAL FU, won a fight under K-1 rules at a Strikeforce/K-1 USA event in San Jose), including KO'ing a guy who went on to win some major titles in his weight class. He's also trained in western boxing extensively.

I'm a 6th dan under his Dad and was around when he first began training. We also performed in a LOT of demos together over the decades. Ernie, Jr. ALWAYS stays in shape and trains really hard year round. He mostly does his own thing down in LA and works out a lot w/ his younger brother, Lee. Still, when he tested for 5th dan, he had to be solid on all of our cirriculum which includes BJJ (originally from Ralf and Cesar Gracie), Submission Grappling and NHB (under Frank Shamrock and Bob Cook), as well as the MT under the trainers at Fairtex (including the late Alex Gong). Also, on that test we were tested in American Kenpo (under John Sepulveda and Jeff Speakman). None of these guys would ever put their reps on the line by giving their stamps of approval unless he was up to par with the rest of their people just because of who his father is or because he was in the movies.

Thanks for the great info.
 
My teacher, Allen Shirley, was a senior instructor in Ernie Reyes' Columbus branch many years ago. The emphasis there was indeed traditional (they can put some superimpressive demos together, but the focus is on traditional fighting techniques, no shyness about using elbows, face strikes or any of that good stuff!) Mr. Shirley has a lot of respect for ER as a martial artist, and he's a stern (but fair) judge of MA ability, I believe, so I've always thought of ER as one of the `good guys' in the TKD world.
 
My teacher, Allen Shirley, was a senior instructor in Ernie Reyes' Columbus branch many years ago. The emphasis there was indeed traditional (they can put some superimpressive demos together, but the focus is on traditional fighting techniques, no shyness about using elbows, face strikes or any of that good stuff!) Mr. Shirley has a lot of respect for ER as a martial artist, and he's a stern (but fair) judge of MA ability, I believe, so I've always thought of ER as one of the `good guys' in the TKD world.
And you are correct to believe this (in my opinion of course).
 
exile said:
My teacher, Allen Shirley, was a senior instructor in Ernie Reyes' Columbus branch many years ago. The emphasis there was indeed traditional (they can put some superimpressive demos together, but the focus is on traditional fighting techniques, no shyness about using elbows, face strikes or any of that good stuff!) Mr. Shirley has a lot of respect for ER as a martial artist, and he's a stern (but fair) judge of MA ability, I believe, so I've always thought of ER as one of the `good guys' in the TKD world.

And you are correct to believe this (in my opinion of course).

Hey Q-G, thanks for the feedback... I never know just who is what in the larger world of MA outside my (very) small corner of it, so I'm glad that your view of ER dovetails with my instructor's.
 
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