When Chuck Norris’ name is attached to something, you can bet on one thing: Somebody’s getting kicked in the face. That’s practically the Chuck Norris guarantee. And so it is with his latest creation, the World Combat League, though Norris is personally giving everybody’s face a rest this time. He’s taken a behind-the-scenes role in this new form of competitive martial arts. As the face and founder of the league he won’t be going Walker Texas Ranger on anybody’s ass, but he’ll be cutting checks to the fighters who do.
“They get paid, they get a salary,” Norris said. “But if they knock a guy out with a kick, they get a bonus. With a knee they get a bonus, with a punch they get a bonus, but those are a lower bonus.”
That’s right, he’s paying people to beat the crap out of one another. Why didn’t the NHL think of this?
In a WCL match, two teams of six, five men and one woman, fight one on one for three minutes at a time. The fighters’ scores are totaled, and (obviously) the highest score wins. Each fighter gets only 180 seconds to earn points for his team, so the action gets intense. Fighters are in fact penalized if they aren’t aggressive enough.
“I’ll tell you what happens, because it’s such an offensive style of fighting, you’re not able to keep your guard up,” Norris said. “A lot of [the fighters] are getting knocked out because of it. I guess that’s what makes it so doggone exciting.”
You heard him, he said “doggone.” I dare you to make fun of him for it.
All the profits Norris sees will be going to his KickStart charity. KickStart is a nonprofit Norris founded in 1994 to teach martial arts to children in disadvantaged middle schools. And, in the end, that’s probably the only Chuck Norris fact you need to know: The man’s founded a charity for schoolchildren, and it still involves kicking people in the face.
Norris, bearer of bearded justice and bane of plateglass windows throughout the world, will be in Austin Saturday, Jan. 20, for the inaugural WCL Championship fight, the Miami Force vs. the Houston Enforcers. The championship, featuring demonstrations by KickStart instructors and a tribute to the U.S military, emceed by the man himself, will start at 8pm at the Frank Erwin Center. Go to www.worldcombatleague.com for ticket information.
This article appears in January 12 • 2007.