Kajukenbo is widely considered by historians to be one of the earliest American mixed martial arts system. It compromises of
- KA — Karate and Tang Soo Do
- JU — Judo and Jujitsu
- KEN — Kenpo (Fist)
- BO — Chinese Boxing (Quan Fa) and/or Western Boxing
There is little doubt that the founders of the system, who spanned several martial arts were ahead of the pack when it was created in 1947. Recognising that different styles had different strengths and weaknesses, they sought to plug the gaps. They deserve a great deal of credit for their foresight and willingness to recognise that other martial arts, outside of their own styles, could potentially improve their approach. Even today, many experts in traditional martial arts are not willing to acknowledge that others have more to offer, even when the UFC has proven time and again that certain martial arts work like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, whilst others never appear. Whether boxing or wrestling are considered martial arts or not is another matter, but exponents of these arts have enjoyed considerable MMA success at the highest levels.
We are pretty sure that were the founders of Kajubenko alive today, many of them would be practising Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Judo, Boxing, Wrestling, Sambo, etc, and most likely Mixed Martial Arts. In fact, famous practitioners of the art have included Sage Norcutt, Chuck Liddell, Don Stroud, and Glover Teixeira. These are all martial arts practised within SBG and selected because they are the very best based on empirical data.
It is our contention that the spirit of Kajubenko is very much alive within SBG, even if the delivery systems have changed and we have developed the vision further, applying our principles of Aliveness and our I-method system of progression.
