They included Judo under Gene LeBell, Okinawan Shorin-Ryu under Joe Lewis, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the Machado Brothers.
It started when Seagal made disparaging comments about Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and other American martial artists in interviews, culminating in two articles in the Black Belt magazine where he claimed he would fight to the death anybody who believed they could defeat him.
[6] Indignant at Seagal's slights of Lee and American martial artists, as well as offended by his boasts, Wall gathered a group of martial artists willing to answer the challenge, who were nicknamed the "Dirty Dozen" in a reference to the 1967 war film The Dirty Dozen.
The group included Benny Urquidez, Bill Wallace, Howard Jackson, Roger Carpenter, Allen Steen, Jim Harrison, Dennis Alexio, Richard Norton, Billy Robertson, Pat Burleson, and William "Blinky" Rodriguez,[7] with Gene LeBell and Gerard Finot as potential members and Karyn Turner as a possible promoter for one or more matches.
[9] LeBell later revealed the affair was hurting him professionally and forced him to withdraw, while Urquidez and Burleson became reportedly unhappy with the group's concept.