- Justin Lee Ford
- May 24
- 2 min read
Updated: May 25
The following is a snippet of a feature found exclusively in the Spring 2025 issue of Black Belt Magazine.
Since 1979, Burton Richardson has been on an unstoppable martial arts journey. He began training at the original Kali Academy, home to greats such as Sifu Richard Bustillo and Guro Dan Inosanto, then traveled the world to learn from the best.
In Manila, he studied under Grandmaster Antonio Ilustrisimo. In Brazil, he trained with top BJJ practitioners like the Machado Brothers and Carlson Gracie. He’s even trained with Zulu warriors in South Africa and earned a black belt in krav maga.
His broad experience makes him a sought-after instructor for civilians and law enforcement alike. A prolific writer, he’s authored five books, spent 11 years as a columnist for Inside Kung Fu, and been honored as Black Belt Magazine’s Self-Defense Instructor of the Year.
Now based in Hawaii, Burton continues to share his knowledge worldwide, always learning, always evolving.
Introduction & Background
How did you first get started in martial arts, and what inspired you to pursue this path?
As a young kid, I loved Kato in the Green Hornet TV series. I didn’t know until many years later that Kato was played by Bruce Lee. But his dynamic fight scenes were my first exposure to any sort of martial arts. I guess that is how I first caught the bug.
When I was nine years old, I endured a very horrible experience. I was abducted by a large adult male, and it was a truly horrific event. Being so utterly helpless while someone much bigger and stronger was constantly threatening to kill me ingrained a very deep desire to learn how to defend myself from evil. It took many years, but as I was allowed to, I started training.
By a stroke of luck, that training was at Guro Dan Inosanto and Sifu Richard Bustillo’s original academy in Torrance, California, which was a mile and a half from our house in Carson.
For the last thirty years, my main goal as a teacher has been to make others formidable so that they will never be at the mercy of a merciless attacker.
To read the rest of the interview, be sure to order your copy of Black Belt's Spring 2025 Issue!
