Burton Richardson

The writing gene skipped two generations in Burton’s family, until rearing its cute little head in 1962. Burton’s great Grandmother, Irene Franklin, was a famous comedienne dubbed “the queen of Vaudeville” by Variety magazine. Irene wrote her own lyrics and skits then great Grandfather Burt Green put them to original music. Burton grew up with a knack for writing, and was first published at the age of ten. He won writing awards during his school years before being voted “most likely to succeed” at Carson high school in Los Angeles county. At U.S.C., Burton majored in biology while participating in an intensive, four-year writing and literature honors program called “Thematic Option”. He also played on the baseball team with Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson. After finishing his studies, Burton chose to follow his passion instead of going to medical school. Burton’s love of the martial arts inspired him to live in abject poverty in one of the worst areas of Los Angeles in order to train full-time in every martial art he could. His main mentor Dan Inosanto (the man Bruce Lee chose to carry on Lee’s art and philosophy of Jeet Kune Do) groomed Burton to become an instructor, and after a decade of intense training Burton went from traveling the globe learning martial arts to teaching seminars worldwide. Burton continued his zeal for research as he began writing his popular monthly column in Inside Kung-Fu magazine. In 2000 Burton was voted “Writer of the Year” and now has four books published, one translated into five languages. He also has very popular instructional DVDs which sell worldwide. He immediately caught the Mixed Martial Arts wave, coaching his first champion in 1996. You can now see him regularly on Pay-Per-View events coaching top UFC fighters. Burton also appeared in numerous films, and was the fight choreographer on seven. He has worked with Brandon Lee, Keanu Reeves, Steven Segal, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Kris Kristofferson. Burton lives with his wife Sarah and their little girl Talina Queen in Kailua, Hawaii where he continues his quest for constant martial and personal development, while helping others do the same.