Book review: “Training and Fighting Skills” by Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

Benny “The Jet” Urquidez is somewhat of a legend in the USA. He is one of the pioneers of full-contact fighting and to his credit, one of the first to fight with leg-kicks. He started his study of the martial arts at the age of 8 and had a successful competitive career in the traditional (non-contact) Karate tournaments. Full-contact fighting emerged in the USA in 1974 and Benny switched to this type of competition. He continued to have a long and prosperous career with many world champion titles, before retiring as a professional fighter. He has also worked in motion pictures as an actor, fight choreographer and trainer of actors.

Here’s an old fight of his:

This book is actually quite old (first published in 1981) but is still sold today. It was one of the first books on full-contact fighting I bought and at the time, my impression was largely positive. These days, I have a more nuanced opinion, which I’ll explain in a bit.

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