This statue was referred to by the late Colonel Rex Applegate as “Original Combat”.

Colonel Applegate was the patriach of the International Close Combat Instructors Association. In fact it was Colonel Applegate that named the Association and recommended that “The Labors of Hercules” statue would be a great symbol for the Association depicting early European unarmed combat.

Original Combat or “The Labors of Hercules” as it’s officially known is one of six in a group of statues by Baroque sculptor Vincenzo de Rossi (1525-1587), located in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.