Sid Asuncion - anything about him

Discussion in 'Kenpo' started by 5thBrother, Feb 23, 2007.

  1. 5thBrother

    5thBrother Valued Member

    Hi Guys.

    must be 20+ years ago i read articles by sal ebanez and al dacascos which included their remembering him. At that time the stories of him was very inspirational to me and always lnterested in him. very little - nothing about him of photos about on the net...

    If anyone has any stories or information on him wouldbe great to hear.

    also his training methods, his classes, etc

    next time im at my family home i'll have to scan those articles and put them up.

    so anything and everything to do with Sid Asuncion

    thanks
     
  2. DAnjo

    DAnjo Valued Member

    Here's what's written at the Kajukenbo Cafe:

    "The late Sid Asuncion was born in Hawaii on September 25, 1926.
    He had been involved in the fighting arts for over 45 years. First as a boxer, then as a judo/jujitsu practitioner.
    Stating Kajukenbo training in the 1950's, he was one of the handful of instructors who came out of the Palama Settlement school. His instructors being Woodrow McCandless, and Joe Emperado.
    As young men Sid and Joe Emperado were very close friends. In fact it was Joe who influenced Sid to get involved in Kajukenbo, after he demonstrated his Kajukenbo techniques against Sid's boxing, judo and jujitsu techniques.
    After Sid accomplished his black belt ranking, he continued to pass on the intense training of Kajukenbo at his own club in the town of Waipahu. Here many of his talented and most recognized black belts developed. His first being Al Dela Cruz, then Al Dacascos, George Iverson, Dennis Sabala, and Sixto Ramos.
    Asuncion said he did not participate in tournaments at this time so he could totally devote himself to teaching.
    More would join the ranks with his first generation, and they too would in turn develop their own black belts. The generations of black belts that flow from his teachings thus far number into the hundreds, and many of them are passing on their knowledge in their own clubs to future Great Grand Children of the Asuncion clan.
    Professor Asuncion was ranked 9th degree in Kajuknbo, and 10th degree in his own Kenkabo organization.
    Till the day he died in 1994, Professor Asuncion was widely known as a awesome and inspirational instructor."
     
  3. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned

    Hi,

    The thing that is important to remember is the students of the man and his lasting legacy by them.

    According to the book by John Bishop the students of GM Sid, Al Dela Cruz and Al Dacascos assisted in the development or were responsible for the development of many of the branch's that came off the main trunk of Kajukenbo.

    They are very different so you might even say 3 out of 4 of the systems are Chinese. And the three that were, are all from his students.

    I think it is very interesting to see the way that many went in the late 50s and early 60's was to the art of the Chinese.

    If you look and are a critical thinker the Chinese Hand is the real basis for all the systems that are out there. Anything with the term Kara...

    John Leoning went that way and so did Sonny Gascon.

    Ken Ka Bo is similar...If you know about the Boxers of China and read about them, all of the arts are there.

    http://www.kenboka.com/kenpo.htm

    Not much new under the sun, especially when the Chinese have been into this kind of war fare since the time of Sun Tzu.

    There is a book written by Donn Draeger that is very good about that topic.
    The original one was about the "Fighting arts of Asia".

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donn_Draeger

    Sid Asuncion was an important person in the early part of Kajukenbo that is for sure.

    Gary
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2007
  4. SifuJason

    SifuJason Valued Member

    As one of GM Al Dacascos's students, I can try to add some more here, based on the stories he has told me, and I'll also ask him the next time we talk.

    The most noteworthy story I have is of the training GMs Al Dela Cruz and Al Dacascos had with each other, where uniforms would rip apart, blood would be everywhere, and they would go all day long. A lot of Al Dacascos' dedication to teaching came from Sid Asuncion.

    In regards to Gary's comments about the Chinese influence in 3/4 branches of Kajukenbo, and how they all involved Sid's students, that is undeniable. However, I'll have to ask GM Dacascos about the extent of Sid's influence on this. I know that both of "the Als" eventually trained with Sijo Emperado themselves, and that during this time the Chinese arts were seen as a way of further developing the Kajukenbo system, resulting in the three extra branches.
     
  5. John Bishop

    John Bishop Valued Member

    Sidro Asuncion was a pioneer in the Kajukenbo system, turning out more Kajukenbo grandmasters then any Emperado student.
    Besides practicing Kajukenbo and boxing, he also developed his own system "Kenkabo" which emphasized the old hard style kenpo, karate, western boxing. Standing only 5"-2" 120#, he was once forced to kill a 6"-2" marine who pulled a knife on him when the fight he started didn't go his way.

    Here's a picture from the 60's of Sidro Asuncion (left) and Sixto Ramos Jr.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. 5thBrother

    5thBrother Valued Member

    thanks all!

    and THANKS!! for the picture!
     
  7. 5thBrother

    5thBrother Valued Member

    hi guys,

    im reading a webpage atm and am alittle confused over something, so quick Q please:

    does Sonny Emperado = Adriano Emperado?

    if not, who was the elder brother and junior brother out the + Joe.

    i had thought sonny was an "aka" of adriano before.

    thanks in advanced.

    EDIT: found confirmation - sonny emperarod and adriano emperado = same person. thanks anyways~
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2007
  8. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned


    Hi, Interesting story.
    Have any Article to back it up? I have one from Kung Fu Magazine dated Mar of 88 that is interesting.
    Have you heard of a person by the name of Junior Ulangca or Tony Villalon, or Stephen Chow?

    Gary
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2007
  9. SifuJason

    SifuJason Valued Member

    Sifu Al has told me the story before as well. That's all the verification I have, but that is all I need.
     
  10. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned

    I understand where you are coming from. I feel many people are very trustworthy and you should believe them.

    Then it is very hard to take what they say as true if you are unable to verify it. I have tried to verify what others say and you always irritate someone when you do that.

    Questions can be tiresome. I have been guilty of asking many questions. I also try to clear up somethings that just don't sit well.

    Stories are just that. If you repeat things and they are not verified it will come back to haunt you big time. :bang:

    Martial arts seems to be one of the most confusing as far as wanting to relay stories that are not verifiable. Even if you can verify, you still are suspect if it is not what others are told. This subject is just one of many that has a ring to it, that needs to be verified.

    Gary
     
  11. DAnjo

    DAnjo Valued Member

    No but I'll see if we can write one for Wikipedia so you can consider it official history.

    Yes, we all know who these people are.
     
  12. DAnjo

    DAnjo Valued Member

    Care to verify your rank and training with Leoning?
     
  13. SifuJason

    SifuJason Valued Member

    In general I agree. In my case, I trust Al Dacascos because (to limits of human memory) everything he has told me that is verifiable has been verified. Thus his word has value, and so when he says something that may be harder (or impossible) to verify, I'll take his word on it because of his track record. It's called trust. It's not easy to earn, but he has mine.
     
  14. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned


    Yes, again it is easy to understand. Killing or self defense is something that should be easy to verify.

    DAnjo mentions,
    Care to verify your rank and training with Leoning?

    My understanding:

    I was informed by John that it was verified. I'll have to take his word on that one.

    Killing a U.S. serviceman would have some records some where, you would think :confused:

    Gary
     
  15. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned

    Have you heard of a person by the name of Junior Ulangca or Tony Villalon, or Stephen Chow?

    DAnjo mention:
    Yes, we all know who these people are.

    I'll mention:
    That is good for they are all mentioned in an article that can verify a persons Identity as being in the same location as they back in 1980's.


    Edit:
    Quote from Buddha,

    Believe nothing, No matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it.
    Unless it agrees with your own reasonings and your own common sense.. Buddha

    He must of heard it from someone :D

    Gary
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2007
  16. John Bishop

    John Bishop Valued Member

    Nope, got the word of several students and friends of Sid Asuncion who were career police officers, including Al Dela Cruz (retired Honolulu PD), Alan Carter (retired St Louis P.D.), Gerry Scott (retired Hawaii state law enforcement), Henry Mandac (retired Honolulu P.D.), and several others.
    Since your not in a position to have access to police reports, I'd suggest looking up the archieves of the "Honolulu Advertiser" for articles.

    Oh yes, some of the people who came out to claim leadership of kara-ho after Prof. Chow's death. Add the name Gervacio "Billy" Vargas to that list.
    That's old news. None of their claims were ever taken seriously by those in the know. That's why no one has mentioned them since 88.

    And now we have Vernon Kam making claims. Funny, how he just happens to show up at the Chow memorial, knowing in advance that the Kara-ho organization was not going to be there to expose his real training history.
    They let him teach a seminar to see if he really was who he said he was. After 15 minutes it was obvious to all that he was not. So he was removed from the floor.
    A later call to him got a admission that he was a former low ranking Kuoha student, but wanted to be at the event to pay his respects to Prof. Chow.
     
  17. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned


    Thanks for the information John.

    His only claim is on his Business card. And the fact that his name is among the names in the article. People can make up their minds, similar to those who want to believe like the Buddha mentioned in the quote.

    I can see that I have some how stepped into something that has been over with for quite some time. So we can just close it out and let others do their own search or not.

    The name Junior Ulangca is one that I found at a Website called "Guardian"
    So. CA. , whatever happened to the Professors son anyway?

    Gary
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2007
  18. John Bishop

    John Bishop Valued Member

    Jr. Ulangca is a Kajukenbo blackbelt under the late George Iversen. What he's doing now days, I don't know.

    From what I was told by people who knew the Prof., was that Steven has spent most of his teen and adult life with substance abuse problems. He had never really trained seriously, or embraced a martial arts lifestyle. In other words he has never had a interest in the martial arts.
    I tend to believe this because it was told to me by three differant Hawaiian martial arts masters that I have known and trusted for years. These men knew the professor well, and two of them being Lua masters, I have to consider unbiased.
    Even to an outside observer who gets into kenpo history at this late date, it will be obvious that Steven is never mentioned anywhere in time as a kenpo practitioner. Asking him to be Prof. Chow's successor would be the equivelent of asking the record store salesman Alvin Mitose to take over the Kosho Ryu system.
    Chow's own brother (John Chow-Hoon) didn't even attempt to take over the system, even though he had been a long time kenpo and jujitsu practitioner.
     
  19. John Bishop

    John Bishop Valued Member

    Is that Scot Conway's website?
     
  20. BGile

    BGile Banned Banned

    Is that Scot Conway's website?

    Yes, it was the only thing I found out about a name of Junior Ulangca as far as kenpo was concerned.
    I wrote him and he mentioned he did not know about Vernon Kam.

    End of conversation.

    I saw the name Matias Ulangca Jr as a student of Iverson and saw that Iverson had a school in Hawaii, looks like his daughters run it now?

    I was very impressed with the number of students that GM Sid had, Iverson mentions Sid as being the best in his opinion.

    Gary
     

Share This Page