Pete Cunningham (kickboxer)

Early life

Peter D.O. Cunningham was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on March 25, 1963.^[15] When he was six years old, his parents divorced,^[16] and his mother Rosel left Trinidad and Tobago together with him and his siblings, and moved to the small island of St. Vincent in the West Indies.^[17] This is where Cunningham watched Enter the Dragon for the first time as a 10-year old and decided that he is "going to be like Bruce Lee".^[18] In 1976, Cunningham's family moved yet again, this time to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,^[19] to start a new life. His mother became a sole bread winner and took care of the children.^[20] Cunningham attended St. Marks Junior High School^[21] and St. Joseph's High School in Edmonton.^{[citation needed]}

Introduction to martial arts

Cunningham took his first karate class in February 1978 after being introduced to his first karate dojo and first Sensei Grandmaster Robert Supeene Sr. by junior high school friends.^[22] He immediately felt the connection with his Sensei and fell in love with the sport. Seven months later, as an orange belt holder Cunningham participated in his first karate tournament.^[23] Along with winning top prize in his own belt division, he was voted "Best Technician" of the tournament,^[24] an award typically only won by black belts. This tournament marked the beginning of his career.

Fighting career

Cunningham started his amateur kickboxing career in 1980, when he beat Reg Johnson in Calgary, Canada.^[25] Later that month, he began taking boxing lessons with Ted James and his son Rocky at the South Side Legion boxing gym in Edmonton.^[26]

A few more wins in amateur kickboxing followed, and in January 1981, Cu nninghammet the legendary Benny "The Jet" Urquidez,^[27] who was giving a kickboxing seminar in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[28] This is where The Jet told the young fighter "you are going to be a great champion". Around this time, Cunningham had his first professional kickboxing fight where he took on the Canadian Champion Gordy Gong.^[29] Cunningham won by a big knock out, a round kick to the head.^[30] After the fight, Sensei Rueben Urquidez and Sensei Blinky Rodriguez approached Cunningham and his mother to congratulate him on the big win, and extend an invitation to come and train out of their world class facility in Van Nuys, California, The Jet Center.^[31] This was a dream come true for Cunningham and he gladly accepted.

As Cunningham made his move to Los Angeles, he was featured on the undercard of Muhammad Ali's exhibition bout with Edmonton Oiler enforcer Dave Semenko. The event took place at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton on June 12, 1983.^[32] Cunningham defeated his opponent, who was a World Lightweight Champion, and impressed Ali's trainer and cornerman Bundini Brown, who introduced Cunningham to Ali and his family. Ali signed a book for Cunningham's mother, and then suggested to Bundini to invite the young fighter to come and train at the Joe Lewis - Muhammad Ali Gym in Santa Monica.^[33]

From that point on, and for the next three years Cunningham trained at both gyms every day, at the Joe Lewis - Muhammad Ali Gym in the morning and at the Jet Center in the afternoon.^{[citation needed]} At this time, Cunningham was fighting professionally in both boxing and kickboxing. He began to gravitate towards kickboxing, and in 1986 after losing a controversial boxing lightweight title fight, decided to focus solely on kickboxing.

Acting

Cunningham is also an actor with several movies to his credit.^[34] In his first role, Cunningham played the lightweight champion fighter Frank Peters and faced off with action star Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 1985 martial arts film No Retreat, No Surrender.^[35] He played an assassin in the 1986 Yuen Biao/Corey Yuen film Righting Wrongs.^[36] Cunningham guest-starred opposite David Carradine on the Kung Fu: The Legend Continues^[37] television series (1993) and worked on big budget feature I Spy (2002), where he doubled Eddie Murphy. Later Cunningham appeared in The Fighter (2010), playing the role of Mike 'Machine Gun' Mungin.^[38]

Trainer

After retiring from competition, Cunningham continued his career in martial arts as a trainer. He has trained top professional fighters, amateur fighters, as well as teaching classes for general public, including kids and adults. Over the years, he has trained many World Champion amateur and professional fighters in boxing and kickboxing, as well as well-known celebrities.

In 2014, Cunningham was invited to be one of the coaches of the USA Kickboxing Team, and he brought his star pupil German Baltazar along with him. Together, they have led the team to gold medals in several international tournaments and events, including the 2014 Irish Kickboxing Open, 2014 WAKO (World Association of Kickboxing Organizations) tournament in Canada, 2014 Brazilian Kickboxing World Cup and a history-making USA vs. Cuba tournament in Havana, Cuba in 2015.

As of 2016, he was training fighters and teaching classes at Team Karate Centers in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. In 2018 he was teaching at House Of Champions in California.

Other

Cunningham grew up with siblings Julie, Zoey, Natalie, Vertille, Bert and Patrick. His son Chazz Christian Cunningham was born in 1998.^[39] Cunningham has written two books: the kickboxing training manual Civilized Warring (1995)^[40] and the co-authored Testimonials of a Legendary Champion (2013).^[41]

Boxing

• Edmonton Golden Gloves – Gold Medal – 1981^[42]
• Canadian Games – Bronze Medal – 1981
• #1 ranked Lightweight boxer in Canada – 1986

Kickboxing and Muay Thai

• World Kickboxing Association
  • WKA Kickboxing World Lightweight Champion^[43]
  • 1986 WKA Kickboxing World Super Lightweight Champion^[44]
  • 1993 WKA Kickboxing World light welterweight Champion^[45]
• Karate International Council of Kickboxing
  • K.I.C.K. Super Lightweight Intercontinental Champion^[46]
• International Muay Thai Federation
  • 1988 IMF World Junior Welterweight Champion^[47]
• World Martial Arts Challenge
  • W.M.A.C. Junior Welterweight World Champion
• International Sport Kickboxing Association
  • 1992 ISKA. Oriental Rules World Light Welterweight Champion (2 defenses)
  • 1998 ISKA inaugural Hall of Fame inductee^[48]