Several years after Dante's death, a one-time friend, William V. Aguiar Jr. of Fall River Massachucetts, who raided Dante's dojo and absconded with a large collection of memorabilia which he planned to later sell for profit, claimed to be the new Supreme Ultimate Grandmaster of the BDFS. This claim was later disproven in Federal Court, an excerpt of the official transcript in shown here, in which Judge Wolfe ruled that the claim of ownership based on a single magazine article was not valid. And, denied any further argument on the point!

William V. Aguiar III’s claim to the Black Dragon Fighting Society name and logo is based on several fraudulent misrepresentations and has never been effectively used in commerce by him except to harass and extort the true members of our most ancient and honorable martial arts fraternity.

1) First, he claims that Count Dante “appointed his father chairman of the BDFS in a Black Belt magazine interview in 1975." As far as we can determine, there was no “board” to be chairman of at that time. At that time the original membership had disbanded and scattered as a result of the “dojo war” that had left Jim Concevic dead and discredited Count Dante to the point where he was reduced to selling peanuts at Wrigley Field to put food on the table. He was just starting to crawl his way back into the martial arts world with a few seminars and schools. William V. Aguiar Jr. had secured an interview for him with Black Belt magazine, who had previously shunned him, and had him as a guest at his Taunton Death Matches. He was either trying to help him make a comeback or capitalize on the previous fortune Dante had amassed with the American BDFS and World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets training manual. So this was an honorarium at best.

2) This pretense is negated some years later in a magazine interview with Aguiar Jr. in which he states that he, “is pushing the Count Dante stuff to the back burner" and only teaching conventional martial arts as of that time. Thereby effectively resigning as chairman of the non-existent board and relinquishing any claim to it leadership.

From the Notarized Statement of Dr. Lawrence Day 2010

"I am one of the original founding members of the Black Dragon Fighting Society as constituted by John Keehan in 1966 Chicago IL. I have always been proud to be a member of this martial arts fraternity and have always done my best to uphold the highest standards and traditions of the teachers and masters who have gone before me."

"William V. Aguiar III is the son of a guy who said he was a friend of Count Dante. He was not even born when Count Dante died. His father claimed to be the “chosen heir” to Count Dante. Both he and his son have proclaimed themselves to be the “Supreme Ultimate Grandmasters of the BDFS.” But, neither one ever trained with us, nor has either one ever produced a single document or certification from Count Dante to even indicate they were members of the club. In fact, he couldn’t produce such a certificate because Count Dante was dead before he was even born."

"I want it made perfectly clear that he is NOT a member of the Black Dragon Fighting Society as constituted by John Keehan in 1966. That he has no claim to title, rank, membership or authority to speak for anyone except himself. We would not have him in our most ancient and honorable fraternal order because he is a disgrace to the memory of our teacher and has yet to demonstrate any martial arts skill or credentials whatsoever."

The Black Dragon Fighting Society has always been the subject of controversy. For example, in the segregated sixties, Grandmaster Lawrence Day was instrumental in gaining admission for Vic Moore to a “whites-only” closed Karate tournament in Chicago. An act that enabled him to become the first black Heavyweight Karate Champion in America.

Following Count Dante’s death in 1975, several people claimed to be the new “deadliest man alive.” Most martial artists did not want anything to do with Count Dante after the Dojo War a few years earlier had that resulted in the death of his friend Jim Concevic. Shortly before his passing, Dante was invited to and attended the Taunton Death Matches in Massachusetts. According to some reports, he was so ill that he refused challenges from more than one participant. An act totally uncharacteristic of him, since he was well known for taking on and brutally defeating all comers. The host of this tournament was one of those who later said that Count Dante had named him as his successor, William V. Aguiar Jr.

But, no one was interested. The established “martial arts community” preferred that Count Dante be forgotten as they considered him a blemish on the history of Karate in the United States. The remaining members of his Dojo left Chicago and formed their own chapters around the country to carry on the traditions and teachings. In an magazine interview three years after Dante died, Aguiar Jr. said that he was no longer teaching the Dante system because it was too brutal and had returned to a commercial martial arts curriculum. He made no mention of being the heir to Dante’s throne or leadership of the BDFS.

In the eighties, when Ashida Kim began to teach what he had been taught by Count Dante and resurrected interest in the American chapter of the secret society Count Dante had founded, he was contacted by the Massachusetts crew, who demanded that he appear before them and commit seppuku, ritual suicide, for daring to imply that he was a member of the club. Even after Kim presented documentation and the testimony of Grandmaster Lawrence Day and Count Dante’s best friend that he had been in Chicago in 1968 and had trained with Count Dante, even after a personal phone call in which Kim offered to help set up a webpage and install him as the reigning Grandmaster, Aguiar Jr. refused. Two years later he put up his own webpage and proclaimed himself the Supreme Ultimate Grandmaster and that all should bow down and pay dues to him. No one did.

Some years later, the Supreme Ultimate Grandmaster passed away. His son has since tried to promote himself as the only living heir to the leadership of our martial arts society. Although he has no club, no membership and no support. He has produced no menkyo, the traditional transfer of sokeship in a martial arts system. In fact, all the certificates he has presented have found to be forged, since he was too young to have known Count Dante or be certified by him. We have invited him to our Gatherings which are held annually in October since 2012. He has refused to attend. Although he did threaten to come to our 50th Anniversary Reunion in Chicago in 2016 with “300 guys” to bust up our party. Never showed.

The Head of Family in our group, Grandmaster Dr. Miskel, has approached him several times in an effort to accommodate his outrageous claims and invite him to be part of our true heritage, he was not interested. Instead, he clings to some imaginary past glory and tries to diminish the good works we are doing in the modern world.

So, be not afraid. We are the true heirs and owners of our fellowship. Not this bully who is merely the son of a friend of a real martial artist.

Here's a picture of Aguiar III, his daughter and a buddy. Does this really live up to the standard of martial arts excellence we aspire to? I think not!

Does anyone actually think that this fat pig is capable or worthy of leading a martial arts fellowship? To show how stupid they are, a few years ago Aguiar and his pals thought they could "buy a BDFS franchise" from us. So, we sold them one. They rushed to post it online as "proof" that we were just a "diploma mill" and fakes and frauds and cowards.

BUT, if you look closely at the calligraphy on the upper right side of the BDFS and IFAA logo, you will see that it is not Chinese at all. But simply Wonton Font turned sideways. It spells out a message: "Go Fuck Your Self!"

Even after we told them we had tricked them and laughed at how silly they were, they continued to try and claim this certificate was real for two years.

About this time, Aguiar III found a buyer for some of the Dante memorabilia that that been rusting in his garage for 35 years. Packs of Dante cigarettes, patches you could only earn if you actually poked someone in the eye, and a short black-and-white film clip of Dante fighting a wrestler and demonstrating his techniques.

This is the video referred to by Mr. Falzone in the transcript above.

The buyer posted the clip, on YouTube and Aguiar III immediately sued for copyright infringement, claiming that he had "sold the video, but not the right to display it." An absurd claim thrown out by the Court. Everything he claimed to hold title to was ruled to be in public domain by Judge Wolfe. Aguiar III was ordered to pay $3000 to one of the defendants for filing a frivolous lawsuit and wasting the Court's time, but pled poverty and has never made good on that debt.

In 2020, Aguiar III was invited to attend Alan Goldberg's Action Martial Arts Magazine Hall of Honors at the Tropicana Hotel in New Jersey. Where he was interviewed online and again voiced his claims to be the Supreme Ultimate Grandmaster of the BDFS because his father was a friend of Dante and in general denigrating our organization and members which was posted on YouTube. During that interview, he slandered Dr. Miskel. Story goes that one man attending the event, a veteran and amputee, objected to Aguiar's insults and asked him to stop. Aguiar asked what he would do about it if he didn't stop? The veteran replied he would punch Aguiar in the mouth. Aguiar said, "Well go ahead then..." Challenge accepted, Aguiar was knocked flat on his ass by one punch to the mouth. So much for his claim to be a martial arts master! And, how do we know this? Because our spies are everywhere.

This was the ONLY incident of its kind in the twenty year history of Goldberg's Expos. A complete failure of martial arts etiquette and simple respect. After the pandemic, there was no 2021 Martial Arts Expo. Nor will there ever be one like it again. Goldberg has disgraced himself by letting a fight break out at his event. The Tropicana will never host him again. So instead, he has hooked up with Bill Aguiar III to form the "Black Dragon Legion," thinking, incorrectly, that he can sell memberships and make a fortune. That's not what we do.

We join, in fellowship, to preserve, practice and promote the martial arts. We still offer the hand of friendship to those with integrity and skill to join us, so that all may benefit from these ancient teachings.

Dr. Don Miskel is the head of our family of patriarchs, he actually trained with Count Dante in Dante Goju-Ryu the sixties. He and Frank Dux of Bloodsport fame, which was sponsored by the real Black Dragon Fighting Society in the seventies (before Aguiar III was even born), and Ashida Kim and the membership of our martial arts fraternity have been the targets of harassment, insults, and injuries by the intimidation tactics of the Fall River crew for many years. We have ignored them.

Dr. Lawrence Day was the last of the crew that was present on the night of the "dojo war." He bequeathed the Black Dragon Fellowship to us, because he was the only member who continued to use the name and logo of the school in which he had trained and fought, even after it was abandoned and lost and forgotten by the "legitimate martial arts industry."

When Grandmaster Lawrence Day brought us all together again in the Year of the Black Dragon 2012, the year he passed away, each of us who were named to the Council of Patriarchs was given a chance to address the membership. When my turn came I said this, “Remember always that the name of our brotherhood is fighting. One of the reasons I learned Karate was so I didn't have to put up with bullies. Win, lose, makes no difference. If you stand up for yourself, you earn respect.”

"Aguiar, You've been trying to pick a fight with me for a long time. Thirty years ago, you had a whole website that was 'dedicated to my destruction!' Well, I'm still here..."

Posted here is my $10,000 Challenge. This page has been on my website since 1995. There have been no takers. Not many people have the resources to set up such a match but, it will not be held under any other conditions. I am a professional martial artist, I have been paid to fight in the ring, legally, my hands are considered lethal weapons. That is why the Challenger must sign a waiver; in olden China when two masters fought, they signed a contract saying that if either of them were killed or crippled the other could not be held responsible. It was called a "death warrant" and was displayed on the trophy wall of the victor.

You lot want to pretend you are "going old school" and "settle this on the mat" to see who is the real master and worthy to lead this club. Well, I'm old, and I've been to school and I'm fed up with your bullshit! Here are my terms to get in the ring and kick your candy-ass. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Put up or shut up!

Ashida Kim

So, who owns the Black Dragon Fighting Society?

The martial artists who have carried on the tradition of the thousand year old fellowship, and meet each year to honor the memory of Grandmaster Lawrence Day, one of the last original Black Dragons?

Or, the pimp son of a friend of a real martial artist, who doesn't even know the history of the club?