Martial arts legend shares no-holds-barred stories

Shaking the hand of Jim Arvanitis set off an earthquake in my right hand. Bones creaked, and knuckles buckled and cracked.

It made for one heck of a first impression.

The legendary purveyor of the ancient Greek fighting sport pankration (that is Arvanitis’ anglicized term for it) still has his trademark long brown curls, with wisps of white now in the mix. Arvanitis has made it his life’s mission to inform the public about the Greek origins of the martial arts.

While at Greek school, Arvanitis saw pictures of ancient Olympic games lining the walls, including some depicting pankration. No one at school seemed to know much about the sport when Arvanitis asked, so he decided to research it himself. As it turns out, it was a combat fighting sport that banned no actions except biting and gouging, and therefore was unique in its promotion of combining different fighting styles.

It was first introduced in 648 BC as the cornerstone of the 33rd Olympiad, Arvanitis said, and died out in 393 AD after the Romans started banning pagan practices. Pankration was based off an earlier form of fighting used by the Greeks in battle. This discovery stoked Arvanitis’ curiosity in both the sport and the act of learning itself. He felt early on that spreading knowledge of pankration and the martial arts’ roots in Greece was his life’s purpose, he said, even though his ideas were originally not believed by many in his world.

His ardor for combat sports began in the Greater Boston area when he was young. Arvanitis was the oldest child in his family, and that meant he was tasked with protecting his younger brother, Danny Arvanitis. Unfortunately, Jim Arvanitis was the victim of bullying during his childhood.

“It was humiliating,” Arvanitis said. “I was not physically hurt, but my feelings were hurt.”

His father, George Arvanitis, thought introducing his eldest son to combat sports would give him more self-respect. It did.

From there, Arvanitis’ went in about a million directions. He worked with boxing trainers in Lowell, Mass., the boxing hub of the United States at the time. He took up bodybuilding. He learned catch wrestling from World Wide Wrestling Federation stars like Killer Kowalski and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. In college, he met a street fighter nicknamed “Supercat” and traveled with him to his home country of Thailand, where Arvanitis picked up Muay Thai kickboxing. He discovered Kosen judo and picked up its many chokeholds. He also somehow found time to get a degree in math from Plymouth State University.

Through the absorption of all these techniques, Arvanitis became a one-of-a-kind fighter. No one else thought to use multiple styles in combat. When he met martial arts journalist and self-defense instructor Massad Ayoob in 1973, Ayoob convinced Arvanitis to pick up his life and move to California, where he could pitch his skills to different media outlets and take on new challenges.

Arvanitis was featured on the cover of the Nov. 1973 edition of Black Belt Magazine, one of the oldest and most respected martial arts magazines in the world, after the magazine watched him defeat three-time international champion martial artist Jerry Smith.

The cover story changed everything for Arvanitis, he said. Almost overnight, he became a celebrity in the fighting world, and a multitude of opportunities came with the spotlight. He developed a dedicated following, and slowly but surely, the days of pankration being a punchline were coming to an end. The community became more accepting of the idea of pankration being a precursor to the Eastern martial arts styles that are popular today, he said.

My talk with Arvanitis lasted well over two hours. There are countless stories of opportunities that arose from his newfound fame that he recounted to me, but I have only so much space, and therefore have chosen a select few.

In 1977, Arvanitis met Jack LaLanne, and the pair got into a one-upping contest to see who could do the most challenging push-up. Lalanne did one with his arms fully extended in front of his head, on his fingertips. Arvanitis countered by doing a one-armed, two-finger push-up. Eventually, this led to Arvanitis attempting and completing a push-up on only his thumbs. He officially set the world record for thumb push-ups with 45 in 51 seconds, then broke his own record by completing 61 in 47 seconds on The Guinness Game show three years later.

“In my mind, I was invincible,” Arvanitis said. “I could do anything.”

Perhaps the biggest sign of respect shown for Arvanitis came in the early 1990s, when Army rangers asked him to train groups of 12 soldiers for combat in Desert Storm. He taught them hand-to-hand combat in a no-holds-barred style, and also taught them how to defend themselves against knives and other weapons. Arvanitis said the soldiers took to the training right away and respected him for his “down and dirty” approach, and he even kept in contact with a few snipers he trained, who credited him with helping their focus and their belief in themselves.

The Navy Seals, Green Berets and Marines all would hire Arvanitis periodically in the future.

Despite his media persona, Arvanitis values his privacy at home. Writing books is his new passion, he said. He has written seven, with three more on the way. He also gives seminars across the country. 

That fits with his personality. Arvanitis said the Greek key, an interlocking circle of right-angled spirals symbolizing infinity, represents his goals in life: knowledge and self-discovery. 

“I have learned that I want to be able to express myself,” Arvanitis said. “I learned early on that I had a gift. Everyone has a gift, but most people do not discover it. In my own head, I am simply a guy with a passion for his heritage and lineage.”

Arvanitis wants to be remembered, if for nothing else, for going against the grain and promoting the origins of martial arts. Fortunately for him, his life has been so memorable, I don’t think anyone in the combat community will be forgetting about him any time soon.