Disgraced master 'walks away from kung fu' after fresh online mockery

Disgraced Chinese tai chi master Ma Baoguo has apparently walked away from martial arts after a resurgence in online ridicule over the weekend.

The 69-year-old became an overnight celebrity in May when he was knocked down three times in 30 seconds in a fight with50-year-old amateur boxer Wang Qingmin in Zibo, Shandong.

Ma’s official Weibo account posted on Sunday for the first time since May, writing that “Ma has returned to a peaceful life, away from the martial arts circle of right and wrong. I hope everyone can understand it”.

This came in response to a renewed interest in the martial artist as netizens created spoof videos, coinciding with the six-month anniversary of his viral loss to Wang.

Ma’s account addressed the rise in videos, which had also seen him trend as a search topic on Weibo once more.

“Recently, a lot of various clips about Ma Lao have appeared on the internet. The information on the internet is very messy, so everyone must be able to distinguish clearly.

“This is our only window platform to the outside world. All information is subject to this release. Thank you.”

That was the first post on the account since a similar denial in mid-May following the dramatic knockout by Wang within 30 seconds.

Chinese netizens have been creating videos inserting Ma into well-known action films or doctoring images to place him in films such as The Godfather, where he replaced Marlon Brando .

The ridicule has from all corners. Even Ke Jie, the 23-year-old Go world champion, released a video on Chinese-platform Bilibili spoofing Ma.

Another video, posted by PP Sports, showed Germany football coach Joachim Loew, whose side were thrashed 6-0 by Spain in the Uefa Nations League on Tuesday. It had been edited so Loew explained why his face was swollen, much like the posts Ma made after his defeat to Wang.

It has been pointed out that videos spoofing Ma on Bilibili have been viewed more than 100 million times.

Such videos often focus on sayings from Ma’s own videos, including “rat tail juice”, “sneak attack” and “young people do not speak martial arts”.

Many users have set up fake accounts pretending to be Ma, which he denounced on his official account back in May.

“There are now many people on the internet pretending to be Mr Ma Baoguo to post false news,” the official account posted back then.

“We have not accepted any interviews with anyone. All the news is based on the official Weibo account of “Hunyuan Xingyi Taijiquan Ma Baoguo” that has been certified with V. Yes, the picture below shows some fake accounts, please tell the netizens clearly.”

Elsewhere, another edited photo saw Xi’an’s Changan University move to deny that they had employed Ma to teach martial arts to students.

Someone had doctored images of the “announcement” and shared them on social media – the giveaway being the real university has a blue “verified” logo rather than the red “V” in the pictures – as reported by Chengdu’s Red Star News .

“We don’t know who sent this picture and there is no way to verify it,” a staff member was quoted as saying. They also refused to confirm whether Ma Baoguo was an alumnus of the university.

Earlier this year, the China Wushu Association issued a proposal to clear up the definition of martial arts.

This came in a response to Ma and other self-proclaimed “masters” going viral online after humiliating defeats.

I forgot Royce won that. Dan was kicking his a$$. Lasted over 15 mins, PPV ended before fight was over. Yeah, UFC-4. Dan threw Royce over his head twice in a suplex, almost broke Royce’s back. Stunned him bad. You could tell Royce had never been hurt like that. But Royce did submit him, off camera if you were watching the Pay Per View. We all thought Dan won, but didn’t see the last minute, because PPV stopped. It is really worth watching, if you can find it. Dan threw him around like a ragdoll.

When I said Royce never came back, I meant to the UFC Tournament championship fights, where you start with 8 and keep fighting up to the finals. Brutal. 3 fights in a night to get to the finals.

Royce did fight in 5, but not the tournament. Didn’t actually compete up to the finals. Just a single fight at the very end, a staged “Superfight” between him and Shamrock. That was a draw, and not that good, IMO. Royce didn’t look the same, to me. Not invincible.

Dan Severn won the actual UFC-5 Tournament. Royce didn’t compete in another UFC Tournament fight until UFC-60, when he lost his first match. I honestly believe that match with Severn shook Royce to his core. He continued to fight, but nowhere near the same level guys as UFC. Disappeared for 5 years after UFC-5.

Fun fact: The Gracies helped start UFC. There’s like 8(?) brothers, all dynamite. Their dad taught them. They used to run ads in Black Belt Magazine, “You think your Martial Art School is the best? We challenge anyone in a no rules match. Each put up $50,000, winner takes all.” Nobody took them up. So they started UFC.

[I forgot Royce won that. Dan was kicking his a$$. Lasted over 15 mins, PPV ended before fight was over. Yeah, UFC-4. Dan threw Royce over his head twice in a suplex, almost broke Royce’s back. Stunned him bad. You could tell Royce had never been hurt like that. But Royce did submit him, off camera if you were watching the Pay Per View. We all thought Dan won, but didn’t see the last minute, because PPV stopped. It is really worth watching, if you can find it. Dan threw him around like a ragdoll.]

Thanks. It’s kind of lame for PPV to stop showing the last bit. It’s like cutting off a Superbowl game before the very last minute, at a moment when the team that’s behind has a chance for a comeback. And does.

[What’s your opinion of MMA vs Boxer in the same weight class?”

Professional boxer 100%.

There are going to be a lot of people on here that will claim MMA fighters can grapple and wrestle and what not.

They have no idea. ]

There was an exhibition match between Ali and Inoki that turned into a real fight, but with severe restrictions on what Inoki could do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzm2qveUi54

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_vs._Antonio_Inoki#Rules
[The fight was contested under specially created rules. Due to varying claims over the years, it is difficult to know the reasons behind their implementation.

It has been alleged that Ali’s handlers originally agreed to a worked match, but that Ali never agreed to fix the fight. According to boxing journalist Jim Murphy, the original plan was for Ali to accidentally punch the referee and knock him out. While standing over the referee, looking concerned, Inoki would knock him out with an enzuigiri or a roundhouse kick to the head. The referee would then come around and count Ali out, giving Inoki the win in front of his fellow countrymen, and allowing Ali to save face. However, when Ali found out he had to lose, he refused, turning the fixed fight into a real one.[5]

According to Inoki, Ali and his entourage had signed on expecting the fight to be an exhibition rather than a real contest. It was only when they went to see Inoki train six days before the fight, and saw him use a series of brutal kicks and grapples on sparring partners, that they sensed it would be a legitimate fight. Inoki alleges he was asked by Ali, “OK, so when do we do the rehearsal?”, with Inoki replying: “No, no. This isn’t an exhibition. It’s a real fight!”[5]

In the days leading up to the fight, Ali and Inoki’s representatives began to renegotiate the rules. A list of restrictions was imposed on Inoki. He would not be allowed to throw, grapple or tackle Ali and could not land any kicks unless he had one knee on the mat.[4] Ali’s camp also demanded that the rules not be made public before the fight. Judo expert and US Marine Donn Draeger noted, “The rules have been so seriously modified that the contest is no longer boxing versus wrestling. Unless this were done there would be no way to choreograph the match and make it look convincing. Ali can grapple or punch the man down; Inoki is not allowed to leg-dive or tackle. That latter restriction is the same as prohibiting Ali from jabbing. What a farce!”[5]

Forty years after the fight, the referee Gene LeBell denied that there were actual limitations on kicking or grappling and said all types of kicking, throwing and grappling were allowed.[8]

Professional wrestler Bret Hart, then an employee of Inoki’s, claimed in his autobiography that “the black Muslims who were backing Ali made it clear that if Inoki laid a finger on their champ, they would kill him. That’s why Inoki lay on his back for fifteen rounds, kicking Ali in the shins so as not to use his hands”.[9] This claim was lent credibility by then NJPW referee Mr. Takahashi, who assured it was Ali’s entourage and not Ali himself who demanded the rules.[10] ]

I would love to see boxers fight without gloves, such that every time they aimed for their opponent’s head, they ran the risk of breaking their hands. I expect this would significantly reduce the rate of neurological ailments among boxers. OTOH, knockouts would become far less frequent.

Boxing is real fighting. Martial arts by and large has little to do with actual fighting.

BS. Martial arts has everything to do with actual fighting, though there are some new-fangled ones that are fantasyland BS. The only problem is that there are very few dojos that train realistically, while boxers ALWAYS train realistically, and spar full contact. Your average martial arts dojo in the USA, for example, is some half-ass mcdojo where the students barely break a sweat and never spar full contact. You might have fat 40-something females as sensais.

If you want a better idea of how martial arts would perform against boxing if both were trained with equal realism, just imagine what professional kickboxers would do to professional boxers (hint: the boxer would get whooped). A kickboxer has all of the advantages of a boxer, but uses the lower half of his body as well. Now, apply that logic to a martial artist who trains AT THE LEVEL OF A KICKBOXER, but also adds in grappling, takedowns, and joint manipulation. But, once again, how many people train that way?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.