Emin Boztepe

Emin Boztepe (born 1963) is a Turkish martial artist .

Born in Eskişehir, Turkey, he started learning martial arts at the age of 14 in Germany where he moved together with his family in 1966. According to Emin, his early days in Germany were not easy due to his Turkish heritage. He was a constant target for racial insults, and more often than not, verbal abuse would swiftly turn into physical abuse. Martial arts became something of a necessity. His father urged him to begin training, and at age 14 his martial arts training began.

Martial Arts

Boztepe was attracted to Wing Tsun when he saw a demonstration in Germany. This led him to seeking instruction from Keith Kernspecht, noted European WingTsun master and senior student of Leung Ting. Boztepe has been training in Wing Tsun for over 25 years. In addition to Wing Tsun, Boztepe has trained in tae kwon do, Shotokan karate, Muay Thai, Turkish freestyle wrestling, boxing, and Latosa escrima. He currently bases his self-defense solely on Wing Tsun kung fu and the Latosa Weapons System.

Training

Emin feels that this is one of the most important factors in developing effective self-defense techniques. Although Emin believes in other forms of training such as bag-training, aerobics, etc. he feels that nothing can take the place of training with a live partner that fights back. Emin emphasizes that training should become a regular routine for any serious Martial Artist. "You can have the best techniques and the best instructors, but if you don't practice regularly and realistically it will not be useful." Emin exemplifies this himself by adhering to a strict training schedule.Fact|date=July 2007

Controversy

In the mid 1980s, in an interview for Combat magazine, William Cheung proclaimed himself the Grandmaster of the whole Wing Chun system and heir to Yip Man, adding that the system he learned and taught was a secret style Yip Man taught only to him. He further claimed that this secret system was superior and more effective than the wing chun being taught by anyone else, and he challenged anyone who wanted to prove him wrong on a technical basis. He said that he would "fight anyone anywhere."Fact|date=June 2007 In 1986 William Cheung was invited to Germany to have a 2-day martial arts seminar.

Emin and one of his peers attended the seminar. Emin challenged William Cheung, pointing to an article that contained Cheung's "anyone anywhere" quote. Cheung later stated that challenges between seniors and a lower students were not part of the Wing Chun system.Fact|date=June 2007 Cheung tried to persuade Boztepe to wait until after the seminar, but Boztepe insisted on fighting immediately. The ensuing confrontation was captured on video, and on published versions of the video it appears that Emin evaded Cheung's initial attack, swept Cheung's feet from under him, and assumed a dominant position on the ground. However, Cheung has disputed the video version, claiming the footage was edited to distort what happened, citing as evidence the video's start in the middle of the fight and with no beginning, and edits in brightness and contrast in certain stages to hide undesirable content. Cheung claims that he fell to the floor due to slippery kung fu slippers that he was still wearing after a photo shoot. The footage shows that after Boztepe took a dominant position, and appears to repeatedly punch Cheung in the face, Cheung claims he blocked every attack while on the floor. Both Cheung and Emin emerged unscathed and unharmed, and the fight has been viewed as an embarrassment to the Wing Chun community.

Emin Today

In 2002 he broke with his teacher's WingTsun organization over a financial dispute and formed his own organization called "Emin Boztepe Martial Arts System" or EBMAS

External links

* [http://www.ebmas.net Official EBMAS webpage]