Martial Arts Rank Promotions and Honors

This area is reserved for articles and press releases covering high rank promotions and honors in the arts. Please share with us your sixth-degree or Master rank and above or other great honors in the martial arts.

WAYNE, PA (9/15/08) – The Nackord Karate System in Wayne, PA is honored to announce the promotion of its Grand Master, Dennis Nackord, to ninth-degree black belt in a ceremony held on September 16, 2008. The martial arts lineage of Nackord can be traced back to three of the most influential people the sport has even known, Joe Lewis, the “Greatest Karate Fighter of All-Time,” Dr. Maung Gyi, the man who brought kickboxing to America, and Ed Parker, the founder of American Kenpo Karate. Both Lewis and Gyi were on hand to promote Nackord to the rank of ninth-degree black belt, the first in the 40-year history of the Joe Lewis Fighting System, in front of hundreds of students and family. (Ed Parker is deceased.) (Read Release)

August 2007 The evening marked a time of reflection and extending gratitude to pioneers of all the martial arts, as the Masters Hall of Fame “recognized excellence in the martial arts” through select inductees at a ceremony in the Orange County Hilton in Costa Mesa, Calif. UFC president Dana White, three-time UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and International Fighting Organization promoter and former professional boxing referee Richard Steele were inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame Referee John McCarthy was the keynote speaker. (Read Article) (Read Article#2)

November 2007 - Tony Massengill's parents enrolled him in his first martial arts class at the age of 5 for the typical reasons — discipline, exercise and sport. They probably never imagined that a little over 40 years later, he would be honored by the Chinese government for his contribution to the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu. (Read Article)

April 2005 - Actor Tom Cruise was The Last Samurai in Hollywood, but one Scottsdale resident might have earned the title of the First Samurai, at least in America. Tim VanDenover, 47, director and main instructor at Rising Sun Karate in Scottsdale, was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame by Action Martial Arts magazine for pioneering a form of Japanese sword fighting called chanbara. (Read Article)