You like lists. We like lists. So over the next few weeks Martial Arts World Report will be presenting you with our list of the 100 most important and influential people in martial arts and combat sports over the past 100 years. Keep in mind, this isn’t a list of the best fighters – some of the people listed never fought or even trained in martial arts – instead it’s about who had the most impact on the world of martial arts and combat sports over the last century. Also, those chosen had to have primarily made their mark within that 100 year time period. Though someone like judo founder Jigoro Kano was immensely influential and lived into the 1930s, almost all his major achievements came more than 100 years ago so he didn’t make this list. Click here to read the full list from the beginning. And now numbers 10-6 in our top 100 countdown…

10. Cheng Man-ch’ing(1901 or 1902-1975) – A master of Yang style tai chi chuan (taijiquan) Cheng Man-ch’ing (Zheng Manqing) is perhaps more responsiblethan anyone for both spreading tai chi outside of China and formaking it into a popular form of exercise rather than a form ofcombat. Growing up in early 20th century China Cheng was something ofa prodigy mastering the traditional arts of a Confucian gentleman –poetry, calligraphy and painting – at a relatively young age. Hewould go on to add an expertise in Chinese medicine as well as whathe became best known for, a knowledge of tai chi. Though it’s beenreported he first studied martial arts as a youth, Cheng did not meethis primary teacher, Yang Cheng-fu, until he was in his late 20s.Yang was the inheritor of the Yang style of tai chi chuan, the mostpracticed form of that art in China at the time. Suffering from alung disease, Cheng studied with Yang for several years seeking toimprove his health. He would eventually become a skilled enoughpractitioner to himself go on and teach tai chi at the ChineseCentral Military Academy. It’s also been reported he was appointedthe Director of Martial Arts of Hunan Province, teaching many martialartists in that region tai chi. Cheng would eventually modify thetraditional yang tai chi form he had learned, significantlyshortening and simplifying it. This had the long term effect ofmaking the art he taught much more accessible and easily practiced bymost people, particularly those who were simply looking for littlebit of exercise rather than combative skills. Following the Chinesecivil war, Cheng fled to Taiwan where he continued to practicemedicine, by some accounts serving as a physician to ChineseNationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. In Taiwan Cheng would alsocontinue to teach tai chi instructing a number of notablepractitioners who would go on to spread the art, particularly inSoutheast Asia. His most notable student during this period, however,was American author and martial arts pioneer Robert W. Smith whowould tout Cheng’s skills in several of his books and collaboratewith Cheng on a tai chi manual. Cheng moved to the United States in1964 becoming one of the first people to not only publicly teach taichi in the west but one of the first to teach any form of Chinesemartial art to non-Chinese. He developed a large following ofstudents in the New York area and through them his art would spreadacross the country and overseas. Though some have decried the waymany people now practice the art as strictly an exercise with noemphasis placed on the martial aspects, it’s largely due to Cheng’sinfluence that tai chi has become possibly the most widely practiced“martial” art in the world.

9. William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey (1895-1983) – In what is frequently termed the “golden age” of sports in the 1920s, Jack Dempsey trailed only baseball player Babe Ruth as the most famous athlete of the day and the man who helped make boxing one of the most popular sports in the world. Dropping out of school as a teenager, Dempsey road the rails across America living as a wandering hobo and fighting people in saloons for pocket money. He took the moniker “Jack” Dempsey around 1914 as a tribute to a former middleweight champion of that name. Fighting every few weeks, Dempsey had a spotty record the first few years of his career. But his legendary knockout power and his vicious killer instinct inside the ring were already apparent. He eventually teamed up with roguish fight manager Jack “Doc” Kearns who helped guide Dempsey up the ranks of heavyweight contenders and then convinced Tex Rickard, the most powerful promoter of the day, to give Dempsey a shot at the heavyweight title. The ongoing collaboration between the three men would prove to be one of the most successful in boxing history. Dempsey fought heavyweight champion Jess Willard in 1919 utterly destroying his much larger but less skilled opponent knocking Willard down seven times in the first round and finishing him in the third round. In later years, Dempsey’s estranged manager, Kearns, would claim he had covered the boxer’s hand wraps with plaster of Paris to make his punches harder. But many boxing historians have come to doubt Kearns’ account. Dempsey was also aided by the rules of the era which permitted him to stand over his downed opponent and hit him as soon as he came off the floor. The new champion also displayed what was then a novel defensive style using constant motion and a bobbing and weaving defense to make himself a more elusive target. Dempsey would go on to defend his title several times, including the first million dollar gate in boxing history against Frenchman Georges Carpentier. The fight was broadcast across the country by radio possibly making it the first ever national radio broadcast. Dempsey’s 1923 title defense against Argentinian Luis Firpo is considered one of the most exciting in heavyweight history with Dempsey knocked down in the opening seconds of the bout then coming back to floor Firpo seven times in the first round. But Firpo scored the bout’s most memorable knockdown right before the end of the round sending Dempsey through the ring ropes and out of the ring. The scene was immortalized in a famed painting by renowned artist George Bellows. Dempsey had to be helped back into the ring by sportswriters but came back in the second round to finish Firpo. Notable during this period, however, is Dempsey’s avoidance of the leading black heavyweight contenders. Though Dempsey had fought black fighters prior to winning the championship, there are reports he said he would no longer fight them after winning the title. However there are also reports Dempsey did try to fight leading African-American contender Harry Wills but was thwarted in these attempts by Rickard. Whatever the case, Dempsey became not only the wealthiest fighter ever up to that point but also the most famous, making the cover of Time Magazine, appearing in movies and doing various product endorsements. However these outside interests pulled Dempsey away from the ring for three years and when he returned he lost his title to Gene Tunney. His rematch with Tunney was one of the most anticipated sporting events in history drawing the first ever $2 million gate. Tunney dominated most of the bout though the match became memorable due to the “long count.” Dempsey knocked Tunney down in the seventh round but failed to obey the new “neutral corner” rule by not retreating to a neutral corner when the referee signaled him to do so, which seemingly gave Tunney several extra seconds to recover. It’s been widely debated over the years whether Tunney could have beaten the count without the extra few seconds but either way, he came back to control the rest of the fight even scoring a knockdown of his own against Dempsey to seal the decision. Dempsey continued to be remembered as one of the most beloved fighters ever, though. In an era when boxing was still illegal in some jurisdictions and frowned upon by many, Dempsey was as responsible as anyone for turning it into one of the most popular sports in the world.

Choi Hong Hi (1918-2002) – Though he’s been misportrayed as, alternately, either the sole founder of taekwondo or as a minor figure in its history, by most objective accounts Choi Hong Hi was the key figure in the creation of what would become, arguably, the world’s most popular martial art.

8. Choi Hong Hi (1918-2002) – Though he’s been misportrayed as, alternately, either the sole founder of taekwondo or as a minor figure in its history, by most objective accounts Choi Hong Hi was the key figure in the creation of what would become, arguably, the world’s most popular martial art. Choi grew up under Japanese occupation in what is now North Korea. Though it’s been claimed he learned a martial art called “taekkyon” as a child, these claims have frequently been disputed and, in any case, taekkyon is regarded by most researchers as more of a game involving kicks than a fighting method. Regardless, Choi eventually went to Japan to attend school and while there he studied shotokan karate, as did several other Koreans of the era, the most senior of whom was Lee Won-kuk. Following WWII Lee created what would become known as the chungdokwan school in Korea teaching Shotokan karate to many of the men who would go on to be seen as the founders of modern Korean martial arts. When Lee fell into disfavor with President Syngman Rhee he was forced to flee to Japan, but not before naming Choi as honorary leader of the chungdokwan. For his part, Choi had joined the South Korean military after WWII and rapidly rose to the rank of major general. Thus, his appointment as leader of the chungdokwan may have been as much political as due to his martial arts skills. Choi soon had what was essentially a Korean version of karate (then called “tangsoodo” the Korean translation of “karatedo”) taught to various military units he was in charge of. A demonstration in front of President Rhee impressed the South Korean leader enough for him to give his official blessing to Choi’s convening a committee with the purpose of coming up with a new, more Koreanized name, for the martial art. The term taekwondo was chosen in 1955 though it did not become commonly used by most Korean martial artists until more than a decade later. With his political influence, Choi was able to convince several leading Korean karate instructors to join his Korean Taekwondo Association, though many resisted at first. But by the mid 1960s most Korean instructors had bowed to Choi’s political influence and united behind the KTA with Choi as it’s leader. Much of this history would be officially swept under the rug later on by Choi and his successors who attempted to claim ancient roots for their art. During this time Choi, or his close associates like Nam Tae-hi, began developing more exotic kicks including spinning and jumping kicks, which came to define the taekwondo style going forward. Choi would also go on to found the International Taekwondo Federation, the first organization dedicated to spreading the Korean art overseas. By 1971 taekwondo was being proclaimed as South Korea’s national sport. But Choi’s political fortunes had already begun to sink and he was forced to relocate to Canada. South Korea set up the World Taekwondo Federation as a rival to Choi’s ITF and Choi’s influence in taekwondo circles gradually waned. Various stories of kidnappings and attempted assassinations surround this period in taekwondo’s history as the art’s instructors were used to strong arm dissident Koreans overseas. Choi ultimately sought to establish a connection between his ITF and South Korea’s arch enemy, the fanatic communist regime of North Korea, which only served to further distance him from the taekwondo mainstream. Despite the many controversies and criticisms surrounding Choi’s career, he was legitimately responsible for starting the process of turning Korean karate into the new martial art of taekwondo and for launching that art toward massive international popularity.

7. Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957) – The founder of shotokan, probably the world’s most popular karate style, Gichin Funakoshi is thought of by many as the father of modern karate. Growing up in Okinawa as a member of a minor family in the Okinawan elite scholar-official class, Funakoshi trained in karate, primarily with an instructor named Anko Asato (or Azato) and then with Anko Itosu who is most frequently credited with modernizing Okinawan karate and introducing it into the local school system. Funakoshi himself worked as a school teacher, also giving instruction in karate. It’s been reported that he first visited mainland Japan in 1917 but it was in 1922 he journeyed there to give a demonstration of karate at a physical education exhibition. That same year he also authored what may have been the first modern book written on karate, Ryukyu Kenpo Karate. Though there is some dispute as to exactly who was the first Okinawan to teach karate in Japan, Funakoshi was among the first and was certainly the most influential. Funakoshi’s 1922 demonstration caught the attention of judo founder Jigoro Kano who invited Funakoshi to demonstrate his karate at the Kodokan, the headquarters of judo. According to karate historian Andreas Quast, Funakoshi had uniforms, in imitation of the standard judo gi, made for himself and his demonstration partner and was given a black belt to wear on Kano’s order. Apparently the fashion of wearing such uniforms soon caught on among karateka in Okinawa. Funakoshi, himself, would go on to use a lightweight white gi, somewhat similar in appearance to the judo gi, for himself and his own karate students. He began teaching karate in several prestigious Japanese universities and it was there, among enthusiastic young men growing up in an ever more militarized Japan, that his karate took hold. Funakoshi was largely teaching the karate he had learned in Okinawa at this time concentrating primarily on a handful of classical kata and frequently alluding to karate as a means of self-improvement rather than pure fighting. However, some of his young university students, many experienced in sparring-oriented martial arts like judo and kendo, eventually began to show an interest in testing their karate skills in some form of freestyle sparring, something Funakoshi was staunchly opposed to at the time. A few of them, notably one of Funakoshi’s senior students, Hironori Ohtsuka, also looked to expand their karate knowledge by seeking out the other primary Japanese karate expert in Japan at the time, Choki Motobu. Funakoshi and Motobu had a dislike for each other throughout their careers with Motobu feeling Funakoshi’s “school” karate was not effective for combat and Funakoshi allegedly disapproving of Motobu’s reputation as something of a streetfighter. Whether it was conflict over an interest in sparring, his interest in Motobu or due to some conflict with Funakoshi’s son Gigo, Ohtsuka would eventually break away from Funakoshi and form his own style called Wado-ryu. It was, in fact, Gigo who is credited with making many of the stylistic changes to Funakoshi’s karate – deepening the stances and altering some of the kata to make them more dynamic – that have come to characterize the system. In the 1930s a school was built to teach this more Japanified form of karate. The school was known as the “Shoto-kan” shoto coming from Funakoshi’s pen name and kan meaning “house,” thus the school was “the house of Shoto.” During this period, with shotokan largely under Gigo’s leadership, sparring became more accepted and test bouts were even conducted against boxers. It’s unclear just how Funakoshi felt about these changes to his style but he was still revered as the school’s founder at that time and still traveled to conduct seminars at the many universities that now had clubs teaching his karate across Japan. In the post-war period a number of Funakoshi’s surviving senior students would create the Japan Karate Association, the largest karate organization of its time, with Funakoshi given an honorary position as it’s head. Though the shotokan that came to be taught in the post-war era was a far cry from Funakoshi’s Okinawan karate, his pioneering efforts to spread the art in Japan, and the first generation of students he would teach like Ohtsuka and Isao Obata, would lay the foundation for making karate one of the most popular martial arts in Japan and eventually the world. Through the Korean students who would study shotokan in Japanese universities prior to WWII, Funakoshi’s system would also lay the basis for the Korean martial art of taekwondo.

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6. George Lewis “Tex” Rickard (1870-1929) – The man who helped turning boxing into big business, Tex Rickard was the prototype for all sports promoters who followed him. Rickard led a colorful life that seemed to come straight out of a pulp adventure novel, supposedly going to work as a cowboy at age 11 in Texas after his father died. Known as a gambler, he was somehow elected town marshal in Henrietta, Texas by age 23. When gold was discovered in Alaska, he took off for the Yukon seeking his fortune, eventually opening a saloon and gaming hall there. But he soon lost most of his holdings through gambling. Undeterred, he opened a new saloon while beginning to promote boxing matches in Alaska. He eventually moved to Nevada opening a saloon and casino there and promoting a lightweight title fight between legendary champion Joe Gans and Battling Nelson. The fight, called “the battle of the century,” reportedly brought in a then record gate of nearly $70,000. It went 42 rounds with Gans finally winning on a disqualification. Rickard followed up on his success by staging yet another “fight of the century” this one between heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and retired former champion James J. Jeffries. Originally planned to take place in California, when the fight met opposition, in large part because Johnson was black and Jeffries white, Rickard moved the match-up to Nevada where the fight between the African-American Gans and his white opponent Nelson had been held without major incident. In one of the most famous and significant moments in sports history, Johnson dominated the aging “white hope” stopping Jeffries on July 4, 1910 inspiring ecstatic celebrations among black fans across the country while provoking riots from whites nationwide. Due to the reaction, the U.S.government passed an arcane federal law prohibiting the interstate transport of boxing films to prevent further violence. Following the bout, Rickard declared himself finished promoting boxing and headed for South America where he tried his hand at cattle ranching. The business ultimately failed with Rickard losing a fortune in the process. He returned to the U.S. and boxing promotion in 1916 picking up where he left off promoting a fight with new heavyweight champion Jess Willard at the Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight set a then record for an indoor fight producing a live gate of more than $150,000. A Barnum-like salesman, Rickard always had a knack for manufacturing interest and generating attention in whatever event he was promoting. When he teamed up with heavyweight contender Jack Dempsey and Dempsey’s manager Doc Kearns, he was able to push boxing from a riotous, barely acceptable blood sport into the mainstream of American life. He promoted Dempsey’s victory over Willard for the heavyweight title, then his defense against Georges Carpentier which drew a then record crowd of 90,000 and the first million dollar gate in boxing history. Rickard pushed the story line for the fight that Carpentier was a heroic WWI veteran for France while Dempsey had been a draft dodger in America, despite the fact Dempsey had actually been turned down for service. But few cared about the facts as Rickard’s promotional shenanigans turned the fight into a massive event, the first boxing match ever broadcast on national radio. Rickard set the pattern that most successful fight promoters would follow going forward marketing major fights as events with compelling story lines, rather than just sporting contests. Secure as the major boxing promoter of the era, Rickard promoted many of his fights out of Madison Square Garden in New York. When he felt that facility inadequate, he had a new incarnation of Madison Square Garden built in 1925. The arena, which would stand until being replaced in 1968, would host some of the biggest fights in boxing history during the coming years. Rickard would also start the New York Rangers hockey franchise to play there. Looking to create new arenas across the country, Rickard would go on to help build the Boston Garden. His boxing promotional coups only seemed to grow as he staged the two fights between Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the second one becoming the first $2 million gate in history. Though known as something of a rogue having survived indictments for everything from illegal interstate transportation of boxing films to sexual assault, Rickard defined modern sports promotion and in the years that followed his playbook would be copied by everyone from Don King to Vince McMahon to Dana White.

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To see the conclusion of our list and find out who were numbers 5-1 click here.