World Champion?

Chuck Norris has always come across as a nice, likeable guy, a good public image for martial artists everywhere, but I do wonder why he has consistently insisted on " stretching the truth" about a few little things. How were he or Joe Lewis or Mike Stone real world champions if they never fought outside the USA? Claiming to've been world champions in karate seems pretty ridiculous to me if these guys never competed in Japan, Europe, or anywhere else outside of the USA. It's kind of like calling yourself a muay thai world champion without ever having fought in Thailand, or a judo world champion without ever having competed against Japan's best judo players. Who are they trying to kid, they competed in regional & national tournaments, & even there they didn't neccessarily compete against America's strongest karate competitors because Hidetaka Nishiyama in association with the JKA didn't allow his students to compete in open karate tournaments (which doesn't say much for Nishiyama's attitude, but at least his best students like Frank Smith did compete in Japan, as did Tonny Tulleners [one of Tak Kubota's students] who beat Chuck Norris every time the two met in open competition). I'm not saying Chuck wasn't a very good competitor during his era, just that some of his claims are misleading. Were his world champion titles recognized officially world wide? And, despite Chuck's oft repeated claim of having held the world middleweight championship title (recognized by what sanctioning bodies?) from '68 to'74, wasn't the last time he competed in 1970 (against Al Dacascos)?
Regarding his relationship with Bruce Lee, how can any of us who weren't there say we know what the nature of their relationship was better than Chuck would? Was he Bruce's student, or were they just friends & training partners? Who knows? But I do think Chuck exaggerates his influence on Bruce when he basically claims to've taught Bruce how to kick above the waist. Anyone who's seen footage of Bruce's demos at the'64 Long Beach Internationals (again I'd question whether these were legitimate international tournaments), or his screentest for & subsequent appearances in The Green Hornet knows Bruce had no problem throwing high kicks well before he bagan working out with Chuck Norris. And why does Chuck continue to say that the fight scene between he & Bruce was shot at the Roman Collaseum? What's the big secret about it having been shot at Golden Harvest studios in Hong Kong?
These are, of course, small, unimportant things in the overall scheme of things, I just wonder why Chuck has consistently been less than entirely truthful about them.