Early days Tony Sewell 3 times unbeaten World Champion, and numerous European and British titleholder is considered by many to have been the greatest tournament fighter the Martial Arts world has seen.
Tony Sewell first started training in Taekwondo aged 16 in 1976. He had previously trained in Karate for a few years under his uncle, but being about 9 at the time, travelling from Derby to Birmingham became a bit too much. He was introduced to Taekwondo through his older brothers Howard and Michael who had begun training in Derby.
Tony Sewell first instructor was Bob Harvey 3rd Dan. He took Tony through the basics of Taekwondo. From there Tony developed his sparring skills and his unique kicking style from his two brothers who were higher grades for the first few years of his training.
In 1977, Tony was encouraged to enter his first tournament as a green belt (the minimum entry status for competition at that time) by his friends at the club who thought he was their best fighter at that grade. Tony won.
Impressed with his achievements and kicking ability, he asked his brother, Michael, what he thought, “he just said my kicks were rubbish and h ehad a lot to learn”. The fact is that although my kicks were good for the grade he was at that particular time, they were technically imperfect. He was leaning back and he was off balance.
Thanks to Michael he radically changed my kicking style, developing my own by taking a bit of his technique and a bit of Howard’s. This helped me to develop speed, power, and much improved accuracy.” (Tony changed his kicking technique from the traditional leaning method and developed an upright kicking style for which he is so well known).
The year that Tony won his first ever title as a green belt, 1977, was also the year Howard, his brother, went to the World Championships in Oklahoma USA and came away with a silver medal (after being disqualified in the final). Tony, although only a 6th Kup, set his sights on the next world championships in Argentina in 1981.
Training with his brothers, he pushed himself to the limits, perfecting all of his techniques, constant competitions and brutal self-analysis followed. “Even when we won we weren’t happy because we felt there were flaws in our style and technique. We watched each other and criticised everything, but it was never about putting each other down. If I wanted to be world champion, if I wanted to be the best, I had to be honest with myself in order to be able to improve”.
Black Belt Coming up to Tony’s black belt grading there was doubts voiced over both his ability to pass the grading, and his capability to be a leading and accomplished fighter at black belt level. The established black belts and current national squad at time recognised Tony’s talent (and acknowledged that he was good), however they did not believe he was ready or good enough to be a serious competitor at black belt and international level.
Tony did pass in Black belt grading, and went on to fight in the 19__ British Championships and win aged 20.
However though Tony had sailed through and won the British Heavyweight Championships, many critics said it was a fluke and serious doubts made over his ability to compete on the international circuit with established fighters such the current heavyweight World ITF and WTF Champion Hank Meijer, who was already world champion when Tony had just started training as a white belt.
Being young at the time, Tony felt aggrieved at the lack of support he was getting from his own association and decided not to attend National Squad Training which was essential if you wanted to be picked for the National Team. As the European Championships were to be held in Crystal Palace London, Tony made a decision to pay his own way, enter himself as an outside competitor, and to represent himself. The European Championships was important as a means of entry onto world Martial Arts scene.
The European Championships Tony sailed through and made the semi-final easily. His 2 round semi-final opponent was with well known fighter Hank Meijer and considered to be the best heavyweight in the world.
In first round sparring, Hank Meijer came forward with an axe kick. Tony moved out of the way. Hank came in again and double punched, catching Tony in the face. Tony paused, picked himself up, and knew he had to move himself up a couple of gears. Tony’s explosive performance kicked in. He pinned Hank Meijer to the edge of the matt and overpowered him for the remainder of the first and the entire second round.
At the time, Tony, didn’t know who Hank Meijer was andno one had thought he would ever be beaten. However the 20 year old, Tony Sewell completely took and beat the current World Champion. Those who had doubted Tony were running up to congratulate as though he’d won the final. When the excitement finally calmed down Tony went on to fight and win the formality of the final.
Although happy, Tony goal was to win this upcoming World Championships in Argentina. Tony had patched up his differences with the National Squad and was he selected to go to Argentina in 1981.
World Championships - Argentina Everyone was overwhelmed by the size of the arena and 10,000 spectators. As with the Europeans Championships, each fight was decided over two rounds. Tony first round fight against an Argentinean opponent was his worst ever competition fight. Tony put it down to the pressure as this was the moment of truth, the pinnacle of his ambitions.
His opponent wasn’t very good but he found himself drawn down to his level. During the break between the rounds he thought to himself “what am I doing, I’m going to lose this”. He knew he knew he was good enough to win this fight, he wasn’t tired. Tony managed to re-focus himself mentally and when returned for the second round and won the bout easily.
After overcoming this stumbling block, the rest of the tournament was not a problem for Tony and he won his first title of World Heavyweight Champion.
As a result of Tony’s achievements and the interest surrounding his abilities, he received an invitation to the BBC sports personality of the year 1981, a remarkable achievement for a Martial Artist. Tony went along to the awards and was touched by the experience, he said it was “an experience (day) he would never forget”.
British Championships After winning the World Championships Tony was confident about his abilities to win the coming British Championships and decided to tone down his training and train just twice a week at the club. Tony Sewell won.
But he felt tired and made hard work of what should have been easy for him. He made a mental note to himself never to be so over confident again and resolved to always train hard and prepare for any tournament, whatever it was.
The next significant milestone in Tony’s career was when he beat 5 times USA and World grand champion Steve ‘Nasty’ Anderson, who was unbeaten by any European fighter, until Tony Sewell came along.
Clash of the Titans Tony then signed a contract to fight and headline another well known heavyweight fighter of the day Kevin Brewerton in a ‘Clash of the Titans’ event to be staged at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. Full contact World Champion, Brewerton’s favourite technique was a rush in back fist, reverse punch technique. Preparing for the fight Tony worked on steps to counter this and others of Brewerton’s techniques. He worked specifically on his sidekick, developing power and speed.
When the fight started, Brewerton rushed in immediately with a trademark back fist reverse punch. He got as far as the back fist and was hit by Tony’s sidekick, one of the hardest kicks in martial arts, with such force that he flew to the other side of the mat. Brewerton fell over, got up, and fell over again.
Tony comments: “For that fight I trained very hard specifically on my sidekick. I had watched videos of him using rushing in tactics. So I developed a strong sidekick to hit him down the middle when he rushed in with his back fist reverse punch". The sidekick would give the technique more momentum because he would be running on to it, and on the night that’s basically what he did.
Brewerton was injured, he couldn’t continue. There were doubts whether it was the damage to his ribs or his legs which suffered when he fell over. Either way the fight was over. Tony had won, although with the fight over literally in seconds, not the manner in which he expected.
Although happy to win, Tony he has wanted to give more of a show to the crowd. In addition Brewerton felt that he didn’t have a chance to fight properly with Tony. So all parties involved agreed to a rematch.
Clash of the Titans - The rematch Brewerton came to the rematch psyched up, ready to avenge his defeat, and ready for action. From the moment the contest began punches and kicks were flying in hard, fast, and furious from both sides. Tony hit Brewerton with a back fist so hard that his eye started to swell immediately. Tony expected Brewerton to stop and catch breath, but Brewerton barely flinched. Tony knew in his mind that this was going to be a hard fight.
At one point both fighters there were on the edge of the ring. Such was the intensity of the fight that they went over the line and into the crowd, taking the ref by surprise. Sewell and Brewerton carried on fighting and the supporters that they fell into decided to join in. Eventually the ref managed to prize them apart and pulled them back into the ring. Tony wasn’t fazed by the heavy contact and the ferociousness of the bout and went on to win the fight for the second time. Afterwards Tony commented that he quite enjoyed the rematch, saying it was really a fight to win.
World Championships - 1988 By the time Tony entered his second world championships in 1988 in Leicester, he was well known and at the peak of his career. A review of the 1988 World Championships by Combat Magazine concluded it’s review of the tournament with the following words:
“There were many displays of excellence at this event. There was Kim Stones, who suffered a nose injury but fought on regardless, protecting his face with a white ice-hockey mask. There was the calm response of John McDonald, another bright star to enter the TAGB constellation, to a decidedly dodgy victory by Dutchman Chris Hoeman.
Despite this, I suspect that ninety percent of the audience went away with the name ‘Tony Sewell’ on their lips. The man was awesome! I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so far ahead of all this competition, and in this I include the likes of Frank Brennan and Vic Charles”. “…….any doubts about the reality of his comeback were dispelled by the display he put on as he battled his way to the Men’s Heavyweight gold. Icy cool as ever, Sewell made each bout seem like a demonstration of his skills, with the opponent only a prop in the performance.
The crowds flocked, much to the annoyance of the seated spectators, to surround whichever area he was fighting on. What impressed me the most about him was his extraordinary sense of balance and timing. I never saw him unbalance once, no matter how high or difficult his kicks, or how clumsy his opponent. I was amazed at the speed and accuracy with which Sewell snapped out a jumping back kick to catch the pursuing opponent.
Like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson before him, Tony has realised that the opponent is usually least prepared for a strike when HE is moving forward and YOU are moving back, and he used this knowledge to good effect throughout the tournament. The guy’s a prodigy. See him next time he fights.”
Tony continued to enter many national, regional and open tournaments throughout his career to add many more titles to his name.
Olympics and Politics 1988 was the year that Taekwondo was first introduced to the Olympics. Tony entered the qualifying tournaments for Olympic selection and won. He found it one of the easiest tournaments he’d ever fought in. The nature of Olympic WTF style Taekwondo makes it difficult for fighters to block. The combination of this and Tony’s speed, power and kicking ability made it easy for him to hit his opponents, knocking out some fighters.
However despite having won, there was an opinion that Tony Sewell style wasn’t reflective of WTF style Taekwondo and denied him a place and a chance to win an Olympic medal.
This event in Tony’s life made him more aware of the politics within Taekwondo. Tony made a conscious decision that within his own world he would never let politics affect how he dealt with Martial Arts.
World Championship - 1991 Tony won his third World Championship title in 1991, despite having pulled a muscle early in the 1st round, and unable to kick properly. This is because he had trained his hands as much as his legs however not many people being able to get round Tony’s legs meant that not many had seen this side of him as a fighter.
Shortly after his 3rd World Championships, Tony decided to retire from competition to focus on building a future for himself and his family. When he retired Tony’s focus was his club and his students.
Today Tony still remains focused on teaching his students, and has trained and supported well over 50 black belts, most with national and some with international titles to their name.
He is also the GTI Vice Chairman and Regional Co-ordinator for the North Midlands. He was a founder member of the GTI and believes the GTI is truly a Taekwondo association run by instructors for instructors.
