In just the most recent in a long string of embarrassing kung fu knockouts, legendary tai chi master Ma Baoguo has taken a tumble. Or three, to be precise.
In the video, the 69-year-old Ma can be seen shuffling and flailing his arms, before being knocked down twice and then knocked out cold in a one-sided match against 49-year-old sanda fighter Wang Qingming.
The trend of denouncing “kung fu fakery” is a long-established one, ever since MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong performed a similar feat when he knocked out “thunder-style” tai chi master Wei Lei in ten seconds. Now it seems the trend is spreading, with scores of kung fu grandmasters suddenly being forced to prove their outlandish claims in the ring.
Ma Baoguo had stirred controversy before. Ma hired British MMA fighter Peter Irving to shadowbox in a video, which he later tried to pass off as footage of him defeating Irving in sparring, and he even went so far as to call MMA Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili “stupid” and claim he could beat her in a fight.
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Ma’s claims were put to the test in his fighting debut, which ended pretty much exactly how you would expect from a 69-year-old man with no prior sport combat experience, leaving audiences and fans online shaking their heads.
Footage from before the fight shows that the referee had somehow predicted a different outcome — in a bizarre pre-fight conversation, the referee can be seen telling Ma multiple times: “I have just one requirement, when I say stop you have to stop, you can’t continue to hit him.”
Ma, in turn, is worried about the devastating power of his Hunyuan tai chi. “I have a technique that goes like this,” Ma explains. “I’m afraid it might hurt you.”
“I’m not afraid,” the ref says, bravely.
