KARL GOTCH

TRIBUTE TO KARL GOTCH

Much or what we revere in today’s submission wrestling, and in particular, Japanese MMA has direct links to Karl Gotch. Known as "Kamisama" in Japan which translated means “God of Wrestling” he is one man who truly made an impact in the grappling arts.

Born Karl Istaz in Antwerp Belgium, a holocaust survivor, Karl was a 7 time Belgium Greco-Roman and 7 time Belgium Freestyle wrestling champion and would compete in the 1948 Olympics in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling which by today’s standards is unheard of. Traveling to England, Karl trained at the the fabled Wigan “Snake Pit” gym. He would go on to become feared in american catch wrestling becoming one of the greatest wrestlers in the 20th century.

Gotch traveled to japan and so impressed the judo and jiujitsu men in Japan, that he gained their respect. In workouts with Japan's top judo and jiu-jitsu men, he beat them so badly, that his wife had to keep washing his training partners blood out of Karl's gi.

Upon retiring from the ring, Karl Gotch remained active in training new generations of wrestliers that included Hiro Matsuda, Osamu Kido, Satoru Sayama and Yoshikai Fujiwara, as well as Masa Funaki, Ken Shamrock and Dieusel Berto all of whom trained under Gotch and Fujiwara.

Gotch trained many of the pioneers of Pancrase, Shooto and Shootwrestling, Pride, and K-1 in Japan, and even the UFC. His influence can be seen both on the techniques used in Japanese combative grappling and in the conditioning methods used in many Japanese dojos.

Gotch woud be known as the man of 1000 submissions. He was a man who lived his life by his own standards he was also qouted as saying that he never took a dime from someone who wanted to learn how to wrestle.

It has been stated by many that Karl spent his last years in seclusion. This is not true. I had the privilege and honor of meeting this great man for the first time thru a friend and student of Karl’s by the name of Dieusel Berto. (Dieusel Berto is the father of Andre Berto the WBC Welter weight champion.) Berto competed around the world in shootfighting and mixed martial arts fights in the mid to late 90s, and even participated in a UFC match at UFC 10 in 1996.

I first met Karl Gotch back in 2000, I was a wrestling coach and judo instructor who had coached a high school wrestling team to its first winning season in about 10 years. It was my first year as head wrestling coach and Berto had heard about the job I was doing and approached me in an resturaunt introduced himself and asked if I could stop by his gym and show some of his fighters some wrestling techniques in return he would train me in catch wrestling. I agreed to do so when the wrestling season was over and a couple of months later found myself at his gym.

Now being a wrestling coach I was familiar with the term catch as catch can or catch wrestling, but I did not know what I was in for nor did I know the company I would be in. Berto along with UFC Veteran Ken Shamrock had been trained by Yoshiaki Fujiwara and throughout our exchange of knowledge I would come to meet and train with some other well known catch wrestlers such as Yuki Ishikawa and the one and only Karl Gotch.



Berto would bring Karl by for his many events and first introduced us at a submission grappling and mma tournament. I had known about and heard of Karl and his accomplishments, I could’nt help but be in awe as we all sat around and talked after the show. He was 78 or 79 then and I couldn’t help but to look at this man and even then he had an air of seemingly invincibility. Living his life by his own terms and submitting to nothing or no one. Karl had some hip surgeries by this time in his life but he was an oak and impressive in every way. As he talked he would pick on Berto but I could tell he had a special place in his heart for him. He was playful toward Berto and to me he seemed extremely likeable a “man’s man”. It will always be one of the greatest moments of my life.

He would become a regular visitor to the tournaments and the gym, I would talk with him on several occasions and got to know him. Gotch offered his expertise and shared some stories of great catch men of the past. I got the feeling that he enjoyed hanging around the wrestlers that were training at "Tiger's World of Martial Arts".
http://www.tigersworldma.us/
http://www.rfcmma.com/news/Bertos.pdf
http://www.thefightgame.tv/fightzone_pr_july_15_2008.htm


Sadly, Karl Gotch passed on Saturday July 28th,2007 at 82 among his family and close friends at 9:45 in Tampa Florida. He is the last true legend in my book.

Thanks to my friend, Berto, I got to know albeit briefly the great Karl Gotch the "God Of Wrestling". How many of us actually get to meet and get to know our heroes. I was able to and my life is richer for it. - Coach