Date of birth: June 5, 1982
Age: 24
Place of birth: Los Angeles, California, USA
Residence: Houston, Texas, USA
Marital status: Single
Ethnic origin: African-American
Style: Hawaiian Japanese Kenpo
School: Cecil Peoples’ Karate
Instructor: Cecil Peoples
Year started in martial arts: 1986
Year received black belt: 1993
Team: 2001-07 Team GOP
Sport karate coach: Regena Thompson
Favorite technique: Blitz
First national win: 1993 Long Beach Internationals
Toughest forms/weapons opponent: Jimmy Pham
Toughest fighting opponent: Little Jack
Sport karate career highlight: Winning team and continuous sparring titles in 1999
Sport karate world titles:
2006 - Men’s Light Middle Point Sparring World Champion
2006 - Men’s Light Middle Continuous Sparring World Champion
2004 - Men’s Light Middle Point Sparring World Champion
2003 - Men’s Light Middle Continuous Sparring World Champion
1999 - Junior Light Heavy Continuous Sparring World Champion
1999 - Junior Team Point Sparring World Champion
Martial arts goal: To leave a legacy
Non-martial arts goal: To be successful
Favorite tournament: Pacific Jewel
Favorite Super Grands (why): 2004 when both his sister and he won point sparring titles
Favorite sport karate players:
Present forms: Steve Terada
Past forms: Butch Togisala
Past fighting: Ray Wizard
Present fighting: Raymond Daniels
Most admired martial artists: Cecil Peoples
Most admired person: His grandparents and his mother
Favorite food: Salad
Favorite movie: Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon
Favorite actor: Martin Lawrence
Favorite magazine: Sport Karate
Favorite book: Souls of Black Folk
Favorite music: R & B and Hip-Hop
Favorite musician: DJ Quick
Favorite hobby: Harassing Chris Gallio and riding motorcycles
Favorite sports: Football, track and tennis
Address: 11245 West Road #1213, Houston, TX 77065
Phone No.: (818) 439-9849
Email: jdogpkka@yahoo.com

They call him J-Dog, but no one knows exactly why, not even himself, believe it or not. He’s a product of the famed Cecil Peoples’ Karate in Southern California and the tradition a way back then was that each student have a nickname. All Holmes remembers is that a fellow student “Chewey” came up with his name and it stuck. Wouldn’t that kid be amazed to know that he coined the nickname of a world champion karate fighter.

But what’s even more amazing is why he started karate and why he was afraid to quit after he did start. It seems the saga started when he got beat up one day, so his school principal suggested to his mom that he train in karate. Taking karate was fine with J-Dog, but his mom warned him that if he came home beat up again that she would finish the job. That threat may or may not have worked for most kids, but since his athletic mom is now 54 and still plays roller-derby and softball, I’m inclined to believe that the threat to the nine year old back then was very realistic. Needless to say J-Dog became very good in his karate class and he still has a deep respect for his mother’s athletic prowess.

His karate instructor boasts about the qualities of J-Dog but also loves to tell stories about his passing “phases” as a teenager. One fad of his growing individuality was to go without combing his hair for a year. Just to tease him his classmates pinned him down to the floor one day, sprayed and combed his hair. He promptly messed it up again.

Like any young karate-ka, J-Dog did both fighting and forms in competition and he genuinely liked doing forms. But whereas in fighting he seemed a natural and won a lot, in forms he always came up against a brick wall called Jimmy Pham that he could never seem to supercede, so he gradually concentrated most on fighting. As his desire for competition increased as a blackbelt teenager, he discovered the NBL circuit through his instructor and NBL tournament promoter Cecil Peoples. In his last year as a junior in 1999 he excelled to win both the light-heavyweight sparring world title and was a member of the junior team sparring title winning team. Since then Holmes has added two more titles in both continuous and point sparring in the adult divisions including one in each at the last Super Grands World Games in 2006.

He’s been advantaged with his membership on Team GOP since his initiation in 2001. There he’s found a home where some of his unique habits are accepted, but jested with. One being his diet where his staple food consists of bulka-burgers and salads. Eating pig and cow he call “nasty”. Such a topic for team discussion is J-Dog’s eating healthy that his team challenged him to eat a steak versus teammate Regena Thompson having to drink a wheat grass shot depending upon whether the University of Texas or the University of Southern California would win the 2005 Rose Bowl. Well in the last 20 seconds Texas pulled ahead and won so he had to eat crow, make that cow, in front of the taunting GOP teammates. And speaking of taunting teammates, coach Chris Gallio regularly refers to J-Dog as “Splinter” because he says he reminds him of the rat in the Ninja Turtles movies. J-Dog doesn’t seem to mind being poked fun at, in fact at the tournaments, his and Regena Thompson’s guest room seems to be the hang out gossip headquarters where everyone flocks to for “fun and chillin’” so J-Dog puts it.

And while J-Dog is many times the center of attention that everyone gathers around for fun and amusement, his closest associates relate that he’s a bit struck on himself, always checking himself out when passing by a mirror and thrilled at having his picture taken. His excuse is that he always wants to make sure he’s looking his best.

But in the ring it’s always serious biz where he intends to remain for years to come. Though a southern Californian, he’s working on his masters degree at Prairie View A&M University in Houston, Texas where he also operates a new karate school