John Blackledge
ISKA UK National Director of Referees and Officials
John has been in martial arts for over 50 years and he is a Master in Pak-Mei kung fu, a black belt seventh dan in karate and is an ex-full contact world champion. John started karate in 1955 in the style of Shotokan karate and moved onto Okinawa Gojo-Rye.
He trained for many years in karate before moving to the kung fu system of Pak-Mei-Wu-Chi-Yun. John has travelled the world competing in tournaments representing his country, including the World Kung Fu Championships in Hong Kong in 1970 which was attended by the great Bruce Lee. John also competed in Contact Sport Karate in the USA; during the mid 1970s he fought Chuck Norris three times.
As John’s competitive career was near its end, the new sport full contact karate (kickboxing) was launched in America. John got involved as an official and refereed some of the earliest full contact kickboxing matches staged in the UK, which at that time were still taking place on a matted area. John was later recognised by several international sanctioning bodies as the most accomplished referee in Europe. When Thaiboxing was introduced to the UK in the late 1970s, John was the first to referee Thaiboxing matches under European rules and later Muaythai matches under full Muaythai rules, the first Westerner to do so.
John refereed the first Muaythai World Championship event staged in the UK and broadcast live to Thailand in 1990. During the event John was presented with an Honourable Award by the Ambassador of Thailand in recognition for his services to Muaythai. He has refereed over 20,000 fights in full contact, kickboxing, K-1, and Muaythai, many of them televised around the world. He was chief referee for several world sanctioning bodies, but since 2007 he has worked exclusively with ISKA UK.
Bern Giam
ISKA Regional Director of North-West England (Kickboxing)
Bern has over 30 years' experience. He started training from the age of seven under the guidance of Master Shin in Tae kwon do. After five years he took up Lau -Gar Kung Fu and Chinese Kickboxing with Master Yau and Mike Lavender.
He gained 4th Degree Black Sash in 1999. Bern has studied a multitude of other styles including Eskrima, JKD, Sambo and Thaiboxing. In 1997 he set up the first martial arts studio in Aintree, Liverpool. He now operates three full-time centres teaching all styles of martial arts. He also has teaching contracts with the police, social services, schools, colleges and corporate business.
Bern has one of the largest fight teams in the North West that regularly compete nationally and internationally under Thaiboxing, Kickboxing and MMA rules. He has produced several British Commonwealth and European Champions, the most recent being Dave Wilson winning the ISKA European Light-cruiserweight title under oriental rules in Vienna, Austria. Bern has also found time to promote a series of successful fight nights billed as Annihilation that feature Kickboxing, Thaiboxing and MMA bouts.
Mark Ellwood
ISKA Regional Director of North-East England (Kickboxing)
Mark started amateur boxing at Hull Boys Club at 12 years old. He boxed as a junior for three years, compiling a record of 6-2. A torn cartilage in the right knee stopped him training for a number of years. He started Wado Ryu Karate at 17 years old with John Moreton.
He competed in semi-contact karate, both individually and in team events with some success. During 1984-5, he took an interest in full contact karate. Bouts were starting to appear on the mats at various karate competitions. The combination of boxing and karate really interested him and he started to compete full contact. In those early days bouts were sanctioned by the Professional Karate Association (PKA). Mark passed his 1st Dan Black Belt grade in 1986. The same year he open his own club Tornado Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing.
He continued to compete in semi-contact and full contact. He returned to amateur boxing with Hull Fish Trades Boys club winning eight of ten senior bouts. By 1988 full contact karate was better known as kickboxing. Mark started to compete on the growing professional circuit winning British and Commonwealth titles. Mark has had a long and prestigious career including three world title fights. Unfortunately, the champions he faced were the best of their day, top French fighters Christophe Lartisien and Jean Martin, then Polish star Robert Novak. He had a brief flirtation with professional boxing before returning to kickboxing were he re-started at square one, winning the ISKA British title in front of 2,000 spectators at the Hull Ice Arena in 2007.
Gary O’Brien
ISKA National Director of Scotland (Thaiboxing)
Gary started training in Muaythai at the age of nine. He took to the sport and learned quickly and was helping to teach classes as a junior instructor at age 13. As a senior Gary had a brief but successful competitive career winning silver and two bronze medals at IFMA Amateur World Muaythai Championships.
He won the Scottish Thai Boxing Association (STBA) Scottish lightweight title. Gary spent a year living in Thailand studying the art of Muaythai, improving his technical knowledge. He is regarded as one of Scotland’s leading coaches.
As a promoter Gary developed Power of Scotland, the biggest martial arts promotion staged in Scotland and one of the biggest in the UK. PoS features matches in Muaythai, kickboxing and MMA and has attracted large audiences to Braehead Arena and the Lagoon Arena.
Stuart Davies
ISKA Regional Director of South-West England (Kickboxing)
Stuart started his martial arts career at nine years old with judo, then karate followed by boxing and kickboxing. In 1987 he gained his black belt in karate and kickboxing under Malcolm Burt. Stuart began a competitive career in sport karate points fighting and kata/forms, winning a first place in the 1988 Welsh Grand Prix.
He was ranked number two by the MAI Southern Open Series in 1988/89.
Stuart joined the police in 1992, putting his martial arts career on hold. He received a National Bravery Award after arresting a man armed with an axe who was later charged with attempted murder. Stuart was presented with the Bravery Award by Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. He was promoted to Sergeant in 2001.
Stuart opened the Weston Academy of Martial Arts in 1997 and started competing again on the open freestyle circuit, winning several first places and grand championships in points fighting and kata. In the 2002 WUMA World Championships, Stuart won a gold medal in the light-heavyweight points fighting division and a bronze medal in the karate kata division. Stuart started Fight Club Promotions in 2002. His events featured kickboxing, Thaiboxing and MMA. Fight Club is now the largest event staged in the south-west, regularly attracting large audiences.
Russ Williams
ISKA National Director of Wales (Thaiboxing)
Russ had his first fight in 1983. By 1985 he had won the British Thaiboxing title and in the same year he captured the European title when he knocked out Dutch star Tommy Van Der berg in his hometown of Amsterdam.
A second European title was won the following year and two more British titles. Russ was competing in three different weight divisions under Thaiboxing and low kick Kickboxing rules.
Russ appeared regularly on Welsh television and in a documentary about his European title fight. Interviews, news and many of his title fights were also broadcast, including his world title fight in 1989 when he defeated World Champion Rico Brockington from Palm Beach Florida by unanimous decision. His world title success was rewarded with an invitation to lunch at the Houses of Parliament with the then Minster of Sport Colin Moynihan.
Russ successfully defended the title in 1990. Russ won two more world title belts before he retired in 1997; one was when he stopped England’s Graham McGrath in the ninth round in 1992. Russ also enjoyed success as a trainer promoter and manager producing several champions and a series of successful promotions.
World Champions Eugene Valerio, Gordon Minors and Ricky Nicholson fought under his guidance. They have fought all over the world including K-1 events in Japan. Russ currently coaches British ranked No.1 and world title contender Spencer Wilding and is about to open a new martial arts studio in the centre of Wrexham.
Jagtar Johal
ISKA National Director of England (Kickboxing)
Jagtar’s first taste of kickboxing came in 1984 when he started training in Leicester under legendary five-time world champion, Trevor Ambrose. His talent for coaching and training other fighters became more and more evident as Trevor took him on as his partner in promoting some of the first kickboxing shows in the UK.
Jagtar took over the Leicester Kickboxing Club in 1990 and swiftly turned it into one of the most prolific and respected full-contact gyms in the country.
Since then, Jag’s reputation has soared and he is considered one of the foremost kickboxing trainers and promoters in the sport. He has trained world-class fighters in Wayne Ambrose and Simon Dore – the latter of whom he took to Japan to represent England at K-1. He presently trains and manages ISKA Super-Lightweight European Champion, Barinder Singh.
His reputation is such that he regularly trains fighters not only from his own gym, but from others around the country, to fight in international tournaments, and has represented the UK in the United States, Algeria, Japan, Poland, Italy and France. He has strong links with the popular kickboxing scene in the Republic of Ireland and has worked to forge strong links between the UK and Irish kickboxing communities.
Aside from his annual show in his home town of Leicester, Jag is the guiding influence behind a host of other events and has become a consultant for other promoters, not only in how to put together top-quality professional shows, but to do so at a profit.
Paul Hennessy
ISKA UK Executive Director
Paul always had a keen interest in martial arts. He attended judo classes at six years old, then as a teenager tried boxing and kung fu, but he took a real interest in 1983 when he join a full contact karate school. He studied and trained solidly and achieved his first dan black belt in 1986.
A year later he open his own karate school and by 1992 had a chain of six karate schools.
Paul started promoting karate tournaments and kickboxing shows in 1986. He formed his first promotion company, FTL Ltd., and staged a series of successful kickboxing shows culminating in his first World Championship event in 1990; England’s Graham McGrath fought Rachid Elhermi of France for the World Flyweight title.
Paul formed a partnership with Paul Ingram in 1992; the new company was called Stuart Promotions Ltd. Together they signed a three-year television deal with TWI (Trans World International) who are part of IMG (Ian McCormack Group), the largest distributors of TV sports programmes in the world. They were the first to air kickboxing events on Sky Sports, the premier satellite sports channel, and the first to air terrestrial TV with highlights of their kickboxing events broadcast on Channel 4. Their events were syndicated in 68 countries.
Paul got more involved in the development of kickboxing. When Paul Ingram bought the rights to the WKA (World Kickboxing Association), Paul managed the business of the Association worldwide from 1993 to 1997. The association membership more than doubled from 36 member countries to 92. The number of international sanctioned events grew for 46 per year to over 150 per year all the major promoters in world worked with the WKA during that period.
Paul resigned from the association in 1997 to refocus his efforts on promoting events and managing a growing stable of fighters. Paul formed Showsport International, a promotions and management company and has promoted and co-promoted successful events in the across UK, including a series of K-1 UK events. Showsport International televised events have been broadcast by Sky Sports, Eurosport and Channel 5 in the UK and Europe, ESPN in the USA, Fuji TV and Nippon TV in Japan. Showsport International is the only UK company that manages full-time professional fighters. Paul is a recognized expert in the field of fight sports and acts as a consultant to other leading promoters, sanctioning bodies and TV production companies worldwide.
Mick Fowles
ISKA UK National Director, Pro Division
Mick came from a dancing background; when he was assaulted on his way to a dancing lesson, he decided to take up martial arts. His first instructor was Sensei Eddie Daniels, who trained him in Shotokan Karate to the level green belt.
In search of something a little more dynamic he went training with Dev Barrett and Howard Brown, both World Kickboxing Champions and Chief Instructors of the ECKA (English Contact Karate Association).
Mick was coached in the art of Full Contact Kickboxing and achieved his 1st Degree Black Belt in 1983 and is now a 5th Degree Black belt. He started to compete in Contact Karate and went on to win the ECKA British title in 1987 and was a member of English team that won the 1992 WKA Amateur European Championship in Holland. Mick started to work for the WKA in 1997 and as the co-ordinator for the Amateur Full Contact Kickboxing and Thaiboxing division he organised amateur events in the UK and Worldwide.
Mick also began training as a referee under the guidance of Chief Referee John Blackledge. He earned his stripes referring hundreds of amateur fights on prestige championship events around the world before moving onto referee professional fights for several international sanctioning bodies. He also developed a good reputation as a co-ordinator and matchmaker on the pro circuits. His skills became sought after by both UK and international promoters. Those skills did not go unnoticed by ISKA UK and he was offered and accepted the position of ISKA UK National Director in 2007.
ISKA UK management team
- John Blackledge, ISKA UK National Director of Referees and Officials
- Mick Fowles, ISKA UK National Director, Pro Division
- Paul Hennessy, ISKA UK Executive Director
- Russ Williams, ISKA National Director of Wales (Thaiboxing)
- Jagtar Johal, ISKA National Director of England (Kickboxing)
- Gary O’Brien, ISKA National Director of Scotland (Thaiboxing)
- Stuart Davies, ISKA Regional Director of South-West England (Kickboxing)
- Mark Ellwood, ISKA Regional Director of North-East England (Kickboxing)
- Bern Giam, ISKA Regional Director of North-West England (Kickboxing)
