Don Wilson

(Lynn, Massachusetts, USA PRO: 23-3/21, AM: 25-0/25 5'9" 197 lbs) At the end of the third round Wilson came alive and eventually knocked Kimber to the floor motionless. Referee Dan Stell counted Kimber out on the floor, a count that went into the round break. Kimber never stood during the count.

Having never been challenged for his title, Wilson voluntarily retired it to move down to the Light Heavyweight Division, where he eventually retired from fighting a few years later.

Donald Glen Wilson (born September 10, 1954), nicknamed "The Dragon", is an American martial artist, film actor, and former professional kickboxer.

An 11-time world champion who scored 47 knockouts in four decades, he has been called by the STAR System Ratings as "perhaps the greatest kickboxer in American history. He has disposed of more quality competition than anyone we've ever ranked".

After high school, Wilson was accepted into the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut in the fall of 1972.

Wilson has stated that his brother challenged him to friendly sparring, which he imagined he would dominate since Wilson was more physically imposing and athletic than his brother.

To his surprise, he was easily knocked around by his brother's martial arts ability.

He credits this experience for making a believer out of him, after which he would pursue martial arts.

He began studying Goju-ryu Karate with Chuck Merriman for two hours a week for one year.

In 1973, Wilson left the Academy and earned an associate degree in electrical engineering at Brevard Community College in Florida.

He then enrolled at his father's alma mater, the Florida Institute of Technology, but dropped out to pursue a professional fighting career, to the elder Wilson's disappointment.

During this time, he was trained by Fred Smitz, a.k.a. Smitty, Dr. Pai's first black belt in America, and his older brother Jimmy in Pai Lum Kung-Fu, at the Cocoa, Florida, School, a form derivative of Shaolin Kung Fu.

Don's nickname, "The Dragon" was used in his first professional kickboxing match in Orlando.

He also had two other nicknames that were used at times during his long career.

On page 64, Wilson's first match with Bill Knoblok in Orlando, Florida in December 1974 is listed as a 3-round no-contest.

However, on page 52 in the same issue, Wilson said about his fight with Knoblok, "But Bill won the third round by a larger margin than I had won the first. So he won the bout."

Today the official result of this fight was listed as a no-contest on Wilson's official fight record because when he decided to fight for PKA, Joe Corley felt the rules of the bout were quite different from those of PKA, Corley told Wilson to omit it.

In July 1977, Wilson defeated Howard Hayden.

A report of the match in Official Karate Magazine said, "Don Wilson's showboat tactics have seen him through a couple of fights, but the Flash won't last long when the going gets tough."

Wilson said he was hugely insulted; a few people began to refer to him as Don "The Flash" Wilson, which annoyed him.

He said this inspired him to prove something: "I got serious."

Wilson won a total of 11 world titles with several sanctioning bodies, including the IKF, WKA, KICK, ISKA, STAR and the PKO.

In 79 bouts, Wilson was only knocked out by Glen McMorris in 1980.

Wilson's kickboxing record is listed as 72–5–2 (48 knockouts) with 3 no-contests.

Wilson was noted for being an American-style kickboxer who challenged the fabled fighters from Thailand.

He prevailed in most instances, only suffering one loss.

However, the matches were always problematic, due to the differences in traditions, style and judging.

For his fight against Samart Prasarnmit, the officials who arranged the fight broke the previous arrangement, placing Wilson against a lighter opponent and forcing Wilson to lose 8 pounds on the day of the bout by sitting in a sauna from early morning until two hours before the bout, leaving him dangerously dehydrated.

Wilson had also negotiated for a 7-round fight, which the officials also neglected to honor.

Furthermore, the Thai judges only recognized Muay Thai techniques such as Thai kick or those performed within the clinch, which meant that Wilson's only hope to win was to knockout Samart, which he was unable to do because of his dehydration.

According to Inside Kung-Fu Presents Kickboxing Magazine (August 1992), Wilson's professional kickboxing record was listed as 69 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws, 46 knockout wins, and 6 kick-knockouts, and 3 no-contests.

He won his IKF (www.IKFKickboxing.com) FCR Cruiserweight World Title on May 15, 1999, in Lowell, Massachusetts, when he defeated Dick Kimber.

Wilson's kickboxing career spanned four decades; his first fight with Bill Knoblok in 1974 and his last fight, a 10th-round knockout victory over Eddie Butcher on July 19, 2002, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

He defeated, among others, world champions Branko Cikatic, James Warring, Dennis Alexio, and Maurice Smith.

Wilson fought to a draw with another champion, Jean-Yves Thériault.

In 2015, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.

Wilson was born to a Japanese mother and American father in Alton, Illinois.

He utilized his mother's family name, Hoshino (星野), as a ring name while competing in Japan.

He attended Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton, where he was an MVP in football and basketball.

Wilson also tried his hand at wrestling, in which he excelled enough to score a 4th place in the Florida State Collegiate Wrestling competition.