What Happens When You Accidentally Try to Mug a 67-Year Old Former Kickboxing World Champion? The Simple Answer is Nothing Good…
Steve Sheperd is a former 5-time world kickboxing champion. He’s got a truly elite resume and is respected by everybody in the sport. With a record of 56 wins and 5 losses, he was a pioneer for the sport in his home state of Florida.
He was the sport’s first true superstar and proved that it could be a lucrative game by being the first fighter to draw over $1 million in gate receipts. Incredibly, Shepherd was active from 1975 to 2000, when he made his last professional experience. Now he coaches at the gym he part owns with his brother – KickBox-SuperFIT gym – at West Palm Beach.
Now, he might be 68-years-old, but that doesn’t mean he’s past his sell-by-date. Shepherd proved that he’s still more than a match for the average guy on the street, by knocking down a would-be mugger who didn’t know who he was. Take a look at the footage below and hear from the man himself.
Foiled
As you can see from the footage above, Shepherd still has ferocious power and superb technique, despite his age. He demonstrates how to swing that hook like a man thirty years younger, as he lands a vicious, rasping shot to the bag. There’s a reason he was a five-time world champion. So how exactly did this go down? Shepherd told 25 WPBF News:
“All of a sudden my knees buckled. And then bam! I get hit in my head with a hand in my right eye. He was yelling at me, give me your phone, give me your phone, give me your effing phone. I hit him in the ribs, in the left rib cage area and he just folded up and dropped and I felt it break.”
The veteran coach was struck with a bottle and punched in the eye before he even knew what happened. Too bad for the thug that he didn’t know who he was dealing with.
Brutal
First of all, what time of scumbag do you have to be to see a seemingly defenceless older gentleman and think that he is easy-pickings? Let’s not forget that the attacker – who you can see at the top of this page – full on tried to physically assault his would-be victim. While it ended badly for him that day, another less experienced or fragile older person could have been seriously injured.
Not Shepherd though. Despite sporting a bruised thigh and eye after the attack, he was able to roll with the strikes and unleash his own vicious co-ordinated counterassault on the thug who tried to mug him. He explained:
“I’m lucky. I’ve never been knocked out ever.”
Comeback
The former champion is a true warrior. Ok, you could get pedantic and say he has a couple of TKO losses on his glittering record, but he’s never been full on KOed. Shepherd also believes that older fighters should be entitled to compete if they want to. Making this story all the more remarkable is that he’s planning his own comeback, having lobbied the Florida State Commission to remove an age cap on fighters.
This inspirational fighter is set to fight again sometime in March when he hopes to become the oldest professional fighter in the world. He said:
“Maybe it’ll make people 50 and older feel a little less old and feel a little more useful.”
