Episode 816 - Sensei Benny “The Jet” Urquidez
Sensei Benny “the Jet” Urquidez is a Martial Arts practitioner, teacher, and actor. Sensei Urquidez is a legendary Kickboxing champion who helped grow the sport.
I never try to hurt somebody because to me, if I hurt them, especially if they have a family, I’m taking their livelihood from them. I don’t have that right… I just knock them out.
Sensei Benny “The Jet” Urquidez - Episode 816
Growing up in a family of combat sports athletes can be beneficial to some, and that was certainly the case with Sensei Benny Urquidez, one of the most sought-after guests on the podcast. Sensei Urquidez, popularly known as Benny "The Jet", was exposed to the world of fighting from a young age, beginning his competitive career in boxing at the age of five. His love of fighting only grew from there, and he eventually transitioned to kickboxing, where he made a name for himself as one of the most dominant fighters of his time.
In addition to his success in the ring, Sensei Urquidez was also famous as a stunt coordinator in movies such as Road House and Bloodmatch, among others. He was also a pioneer of kickboxing, playing a significant role in its development and growth. He was also a pioneer of kickboxing, playing a significant role in its development and growth.
In this episode, Sensei Benny Urquidez talks about his Martial Arts Journey both as a teacher and a fighter, as well as his experiences working in Hollywood films. Listen to learn more!
Show notes
You may check out more about Sensei Benny Urquidez and his work on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0882054/
Or you can follow Sensei Urquidez on the following Platforms:
Bennythejet.com
Benny Urquidez - Facebook
@RealBennythejet, instagram
Bennythejet.Teachable.com
Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's happening, everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, and on today's show, I'm joined by Benny, "The Jet" or Kites. Yes. Some dramatic pacing there. Had a great time. It's a great episode. Hang tight. If you wanna know all the things that we do and why we do them, you can go to whistlekick.com, but here are a couple of the highlights here at whistlekick, our goal is to connect, educate, and entertain martial artists of the world, traditional martial artists. Our mission, our overall goal, or the reason we get up in the morning. We want people to train. I want everyone in the world to train for six months. I think the world would be a dramatically better place if they did, and so that's why we're doing all the things that we do. You can go to whistlekick.com. You can see all the things that we do from the programs and the products and the projects. There's a lot there, whistlekick. Martial Arts Radio gets its own website at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com because there's so much there that it needs its own website. We do a transcript for every single episode. You can load it on your Kindle and read it if you really wanna process what somebody's saying, read while you listen to that. Or you could take it and you could search it. If you're looking for what are all the episodes where somebody talked about this particular famous person, Mitose, if you wanna, who talked about James Mitose in their episode, you can search that at the martial arts radio website as well as sign up for the newsletter and leave us a tip and other cool stuff. But if you really want the biggest way you can support us, it's our Patreon. The number one thing I would ask of all of you, please join our Patreon $2 $5 $10. We have different tiers in there because you derive different value. Some of you throw all a bunch of money at us, some of you throw $2 at us. I am equally appreciative because you're doing what works for you and that's, that's the beauty of this whole setup. Today's guest is someone that we've wanted on the show for a very long time. I had my first conversations with people who knew Benny, "The Jet" Sensei Benny seven years ago, talking about how to make this happen. But of course, seven years ago the show was very small and it was just me. But here we are and Andrew made it happen. Really, really pump. I love having Andrew on the team. Thank you, Andrew. What we have today is me chatting with Sensei Benny for just shy of an hour. And we talk about, yeah, some of his competitive stuff. But more so we're talking about his philosophy, we're talking about why we're talking about him as a kid. We're talking about the things that I haven't heard him talk about as much. You can go look up somebody's fight record, that's pretty straightforward. But what about what makes them tick? What about why they continued to get in the ring? What about why in this case they had a career, a competitive fight career that spanned so many decades? We talk about that stuff and I think at the end you'll come away with a far better understanding of not only this man but what it means to be a champion. So here we go.
Benny Urquidez:
We're good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
I'm good. Thank you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm glad we're doing this. Been looking forward to this. Looking forward to talking to you. Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
Ah, beautiful.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, if you're good, we can just dive right in, see where it takes us.
Benny Urquidez:
That's it in the moment.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Let's do it. Let's do it. Alright. We're gonna start probably in a way that you've started a lot of interviews, and we're gonna let it spider off from there. But this is just kind of my process. Okay. How'd you get started training? When did that happen? Why did that happen?
Benny Urquidez:
Let's put it this way. My mother was a professional wrestler. My father was a professional boxer. When kids at three years old had firetrucks, I had boxing gloves. So I was competing, you know, at the age of 5, boxing Pee Wee Division. And this was at Olympic Auditorium. This was with Eileen Leighton says Gene LeBell's mother owned it. And so I, it was my mother wrestled her. My sister did holds three titles in three different divisions and three different sports. She did roller derby there. She was on the LA Bombers there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Benny Urquidez:
And I thought there at Peewee division, my brothers and I, we boxed there at five years old. I was already boxing though.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So it was a family affair from the beginning. You probably don't even remember when you started it sounds like.
Benny Urquidez:
Well, you know what like I said, in ‘58 was my first fight for boxing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
And ‘95 was my last fight…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
In kickboxing. So six decades of warfare. I'm just thankful I still understand myself after all these you know it's been a lot of fighting.There's nine black belts in my family and so there's three champions in my family so we all you know it's what we do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. Why? Well, I'm going to assume that your parents got together in part because they had that fight mentality in common. Was coming up, let's collectively call it fighting. Was coming up fighting important to them for all of the kids or was it something that because you looked up to your parents, you all wanted to do?
Benny Urquidez:
Oh, no, no. Actually my oldest brother, Arnold, he was actually doing Kempo karate with Bill Ryusaki. Actually, I didn't really, I love boxing. My father was in and he kinda pushes all into it. And so I was doing boxing and my brother was doing Kempo karate. My oldest brother for some reason wanted us to go into martial arts. I didn't wanna go, my brother didn't wanna go. We cried for us and this and that. He just forced us to go and so finally one day I just got really upset and I said, okay I'm gonna get so good. I'm gonna beat you up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How much older is he?
Benny Urquidez:
I'm sorry?
Jeremy Lesniak:
How much older?
Benny Urquidez:
Lemme see. Ah, probably, lemme see. That was seven when I started so he was probably maybe 10, 12 years older than me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
So…
Jeremy Lesniak:
So enough that was gonna be a tall order.
Benny Urquidez:
Well, you know what I didn't put it this way. I didn't really want to do martial arts. I was so into the boxing that so in that, Bill Ryusaki was my first karate teacher in Kempo. And what happened is he loved me cause I had this fighting spirit as a young kid. And, but he always constantly, I was constantly being in trouble hurting the kids, you know, hitting too hard and so forth, and constantly washing the window, washing the mirror, washing the floors, taking the trash out, and basically is what my, I know why me, but my brother, my younger brother I thought he was just as crazy as I was, you know when we were a youngster. But he never, they never, you know made him through the mirrors and so forth, but it was for some reason always me. I was always cleaning the mats, cleaning the mirrors, taking the trash out, and so forth. So I just think that Bill Ryusaki really liked my fighting spirit, even though all my brothers, nine black belts in my family, there's four champions in my family, but for some reason, they tend to wing me more no matter what style. So my brother went from Kempo, he went to Shotokan, he started my oldest brother. So we kinda, I like all styles I like the hardened style, soft styles, and even though I was already a good gymnast not even actually being taught. But I watch and I seem to mimic, I had no fear whatsoever. And I was doing round out, flip-flop, backflips as a youngster. And so my brother used to get really embarrassed when I used to go to tournaments. And I would do Kata's, I would do, you know, dance of that, what they call dance of dance forms and so forth. But I would get real creative and do back flips and you know, cause I liked and my brother always used to look at me and say, quit with that la fufu stuff. And that's what he would call it because I was mixing. Cause back in the ‘60s, you don't mix.
Jeremy Lesniak:
People weren't doing that back then.
Benny Urquidez:
That said, it was almost like you stayed in one style. That's it. But I loved the soft style, I loved the hard styles and I was behind my brother's back I would go and learn white crank from Kung Fu, I would learn some taekwondo. I would learn whatever that was out there. And then from boxing, I started Kempo karate and then there was this Judo, I can't remember his name, slipped my mind, but he was incredible. Japanese judo champion. He would be doing judo so I started judo. My oldest brother for some reason that he, my younger brother, my oldest brother, and my sister I was always getting in trouble. So they went up north and so they left. My mother left me there with my brother because they couldn't handle me. I was just too crazy, just too wild, you know? And that was pretty much my younger days, like each, each decade I went from five years old to 10 years old, it would just when it came to fighting is something that I just really loved doing, but I always got disqualified or the parents always complained to my brother and Bill Ryusaki that I was hitting too hard and they didn't want their child to spar with me or fight with me in the ring, you know, in the, at the tournaments.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Benny Urquidez:
So it would just kinda that kinda thing from 10 years to 20, it was probably my darkest side of where, because of my size and I were, not that tall, but everybody, I had a reputation and everybody around that was an hour and a half to two hours away. They would come and challenge me. So I would make my living, you know put a hundred dollars not a hundred dollars back then was a lot of money.
Jeremy Lesniak:
A lot of money.
Benny Urquidez:
And so, I fought in the street with no rules and didn't matter what size is. You know, I fought guys that were, I was 15, that were 35. They were, I mean, you know, teeth less, no more tooth. And this, they were just street fighters and so I had no fear whatsoever.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did your family know that you were doing this?
Benny Urquidez:
You know, my younger brother and my, and my mean, my brothers used to older brothers used to say, you know, hey have more discipline, more respect, only use it for this and that, but, because they challenged me, I didn't refuse it. I said okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You weren't going out seeking it, it was coming to you.
Benny Urquidez:
Yeah, only because of my size. And I had young look back then, very I had a big face back then and they couldn't believe that this small you know, that, you know, with my looks and this and that, that how can I have done what people are saying? And people started spreading rumors about me that, and so people, they were good bar these guys were, nightclub and they, you know, the front door and just that they just wanted to test me, to see if it was true or what people are talking about.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, I've heard we've had a few people on the show over the years that their kind of earlier days in and around martial arts did involve some street fighting. And when I talked to those folks, they all kind of acknowledge that had an expiration. That at some point something wasn't gonna go right and it would go bad. Did you ever have thoughts like that? Cause you were young. You ever think I could lose and I could lose badly?
Benny Urquidez:
Let me put it this way. I'm not afraid of death. What can anybody else possibly do to me, shoot me, stab me? I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of the next rule. And so I had no fear whatsoever. Even as a kid. My mother was a very spiritual woman and she, native American. And my father was you know, from Spain very macho, you know, boxer ladies man, such and such. And so as far as I was concerned I wasn't afraid of pain. I wasn't afraid of death, I wasn't afraid that, you know, what can he possibly do, knock me out, stop me. But I had no fear about it at all. So if I had no fear in the street where there's no rules, why would I have a fear in a ring or anything else?
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that's what I was thinking as you were talking, because when I talked to some of the folks from that competed during your career, folks that you've known, folks that you've sparred with, Every one of 'em says kind of the same thing. You might get him first, but he's gonna get you quite a bit afterward. You were gonna make it happen.
Benny Urquidez:
My first fight I was knocking people out in the first and second round and back then, you know NBC, CBS, they came in and they said, look, if you go more out, we'll give you, you know, we'll pay you extra. So they paid me to go extra. So I started knocking out the fifth, sixth rounds in other words they needed more footage so I gave them. And so, therefore, I became the people's choice. I did what the people came for I gave them their money's worth. It didn't matter when drew a lot it wasn't the outcome it was about nobody would leave without getting their money's worth and because I fought for the people.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was there at all a conflicted there for you? Because if to let the fight go longer, you're not showcasing your skill as readily.
Benny Urquidez:
Well, you know what? At the same time, let me put it this way, if you had a cigarette in your mouth, I can do a spin kick and take it right outta your mouth. And the point was, I'm accurate from what I wanna do. And so one time, you know, they were telling my brothers and the promoters, you know, if you lost, you would get more fights and you'd be more popular if you lost. Cause people are hesitant, fight you or, you know, accept your challenges, stuff like that. And so I know I said, you telling me to take a fall? And they're telling me yeah. And so I thought. All right, let me try it. And I was actually this one fighter, he hit me and I went back to the ropes and he came at me and this and that. And I had my hands, and people were yelling and screaming and I thought that they knew, you know, like they were boom, and they, you know, like, come on, get up the road. Who are you kidding? And I had my gloves over my face and I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed on the ropes while this guy's hitting me. And I said this would be a good time to do it if I was gonna do it. But the audience, the way they responded I was actually embarrassed behind my glove, so I just pushed the guy back. I got up and I just finished him. And so, I think that sometimes, you know, in the fight game You know, it's truly, it's doggy dog type of air when you're in the fight game there. And for me, I never hit or try to hurt somebody. Because to me if I hurt them I'm taking their livelihood from them, especially to marriage and so forth. I don't have that, right? So I go out there, do my job, and if there's, sometimes if instead of punishing him, I only did that to one guy. He was so cocky and so you know our instructor doesn't he grew up and I backed away and I let him get back up and I know went there and he was going down and I backed away and I just didn't you know it was one guy that I've done that just because of his attitude and so forth but I've never went out there and tried to especially their family out there if they're married or girlfriends, I don't wanna make them look that bad. I just, sometimes if I realize that I'm hurting them too bad, I just knock them out. So that way I won't hurt them that bad or they won't take the punishment. Even though a lot of them, I have to admit that they had strong jaws, a lot of heart. But I just had I guess too much experience over them. So, and it's 80% mental, 20% physical, and 99.9, the rest of that is emotional.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did you ever wanna do, be anything other than a fighter?
Benny Urquidez:
Well, I became a stunt coordinator, an actor. I became a lot.
Jeremy Lesniak:
As a kid, as a kid. Let's go back.
Benny Urquidez:
As a kid?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. I mean, you kind of fought, had a perfect path into becoming a fighter, but I'm wondering if you ever had thoughts about doing something else?
Benny Urquidez:
Actually, back then, I never thought about being a fireman or being a policeman or, you know, back then, I guess I was running from, you know I didn't think about being a police officer or a fireman or somebody with that type of authority. Even though I just, for some reason I really love sports, everything came to me natural. My coach, when I was playing football, he would tell me, I need that guy out. And I said, no problem, coach and I would go out there and once I tackle them, they don't get up. And so, you know, I was too small to play basketball, but I love basketball, when it came to soccer, people were afraid that you know cause when I kick I had big legs and they're afraid you know and I always had no problem going chin on chin with somebody. And so I think that back then sports was I was very, you know when I played baseball, I was very good. It just once I got to that point, it's like, okay, I did that. Is there all the risk to this? And once I knew I went to a completely different sport, you know, and so that's in the martial arts. I went from soft style to hard style from hard style to soft down back and forth. And it is not that I was bored, but I learned quickly. I picked up quickly if I can. And you know what, at the age of 14 years old, I already had my first title and I had the biggest fighting in school. It was called Samurai Dojo and [00:19:40]. And my brother and I, and my brother-in-law, we, I mean, you know we would run, 18 miles up the hill to where the school was. I would teach and this and this, and then they would drive us back. It was just thought that everybody did it. You know? It was just something that we did and it wasn't we never talked about it. We never boast about it. We just did it. It was just it's like that was just a way of life. Everybody else did it. And I figured, hey, you know, that's natural. Let's do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When, how do I wanna say this? When did you realize that fighting could be something that was more than street and amateur? When did you realize fighting? Cause you're, you're in that early generation of kickboxing. When did you realize it was something that was going to be big? And it was gonna take you all over the world.
Benny Urquidez:
Well, let's put it this way in ‘65 at the internationals, Bruce Lee came in and did an exhibition and we're showing the Four Finger Strike, you know, and so he had this one guy about maybe 252 and about 6'3, and had a metal plate on his chest, and he was in the back stands holding this, you know, and so Bruce Lee had his fingers on this metal plate and he was talking about internal power. My mother used to talk about internal power. I never understood her, what she was talking about. And I used to tell her Mom I don't understand, and she said you need to experience life a little bit more to understand what internal power is. And so I was sitting down on the ringside of Bruce Lee was talking and so, I didn't understand cause he had a really accent and I was trying to understand. And when he talked about internal power my ears got up and I sit up and I said, that's what my mother was talking about. So he talked about how he generated this power went up and then he went, oh, and he, shit, this metal plate, this guy went four feet over, hit the chair. Went over the chair. I jumped up and I said, I wanna do that. And so after that, I told my brother, I said, can I spar with him? I didn't know who he was. And my brother said you don't have enough experience. So I beat every tournament there was and I said, now can I spar with him? And he said you don't have enough experience. So Mr. Parker, on Elvis Presley, he had an Elvis Presley team and he announced everybody in United States will come and fight each other cause they were going to do a team for Elvis Presley. So I went and we fought, domination in fight fight fight and there was five of us and I was on the team. I was just 17 going on 18. And so I became one Elvis Presley team. So we went to Europe, we fought in Belgium and everybody would say, all the team, you know, would looking, they said, who's gonna fights lemons? And I said I'll fight him. And they said, and they all looked at me cause these guys are much taller, much bigger and they're looking at me and they thought, ok, you fight him. Cause they thought I was gonna be the sacrifice slam, you know? And I went, I shouldn't say, I mean I went out there and my first kick, he went down, I went there, rubbed his legs, everybody laughing. Cause I didn't want it to end, and he got back up and I ended up beating him. But, and then from there we went on to England, to Germany to, you know, different places and so forth. And so I came back and I told my brother, now can I spar with him? He says you don't have enough experience by then. I'm thinking what do I have to do? So I started boxing professionally with [00:23:47]. I started actually really boxing and just being their sparing partners, getting them ready for their titles, and so forth. And I was turning pro boxing cause I wanted the reality of it. And so full contact karate came in and this was in Hawaii. This was like in ‘73. No rules, no weight divisions, and everybody went. So I went to Hawaii. My brother went to Hawaii. My brother-in-law went to Hawaii. We all fought there and they said the price was $5000. And I said they're gonna give money? They say yeah, $5000. I said alright, and I said but I'm not gonna get disqualified. He said, no, it's to the knockout, but I won't get disqualified. Would you not understand? I couldn't understand cause I was getting disqualified constantly. So we went this at the Blazedale Arena, you know, and in Hawaii and so forth. I fought, I think I fought six or seven times on that day. That first time I knocked somebody down, he was out. I said, oh shoot, now they're disqualify me and they raise my hand. I said, oh, I didn't get disqualified. So I fought six others. And so the next day on Sunday was supposed to be, you know for the finals. So I ended up fighting British white was the Marine Champion. Strong and so I fought him. I stopped him. I beat him. And then it was my brother-in-law, Blinkie was fighting Dana Guston and I and Dana Guston's, six foot three, 245 pounds. He's the favorite. So I told my brother-in-law, I said, look if you don't him on, stop him. You're not gonna win. I said if you can't do that, at least hurt him for me. And so my brother obviously went to distance and Dana, they didn't want me to fight, you know, my brother-in-law, they wanted fight David and Goliath, and they wanted me to see me fight Dana. So I ended up fighting Dana and we went, I'll tell you what, she elbowed me. I must lost two, three inches man. She elbowed me behind my neck. I thought myself, oh my god. And so, I'm a good judo man. I actually picked him up, threw him on the ground, jump up, stomped on him. I pinned him, I spit my mouthpiece out and he started to spin me over. So I bit him on the chest and he palm struck my face and he got up. He said, you bit me, and I said I'm getting tired and I can see my teeth on his chest. So, but I ended up stopping him in fourth round. But he was an incredible warrior what a strong wear and I known him from for a while. And we became very good friends. But that was my first title in no rules, no weight division. So you wanna talk about know UFC then there was no rules, no weight division, no nothing, just whoever elimination. So I ended up stopping, so I came back to my brother, now I deserve to spar with him. And then he passed away. So I never had a chance to, but he gave me a lot of inspiration to actually go out there. And so I ended up training Shannon Lee and I trained her for 10 years. And I trained actually I got her ready for her, her first movie. And so we both, you know, she starred, I co-starred in the movie and I taught her how to picture fight and so forth and the rest is history from that point on.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm sorry. You never got to do that. But it's kind of neat that in an indirect way, right? You got to take something that you learned from him and take it out into the world and then bring it back to teach his daughter in a, at a time when he wasn't there to do it or himself. That's I gotta think that he would appreciate that. You brought up something kind of interesting, and it's something that we've heard on the show, you know, quite a few times in this early generation of full-contact martial arts in the United States. You'd beat the tar outta somebody, bite them, and then become friends with them later. Well, it doesn't take much time on television or the internet these days to know that the highest-level fighters do not usually become friends with each other. What's different? What's different now versus then?
Benny Urquidez:
Well, nothing's changed for me, but back then, to me, I've never hit anybody outta anger out, you know, trying to hurt. To me, it was a sport and I was introducing the sport around the world and I understand the rules some, and when you go to third-world country, there is no rules. But I still never wanted to hurt somebody to a point where I would take their livelihood from them. Cause I don't know if they're married or not. And I don't have that right. But at the same time, I'm a good finisher and I never hit anybody outta anger or bitter and so forth. Cause then it wouldn't be a sport to me then it would be a street brawl then, you know, I might as well take it to the street. Cause then that's what it would be. But even though when you go to third-world country back then in the ‘70s there was no rules. For me I was fighting an opponent, for them they were fighting for their country. And I didn't understand that but it didn't matter to me because I was looking at an opponent. And whatever is, you know, whether he said, you know, you pull my arms out of my shoulder hit me with the bloody end of it. I just smiled you know when I jumped on the scale I looked at my opponent and smiled give them thumbs up and they were pissed, but when the bell rang, I knew right off the bat, you know, after the first run, I knew everything I needed to know about them. And then it was just a matter of, okay, I take my ax out and I start chopping. And the moment I see that their legs start to gear, you know I don't let them breathe. I just hover on, you know, like a blanket and don't let breathe. So, and then once they stop, stopped then that way I don't have to go in there hurt somebody. Because of his energy or his words and so forth. Cause words are very strong. And when, and usually people come out of there and some people fight with anger. Some people fight with fear, some people fight you know, frustrated. Some people, you know, very few that I thought fought with confidence. So to me, I fought as a sport. To this day, I look at it as a sport no other way. I'm not fighting no country. I'm not fighting. I'm fighting a warrior in front of me. It deserve the right, be in front of me and express what he loves doing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Which of your opponents did you look up to the most?
Benny Urquidez:
All of them.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Respect the most.
Benny Urquidez:
All of them. Because you know what? It takes a lot to get in there first of all. Second of all, whether he sacrificed something or not, I don't know. But I know what it takes. When people were sleeping, I was running when it was dark, you know, in the morning when people were eating, I was training. I know what it takes to be the best sport. And that like I wanted to be the champion. It never came to my mind that I wanted be a champion, but I had the right, I trained and I had the right to go out there and perform for the people. And basically, I became the people's choice because I give them what they came for, the show that's what they paid for. I give, show. Okay, not me trying to hurt somebody or prove something. Cause that's not what I'm about. Never has been, never will be. Okay to me it's a sport. When I do self-defense, it's self-defense. When I teach, I teach people a way of life, not do the visions of your eyes and how you look at something. I would teach you four, five different ways of the way you look at it that you may have others to pick from. I've always thought I was a better teacher than a fighter. To this day I thought I was a better teacher than a fighter.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did you enjoy teaching or do you enjoy teaching more than you did fighting?
Benny Urquidez:
Let me put it this way, I can fight because I can and I'm gifted with that. But I love teaching. I love teaching somebody that they can see the potential of themself, so I give them a chance to mirror truth because if I threaten you everything you hide under your bed in your closet will come up. I get the chance to reprogram that and the way you look at it. And how I can show you some other ways to look at it that you may continue on your journey without that anger, without that fear, without that frustration.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. How did the move into movies and stunt work happen?
Benny Urquidez:
So, I'm sorry, repeat that again.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's okay. How did you move from because if I have my timeline right, you transitioned, I shouldn't say transition, but you started doing work with film long before you were done fighting.
Benny Urquidez:
That's right. Actually, my private film was called Down the Drain. I think that was in ‘69, ‘70. Then the movie I came out Force Five with Joe Lewis Richard Norton and so forth that was in ‘72, ‘73 I think somewhere around there. You know when it comes to when I say I can teach, if I can see somebody do something, I can break it down in my head and teach it and not even knowing it. But if I can see something, I can break it down in my head. It's just the way my head works. I'm a developer. I like designing. So I've been designing gyms and equipment in almost in ‘73. I started the safety kick, safety chop. I mean, I'm talking about shinguards and gloves and stuff like that. I started designing way back then, and only because, again, I understand the body well. My mother always taught me that, you know, to go out there, but more mental to be able to lift somebody up. Instead of taking them down, instead of drowning them lift them even though they're competing against you. You know, make them feel good. So I never want to take somebody's livelihood from them or in front of their family, make them look so bad that you know, humiliate them, I don't have the right to do that. So no matter what country I've been to is my mother. My mother's saying my mother's teaching that I wanna lift somebody up. I don't wanna bury them, I don't wanna take them down and, you know, make them feel and belittled. Cause I have no right for that, so I don't. When I perform, I perform for the people, but I don't go out there and try to belittle my opponent. Because it takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of dedication, and it takes a lot of pain to get to that point. So I know what it takes to get there and I don't take my opponent for granted. I don't care if they're saying you're gonna knock them out in the first round. Easy. And so I trained extra hard, okay? Just so I make sure that would happen, that I can stop them. But I take nobody cause all it takes is one punch to turn something around. That's all it takes. And so I, when people tell me he's easy, he's easy. I said, hey, he earned the right to be in front of me. Therefore, it wasn't easy. It is not easy to jump in front of me because I work extra hard okay to jump in front of my opponent. I take nobody for granted.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How did your preparation for a fight change? I would imagine you got better. You came up with different strategies, different training regimen as you move forward?
Benny Urquidez:
You know what? I was you know, before the sun came up, I trained three times a day. Way back then. We ran, you know, we ran at 4:30, you know, 4:30, quarter to five. We were running when the sun was coming up because that is when the most powerful synergy, when you're rising with the sun, the energy is picked up. So we're running, doing our cardio, doing what we gotta do. We sprint, we carry log, we do all kinds of things off as we're running for strength work strength cardio. Then after that, we go home you know, refresh enough we eat. And then at 12 when the sun is over our head. So between the sun being over our head, between earth and sun, we're right in the middle. And that sun is beaming energy right through us, right through the crown of our head, right to the bottom of our feet. And that's when we do all our sparing, our heavy work, sparing focus bag work whatever we're doing. The heaviest will be at 12 o'clock and then six o'clock at night. So it was six. It was 6, 12, 6. So when the sun was coming down is when we get real creative, create new technique. We meditate because 80% of it is mental the eye in concept of what you tell and so even on the reservation this is basically what we did when the sun come down you. You know you go through, sweat large and so forth but it was a way of turning yourself inside out mirroring your truth and whatever that may be and so to this day, my wife and I, my son, we get up when the sun rising, we're running and 12 o'clock I'm teaching others to do what I did because they got the best of me right now. So I give them the best of what I know to be true to me. And then at night I teach people how to strengthen the I am concept of what they say, who they're, and what they believe in on their journey. I give them a journey that they may look at themselves to this day.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We started doing this at 12 o'clock your time.
Benny Urquidez:
There you go. There you go.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Good, good time.
Benny Urquidez:
That's all that Bob and weaving right now, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Love it. I love it. It's clear just the way you're talking about it that if I can use the word spirituality, if that seems appropriate if that's important for you. Having faith, having something to believe in seems to be a common thread among successful fighters. Was that something that, was that you think you had to have that without it, you wouldn't have done what you did?
Benny Urquidez:
You know, I'll put it this way. I don't second guess of what I could or should have been, all I know is what I believe at the moment, which right now I'm in the moment of today. And they say, what if you know tomorrow I said, well, you know what I don't know about tomorrow, all I know is I'm in the moment of today. In the moment of today, there's no regrets. You know, people, I meet people, I teach people this and I give them the best I have for today. If my eyes open up tomorrow, I'm very thankful that I have another day to do what I love doing. Be with people I love being with, be with family, and passing on a message that they will do something better than I did with it. Cause they got the best of me right now. Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm sure. Cause you know, we're recording this day, the day after, the passing of Fumio Demura and so this has been on my mind and I saw what you had written on Facebook about him. You've had the chance to train with him, to my knowledge, everyone, I'm not there isn't anybody I know of, you know, with a prominent name that you didn't have the opportunity to work out with. At least if you wanted to. Do any of them stick out as training partners that really challenged you or changed the way you thought about things?
Benny Urquidez:
Well, you know, the challenge is always there's no better teacher than the experience itself. And so I had students that are very good, never challenged, I never felt mentally, physically, or spiritually challenged from them. I felt a lot of love and respect, but they know that we're playing a physical game of chess and I hit them hard enough to know that if they don't block it, I will hit, I won't miss them. I'll hit target and let them understand when you're in front of somebody, it's almost like a warrior, a samurai in front of you there's nothing but respect okay, but at the same, you're playing a physical game of chess. And how sharp you are under pressure because if I threaten you, everything you hide under your bed in your closet will come up. My job is to get that emotion up. Then you may look at it and see what it feels like. So nobody else would do that to them. And so I've never felt threatened not with any of my students or my opponents because again, all they can do, I mean, if they knock me out, I get a chance to come back and say, let's go again. Simple as that. I get a chance to do it again and to the point where I think okay now, it's your turn. I pass it on to you now you run with it. Because again I have nothing to prove other than the fact that I was, I had nothing to prove back then. I have nothing to prove right now. I just do. I do it for the love of it, not because I have to prove it, because I think I'm macho like this and that I don't think any of that. I love what I teach is a way of life and I love passing information of experience that I know to be true to me that I can give to them that they do something better than I did with it because that is my richest, that is only thing I'm taking is my experience and my knowing, what to be true to me. That's my richest, not my house, my cars, or anything else. It's my experience.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've mentioned students a few times and it's clear that you're passionate about teaching. You have a school, a formal school in the way that we might think of it.
Benny Urquidez:
You know, I do. As a matter of fact, I'm working with a Gokor since a Gokor right now. In his dojo and half of the school is all grappling, the other half is all standup. I take care of all the standup. He take care of the ground. And so what I do is I get a chance to what I call a three-foot shooting. Cause the fight is three feet away. You're still shooting at your opponent. That means the fight is still going. Two feet is a kicking zone, one foot is a punching zone. Anything close than that is standing chokes, arm bars, and then take down tap or snap one or the other. That's you know so we pass it on to the Gokor since Gokor so we go from there and gives them a ground. I mean you know to be a mass is one thing but to be in concrete it's never a win-win situation, but again, you still, I think it's a great self-defense. What he has to offer, I've never I mean I've been around this girl five times in the film business this, and that I've never seen this type if the way. He puts together incredible warrior, so I enjoy teaching standup and going the ground. And I even go in this class and I start grappling. I'm a, I come from a judo background and it's easy for me to do, but leg locks stuff like I've never seen as much as I've been around before, I have not seen that groundwork. He's truly that's why he's the champion. You know that's why he is the best when it comes to groundwork. He's the best of the best. And I'm really having a great time. Cause we've known each other for many years and they got me ready him and Gene LeBell and I know him since, and he's the master of disaster, anyway that's where that's at.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What does a class with Sensei Benny look like? Is it, you know, I can't imagine it's standard. You've got your own flavor to things. If I took a class with you, what would it like?
Benny Urquidez:
Let's put it this way. You'll never be the same when you come in and when you leave, because to me, 80% I start downloading mentally. And how it works and why it works, and the good part so you have a good understanding of why you're doing what you're doing. Okay, second of all, then the physical part. I showed you how to use a right cross, but I show you how to defend the right cross, and I show you the power from it because if I just say do it like me, do not like me, but if I give them an understanding and they'll move at their own pace and develop it that's the key to be able to get them to understand the leverage and the power of it. The key is to be confident and relaxed while you're standing and learning what I call big eyes. Learning to move forward as big eyes, small eyes is when people come like this and they start to go back and their eyes start to get small and squint is because it's a pure base from, to me, when we were young, you know, people do this and, and they close, they squint when something happens, it's, I call small eyes. So I teach all my students to have big eyes, so they don't miss nothing.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Make sense. Okay. Are you still working on you? Are you still developing as a martial artist? Are there things that you're practicing and it's an odd question for me to ask, but my gut tells me yes.
Benny Urquidez:
It's never odd because again, you absolutely right. To this day since Gokor looks at me and says, man, at your age, you starting at this age? I said, I've stopped, you know. This Gokor you know, anything you can teach me, and let me tell you and he's taught me so much on the ground that truly he's a master on the ground. And that, and then he's not a bad stand-up fighter either man he definitely punch man and he's strong, but I love learning and anybody can teach me something. I don't care if I know five ways of what you taught me. I just be thankful you wanna teach something. I love learning at all times. And people, call me master, so don't call me master, call me Sensei, okay I'm a teacher. I said right now I'm learning to master me. When I learn to master me, then I'm going to mastery, and when you call me masters because I'm in the coffin. I'm ready to go on my way. Don't call me master because again if I'm a master where do I go? I want to learn. I'm hungry. Okay. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm great at what I do, but at the same time, I'm hungry. I'm hungry at this age, I'm hungry. Like I was hungry as a kid. I'm still hungry.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is there anything specific you're hungry about?
Benny Urquidez:
Yeah, I'm hungry about the groundwork
Jeremy Lesniak:
About the groundwork.
Benny Urquidez:
I'm excited when Sensei Gokor you know, works with me and, you know, he grapples with me and so forth. He's, man, I love it. I love it. And so forth we both get there and I look at him, I said, oh, you already have me in the pin. He just smile. I said I had that feeling. And so he's an incredible teacher as well when it comes to groundwork. Incredible warrior. But I love learning. I love learning anything and everything. And believe me, I've been, I, you know, I have nine black belts nine different styles. I've been training from hard to soft to hard to soft. And if anybody can teach me anything, I say, I promise I'll be your best student. You know, if you can teach me something, I'll just be thankful. You wanna show me something? So I'm open, I'm an open book when it comes to wanting to learn. I love learning. I love learning to this point.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's great. Awesome. I love it. Is there anything you, you wanna say? Anything I didn't ask of you that, you know, we're getting towards the end here, but before we do that part, is there anything that I should have asked you?
Benny Urquidez:
Well, let's put it this way. I, myself is everybody has my past, but I'm not my resume. Yes, I did all that, but that's not who I'm, that's just what I've done. And at this point in time, where's the jet going? To me. I wanna be able to turn myself inside out that others may see my truth and my love for what I do. That one day I have seven books out. But I wanna write a book about who I am, what I'm about, not what I've done. Okay. Because I, like I said before, I'm not my resume. I did all that. Yes. And people think they know me by what they've read and seen. I said that's not who I am. That's just what I've done, eh. One day because I design equipment that nobody's ever seen because it's needed in this world. I designed machines. You know, that will make your body flexibility more stronger, more quicker than the thing. It's not out yet, but coming to your neighborhood soon.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, cool.
Benny Urquidez:
At this point in time, I wanna do this book about who I am, not what I've done. And this is about looking at yourself, looking at your truth. So this will be my next book, which I think that is something that I would really like to leave this world. That's something that is who I am, what I'm about, not what I've done and where I'm going. And because to me, the best is yet to come.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I look forward to reading it.
Benny Urquidez:
Alright.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I hope you write it soon.
Benny Urquidez:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I know we've got some links and some social media stuff. I don't know if you wanna mention that. We're definitely gonna put it in the show notes. bennythejet.com and your socials are all kind of based on that, right? People can find…
Benny Urquidez:
Yeah. Pretty much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Search Benny the Jet. They're gonna find you.
Benny Urquidez:
There you go. Lot about my ad exactly. Go to bennythejet and you hit a lot of different things going on right now about me cause again, the Jets still flying. I know. I know. The Jets flying and I haven't been grounded so. so if you're going at it you know even with this cold wind didn't stop me. Didn't stop me at all. But at the same time, everybody's different than what you know and they're feeling on their journey. And so my journey was about the love for who I am, what I do in the moment of today, one day at a time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Thank you. Such a powerful message. And so this will kind of take us to the end. So I'm gonna hand it back to you. And, you know, we've got people all over the world watching, listening to this. What do you wanna leave them with? You know, what are your last words for our conversation?
Benny Urquidez:
For everybody that actually is watching this, that you may have the courage. Cause all it takes is 10 seconds of courage to do something. Staying at 10 minutes I turn to you will change your life. Why because a lot of times we bail out on ourselves, you know, and having, instead of having the courage to do something that you're afraid to do, but if you can take 10 seconds to make up your mind. I'm gonna do it no matter what and go on there and stand, with your eyes closed and then listen open up one eye, and then open up the other and say wow nothing happened. It's only because you created, and so if you can have 10 seconds of courage staying in 10 minutes, I guarantee you it'll change your life.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We'll cut it there. Thank you. I've been looking forward to talking to you for a very long time.
Benny Urquidez:
Ah, beautiful.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm honored and I really appreciate you sharing your time and being so open.
Benny Urquidez:
Well, thank you much and the beautiful part about it is I hope you got something out of it that you can take in your life and pass it on. Wow, beautiful.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That is great. So, yeah, we've got what we need. If I can ever do anything to help you, please don't hesitate to let me know when the book comes out, when these products come out. Don't hesitate to let us know. We'll put that stuff out to our audience. Everybody know what's going on?
Benny Urquidez:
Well, like I said, coming to your neighborhood soon.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I hope so.
Benny Urquidez:
All right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Alright. Thank you, Sensei. Take care.
Benny Urquidez:
My pleasure. I'll see you when I see you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes. Bye-bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I really did. It was an honor to talk to Sensei Benny. If you take a look at the folks from his era, the folks who, in my opinion, really set martial arts in the West on its path, we've talked to most of, he was a notable name missing from the list, and I'm so pumped and I'm so proud that we got to bring you this episode. Sensei, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for your kindness, your generosity with your time. Thank you for your openness with our conversation. I truly appreciate it and I'm sure I'll see you at an event soon. Audience, do you appreciate what we do? Does it mean something to you? Please support us. I'm not gonna tell you how you have to support us. It's all optional. But here are some ideas. You can share an episode. You can check out the whistle kick.com/family page. You can join our Patreon or leave a review somewhere. There are so many ways if, if you want the whole list, go to the family page. That's why we set it up. Two other things that you shouldn't know about. I do seminars. I offer seminars. And if you want to talk about what those mean, it's philosophy, it's moving philosophy. It's how to become a better martial artist. I'm not gonna say your kick is wrong here. That's not what I do. I'm gonna help you understand how your mind and body work together to make you a more efficient martial artist that learns things faster and more effectively. That's what I do. Or we can apply that same sort of approach to your martial arts school. Would you like more students or more profit or more revenue? We could do all of those things and much more. Reach out to me on either jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media is @whistlekick. Follow us everywhere. YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, Facebook. There's some other things out there that nobody uses, but if you look for us there, we're probably there too. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.