I knew Richard Pitts outside of the martial arts circles through someone who knew him quite well. I had lunch with him once or twice and met him over conversations maybe 10 times or so in the mid to late 80s.
I can only tell you what he conveyed to me and to my friend who was extremely close to him:
"I'll take five punches/kicks to get my one in and that will destroy you!"
"Not one of my underground fights lasted more than a minute!"
His strategy was to attempt to break the leg as quickly as possible.
He would do anything to win, including biting you ear off--not unknown among some martial artists.
He had baby blue eyes and blond hair--loved to go into bars and get mistaken for being gay---in the sense that they thought he was a push over and would challenge him--their mistake.
However, his death in prison, supposedly suicide---hung himself while in solitary confinement--really wasn't his style.
Wayne Schultz once took him to Jou Tsung Hwa's Zhang San Fang festival. Richard decided to try pushing hands---in two seconds he kicked the guy and got him on the ground. He got disqualified and he couldn't understand why sincing winning was the outcome and he dominated! LOL
"Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."
"Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao