Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 6
The #1 Business Resource for the Martial Arts Industry
The #1 Business Resource for the Martial Arts Industry
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EVENTS<br />
Ribbon cutting ceremony<br />
greatest figures in the arts, including Don “the dragon” Wilson<br />
and Benny “the jet” Urquidez, two of the biggest kickboxing<br />
champions, plus Apache Knife Fighting with Robert Redfeather,<br />
Penjak Silat and more.<br />
<strong>Martial</strong> arts action stars such as Cynthia Rothrock, James Lew,<br />
Eric Lee, Ron Thomas, Art Camacho, Don Wilson, Fred “the hammer”<br />
Williamson, Steve Lambert, Darryl Vidal, Peter Kwong, Chi<br />
Chu Ling, and dozens more signed autographs as fans greeted<br />
such icons as Fumio Demura, Tak Kubota, Benny Urquidez, Karen<br />
Sheperd, Gerald Okamura, Carl Totton, and Felix Roiles.<br />
The event, which was held at the Glendale Civic Auditorium in<br />
Glendale, CA featured a large stage which featured over a dozen<br />
Asian cultural performances including Japanese Kimono dance,<br />
Hawaiian Hula performers, Chinese face-changing, traditional<br />
Chinese lion dancers laced with martial arts demonstrators. This<br />
year, one of the Magic Castle’s magicians Joel Ward gave us his<br />
time to give a magical performance. Previous conventions have<br />
included special guests such as John Saxon, James Hong, Eric<br />
Roberts, Phillip Rhee, Joe Mantegna, Steve Oedekerk, Robin Shou,<br />
Shin Koyomada, etc.<br />
“One of the things that we do every year is to pay our respect<br />
to many of our icons who passed away the previous year. Since we<br />
had to shut down for two years, we included those from the previous<br />
year as well,” says Matsuda. “This was a very special time as<br />
we brought the families of James Ibrao, Richard Nunez, Leo Fong,<br />
Harry Mok, and several others on stage. Each family held a large<br />
photo of their loved one and spent a few moments expressing<br />
their thoughts. These people loved the martial arts, and I feel that<br />
we as a community need to pay our respects.”<br />
This year was more than just a celebration of Dragonfest’s<br />
re-opening; it served as a restart for the martial arts community.<br />
“Covid has had a devastating effect on the martial arts industry.<br />
We have lost nearly 70 to 80 percent of our martial arts schools in<br />
Southern California alone. Even though schools are now allowed<br />
Jeff Imada and Danny Lopez<br />
Robert Parham and Chi Chu Ling<br />
30 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME <strong>22</strong> | ISSUE 6
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