The Lovely 1970’s Karate Beauty Beth Bussey

[kcper]

Here’s a clip and some pics of Beth Bussey, a lovely karate woman who fought a man and lost on ABC’s Wide Wide World of Sports in 1974. The clip unfortunately doesn’t show the first round where apparently she did very well.

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….Oriental World of Self Defense Spectacular at Madison. Square Garden, next Sunday.……..another woman who will also be appearing in the spectacular refuses further competition in contact sports and will stage only exhibitions. She is Beth Bussey, the 22‐year‐old 1974 international women's karate champion.
A lightning fast karate expert, she competed against Joe Hess, the world's heavyweight karate champion, at the Garden last year in a bout based on technical skills. Although she was leading in points, she was knocked out when Hess went all out in full contact.
“That's the same thing that happened to me earlier this month at the Nassau Coliseum,” she said, disappointment and disgust showing on her face as she spoke about the incident. “It was a match of technical skills and the guy went all out. I'm not out there to hurt anyone or to be hurt. My aim is to show my skills and technique as a karate champion.”
Until the rules are changed, Miss Bussey, who was conducting a clinic for women in the science of self defense at the New York Karate Academy last week, says she is finished with karate matches. She will only conduct clinics and exhibitions demonstrating her skills as a first degree black belt.” JUNE 1, 1975
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She was on the Mike Douglas show once. I wish there were footage of this available.
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The Mike Douglas Show - Season 15, Episode 30: October 15, 1976
Dom DeLuise concludes his co-hosting duties; guests are actresses Ruth Gordon and Anne Baxter, actor James Darren, singer Gary Wright and karate expert Beth Bussey with a demonstration of karate.
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I’d love to see more of her!

[LicensetoKill]

Wow. It's crazy that she'd go up against a guy with 60 lbs on her. They didn't know as much in the 70s.

Most of the live TV from the 70s is lost. It was all on film and shown live, so they saw no point. Sitcoms they figured they might re-run but not talk shows or game shows. My dad was on a gameshow in the 70s, pre-VCR. I spent a while looking for footage before I determined it was hopeless. Nobody saw any reason to store it. Bits and pieces were saved but most weren't.

[Karadim]

Amazing!! Never thought a match like that would happen. Interesting! Never heard her, but now I'm in love with her!

If only she had won. Or at least put up a good fight..

[kcper]

Here are a couple more pics of Beth found on the internet.

Here’s an excerpt from a scan found from an article titled “Beth Bussey – The Myth Killer”, in Oriental Fighting Arts, March, 1975:

"…slunk off, leaving his machismo behind, while Beth strode out with the swagger of a victorious prizefighter. She tells this with an impish Orphan Annie expression.
Unlike most female karatekas, kata is not her forte. She recalled a test, and in the middle of her first kata, her instructor, James Butin exclaimed, “Woo! Stop it right there!
If I have to watch you murder another kata, I’ll upchuck my dinner! Instead of doing form, fight another man for your test!” Which of course she did, and knocked him out."

Simply awesome! I'd certainly consider her a pioneer. So she really did knock some other guy out?

[Karadim]

Imagine if she had her own dojo! She would demonstrate her skills on males everyday.

[rennurliart]

So she wanted what was basically point sparring, and he went full contact at a 60 lb advantage. Sounds like a disaster to me and very unfortunate.

Karate sparring can be a little ambiguous IMO. One person may stay in control and make light contact and work on techniques they are trying to master, but sometimes the other person will just start throwing bombs. I thing that ambiguity was on full display at MSG that day back in the 70s.

Today, I think we're fortunate in that we can watch attractive ladies in bikinis, both fully knowing what the rules call, go full-on, all out.

[kcper]

There are pics on this thread too.

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[LicensetoKill]

Originally Posted by rennurliart [Only Registered Users Can See LinksClick Here To Register]

So she wanted what was basically point sparring, and he went full contact at a 60 lb advantage. Sounds like a disaster to me and very unfortunate.

Karate sparring can be a little ambiguous IMO. One person may stay in control and make light contact and work on techniques they are trying to master, but sometimes the other person will just start throwing bombs. I thing that ambiguity was on full display at MSG that day back in the 70s.

Today, I think we're fortunate in that we can watch attractive ladies in bikinis, both fully knowing what the rules call, go full-on, all out.

Yeah, there was a lot that wasn't known about safety that people know now.

Not male-female but Mohammad Ali fought a Japanese martial artist in one of his matches, the rules were a bit problem and the Japanese guy quickly figured out that he couldn't spar with Mohammad, so he got down on all fours and threw kicks at him. Mohammad didn't want to get on the ground so he danced around him the entire fight - neither guy saw any reason to change their strategy. The fight went 15 rounds - the crowd booed and they ruled it a tie, but Mohammad got kicked in the legs enough that he developed a blood clot on the flight home and he could have lost his leg. Part of that was, if he'd been smart he'd have been checked out in a Tokyo hospital before flying home, but still, the whole thing was almost a tragedy in exchange for a really disappointing match that sounded good, but was unwatchable.

Safety first and fair rules and weight classes - all very important. The Beth Bussy story kind of pisses me off. She was obviously very very good, but it just wasn't a fair contest putting her up against a guy 60 lbs heavier.

(hope that wasn't too much of a rant). Cyrus, formerly of Tempest who used to session wrestle got hurt sparing with a guy at her Dojo once. He apparently overestimated her ability and went full force.