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Mixed martial arts ushered in the greatest practical improvement in the practice of martial arts since someone figured out closing the fist results in a harder strike. The idea behind MMA is as simple as wheels on luggage – to find out what really works, have exponents of various approaches fight each other, in public.
Prior to the advent of MMA, there were four common means to ‘prove effectiveness of a martial art – anecdote, argument, appeals to authority, and above all, dramatic demonstration.
Martial arts adepts broke boards, bricks, ice, and other things that don’t hit back. They showed ornate moves on compliant students. Or they simply hit the air with bare hands or weapons, as if shadowboxing demonstrated who was the better boxer.
These demonstrations were, as noted, dramatic. And when they went wrong, it was hilarious.
You must have seen the video below before. A seemingly well-trained martial artist stands before a backdrop. He holds nunchaku in either hand. He executes a backflip, or part of one anyway.
The man faceplants, may go out for a moment, struggles to stand while still swinging the nunchuck, and then stumbles, literally, into some weird kind of internet immortality.
Who is Afro Ninja?
His name is Mark Allen Hicks. He’s a Taurus-award-winning actor, stunt performer, and experienced martial artist. He’s so good that he was invited to audition for a LeBron James Nike commercial, that was to feature martial arts film legend Jim Kelly. It was 2004.
Hicks flew in from Hong Kong for the tryout, and, still jet lagged, attempted a backflip into what was going to be a demonstration of his excellence with nunchucks. He made it about 3/4 of the way over, and then tried to keep going even while concussed.
Some months after the mishap, the footage leaked onto the Internet, and then The Tonight Show. Somewhere along the line, it acquired the meme name Afro Ninja.
The mishap hurt physically, but the aftermath was genuinely wounding. No one wants to become the laughingstock of the Internet. It even featured in South Park.
“I have no idea who leaked it to the web,” Hicks told Business Insider. “… I wanted to do some serious bodily harm to the person who leaked it. I felt violated. But I got over it.”
“I was sick because it takes a long time to gain respect and trust in the stunt business. I felt like this video would destroy all that I had worked for by making me look like a goof.”
Who is Mark Allen Hicks?
Hicks has in fact enjoyed great success in Hollywood, performing stunts in dozens of movies including Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, The Expendables, Batman Forever, Transformers, Wild Wild West, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Rush Hour 2, 2 Fast 2 Furious, San Andreas, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
And he was given another chance to audition for the LeBron James commercial, nailed it, and appeared in it.
As a final act of redemption, Hicks produced and did stunts in a feature-length movie project called, naturally, Afro Ninja: Destiny. Check out the trailer.
“I will benefit from this in the long run,” he said. “We will make another film and I will make a million dollars off this situation… If I had a choice to do it all over again… I would pass.”
