Johnny Morris Davis (born July 15, 1962) is an American former

kickboxer Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid martial art and boxing type based on punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouth guards, shorts, and ...

who competed in the

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

and

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

divisions. Nicknamed "Superfoot", Davis held numerous titles including two world championships.

Career

Johnny Davis was born in

Dillon, South Carolina Dillon is a city in Dillon County in eastern South Carolina, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Dillon County. It was established on December 22, 1888. Both the name of the city and county comes from James W. Dillon, an ear ...

, and currently resides in the Carolinas. He began martial arts training in

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

and eventually reached the rank of second degree black belt. After a successful run competing in point fighting tournaments, he made the jump to full contact

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

. From 1980 to 1984, he won numerous regional kickboxing titles before beating Alvin Prouder for the

PKA In chemistry, an acid dissociation constant (also known as acidity constant, or acid-ionization constant; denoted ) is a quantitative measure of the strength of an acid in solution. It is the equilibrium constant for a chemical reaction :H ...

World Welterweight Championship in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

on February 2, 1985.Superfoot Davis Back In Dillon
/ref> In 1987, he won the FFKA Championship and also won the

ISKA The ISKA (originally International Sport Karate Association, later also called the International Sport Kickboxing Association) is international bodies regulating sport karate and kickboxing matches. It is based in the United States. It was est ...

U.S. Middleweight Championship that year in a bout featured on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. Davis' final record was 25 wins and 6 losses, with 13 wins by

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

. Davis retired in 1988 but continued to stay involved in martial arts. In 1996, he promoted several kickboxing matches in California and became involved with the IKF. In 2002, he released an autobiographical training manual entitled ''The Art of Kickboxing'', and started his own promotional company, AK Promotions.

Championships and awards

Kickboxing

*Fight Factory Karate Association **FFKA World Championship *

International Sport Karate Association The ISKA (originally International Sport Karate Association, later also called the International Sport Kickboxing Association) is international bodies regulating sport karate and kickboxing matches. It is based in the United States. It was es ...

**ISKA United States Middleweight (-75 kg/165.3 lb) Full Contact Championship *

Professional Karate Association The Professional Karate Association (PKA), later Professional Karate & Kickboxing Association, and now effective from March 1, 2022 PKA Worldwide was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotio ...

**PKA North Carolina Light Middleweight Championship **PKA South Eastern Welterweight Championship **PKA East Coast Welterweight Championship **PKA World Welterweight Championship

Kickboxing record

, - , - bgcolor="#CCFFCC" , 1985-02-02 , , Win , , align=left, Alvin Prouder , , , , Denver, Colorado, USA , , , , , , , - ! style=background:white colspan=9 , , - , - , colspan=9 , ''Legend'':

References

External links

IKF profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Johnny Living people 1962 births American male kickboxers Kickboxers from South Carolina Kickboxers from California Welterweight kickboxers Middleweight kickboxers American male karateka People from Dillon, South Carolina Sportspeople from Rocklin, California African-American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen