Fake Martial Arts Instructor Who Got His Student Killed

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Benji Feldheim's book on Count Dante was instrumental in delivering this video, yet many fascinating stories such as how Count Dante became PlayBoy's official hairdresser, details on his relationship to women and what other trouble he's gotten himself into was left out of the final cut. If you want to learn more about Count Dante, make sure to check out Benji's amazing book here: amzn.to/3DsctZR

[@ericparis224]

Such a legit fake martial artist. Rokas’s presentation is so much more nuanced than any other I’ve seen on this guy. Pretty incredible story. Far too many videos about him being simply a bad person gets old and boring. No one goes on about Jon Jones’s treatment of woman as if that makes him a poor martial artist. It makes him bad. Im not a fan. But he’s legit. We can judge for ourselves if we “like” someone but again it gets old and boring to simply judge people. This presentation is much more focused and interesting than those that simply say “count man bad.” We get it. He’s bad. This was the best I’ve seen. I think Rokas is now king of these and would much rather see these far more interesting videos than the same old stuff. Mind blowing

[@asgerhyer5325]

AMAZING story :) I love a good story. Very exciting stuff :) Much respect from Denmark

[@seadawg93]

In my cart. I am very excited to read this!

[@MakCurrel]

It would be fun to see the story of Frank Dux in the same format of video.

[@pausetapest.v8302]

This was very good!

[@L30N_M]

Can i just say how much i love the idea of these mini martial art docu-style videos.

[@DiscoFever1970]

In fairness, Dante was a legitimate black belt and a capable fighter that marketed himself well. Good vid!👍

[@coda6077]

Just imagine a reality where count dante, ashida kim, frank dux and george dillman entered the ultimate self defense championship

[@spoogtastic]

I'm taking dux. If he could win the kumite he can dodge the death touch.

[@FlyingTigersKMT]

Don’t forget the red neck ninja Judy chop guy. 😅😅😅😅😅

[@shitgoose151]

To think I would actually pay money to see that fiasco 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

[@Dracon7601]

But can he dodge dynamite ​@@spoogtastic

[@williamjohnswainston858]

😅

[@ericparis224]

Wow Roka’s, this is the most legit fake martial artists I have ever heard of. And I’ve heard of him before. Your unbiased piece sheds light on this guy and it’s so much more nuanced and interesting than any presentation on him I have ever seen. Make sure McDojo checks this. His mind will explode I’m pretty sure. Incredible

[@Ninja9JKD]

I unsubbed from McDojo long ago due to his bias and grossly mispresenting many traditional martial arts.

[@neokimchi]

Yeah he's not the chillest guy from what i understand. ​@@Ninja9JKD

[@davidjones8043]

@@Ninja9JKDsame

[@Edsecondstocomply]

For as much of a lunatic he was, there's one thing that separates Dante from Ashida Kim or Frank Dux. Dante really was about that life. From all the bar fights, full contact sparring and freaking dojo storm. He at least wasn't afraid to throw them hands.

[@mitchelllevine5664]

Keehan wasn’t a lunatic. He was just doing too much coke

[@lazur1]

@@Edsecondstocomply And that’s a GOOD thing?

[@pkicng210]

Robert Trias was from AZ, a force in the world of karate. At least a lot of people can identify with him; not being with any martial arts too long. Some of the martial artist do not like him because he could not be identified through a martial arts treatment. Now in any of these videos, I couldn't find any application of the Dim Mak (the death touch). I don't know if I I would judge him to get the George Dillman award because Dim Mak is a fantasy of most Tai Chi ( where it originated from) instructors would like to achieve in reality because there are so many myths and urban legends on this techniques.

[@TheElbowMerchant]

Very interesting video, Rokas! I've seen a ton of mini-docs on Count Dante, and they always paint him purely as an egotistical fraud, so this video was far more balanced, as you attempted to point out some of the ways that he tried to help people before his ego got the better of him. Anyway, I hope you're healing up well, and I wish you and yours happy holidays! Thanks, as always, for the entertainment over the years!

[@madsocsci]

"No man is a villain in his own heart." If you asked the Count about himself, I'm sure he'd tell you he was trying his best to make do. It's a sad, gray world - not a jolly black-and-white one. I grew up in Chicago in the 80s and was active in martial arts - back when this type of lore was all word-of-mouth. This is definitely the best take on Dante I have seen/heard on the internet.

[@phil7393]

Fantastic work. First time I’ve seen a nuanced take on the man.

[@robertsutherland6162]

He was a legit karate black belt that went rogue and developed that Dante persona and now a Martial Cultish favorite.

[@youjitsuhoneybadgers8322]

Sounds like this guy was initially not such a bad person with good intentions, just the status and attention went to his head and he spiraled out of control. This is a good cautionary tale for a lot of us instructors/gym owners.

[@tylerpimental6291]

My former trainer was used to train with Bill Aguiar. Count Dante's main student. I have seen video of some of their belt testing it was ridiculously dangerous. pretty much a street fight

[@kylebradley2988]

I know a couple of guys that got their black belt back in the late 70's and early 80's from Bill Aguiar. He's a Fall River MA legend.

[@melissaviolin4050]

I really appreciate the work you put in to paint a fuller picture of this guy - I've never heard anything positive about him, his skills or behavior, and you did a fantastic job of giving real context to his lie and works, and thusly how he accomplished everything - the good and bad. Loved it!

[@eoncatalyst]

We need a biopic action film about this guy! And the film must be in the style of Hong Kong's 80s films.

[@sorewahimitsudesu]

I always thought that Roy Horan's character Lewis, from Game of Death 2, was based on the Count.

[@regflori]

I'm about 2/3 of the video and for a Scam guy he actually seems like he was a nice guy.

[@regflori]

Okay, nvm the "Dojo Wars" were insane

[@HahnJames]

This is a most excellent documentary! It was concise and full of details at the same time. When you covered the time when Dante's protege lost his life, I felt a twinge of pain. Several years ago, I lost a student who had gone on a trip to Monterey, Mexico. There, he was killed when the car he was riding in was hit by a truck. He had just turned 21. Such things affect you. I hope your leg is continuing to recover swiftly!

[@nathanieltillman2355]

Great stuff Rokas! Keep it up while you recover brother.

[@maxhensley1685]

A lot of people say that if Bruce Lee were a serious fighter and not just an actor, he would have had a fight record to point to. I think Keehan stands as a good illustration of why that's not the case. He was a pretty legit martial artist back in a time where that was a very rare thing, and there was just no real money in being a legit martial arts expert then, so he transitioned to fantasy.

[@NicholasGreen-b6e]

Lots of people are good fighters And never bothered with Competitions

[@lazur1]

If a fighter's never been proven to have defeated an acknowledgedly-great fighter, why would we call *_him_* a great fighter? That's the difference between martial arts back then & MMA today: It used to be faith-based. In Dante's era, the men proven to be great, skilled, tough fighters, were boxers. Beating-up punks & drunks in bars & on the street is stupid. An 'experienced' street fighter is a broken man.

[@gxtmfa]

What never made sense to me were the claims that he didn’t know how to fight when the guy was from the south side of Chicago, led a criminal lifestyle, and got in a dojo brawl. That’s a man who is going to know how to fight.

[@maxhensley1685]

James Yimm Lee, the guy featured in this video who ostensibly taught Keehan dim mak, did practice martial arts of Shaolin origin, but he never lived as a monk at Shaolin temple. He learned kung fu from the instructor T. Y. Wong in California, although he's best known for having become one of Bruce Lee's closest students despite being over 20 years Bruce's senior. He already had students before he met Bruce, and his student Al Novak was a senior figure in the American martial arts scene for many years, and attested to his having been a very legit fighter even before he met Bruce. I'm not aware of his having advocated for the idea of a "death touch" in practical fighting, but he was an avid practitioner of Iron Palm training, and was widely reported to have been able to perform selective brick breaking, where he could stack several bricks on top of each other and strike the top, breaking only the bottom brick (which is possible because unspaced bricks actually break from the bottom up as they effectively "tear" when flexed by the force of a strike.) So, not a monk, but still a very interesting martial artist in his own right.

[@davidlazarus4198]

I was a boy going karate in the late 1970's and i remember seeing the Count Dante adverts in the martial arts magazines. This was the time when Bruce Lee appeared on every magazine cover. Fascinating stuff.

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

14:27 Bro that shook me so badly. 😂 I thought someone was banging on my hotel room wall. 💀

[@rohitchaoji]

It sounded like someone knocked on my window I almost jumped

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

@rohitchaoji I replayed it twice to be sure. 😂😂

[@GunGun-cf3ss]

Dude same, I thought someone is knocking on my door

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Ngl, every time I watched the video I looked at my door too... 😂

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

@@MartialArtsJourney 😂👌

[@seadawg93]

I love this. There are many frauds who are, similar to Counte Dante it seems, liars and crooks, while simultaneously being sincere and thoughtful. Fraudulent mediums are a good example; not all, but many, were and are either sincere believers and/or sincerely believe they help people, while also using magic tricks, etc.. Fascinating.

[@solipsisme8472]

I wish you a fast recovery ! Count Dante's story looks not too different from Anakin's, a nice and talented man succumbing to the dark side of attention and money.

[@jonasbarnun9980]

I really love this format, it’s awesome looking fwd to hear an episode on famous martial artists❤

[@sergiomartinez5946]

Looks like Count Dante's belt tests were a precursor to Rokas' Self Defense Challenges :)

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😁

[@mikesmusicden]

I would loved to have met Count Dante. He was a baller and lived life by his own rules. Had a pet tiger and wore a cape, yet was accepting of others and supportive of his students. Awesome!

[@jerbganderwood8433]

I think i need a full-length feature film of this man's life.

[@notusingmyname4791]

14:32 wearing headphones and that knock foold me I thought someone managed to get up on to my second floor balconie (which overhangs the parking so there isnt' even a walk to scale up) and knock on my big window. well done sir, I now I have to take a break from watching the video and clean my now soiled pants.

[@alienkid]

Great video! It's crazy how many martial artists exaggerate their skills and accomplishments.

[@JohnArnis]

Rokas, great video for someone too young to actually have known about the Count Dante story. My brother and I were very into martial arts as pre-teens and teenagers in the 60’s and 70’s and sent away for his fighting style book from his comic book advertisements. You did a lot of research about him that we never even knew about so thank you for such an informative video.

[@bonnie115]

An interesting but ultimately sad story of a talented individual who used exaggerated stories to self-promote but then got addicted to that bullshit and spiralled further and further out of control. It made me think of Steven Segal...

[@Gdahron]

I never knew there was so much to Count Dante. Thanks for sharing this about him!

[@ExcuseMyWeebRudeness]

The first thing I heard about this guy was that he started a “Dojo war” in Chicago and got a friend killed by blowing a building up partially.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Those are two different stories, but yeah, that happened :)

[@hollow2006]

Hey Rokas, I wish you a good recovery! I really like this video format and I think it suits you. If this is a direction you are thinking of moving the channel towards I'm all for it.

[@NightPhoenixPress]

I remember seeing those ads. He had the white guy fro. I remember all these guys.

[@WillyansMaciel]

That was a great video! As almost everyone in the martial arts community, I've heard about him while growing up, was curious, then skeptical, and then curious again. This video added a lot to my martial arts history collection of information.

[@Manu-bd4ql]

Hope to see an Ultimate Self Defense Championship with the top McDojo guys

[@ivanhoek]

Count Dante sounds awesome. He sure had an interesting life.

[@nicholasg9804]

I agree he was very unique so first and foremost one of the reasons why he was such a skilled fighter was that he was a Golden glove boxer so he was very good at boxing and I believe his father was a judo black belt and so imagine a Golden glove boxer with judo experience. From what I gathered he took his judo and boxing and he called it " black dragon ninjutsu" it was awesome mixed with some karate apparently. That's a very very dangerous person and you're right he did start for posting some of the first mixed martial art tournaments in chicago, he was against martial arts tournaments because they would not incorporate ground fighting and they do not allow for a continuous striking. Unfortunately he let it all go to his head, I've known several high-level martial artists that started drug gangs and let it all go to their head and they were crazy and they were legitimate the worst type of martial artist is the one that's a legitimate fighter and completely insane because it's easy to disregard people who are bad fighters and insane but when they're good fighters it gives legitimacy to their psychosis unfortunately.

[@Spectre2434]

Massad Ayoob wrote about one of his techniques in his book The Truth about Self Protection.

[@PasquiDente]

Btw Jon Bluming (who received his Dans from Oyama and highly ranked in kodokan judo too) in his interviews as an old man still available on KZbin has debunked the story of Oyama from fighting a bull and a few other early days kyokunshinkai legends

[@nateragland1218]

I think Ginger Ninja Trickster should be in season 3 on ultimate self defense championship.

[@thejinn99]

Whoa I actually have that yellow Dim Mak book hanging around somewhere.

[@Fullcontactfighter]

Hi Rokas, you don’t know me but I’m sorry to hear about your life changing injury. I’m happy to see you continue being active in martial arts and growing. I hope 2025 brings continued growth. Thanks for inspiring.

[@Fastlan3]

I read that Count Dante and his martial arts school brawls are thought to have inspired the Cobra Kai dojo in the original Karate Kid.

[@thrillhill5257]

Never seen your channel but excellent doc. I’ve been waiting on a good count Dante doc for a long time. My friend sent me this bc I always talk about him. New subscriber

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Nice! Glad to hear it 🙏

[@RoseAnneLivao]

Incredible content, Rokas! 💯 You really brought his complex legacy to life. Looking forward to more martial arts history breakdowns! 🙂

[@emptyemptiness8372]

I was a kid in the 70s and avid comic reader.....i wanted Count Dantes touch of death, the 7foot tall glow in the dark Frankenstien and the nuclear submarine i could drive.....unfortunately i never got them.....but the kids that did pay didnt get what they expected either.

[@tatumergo3931]

I remember as a kid hearing about how the cuban KGB had conducted an investigation on all of these so self claimed martial arts experts. At the time in Cuba, boxing, judo and jujutsu were very popular. Savate was known only by a very few practioners who called it French boxing, and Kung-fu was hidden in the societies of the Chinese community. Karate-do was being introduced and reserved only for the special forces and special operatives. . Their investigation concluded that all of these people were the typical fakes and scam artists of the corrupt and degenerate capitalist system, and not worth worrying over. They had been worrying that the CIA had developed a special team of assassins who could have attacked and killed any of their agents. In the end it turned out that the Cuban and Soviet KGB agents were more conditioned for carrying out assassination missions bare-handed.

[@baywest]

This is an incredible story! Its always nice to hear some interesting chicago history since im from around there. Your storytelling made it even better. This is a great format and would love to see more if possible.

[@brooklyntiger2806]

I remember his ads, Back-in-the-day!

[@martialgeeks]

Oohh NO! (yes) The great Count Dante 😂

[@a.lawrence4969]

The late Karate master Jimmy Jones was one of Dante's students and was a great teacher and fighter.

[@SupremelyBX]

Is it fair to call Dante a fake martial arts master? By all counts, he was a legit martial artist. Your title makes it sound as if he scammed his students.

[@C_Poumpouris]

Love this video man, keep doing your thing :)

[@RonFitCoaching]

I remember seeing ads in comic books when I was young about dim mark. I wanted to buy the so called secrets so bad as a kid.

[@hali1989]

great video! just one important note - when using outside sources or quotes, its considered respectful and scientific to include and specify the sources and the people that you used their hard work

[@fnargler]

This is great. looking forward to more stuff in this format.

[@BradYaeger]

Unless you grew up in the 60's and 70's you can't understand how appealing these supposed secret mystical martial arts were . We had no points of reference other than Kung Fu movies and magazines . EVERYTHING seemed possible at the time. In a way I miss it ! I mean they came from the far east , of course it was real. It spilled over for a time into the 80's but by then we had American kickboxing and other competition and it started to slowly fade .

[@tatumergo3931]

And then BJJ showed up on the scene with the UFC, and then everything got real...

[@LucharPS]

Hit the nail on the head!

[@aj5332]

I love you Rokas, your journey had take you so far and you just keep on, it’s admirable, you have become one of my aspirations and inspirations

[@aa11ct9]

I had no idea of the Bertiaux connection. This was amazing

[@Oo_Shade_oO]

They were pretty serious in Chicago. The dojo wars. And they fought in real competitions. They were more legit than most actually. Dante was just a showman, but that doesn't mean they couldn't fight.

[@noble5058]

More of these types of videos please! Both real and fake martial artists would be great.

[@gabrielluimeme]

Great new format. Fascinating story still in the martial arts domain.

[@dw2291]

Love this format of video. Great job.

[@tomo2807]

New video! 🔥

[@grant1245]

Crazy how it took me half of this video to realise this is definitely who inspired Akira toriyama to create Mr satan

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Yes, it seems so! I had to make sure to add some footage of Mr Satan to give a hint too since I didn't explicitly say it in the video 😁

[@ThoughtyTheWrangler]

In an alternate universe, someone made a hilarious “inspired by” Count Dante fake biopic starring Jack Black and it made bank

[@koenig_der_zwiebeln9094]

I just learned that this Commander Brown guy is not a comedian. I'd seen some of his shorts on KZbin, but I'd always assumed that it's supposed to be comedy, not actual self defense advice.

[@Krsnajinana]

Sounds better than 'Cobra Kai' 😂

[@travisellison7098]

I spent this entire video expecting it to be a prank. Wow.

[@Engineered4Life]

What a crazy story. Well told.

[@Arcknight9202]

That is quite the tale! Thanks for sharing.

[@nextphasetkd]

Sounds like he didn't just know Karate...he knew cah-razy!

[@Kendro311]

*starts banging a cowbell* "Woohoo woohoo!" 👀 🤪👀😵 *Cuckoo clock sounds* *Circus music kicks in* 🤡

[@BWater-yq3jx]

Sounds like Dante was ahead of his time.

[@BWater-yq3jx]

24:35 Oh right you said that. 😄

[@stinkygoat2686]

2:53 He said his channel name. Roll credits.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😄

[@alexanderkappelhoff2819]

Love it. Like others say here, actually exposing the guy had good qualities as well. This guy reminds me of John McAfee. I love stories about these insane wild guys.

[@PaulDickau-l2y]

Now the question remains... is the Count in the Sesame Street named after him or vice versa?

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😁

[@andymax1]

Good to see your on the mend, continuing your MMA training and preparing for your next MMA fight or was that a copy and paste of a previous title? Anyway great content as always.

[@22Judoka]

Sometimes there's a deeper story to them. R.I.P. Count Dante!

[@rcbmmines4579]

Love seeing all those Batman references, the animated series, classic comics from all the way back to the Golden Age to those panels from Absolute Batman as early as a few months ago lol. The first issue actually broke down this version of Batman’s fighting styles so far. Have you read it?

[@MartialArtsJourney]

I love it :)

[@rcbmmines4579]

*as recent I mean haha

[@williammiller3277]

Not a mace. Morning star would be closer since it was spiked, but the weapon you misidentified was a flail.

[@jaykarhunen6568]

Dante really needs a movie made about his life

[@Ballltas]

Hi. Rokas. Would you like to react to one of misheles challenge accepted videos where she tried to get a black belt in take wan do in 90 days. That was really awsome.

[@BoxerKyokushin]

Rokas, they know your leg is broken, although it's fixed with metal screw, MMA fighters will target your leg if you fight in MMA.

[@azazelreficulmefistofelicu7158]

I've met someone who claimed to have been a member of the black dragon society in the past. He told me word got out and suddenly he was let alone by "senior students". He went onto grapppling, law enforcement and the equivalent to secret services. He has been retired for years but still travel to "turbulent areas" for no reason. One could argue something good came out of it.

[@clarencesheets3163]

My master knew the Count, and did not have anything good to say about him.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Interesting

[@raydrexler5868]

Elaborate? Personal experience is always interesting.

[@revolutionoftheclassics3630]

Props to the Dojo for not just having the weapons for decor. So many people try to say Kung Fu doesn't work but I'm sure the spear works

[@AJeziorski1967]

Really amazing story - good job. My only gripe is that you didn't really clarify his cause of death. I've never heard of any evidence that it was "poison", as his girlfriend suggested, but it's generally known he died of internal bleeding from an ulcer. (I'd say that issue was more than likely aggravated by all the powder he was snorting, but that's just my speculative opinion.)

[@jasontroy3911]

Fascinating!

[@Priestbokmei1]

An excellent expose of this complex man and martial artist. Great job, Rokas! I hope you do a full length expose on another controversial figure-Sensei Peter Urban, The Father of American Karate.

[@ghostofsocrates]

I can’t help but kinda be a fan of Count Dante 🤣

[@rohitchaoji]

2:53 HE SAID IT

[@tohshindo5920]

The p in marine Corp is silent you smooth brain

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Smooth brain? 😄

[@RadicalTrivia]

Nice work dude! Hope you're continuing to recover!

[@lazur1]

Dante's ;"90%BS" should be kept in mind while watching this video.

[@FabianR87321]

Sounds like Jesse Enkamp needs a time machine 😂

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😄 Would be a good video

[@mikeneidlinger8857]

Silat and Escrima since 1993. Tai Chi since 2008. I've been drinking a lot of Water for about 7 years. I found the Tao about 5 years ago and quit practicing fighting. It used to be all about fighting and that's the only thing I lived for.

[@lazur1]

James Lee wasn't a Shaolin monk with dim mak knowledge. He was born in California, & is best known as the author of a book on beginning Wing Chun.

[@DaveCertifiedS]

Somewhere, I think i still have a least one old comic with a Count Dante ad in them.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Awesome!

[@Kingoftheironfist656]

So many lessons in one story

[@thetruth3611]

I don't believe the stories of Dante beating 5 or 6 guys in a street fight but it does seem like he had some legit skills.