Grand Master Jeff Smith: A Documented History

Biography of record · Last reviewed October 2026 · Grand Master Jeff Smith, 10th Degree Black Belt

Grand Master Jeff Smith, “The DC Bomber,” is an American martial artist, kickboxer and martial arts business executive. Trained in the Jhoon Rhee lineage since 1965, he was America’s number-one point fighter in 1974 and, on September 14, 1974, became the first Professional Karate Association (PKA) World Light Heavyweight Champion. He defended that title seven times, retired with a record of 32–1 with 16 knockouts, served as Senior Vice President of the Jhoon Rhee Institute, founded World Champion Jeff Smith Karate in 1981, and coached the U.S. team at the WAKO World Championships. He holds a 10th Degree Black Belt and today serves as Chief of Instruction for Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery and as President of Sports Operations for PKA Worldwide.

Texas Beginnings and the Jhoon Rhee Lineage

Jeff Smith grew up in Kingsville, Texas. His mother worked at Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University–Kingsville), and as a junior-high newspaper carrier he saw a sign for a karate demonstration in the student union. The university club was open only to college students, but faculty children were allowed to join, and Smith began training at about fourteen, in 1965 (MAIA Hub; IKF).

The A&I club belonged to the Texas network built by Jhoon Rhee, the “Father of American Tae Kwon Do,” and his early black belts, including Allen Steen and Pat Burleson. Rhee visited the Texas college clubs every few months to teach and test (Kido Kwan; Go2Karate interview). That training ground was known for hard, full-effort sparring, and USAdojo’s History of Karate in America calls Smith “a product of the rugged Texas schools.”

Smith earned his first-degree black belt in September 1969 and ran the A&I club before graduating in 1970. Every rank through 9th degree came from Jhoon Rhee (Wikipedia; Go2Karate). In June 2016 the Professional Karate Commission promoted him to 10th Degree Black Belt and the title of Grand Master at the Battle of Atlanta World Karate Championships, with Glenn Keeney, Allen Steen, Pat Johnson and Pat Burleson presenting (Who’s Who Directory).

Smith has carried the Jhoon Rhee line forward through a small number of senior promotions, including Mark Glazier’s 8th degree and Stephen Oliver’s 8th, 9th and, in April 2026, 10th Degree Black Belt (Ripple Effect Martial Arts). See also Our Lineage: Jhoon Rhee.

Sport Karate Champion, 1966–1974

Smith entered his first tournament in Houston in 1966 and competed across Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. “There’s not a state in the country where I haven’t competed in a point fight,” he told MAIA. After moving to Washington, D.C., in 1970 he flew to tournaments almost every weekend and became one of the top point fighters in the United States.

1972: National champion

• Pan American Championships, Baltimore: Grand Champion.
• North American Championships, Toronto: Heavyweight champion.
• Top 10 Nationals, St. Louis: Light heavyweight champion (contemporaneous report, Backkicks). Smith and Pat Worley were the first to wear Jhoon Rhee’s Safe-T pads in competition at this event (John Worley, National Karate).
• Black Belt cover: December 1972, in action against John Worley.

1973: The most decorated year

Event	Result
U.S. Pro-Am, Ocean City (May 31)	Defeated Bill Wallace 5–1, Fred Wren, Darnell Garcia and Howard Jackson 6–5
U.S. Open Professional, Ocean City	Champion; defeated Howard Jackson 7–6 in the final
Allen Steen’s U.S. Championships, Dallas	Fought for the Washington team coached by Jhoon Rhee; defeated Demetrius Havanas 3–0 as Washington beat Texas 6–4 (Backkicks)
Top 10 Nationals, St. Louis	Second straight national light-heavyweight title, defeating John Natividad and Jim Butin (Backkicks)
Battle of Atlanta	Defeated Frank Hargrove, John Natividad and Everett Eddy

Smith was the first recipient of the Bruce Lee Award, the Professional Karate magazine trophy honoring Bruce Lee, selected by Linda Lee and the magazine. Professional Karate put him on its Summer 1974 cover under the headline “Jeff Smith Wins Bruce Lee Trophy.”

1974: Number one in America

In 1974 Smith won the Karate Olympics in Houston, Ed Parker’s Internationals in Long Beach and the Mid-Canadian Professionals, and Professional Karate magazine named him the number-one point fighter in the United States. That spring he toured Europe with a U.S. team of Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Howard Jackson and Jim Butin. At the first European All-Style Karate Championships in West Berlin, presented by Linda Lee, the Americans faced the newly crowned European champions and went undefeated in six contests against Germany and the Netherlands (Backkicks; Jim Butin).

First PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion (1974)

On September 14, 1974, Mike Anderson’s World Professional Karate Championships at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, broadcast on ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment, launched full-contact karate and the Professional Karate Association (Wikipedia: PKA; PKA history). Fourteen fighters from eight countries competed. The Americans other than Joe Lewis were chosen from Professional Karate magazine’s rankings: Jeff Smith, Bill Wallace and Howard Jackson.

The contemporaneous fight report describes Smith’s night (Backkicks: World Professional Karate Championships 1974):

• Semifinal vs. Budimir Vejnovic (Yugoslavia), the All-European light-heavyweight champion: with 12 seconds left in the first round, Smith dropped him with a left ridge hand followed by a kick.
• Final vs. Wally Slocki (Canada): Smith took round one on all seven votes and, after a point deduction against Slocki, won round three and the decision.

Smith became the first PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion. Joe Lewis (heavyweight), Bill Wallace (middleweight) and Isaias Duenas (lightweight) won the other titles. Wikipedia’s Joe Lewis article notes that the original champions gained the status of “legends of the kickboxing.” The STAR System world ratings list “1974 | JEFF SMITH (USA)” as the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion (Backkicks: STAR System), and Mike Miles’s History of Kickboxing gives the same account of the night.

Title Defenses and the Karriem Allah Fight

Smith defended his world title seven times and finished his professional career with a record of 32–1 with 16 knockouts (Wikipedia; Black Belt). His only professional loss came in 1979, when Dan Macaruso won a 12-round split decision and the world title. Smith came back in 1980 to win the U.S. light-heavyweight title (fight chronology). Selected bouts:

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result
Sept 14, 1974	Wally Slocki (Canada)	Los Angeles Sports Arena; ABC	Won decision; first PKA World Light Heavyweight title
July 1975	Jim Butin	Washington, D.C.	TKO, round 5
July 27, 1975	Ben Wilbor; Augie Evans	Tommy Lee’s World Series of Martial Arts, Hawaii	Two knockouts, round 2
Oct 1, 1975	Karriem Allah	Capital Centre (Washington area), Ali–Frazier III closed-circuit card	Won 11-round decision; heavyweight title sanctioned by Don King’s organization
May 25, 1976	Arno Koschnik (Germany)	Palais des Sports, Paris	Won decision; six knockdowns
1976	Wally Slocki (rematch)	Atlanta; promoter Joe Corley; “The Champions” TV	Won decision; title retained
May 21, 1977	Jim Horsley	Charlotte, N.C.	Won
May 22, 1978	Dominique Valera (France)	Paris	Won 9-round decision
1979	Dan Macaruso	—	Lost 12-round split decision; world title lost (only professional loss)
1980	Mark Bunell	Orlando	KO, round 3
1980	Carl Beamon	—	TKO, round 3; U.S. light-heavyweight title
1980	Steve Krowell	Star Challenge	KO, round 3

Sources: USAdojo title tables; Karate in English fight chronology; Wally Slocki chronology; Dominique Valera chronology; Los Tres Dragones de Occidente; Black Belt, “The Golden Era of Kickboxing”, which records that Smith, “the reigning PKA light heavyweight world champion, successfully defended his title” against Slocki in 1976.

The Thrilla in Manila card

Smith’s most famous fight came on October 1, 1975. Don King placed a full-contact bout between Smith and Karriem Allah (also spelled Kareem Allah or Karriem Abdallah) on the U.S. closed-circuit broadcast of Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier III, the “Thrilla in Manila,” an event seen by an estimated one billion viewers worldwide. Fought live at the Capital Centre, the arena serving the Washington, D.C., market, the bout went 11 rounds: Allah took the early rounds, Smith took the later ones, and Smith won the decision and the heavyweight title sanctioned by Don King’s organization (Martial Arts Professional interview; Mike Miles). Official Karate’s Special Fighting Champions ran the headline “Jeff Smith Stops Karriem Allah.”

Black Belt includes Smith in The Greatest Kickboxers of All Time, describing no light heavyweight in kickboxing as more dominant, and PKA Worldwide lists him among its greatest fighters.

The Jhoon Rhee Institute, 1970–1985

In 1970 Smith accepted Jhoon Rhee’s invitation to teach in Washington, D.C., while finishing his business degree. He rose from instructor to program director, office manager, head instructor (teaching the other instructors), general manager (teaching the other school managers) and vice president, and is listed as Senior Vice President of the Jhoon Rhee Institute from 1970 to 1985 (MAIA Hub; Who’s Who). The Washington Post identified him as “vice president of the Jhoon Rhee Institute” in May 1982 (“Fleet Feet Fantasies”), reported him training congressmen alongside Rhee on Capitol Hill in 1986 (“Kapower Politics!”), and profiled the Institutes’ academic emphasis in 1987 (“Karate’s Accent Is on Brains”).

Smith trained the organization’s managers and instructors and, in his own account, helped expand it to about twelve schools in the Washington area, with more than 3,000 active students and thousands more in affiliated programs (Go2Karate; Arlington Kicks). The Jhoon Rhee television campaign (“Nobody bothers me”) made the brand a household name in the capital.

Building the business systems

The Jhoon Rhee schools were the proving ground for the enrollment, financing and management systems that Nick Cokinos later spread nationally through the Educational Funding Company (EFC). In Smith’s words, Cokinos “helped Grandmaster Rhee initiate the [business] systems.” As the senior instructor-executive, Smith carried those systems into daily operations and trained the staff who ran them (Martial Arts Professional: Nick Cokinos; Nick Cokinos Turned Martial Arts into a Profession). Practices credited to Smith at the Institute include (MAIA Hub):

• Continued testing after first-degree black belt: a structured path to second degree that produced “30 upgrades in the first month” at Smith’s school before being rolled out across the organization.
• A Masters Club as a premium tier above the Black Belt Club.
• Retention tracking: attendance cards, call lists and callbacks, with any student absent for a week treated as a potential dropout. The Institute reported a 90 percent retention ratio.
• Weekly statistics and manager competition, with motivational training for staff.
• An academic requirement for junior black belts: “Ninety-five percent of our students earned a patch for the Academic Team.”
• An instructor pipeline: Smith hired more than 25 instructors from Rhee clubs across the country, many of whom went on to open successful schools of their own.
• The worst-location turnaround: develop a manager by sending him to the weakest school, make it the best, use it as a training site, and rotate him to the next (Martial Arts Wealth Mastery).

Rhee rewarded Smith with company stock, which in about 1982 Smith exchanged for ownership of two Jhoon Rhee schools, an early example of a founder turning a key executive into an owner-operator.

World Champion Jeff Smith Karate (1981)

Smith founded World Champion Jeff Smith Karate in Northern Virginia in 1981 (Jeff Smith Karate), with schools over the years in Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria and Sterling. He built the chain on partnerships in which on-site managers held an ownership stake and carried responsibility for instruction, retention and sales, the same equity logic Rhee had used with him (Nick Braaksma). In 1986, according to former student Philip Baroody, Smith conducted early “Lil’ Dragons” classes for four- and five-year-olds, years before preschool programs became standard in the industry (Philip Baroody).

By 2013 USAdojo reported that Smith operated three Virginia schools with more than 1,500 students, including children, adults, professionals, sports celebrities and seniors (USAdojo: Jeff Smith). The Washington Post covered students earning black belts “at the World Champion Jeff Smith Karate school” in Sterling in 2003 (Washington Post). The school continues today under the World Champion Jeff Smith name.

Coach of the U.S. Team

Smith coached the U.S. team at the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) World Championships for a decade, 1981 to 1991, and also coached the Junior National Team. A contemporaneous report on the 1987 WAKO World Championships at Munich’s Olympic Hall, with 290 competitors from 28 countries, records (Backkicks: WAKO 1987):

“Hardworking Jeff Smith of Alexandria, Virginia, the original world light heavyweight kickboxing champ, was visible morning to night at every ring for every American’s fight … Having these two great champions as coaches gave the Americans the direction and inspiration needed to sweep all three World Team Cups. The Semi-Contact World Team Cup was given to coach Jeff Smith.”

The 16-member U.S. team won 10 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals in Munich. At the January 1990 WAKO World Championships in Venice, the United States again finished as the top nation (Wikipedia: WAKO 1990).

Television, Public Service and Ceremonies

• Television and film: ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment (1974), the syndicated series The Champions, Showtime, ESPN and pay-per-view broadcasts, including as a color commentator; co-starred in a martial arts film made in Korea. Washingtonian magazine named him one of Washington’s top athletes.
• White House appearances: performed for the “Kick Drugs Out of Your Life” campaign, and with his students performed for Arnold Schwarzenegger on the White House lawn for the Great American Workout and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. He also ran school seminars for “Just Say No.”
• Charity: chaired Karate Helps Kick Diabetes, including its televised events in the mid-1990s (Sport Martial Arts).
• Ceremonies: first recipient (2013) and, with Joe Corley and Bill Wallace, presenter of the Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award at the Battle of Atlanta (MAIA Hub; Salisbury Post); a featured voice in Black Belt’s “Before Hollywood: The Untold Legacy of Chuck Norris”; inducted into the Karate Masters Hall of Fame at “The Gathering,” the 50-year celebration of sport karate (USAdojo).
• Tributes: in 2026 Smith paid tribute to Mike Anderson, promoter of the 1974 championships: “One of the True Pioneers in the Martial Arts. We all owe him a debt of gratitude” (Martial Arts Professional).

Mile High Karate and Stephen Oliver

Smith and Grand Master Stephen Oliver share the same Texas Jhoon Rhee roots: Oliver’s first instructors in Tulsa came from the network that produced Smith. In 1976 and 1978 Oliver trained at the Jhoon Rhee Institute headquarters in Washington alongside Smith, then the reigning PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion, and later worked as a Jhoon Rhee Institute head instructor and branch manager under Jhoon Rhee, Nick Cokinos, Ned Muffley and Jeff Smith (Stephen Oliver biography).

Oliver’s original business plan for Mile High Karate, launched in Denver in 1983, was developed with the help of Jhoon Rhee, Nick Cokinos, Jeff Smith and Ned Muffley. From 2005 Smith served Mile High Karate as National Director and, from 2006, as Director of Instruction for the Mile High Karate franchise system, where he and Oliver built the nine qualities of a Black Belt into the curriculum (Mile High Karate background). He is now Chief of Instruction for Mile High Karate, responsible for instructor training, Black Belt testing and development, and curriculum oversight.

Smith recognized Oliver as 7th degree in 2001, promoted him to 8th degree with Joe Corley in 2006, sat on his 9th-degree board with Bill Wallace, Pat Burleson and Corley, and in April 2026 promoted him to 10th Degree Black Belt.

Martial Arts Wealth Mastery and Books

Smith is Chief of Instruction for Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, the coaching program for martial arts school owners, BJJ academies and MMA gyms founded by Stephen Oliver, where he leads coaching on teaching, student retention, renewals, staffing and instructor development. A frequent contributor to NAPMA and Martial Arts Professional, he received the Martial Arts Professional Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, an honor Jhoon Rhee received in 1999 (Lifetime Achievement Awards).

With Oliver he co-authored Extraordinary Teaching, Volume 1: Transform Your Martial Arts School Into a Leadership Academy and the Extraordinary Teaching Workbook, both published in 2026. The book sets down the retention and instructor-development practices Smith refined at the Jhoon Rhee Institute: attendance-card retention, the first four months of a student’s development, weekly instructor training with observed teaching and specific feedback, promotion of instructors on demonstrated teaching ability, and student development after black belt. He is also a co-author of Six Simple Steps to Add 100 New Students to Your School. His books are listed on his Amazon author page, and his life is the subject of Ted Gambordella’s biography Jeff Smith… Martial Arts and Business Champion (2018).

PKA Worldwide, 2022–Present

In November 2022 PKA Worldwide, the revived Professional Karate (now Kickboxing) Association led by CEO Joe Corley, named Smith President of Sports Operations (MixedMartialArts.com). Taekwondo Life interviewed Corley, Smith and Rick Roufus about the relaunch, and Combat Press identified him as “PKA’s President of Sport Operations and original PKA light heavyweight champion.” He led the 2022 “Hunt for the Greatest Strikers” fighter trials (POWCAST Sports). The organization’s first light-heavyweight champion is now one of the executives leading it (PKA Worldwide team).

Influence on the Martial Arts Business

Smith’s place in the history of the martial arts school business rests on four contributions, set in context in Martial Arts Professional’s History of the Martial Arts School Business in America:

1. Running the Rhee–Cokinos system at chain scale. He showed that a multi-location karate chain could run on weekly statistics, programmed enrollment and trained managers, systems EFC later carried nationwide.
2. Black-belt continuation. Testing beyond first degree and a Masters Club turned first-degree black belt from an exit point into a continuing membership tier, now standard practice.
3. Retention as a managed process. Attendance cards, the one-week absence rule and systematic callbacks made retention something measured rather than left to instinct.
4. Instructor and manager development. The worst-location rotation, partnership ownership and a pipeline of more than 25 instructors created a generation of school owners.

Smith was also one of the first American fighters to turn a world title into a lasting school brand. Few champions of his generation ran a multi-school business under their own name for as long. His methods have reached schools through the Jhoon Rhee staff he trained, EFC seminars, the Mile High Karate franchise system, and today Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, NAPMA and Extraordinary Teaching. For the wider story, see Martial Arts Professional’s profiles of Jhoon Rhee and Nick Cokinos.

Honors and Recognition

Year	Honor
1974	First recipient, Bruce Lee Award, Fighter of the Year (selected by Linda Lee and Professional Karate magazine)
1974	Number-one point fighter in the United States, Professional Karate magazine
1974	First PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion
—	Black Belt Hall of Fame
—	Washingtonian, one of Washington’s top athletes
2007	Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame, April 6, 2007 (Taekwondo Hall of Fame)
2008	Martial Arts Professional Lifetime Achievement Award (NAPMA)
2013	First recipient, Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award, Battle of Atlanta
2016	10th Degree Black Belt and Grand Master, Professional Karate Commission
2017	Cover and Lifetime Achievement section, Who’s Who in the Martial Arts, Legends Edition
—	Karate Masters Hall of Fame (“The Gathering”); Go2Karate Lifetime Achievement Award

Magazine Covers, 1972–2013

The MA-Mags martial arts magazine index lists sixteen covers featuring Jeff Smith across four decades:

Date	Magazine	With
December 1972	Black Belt, vol. 10, no. 12	John Worley
1973	Tae Kwon Do Digest, vol. 1, no. 3	Pat Worley
Summer 1974	Professional Karate, vol. 1, no. 4	—
December 1974	The Fighters, vol. 1, no. 2	Darnell Garcia
Summer 1975	Traditional Tae Kwon Do, vol. 1, no. 1	—
December 1975	Karate Illustrated, vol. 6, no. 12	—
April 1976	Official Karate Special Fighting Champions, vol. 3, no. 8	—
June 1976	Canadian Karate Today, vol. 2, no. 3	Wally Slocki
August 1976	Official Karate Special Fighting Champions, vol. 3, no. 10	Wally Slocki
April 1979	Karate Illustrated, vol. 10, no. 4	John Keating
August 1980	Sport Karate, vol. 3, no. 5	Dennis Brown
Fall 1980	Official Karate Yearbook	Billy Harp, Linda Denley, Becky Chapman
November 1987	Inside Karate, vol. 8, no. 11	Shigeru Oyama
February 1988	Martial Art, vol. 3, no. 4	—
November 2005	Martial Arts Professional, vol. 10, no. 11	—
2013	Official Karate Annual	Keith Yates, Bill Wallace, Linda Denley

Many of these covers appear in the photo and cover gallery on the home page and on Martial Arts Wealth Mastery’s Jeff Smith in the Media page.

Chronology

Year	Event
1965	Begins Tae Kwon Do at the Texas A&I club, Kingsville, in the Jhoon Rhee system
1966	First tournament, Houston
1969	First-degree black belt (September)
1970	Graduates from Texas A&I; moves to Washington, D.C., to teach for Jhoon Rhee
1972	Top 10 Nationals light-heavyweight champion; Pan Am grand champion; Black Belt cover
1973	Second straight Top 10 Nationals title; defeats Bill Wallace and Howard Jackson at Ocean City
1974	Bruce Lee Award; U.S. team tour of Europe; America’s number-one point fighter; September 14, first PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion
1975	Stops Jim Butin; October 1, defeats Karriem Allah at the Capital Centre on the Thrilla in Manila closed-circuit card
1976	Defeats Arno Koschnik in Paris and Wally Slocki in their Atlanta rematch
1977–1978	Defeats Jim Horsley in Charlotte and Dominique Valera in Paris
1979	Loses the world title to Dan Macaruso by 12-round split decision, the only loss of his professional career
1980	Wins the U.S. light-heavyweight title against Carl Beamon
1981	Founds World Champion Jeff Smith Karate; begins a decade as U.S. WAKO team coach
1982	Vice President, Jhoon Rhee Institute (Washington Post); takes ownership of two Rhee schools in exchange for stock
1983	Helps plan Stephen Oliver’s Mile High Karate, launched in Denver
1986	Early “Lil’ Dragons” classes for four- and five-year-olds
1987	Coaches the U.S. team at the WAKO World Championships in Munich; U.S. sweeps all three World Team Cups
1990	U.S. finishes top nation at the WAKO World Championships, Venice
2001–2006	Recognizes Stephen Oliver as 7th degree (2001); National Director (2005) and Director of Instruction (2006), Mile High Karate franchise
2007	Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame
2008	Martial Arts Professional Lifetime Achievement Award
2013	Three Virginia schools with 1,500+ students; first Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award
2016	10th Degree Black Belt and Grand Master, Professional Karate Commission
2017	Who’s Who in the Martial Arts Legends Edition cover
2018	Biography Jeff Smith… Martial Arts and Business Champion by Ted Gambordella
2022	President of Sports Operations, PKA Worldwide
2026	Promotes Stephen Oliver to 10th Degree (April); Extraordinary Teaching, Volume 1 and Workbook published; Chief of Instruction, Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jeff Smith in martial arts?

Grand Master Jeff Smith is a 10th Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do from the Jhoon Rhee lineage, the first PKA World Light Heavyweight Champion (1974), a former Senior Vice President of the Jhoon Rhee Institute and founder of World Champion Jeff Smith Karate. He is Chief of Instruction for Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery and President of Sports Operations for PKA Worldwide.

What world title did Jeff Smith win?

On September 14, 1974, at the World Professional Karate Championships in Los Angeles, Jeff Smith knocked out Budimir Vejnovic and outpointed Wally Slocki to become the first Professional Karate Association (PKA) World Light Heavyweight Champion. He defended the title seven times.

What is Jeff Smith’s kickboxing record?

Jeff Smith retired with a professional full-contact record of 32 wins and 1 loss, with 16 wins by knockout, and seven successful world title defenses. His only loss was a 12-round split decision to Dan Macaruso in 1979.

Did Jeff Smith fight on the Thrilla in Manila card?

Yes. On October 1, 1975, Jeff Smith defeated Karriem Allah at the Capital Centre near Washington, D.C., to win a heavyweight title sanctioned by Don King’s organization. The bout was part of the closed-circuit broadcast of Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier III, the “Thrilla in Manila,” an event seen by an estimated one billion viewers worldwide.

Who was Jeff Smith’s instructor?

Jeff Smith trained in the Jhoon Rhee system from 1965, beginning at the Texas A&I University club in Kingsville, part of the Texas network of Jhoon Rhee, Allen Steen and Pat Burleson. Jhoon Rhee awarded all of his ranks through 9th degree.

What rank is Jeff Smith?

Jeff Smith is a 10th Degree Black Belt and Grand Master, promoted by the Professional Karate Commission at the Battle of Atlanta World Karate Championships in June 2016.

What does Jeff Smith do today?

Jeff Smith is Chief of Instruction for Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, where he coaches martial arts school owners on teaching, retention, renewals and instructor development, and President of Sports Operations for PKA Worldwide.

What books has Jeff Smith written?

Jeff Smith co-authored Extraordinary Teaching, Volume 1: Transform Your Martial Arts School Into a Leadership Academy and the Extraordinary Teaching Workbook with Stephen Oliver, and is a co-author of Six Simple Steps to Add 100 New Students to Your School.

How are Jeff Smith and Stephen Oliver connected?

Both come from the Texas Jhoon Rhee lineage. Stephen Oliver trained alongside Smith at the Jhoon Rhee Institute in 1976 and 1978, worked under him there, and planned Mile High Karate in 1983 with his help. Smith promoted Oliver to 8th degree in 2006 and to 10th Degree Black Belt in April 2026, and the two co-authored Extraordinary Teaching and coach together at Martial Arts Wealth Mastery.

References

Contemporaneous fight and tournament records

• World Professional Karate Championships 1974 (Backkicks)
• Top 10 Nationals 1972 and Top 10 Nationals 1973 (Backkicks)
• U.S. Championships 1973 (Backkicks)
• All-Style Karate 1974: the U.S. team in Europe (Backkicks)
• Kickboxing World Championships, WAKO 1987 (Backkicks)
• STAR System World Kickboxing Ratings (Backkicks)
• Jeff Smith interview, Professional Karate (Backkicks)
• Mardi Gras Nationals 1974 (Backkicks)

Newspapers

• “Fleet Feet Fantasies,” The Washington Post, May 13, 1982
• “Kapower Politics!,” The Washington Post, June 25, 1986
• “Karate’s Accent Is on Brains,” The Washington Post, August 26, 1987
• “Young Black Belts,” The Washington Post, June 15, 2003
• Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award, Salisbury Post, 2018

Magazines and encyclopedias

• Jeff Smith (martial arts), Professional Karate Association, Joe Lewis, Dominique Valera, WAKO World Championships 1990 and Jhoon Rhee (Wikipedia)
• The Greatest Kickboxers of All Time (Black Belt)
• Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and the Golden Era of Kickboxing (Black Belt, 2025)
• Allen Steen: A Giant Among Warriors (Black Belt)
• Before Hollywood: The Untold Legacy of Chuck Norris (Black Belt)
• The Flying Side Kick (Black Belt)
• Black Belt, December 1972 and Black Belt, October 1975 (Internet Archive)
• MA-Mags magazine cover index: Jeff Smith
• BLEAV in PKA Worldwide (Taekwondo Life, 2022)
• PKA Worldwide Set to Launch Rebranded Kickboxing Events in 2023 (Combat Press)
• Jeff Smith Named President of Sports Operations for PKA Worldwide (MixedMartialArts.com, 2022)
• What Is the Professional Kickboxing Association? (Sporting News, 2022)
• New Life for PKA Worldwide (Martial Arts World News)
• PKA Worldwide Continues Its Hunt for the Sport’s Greatest Strikers (POWCAST Sports)

Histories, profiles and interviews

• The Champion Who Conquered the Ring and the School Business (Herb Borkland, MAIA Hub)
• The History of Karate in America, Jeff Smith and The Gathering: 50 Years of Sport Karate (USAdojo)
• A History of Kickboxing, 1950s–1970s (Mike Miles)
• Jeff “DC Bomber” Smith, Introduction to the History of Full Contact, Wally Slocki and Dominique Valera (Karate in English)
• Biografía de Dominique Valera (Los Tres Dragones de Occidente)
• How Tae Kwon Do Won the West (Kido Kwan)
• The Jhoon Rhee Story, Part Six (Arlington Kicks)
• Fifty Years of Martial Arts: What I’ve Seen, Chapter Two (John Worley, National Karate)
• An Interview With Grand Master Jeff Smith and Congratulations Grand Master Jeff Smith (Go2Karate)
• Grandmasters Jeff Smith and Mark Glazier (Ripple Effect Martial Arts)
• Jeff Smith (International Kickboxing Federation)
• Jeff Smith (Official Who’s Who Directory) and the AMAA Who’s Who history
• World PKA Champion Jeff Smith (Bando Legends)
• The Road Traveled: Competitor Jeff Doss (Sport Martial Arts)
• John Corcoran: The Pen Is Still Mightier Than the Sword (MAIA Hub)
• Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame
• Beyond the Fighting (Jim Butin)
• Jeff “The DC Bomber” Smith on the AMA Power Hour (2021)
• Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio #368: Joe Corley
• Jeff Smith… Martial Arts and Business Champion (Ted Gambordella, 2018)

Video

• Jeff Smith: The DC Bomber, Kickboxing Pioneer
• Wally Slocki vs. Jeff Smith
• Jeff Smith, 1980 Orlando knockout
• Meditations on Mastery, Episode 19

Organizations Jeff Smith serves

• PKA Worldwide: About, Team and History
• Grand Master Jeff Smith in the Media, Our Lineage: Jhoon Rhee, Leadership Lessons from Grand Master Jeff Smith and Extraordinary Teaching (Martial Arts Wealth Mastery)
• History of the Martial Arts School Business in America, Jeff Smith Interview, Jhoon Rhee, Nick Cokinos, Mike Anderson and Lifetime Achievement Awards (Martial Arts Professional)
• Mile High Karate and Jeff Smith Karate
• Grand Master Stephen Oliver
• Jeff Smith on LinkedIn, Facebook and Amazon

Compiled from Jeff Smith: A Documented History (Research Edition 2.0, October 2026), prepared for Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, and the sources above.