May 04, 2026 02:56 PM UTC

Victor Marx, Cajun Karate, and "Stolen Valor"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Right-wing talk radio is all abuzz about an interview conducted on Saturday in which 710 KNUS radio host Peter Boyles questioned Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Victor Marx about his various claims related to “rescuing” sex abuse victims in third-world countries and about Marx’s self-proclaimed martial arts background.

Boyles spent an hour discussing various subjects with Marx in an interview that spent an exorbitant amount of time on whether or not Marx was claiming “stolen valor” (Boyles’ words) relating to his martial arts background. The conversation was incredibly bizarre — even by the already nutty standards for Colorado Republicans. Marx boasts that he is a multiple-degree black belt in several martial arts disciplines, including something called “Keichu-Do,” which is also known — and there’s no goddamned way we could have made this up — as “Cajun Karate.” Marx’s father, Karl William Marx Sr., is credited by various sources as the founder of Cajun Karate.

As this absolutely delightful story from the Santa Maria Times explained in 2004:

After years of punching people, pimping prostitutes and pushing his weight around Louisiana, gumbo gangster and bust-/em-up bouncer Karl William Marx Sr. one day saw the light.

Finally freed from a Cajun prison built of ego and pride, Marx stopped sinning.

But he kept fighting.

Only this time, he was punching for the Lord 7 teaching people the homemade brand of Cajun karate he cooked up and peppered with ample helpings of loving self-defense…

…In Marx’s good book, breaking noses for Jesus does not violate any of the Ten Commandments. [Pols emphasis]

Are you not entertained? We are most definitely entertained.

We learned about “Cajun Karate” in a roundabout way as Boyles address his own concerns about Marx’s martial arts boasting. Boyles, apparently, is a former martial artist and competitive fighter himself, so he says he knows of what he speaks:

BOYLES: You have claimed a seventh-degree black belt in ju-jitsu, a seventh-degree in karate, and something called a fifth degree in weapons. I’m stumped. With respect, that’s a lot…

…You lead with that, because you are [portraying] this gentleman who is dangerous. And your claims on ju-jitsu and karate – tell me how you got to a seventh degree in either one of them.

Marx responded with some meandering stories about training with various experts whose names appear to mean something to Boyles. Eventually Marx elaborated on one of the black belt claims:

MARX: I got my seventh-degree black belt underneath my father, which is our family system. It’s called Keichu-Do. 

Marx went on to explain that his father, Karl Marx, was teaching ju-jitsu at Fort Polk to Green Berets in 1969 when he developed his own system for self-defense. A website called USADojo.com credits the elder Marx with this fighting style, which includes some amazing photos — one of which we assume depicts a younger Victor Marx:

Anyway, because Colorado Republicans are not serious people interested in serious topics, Boyles really dug into one of Victor Marx’s specific claims about one of his “black belts”:

BOYLES: You’ve talked about something – I’ve seen it a fourth or fifth degree in weapons.

MARX: Yeah.

BOYLES: Where’s that from?

MARX: Again, it’s our father. My dad’s system. We had a karate, self-defense, and then we had a weapons aspect. Because in competitions, there’s always a weapon. 

BOYLES: Kabuto weapons.

MARX: Kabuto. And he put together a system with bows, staff, nunchucks, [unintelligible]. So that’s where I trained in, and that’s where I got the rank from.

BOYLES: And again, claiming rank – we did weapons on our way to black belt…you fought, but there were no belts. When I saw a fifth degree in weapons – Victor, there’s no such thing. It exists in the system, but it doesn’t exist by itself.

MARX: [long pause] Well…I…

BOYLES: We can let it go.

MARX: There are systems that are just rankings in kabuto for weapons training, but it was our system, and it was recognized by Trias?

Is Victor Marx exaggerating his martial arts background to include a non-existent fifth degree belt in “weapons”? Maybe.

Frankly, we don’t really give a shit. Tell us more about this “Cajun Karate” stuff, USADojo.com:

Keichu-Do is considered a “hard style”, as opposed to a “soft” or “internal” style, although it does have some soft style elements. However, the techniques are designed in such a way as not to require significant strength.

Cajun Karate is both hard and soft, kinda like Goldilocks’ bed. And Cajun Karate is also apparently perfect for someone like Goldilocks:

Keichu-Do differs from a number of other self-defense systems in that it is designed for smaller people, without much strength, to defend themselves against larger opponents. In addition, it is designed for protection against the ways in which Americans fight and attack. Thus, it is immensely practical for children and women—but also effective and powerful for men.

Boyles was a guest today on the “Jeff and Bill Show” to discuss what they call in all seriousness “The Interview That Shook Colorado.” We’ll leave the last words to these two shmucks:

JEFF: I heard a guy who went through a process that his father created, versus you that went through a different process. Do you think it’s fair to say that ‘none of it’s real? That all of it’s fake’?

BOYLES: The arts themselves come from Asia, and you have creators. And if I can create — and I can grant you a seventh-degree black belt right now — you would say it’s okay because Peter gave it to me. And it doesn’t work that way. There’s a system, there’s a way…

JEFF: But what do you know about his dad’s process?

BOYLES: I know nothing about it. It’s some thing that’s called Cajun Karate.

The mystery of Victor Marx, who is quite clearly a charlatan to some degree, continues to grow.

But in many ways, Marx is the perfect candidate for a modern Colorado Republican Party that is obsessed with every issue other than the ones that actually matter to voters.