Читать книгу From Lee to Li: An A–Z guide of martial arts heroes - Ben Stevens - Страница 27

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DOLMAN, CHRIS

Born in the Netherlands in 1945, Chris Dolman has been described by the ‘Dutch Animal’ Jon Bluming as being ‘…the best all-round student I ever had’. At the age of twenty-four he became World Champion at Sambo, in Moscow, effectively beating the Russians at their own sport, and went on to win numerous medals in the world of ‘freefighting’—which is, as the name suggests, a tournament where expert practitioners of various styles thrash it out to determine who’s best. For a time Dolman, like Bluming, was involved in providing security for the clubs and casinos in Amsterdam’s red-light district, but now he is currently busy training new fighting talent.

DONG, FAN XU

A giant of a man, weighing in at around 300 pounds, Fan Xu Dong was also a master of Wong Long’s ‘Praying Mantis’ style of kung-fu. So expert was he at fighting, and so strong, that it is said he once killed two bulls who tried to attack him as he strolled across a field.

He became a hero when he slew a Japanese samurai warrior who was making his way slowly across China, challenging and killing any Chinese swordsman who happened to be in his path.

Dong had his own challenge instantly accepted by the samurai, who the following morning found himself being sliced in half from the groin upwards.

DONG, HAICHUAN

The founder of baguazhang (’eight shaped palm boxing’)—one of the three major internal Chinese martial arts—Dong Haichuan was born in Zhu village sometime around the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. From childhood he trained in a variety of martial arts, and as a young man was frequently in trouble due to his love of fighting.

He then went travelling around China, often so poor that he had to beg for food but always practising his martial arts daily. He finally obtained employment as a tax collector in Mongolia, where he stayed for around a decade.