With Founding Member
Cecil Peoples

Cecil Peoples unwittingly first stepped into the spotlight and Martial Arts immortality when he literally took on dozens of crazed lethal attackers with just a pen before the television cameras when a free-for-all broke out at the Anaheim Celebrity Theater in 1988.  After the County Sheriffs restored the peace, Cecil found himself enshrined in NBC’s nationally syndicated Fred Roggin’s Hall of Shame and a segment in one of Blockbuster’s best selling home videos. 

As the story goes, Cecil was one of the judges for a fight between WorldBlackBelt Founding Member Saeksan Janjira and Rod Key, a fighter out of Benny Urquidez’s famous Jet Center, when in the third round Saeksan landed a knee to the face of Key who was down on the mat at the time.  The California State Athletic Commissioner sitting ringside along with Martial Art stars like Benny the Jet Urquidez, Chuck Norris, Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Peter Cunningham.  As things started to get out of hand, the Commissioner jumped up and tired to stop the fight, but the referee, handling one of his first bouts, told the fighters to continue. 

Pandemonium then set in when the Rubin Urquidez went over to Saeksan’s corner to tell him that knees were not allowed and was hit by Saeksan’s brother Chai who thought he was threatening his brother.  A full-scale riot ensued, chairs flying, people punching and kicking each other and in the middle of it all was Cecil.

“I still don’t remember doing half of the stuff I did, but it’s all on the video,” recalls Cecil.   “They started coming at me from all angles so I just started jabbing away with my judge’s pen, and then somebody comes flying at me with a Bruce Lee side kick, so I smashed him with an elbow while another guy was holding my legs, and I kneed him in the face.”  Even today Cecil is not sure how he got out of this surreal scene alive and without any injuries.   

Little did Cecil know that the Martial Arts training he started some 34 years ago as a gangly six-foot teenager would lead him into the center stage of such a remarkably unbelievable real life drama.  However, it would not be the last time that Cecil would find himself fighting when he was supposed to be refereeing.  A couple of years later, while refereeing a fight between Hector Pena and Ronnie Lewis at the Union Plaza in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cecil had to teach Lewis a lesson in respect. 

“Lewis was out of control,” recalls Cecil, he kept slapping my hands away while I was giving him a standing 8-count so I told him ‘Boy you put your hands one me again and I’m going to have to teach you some manners.”  The next round Hector slips and while he is on the ground I see this guy jump up and try to land a knee, so a catch him midair.  After the round I told his corner that I was going to have to disqualify him if he kept it up, then this guy tries to kick me, so I took him out with a quick elbow and punch.”  What followed was déjà vu all over again.  “Everyone was swinging and kicking,” recalls Cecil.  When order was restored, Lewis was disqualified and they announced that the winner was Cecil,  holding his hand up to the cheering crowd.

For Cecil, the Oriental discipline of karate felt natural, though. His grandmother, Lela, raised him with the old-fashioned discipline common in rural Carbon Hill, Alabama. When young Cecil misbehaved, she warned, “I’ll put my foot on your neck and twist your tail!”

As a boy, he was taught the respect that is prized in the martial arts. “I’d get a whipping if I didn’t say ma’am or sir,” Cecil recalls. “Even today, when I go back to Alabama, it’s like I never left. It’s ‘yes ma’am, no sir.’ It’s programmed into me.”

As a teenager, Cecil found role models at tournaments who were not only great fighters, but who lived the respect he had been taught. At the Ryusaki school, he once saw Bruce Lee, familiar to martial artists as Kato on the TV show “Green Hornet”. He hoped to one day work out with the muscular Chinese. Chuck Norris and Steve Sanders were other early mentors. Cecil looked at them the way other kids looked up to baseball players or astronauts.

“Chuck Norris is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in karate,” says Cecil. “You’ll never hear him say an unkind word about anyone. You’ll never see him do a mean-spirited thing.” Cecil often visited the Norris schools. At tournaments, Norris critiqued Cecil’s fighting even when the opponent was one of Norris’ own students.

“Because of Chuck Norris, I learned to believe in myself,” says Cecil. He read the articles on confidence that Norris had written for “Black Belt” magazine during the 60s. Emulating his mentors, Cecil began winning tournaments by 1970. In 1974, he won the Long Beach Internationals, The Rocky Mountain Karate Championship in Colorado, and the St. Louis Top Ten Nationals. As a point fighter, he faced the best, including Benny Urquidez and Howard Jackson. After 1974 he competed in kick-boxing, at one time fighting Mike Warren, the famous Ki Whang Kim student from the East Coast.

One early Saturday morning, Cecil woke up to the ringing telephone.

“Coming to karate today?” a friend asked.

Still drowsy, Cecil said, “All right. Let me get up and get going.”

Before hanging up, his friend added, “By the way, Bruce Lee is dead.”

“That’s a horrible joke.”

“No. That’s what I called to tell you. Bruce Lee is dead.”

“What do you mean he’s dead?” Cecil sat upright, the drowsiness quickly receding.

“Serious, man. Bruce Lee died.”

Still not believing his friend after they hung up, Cecil turned on the TV. The news cast reporting the death was like a splash of cold water. In the back of his mind, he had been hoping to one day work out with him.

Cecil Peoples stayed in karate, opening a school. During these 34 years, his interest in the martial arts has never waned. He took up grappling and weapons. After he retired as a kickboxer, he became a kickboxing referee. Today he is one of the sport’s most notable referees, with 2000 bouts to his credit. In 1998 he was named the National Black Belt Official of the Year.

When it comes to refereeing nobody has more fantastic true stories than Cecil that could be filed under Martial Arts:  Believe it or Not!  Take for example in the late 1980’s when Peter Cunningham was fighting in San Diego against a Thai fighter with some enthusiastic supporters.  “Peter is against the ropes, bobbing and weaving like he did, and I keep wondering why he isn’t using his legs until I notice that a fan has grabbed his feet,” remembers Cecil.  “I told the guy to let go, but he didn’t so I had to kick him…then he let go.

Another time, Cecil was counting out a fighter who had been knocked cold when the guys raised his hand while the rest of him continued to lie in the supine position.  “Later in the locker room the fighter comes over to me really upset asking me why I counted him out when he raised his hand, after I told him that I did so because although his hand was up, the rest of him was down and out.  I realized later that this guy actually thought he was standing up when he lifted his hand, and I ran into him several years later and he still thinks he was robbed.” 

Cecil Peoples—fighter, teacher, referee—is a role model to many. He warns young people against drugs by serving as their example: he has never used drugs himself. He has never even smoked cigarettes. “Occasionally, on a hot day, I could probably drink one beer,” says Cecil. When Cecil left his beloved Carbon Hill, Alabama to move to California in 1967, his grandmother made him promise that he would never use drugs.

“People have asked me, ‘What do you do to get high?’” says Cecil. “I walk them out of my karate school and point to the sign that says, ‘Welcome to Cecil People’s Karate School.’ That’s what gets me high.”

After 34 years in karate, Cecil Peoples says, “The first karate lesson I took, I knew in my heart what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I gave up playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates for karate. My friends say I’m lucky, because some people stumble around all their lives and have no idea what they want to do.

“I have never regretted staying with karate. I’ve learned how to defend myself, and I’ve met the best people in the world.”

If you would like to contact Cecil Peoples you can reach him at cecilpeoples@worldblackbelt.com.

By: Arnold Howard and J.P. Koenig
arnoldhoward@worldblackbelt.com.