Paul Maslak
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Paul Maslak created STAR System World Kickboxing Ratings in 1980[1]. It was initially created as a mechanism for pressing tournament karate directors to adopt the same minimal safety procedures. With the help of colleague John Corcoran, a former PKA events coordinator and then editor of KICK Illustrated, Maslak expanded the STAR ratings into professional kickboxing in response to the organizational partisanship of the contender rankings generated by the sport’s major sanctioning bodies. He discontinued the STAR tournament ratings after leaving Inside Kung-fu in late 1981.
Focusing thereafter on the professional ring, the STAR System became the premier rating service for international kickboxing throughout the 1980s, syndicated in some 15 martial arts and sports magazines across the world and recognized as the official ratings source for two of the sport’s three major sanctioning bodies (WKA and KICK).
Maslak dissolved the STAR System World Ratings for Professional Kickboxing in early 1989 when his business and family obligations became too demanding of his time. He authored two books, Strategy in Unarmed Combat and What The Masters Know (Unique Publications, 1980), based on a statistical study he undertook of professional boxing, full-contact karate (early kickboxing) and Japanese kick-boxing.
Biography
Paul Nicholas Maslak was born in Washington, District of Columbia in the United States of America. He competed in high school wrestling and amateur boxing,and while attending college he also studied judo, taekwondo, isshin-ryu, bando, northern shaolin and shorin-ryu.
Maslak graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in business administration, followed by film school at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
Movie Career[2]
While working for Disney as a project planner on EPCOT and Tokyo Disneyland, Maslak took a job as editor of INSIDE KUNG-FU magazine.
In this latter capacity, he was invited to work as casting director on the martial arts film, "No Retreat, No Surrender," for which he helpled "discover" Jean-Claude Van Damme and Cynthia Rothrock.
Afterwards, he pursued a two-track career for many years, working as a master scheduler and production control supervisor in corporate America by day, and free-lancing as a story analyst for HBO and Tri-Star Pictures by night.
Maslak quit his corporate job, at first managing martial arts actors, but then taking jobs in hands-on film production. He worked his way up through the ranks of many low-budget films to become a full producer. In 1993, he formed a partnership to produce independent features, and in 1996, he began directing with the film "Sworn to Justice." In total, he produced 12 films[3]. .