Entertainment

Interview with Dr. Khalila Camancho Ali –Women’s Martial Arts Pioneer and Wife of Muhammad Ali

By Jessie Bowen, President of Elite Publications

Grand Master Jessie Bowen, Executive Director of the American Martial Arts Alliance and the American Martial Arts Alliance Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization committed to the growth and development of martial arts, interviewed Dr. Khalil Camancho Ali at the kickoff of the Women’s Martial Arts Hall of Honors award presentations. Dr. Ali holds a Ph.D. in theology and is a renowned woman martial artist, producer, best-selling author, and lecturer.

Jessie Bowen: This is the kickoff of our Women’s Martial Arts Hall of Honors awards event where we are honoring women from all around the world who are making major contributions to martial arts as competitors, teachers, and business owners. So today, we have a special interview with Dr. Khalila Camancho Ali.

Welcome to the Women in the Martial Arts Hall of Honors awards presentation Khalila. Congratulations on being one of our inductees. This is the first program to recognize women in martial arts with their women’s only Hall of Honor. As one of the early female pioneers in martial arts studying karate you had earned a third-degree black belt under Jim Kelly and Steve Saunders by 1997, and you eventually earned your ninth-degree black belt. So let’s talk about your martial arts, and I will probably get hurt by our readers if I don’t ask about you and Muhammad Ali.

Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali: God bless you, Jessie. Thank you so much. I’m honored to join the Women’s Martial Arts Hall of Honors. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here, and I thank God you contacted me. I’ve been in the arts for my entire life.

It was a struggle because, first and foremost, I had to keep it undercover, you know, for so many years. So, I couldn’t be out there and spread it or show my skills and talent like some of the other artists who were able to perform in front of people. I wasn’t allowed to do that because of the important people I was securing at the time.

When you are a personal security guard, you cannot expose who you are and who you are securing at the time; it is detrimental to anybody knowing who you are. You know your job when you are a security guard to a particular person, yet you are not made known. This is because you are securing those people at the time. Sometimes, after you have finished securing them, you could come out and say who you secured. But you know I had to keep that undercover for a while. And especially being married to Muhammad Ali. Even though my art was known, it was undercover.

Back then, to tell a fighter like Ali what you do and what you know would be a mistake. Ali was a challenger, and I didn’t want him to challenge me. I knew he would challenge me if he knew anything about me doing martial arts. And when he found out that I did know the arts, he threatened me by going up to a guy named Rocky Ayoki, known to be a martial artist and a reality wrestler, and challenged him in the ring to show me he could be the martial artist.

I knew the art but I couldn’t expose it like I wanted to when I was with Steve Saunders at the BKF in Los Angeles under Jim Kelly. I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want them to find out who I was. I didn’t want them to know what I did, because I didn’t want it to get back to Muhammad Ali. So it was tough.

Jessie Bowen: This is the journey of many women in martial arts. But your situation is very unique. When we go back in time, martial arts used to be a man’s world and it wasn’t a combat sport for women. Plus, it wasn’t available because it was perceived that girls shouldn’t take martial arts or combat arts during that time.

It was a difficult task to find ladies during your era that were studying martial arts in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Thankfully, you find more women that are involved in martial arts study today.

I heard you talk about a couple of things online about how you and Muhammad Ali met and wrote many of his poems. Can we touch on a little of that?

Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali: I share much of that in my book, The Forgiveness: The Untold Story of Khalilah & Muhammad Ali. It is a unique and outstanding book. It’s online now, but it’s an unauthorized one that came out. I did it, but it wasn’t edited entirely the way I wanted; however, it’s still online. I’m currently doing a new version I’m going to edit and put back online. That edition will be out in April. So, if you want to get the unedited version, you can go to Amazon and buy it right now. They only have 1,000 copies out there. Once those 1,000 copies are sold, the edited edition will come out.

When I first met Muhammad Ali I was only ten years old and he was 18. I was meeting him for the first time, and I confronted him about his name. I said, “You will never get famous with that name. You go until you have a name of honor. It would be best if you had a name that would respect you. Until you have a Muslim name, you’re not going to get famous. Trust me”.

He looked at me and said, “Go”, and then I tore up his name, and he said, “She tore up my name”. I think that moment locked in a target on my forehead from then on. So as time passed, he started getting all these poems from me and everything. He said, “I need to marry this one. She’s growing up now.” So he came back and got me at the age of 16.

Jessie Bowen: Wow, that’s a love story. Was one of your poems connected to the “Thrilla in Manila” when he was fighting? Was it Joe Fraser that you wrote the poem about?

Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali: No, actually, it was the Sonny Liston poem. I was not too fond of Sonny Liston’s reaction when he was hanging around Muslims. He was a Muslim sympathizer, but he wasn’t a Muslim yet. So, Sonny Liston made a comment that upset me when he said, “I’m gonna knock out that Black Muslim”. That bothered me and that’s what made me create a poem.

I didn’t like Sonny Liston and I asked Clay to tell him this poem. Then I go, “Wow! You know he’s not going to do that”. But at least I got it out. You know what I mean. My mother told me years ago never to form my lips and say I should have when I could have, so I always say what’s on my mind at the time. I didn’t think he would read the poem, but he did. He told Sonny Liston that poem right in front of me. He made my poem famous. I want to thank him for that, and that’s the kind of team we became later in life.

Jessie Bowen: We have a change in time from when you were studying martial arts. What words of wisdom would you give to today’s female martial artists?

Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali: First of all, I don’t support women’s boxing. I don’t support that. But if that’s what you need to get your courage and confidence up, I’m all for that. But as far as safety for women, I totally support martial arts because you don’t have to use brute force to be a martial artist. They use their technique, wit, and the technical advantages of the art.

Regardless of size, martial artists are extremely difficult to defeat even if you are large and they are small. Due to your tendency to submit to them, which they will exploit, it is extremely difficult to combat them. Yet, I believe that martial arts are safer for women to practice. The arts are practiced safely for both males and small women, attacking the major pressure areas on your body These are incredibly significant issues that have the power to destroy anyone. Pressure points imply that a little pressure is all it takes to overcome the situation. And therefore, I emphasize the importance of boosting selfconfidence among women who do martial arts. It appeals to your selfassurance and strategically uses your personality.

It plans out your feelings and assists you. The repetition of martial arts practice makes you respond without hesitation in self-defense situations. So I would suggest studying martial arts because it’s good discipline. On the other hand, it can be very emotional, so it kind of downs a woman’s temperament.

It’s truly a marvelous thing. Of course, as a woman, you can get rather far in martial arts.

Nothing needs to be kept back from you. It truly is fantastic. Martial arts training helps women gain confidence. It plays on your self-assurance and strategically uses your personality. It plans out your feelings and aids you.

Jessie Bowen: Well, thank you for participating in our program, and congratulations.