Hector Echavarria

Male adult bio
photo=
birth= birth date and age|1959|12|6
death=
location= Corrientes, Argentina
birthname= Hector E. Echavarria Aguilera
measurements=
height= height|ft=5|in=11
weight= convert|185|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on
eye color= Green
hair color= Black
orientation=
natural bust=
ethnicity= Hispanic
homepage= http://www.hectorechavarria.net
imdb= 0248373
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Hector Echavarria is an Argentine-born martial artist, trainer, actor, and film maker.

Fighting career

Hector Echavarria began his martial arts training at age 4 and his competitive martial arts career at the age of 14 in his native country of Argentina. He won kickboxing tournaments in Argentina and South America. He won the Argentine United States Karate Association (USKA) championship and the United States Karate Association All South American Championship against Herman Bermudes. He became World Karate and Kickboxing Association (WKA) kickboxing champion when he knocked out Kenny Walton, England's Kickboxing Champion, International Tae Kwon Do Federation World Champion, and current coach of the National England Tae Kwon Do Team.Hector has won many other martial arts championship titles including the National World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF) where he won a gold medal, the World Kung Fu Championship. Hector also holds a World Professional Karate Championship under the United States Karate Association (USKA). He earned this title when he defeated Randolf McClain, US Karate Champion and sports celebrity in the first televised professional martial arts event in South American TV history in the prestigious Luna Park Stadium in Buenos Aires in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,000 people. Finally, Hector is the World Vale-Tudo Kickboxing Champion of the World by the International Sports Kickboxing Karate Association (ISKA).

Hector knocked out formidable fighters like Pedro Florindo, Kenny Walton, Norden Blade (all European Champion for the World Association Kickboxing Organization (WAKO), Jean Fransua Warini (National Italian Kickboxing Champion, WAKO), and others.

Hector was designated Full Contact Fighter of the Year by the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He also was chosen to represent and lead the International Karate and Kickboxing Association,and the prestigious Joe Corley's Professional Karate Association for all Latin America. Hector has appeared in more than 20 martial arts and fitness magazine covers, including "Black Belt Magazine", "Inside Karate", "Men's Fitness", and "Martial Arts Illustrated". He has given more than 100 kickboxing exhibitions around the world, some in which he sparred with the famous kickboxing champion of the world, Bill Wallace. Hector has also given numerous demonstrations with famous celebrities including the Bee Gees, Philip Michael Thomas, and Richard Simmons. .
Black Belt Magazine named Hector "The Next Martial Arts Movie Star". Hector has always been a leader and an innovator in the world of martial arts, yet his incredible martial arts competitive career is just half of the story. Hector has helped other sport champions and martial arts stars achieve their full potential. Some of the celebrities and superstar athletes who have benefitted from his coaching efforts include Kendra Wilkinson (Playboy Superstar and star of "The Girls Next door"), former three-time World Boxing Champion Hector "Macho" Camacho, and Professional NFL kicker for the New England Patriots and Super Bowl winner Al Del Greco. Hector has also trained and taught martial arts to Mixed Martial Arts super stars such as Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Cheik Kongo, and currently Hector is working with BJ Penn.

Biography

Hector was born in Corrientes, Argentina on December 6, 1969. He is 5'11" and weighs 186 pounds.
Asthma toubled Echavarria as a young child, and his parents had to take turns rocking him at night just so he could breathe. His father sought help for their son with acupuncture treatments, and thereby came to know the first Shaolin monk to flee China, Grand Master Tung Kou Tsao. Although Hector was only four years old, Grand Master Kou Tsao recommended that Hector learn Tai Chi Chuan because it would help alleviate his asthma by strengthening his breathing. For that reason at a tender age, Hector started taking lessons in Tai Chi Chuan and Chinese Boxing with Grand Master Tung Kou Tsao. By the age of six he was training in Judo and Jiu Jitsu under Grand Master Mayamoto of Kodokan. As a young teenager he was learning the intricacies of Karate, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do and become a superb athlete. At the age of 14 he became the youngest Kickboxer ever to enter the ring professionally.

Hector recalls how people in his hometown fought over anything, so he went to the streets to fight for pay. When he was about 14 years old, he cracked an opponent's ribs, which prompted a police officer to warn him that he would land in jail soon if he did not find a different outlet for his skills. That's when Hector decided to become a professional fighter. When he went to the United States he trained and thrived under the guidance of Grand Master Robert Trias. Eventually, Ed Parker, who was Elvis Presley's bodyguard and the man who put Bruce Lee in movies, discovered Hector Echavarria, who was known for having a sort of a showmanship that began in the ring, but easily translated to the screen.

While looking for a place in Miami to open a gym, Hector literally bumped into Miami Vice Publicist Carol Meyers, who asked him if he wanted to become an actor. She got him a television audition, and Hector appeared in the 1986 season premiere of Miami Vice, "Down for the Count", which was not bad for a guy who learned English basically by reading martial arts magazines.

A few years later, an Argentine producer saw Echavarria in a television demonstration and cast him in an action film, "Exterminators I". This film and its two sequels became the highest grossing winter release movies in South America.

Hector played a main character in the Argentine action television series "Brigada Cola", which ran in South America, Europe, and the Middle East from 1992 to 1997.

Hector helped create a popular comic strip based on his martial arts skills in "Billiken" that sold more than 250,000 copies a week. Hector has his own line of merchandising and collectibles, including cards, posters, clothing and action figures, the last one released in South America sold more than one million units within two weeks.

Hector currently lives near Hollywood, California, where he owns a film production and distribution company Destiny Entertainment Productions, a company that specializes in Mixed Martial Arts Films and the first independent company to focus on the Latino market in the US.

Film career

Echavarria began his film career in 1986, appearing in "Miami Vice", "The Exterminator", and in South American shows.Patrick Ridgell. " [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PCH/is_2_3/ai_113053423 Kung Fu-kicking good: Hector Echavarria: actor: Los Angeles, CA - Face] ", "Latino Leaders", April-May 2002. Retrieved on 2008-06-27.] He has also starred in dozens of films since then including "Confessions of a Pit Fighter", Extreme Force, Duel of Legends, etc.

References

External links

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* Edward Pollard, " [http://www.blackbeltmag.com/archives/583 Hector Echavarria: Justice Is Served] "
* Hector Echavarria, United states Martial Arts Hall of Fame " [http://www.unitedstatesmartialartshalloffame.com/inductee/inductee_list.php?yearId=2000] "