Emin Boztepe

Emin Boztepe (born 17 July 1962) is an American martial artist of Turkish origin who held German nationality prior to naturalization. He first came to prominence for his fight in 1986 with noted Wing Chun practitioner William Cheung, and he continued to gain attention in the 1990s with public challenges, including the Gracie family. moved to Germany. According to Boztepe, his early days in Germany were difficult due to his Turkish heritage—he was a constant target for racial insults and, more often than not, verbal abuse would escalate into physical abuse. Martial arts became something of a necessity and his father urged him to begin training. Boztepe recalled, "Germany was not the healthiest place for a young Turk in those days of growing racism and neo-Nazi movements." many of them a result of this period, Boztepe formed his own organisation, called Emin Boztepe Martial Arts System (EBMAS), afterwards.
Challenges
In 1995, a public feud between Boztepe and the Gracie family happened due to a series of internet comments, purportedly written by students of the latter. The German martial artist had derided the Ultimate Fighting Championship as "no more real than professional wrestling," which the comments addressed by accusing him of refusing to fight in UFC for fear of being defeated.
According to Jon Bluming, his students Chris Dolman and Dick Vrij attended a seminar taught by Boztepe in order to answer an open challenge, in which he would have claimed himself to be unbeatable. Bluming described Boztepe as "...he was on his knees crying, and I’m not kidding you. He said, please guys this is only for advertising, come on, I just want to make a dollar, that’s all, so they just spit on him and they left."
Personal life
Boztepe was romantically linked with English actress Jacqueline Bisset from 1997 until 2005.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu