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Feb. 17, 2016 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:16:31
Joe Rogan Experience #761 - Bas Rutten
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bas rutten
01:13:57
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joe rogan
59:00
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Speaker Time Text
joe rogan
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum!
And we're live!
Unfortunately, Mauro Ranallo is deathly ill, and he cannot make it here.
But the great Bas Rutin!
unidentified
Boom!
joe rogan
Basito!
unidentified
Yes!
joe rogan
El Guapo!
bas rutten
Yes!
joe rogan
Is here!
Former UFC heavyweight champion and your friend Kevin Randleman.
Unfortunately, the guy you won the title from passed away recently.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
That was sad, huh?
bas rutten
Yeah, the conspiracy theory was already...
I saw online because he didn't...
Morrow didn't do WWE yesterday evening, so they said he was at the funeral of Kevin Rennelman.
I said, no, that's not true.
He's really sick at home.
But yeah, that was the craziest news.
We found out after we just did our podcast.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
And then we went online and...
joe rogan
What happened to him?
He got sick?
bas rutten
He got sick, pneumonia, and then his heart came out.
They couldn't revive him.
joe rogan
Well, he had staph infection worse than anybody I've ever seen in my life.
Did you ever see some of the pictures?
bas rutten
You know what I said to people?
If you use smokeless tobacco, you know, that little box, you could literally put in that hole that he had in his chest.
Remember that?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bas rutten
It was insane.
joe rogan
Well, we'll show the picture.
Jamie, see if you can find the picture.
Kevin Randleman, staph infection.
I never knew that it could get this bad, but he had holes in his body where you could look in and you'd see all the tissue and tendons.
I mean, it's just incredible.
Did you see it there, Jamie?
I mean, I'm talking like a fist-size hole.
It was crazy.
bas rutten
You know, this guy survived everything as well.
joe rogan
Look at that.
unidentified
Oof.
joe rogan
It's just incredible.
I just don't...
And he fought after this, too, by the way.
bas rutten
Yeah, it's insane.
joe rogan
He got that fixed up and he fought afterwards.
But when your body is that compromised from something like that, I'm assuming that was MRSA, the medication-resistant salve infection.
That stuff is real dangerous, and people die from it all the time.
Look at his leg, too.
Look how swollen his ankle and his foot is.
Oh, my God.
bas rutten
Very scary.
joe rogan
Oh, God.
And Kevin Renneman in his prime.
I mean, what a stud.
What a specimen that guy was.
To see him that compromised...
I mean, I don't know if he just ignored it and it just kept getting worse and worse.
I don't know what happened.
bas rutten
I don't know either, you know, but I have the feeling that it's like with all the fighters, we're pretty much the same.
You're probably the same as well.
You know, you have something, you feel bad, you know, your lungs, oh, everything is hurting.
Whatever, man.
You know, I'll take care of that tomorrow once it gets worse.
Not realizing, because we're pushing all the limits all the time, that at the moment you're feeling it's probably really bad already.
You should check it out.
But, you know, just push it away.
Let's get rid of my, let's do my work first.
And then we'll take care of that later.
That was too late.
That's the feeling I have.
joe rogan
That is a problem with mental toughness in some fighters.
They just keep pushing through injuries.
And I've always suspected that that might be the case with Kane, why Kane keeps getting injured over and over again.
And now that, you know, he's starting to get some serious injuries where he's had back surgery now, both shoulder surgery, knee surgery.
I mean, this is a guy in his prime.
I mean, I think Kane is only like 33 or something like that, right?
bas rutten
He should be rejected.
Generating like this, like nothing.
joe rogan
As a heavyweight, that's your prime.
The early 30s for heavyweights are generally when they really come into their own.
And to see him constantly injured, I've always suspected it's just his mental toughness is almost like a burden because he pushes through everything.
You know, Chris Weidman, I think the same thing with his knees.
He's had some serious knee problems.
It's because they, you know, they have the problem.
They just go, fuck it.
Let's just keep going.
And they can block out pain in a way that, you know, most people, they get a serious knee injury.
They go, boy, I got to go to the doctor.
I got to get this checked out.
Not when you're in the middle of camp and you're defending your title.
You fucking keep pushing through it.
bas rutten
Yeah, I'm telling all my students now because I used to be exactly like all the other guys.
I say, if you have an injury and the doctor tells you, take two months off, take four months off.
That's my advice now.
Take double the amount off.
Everybody does the opposite.
Two months becomes one month or three weeks.
Don't do that because later in life, like with what happened with me, It will backfire for you.
joe rogan
It's such a good piece of advice right there because so many guys, especially ACL surgeries, how many times have we seen guys get their knee reconstructed and then they try to get back on the mat too quick and pop!
bas rutten
Pops again.
joe rogan
The new knee blows out again and you're looking at another six to nine months.
It's so, so common.
bas rutten
Look at Dominic Cruz, also Benji Reddick, he had like also like a, from a corpse, from an illegal corpse, he had something in his knee.
joe rogan
An illegal corpse?
bas rutten
Oh, they had the FBI, yeah, and it was illegally obtained.
It was, he got a letter from the FBI, he almost lost his leg.
And then he had this...
We went to dinner with him one time.
He had a machine on him that filtered his blood everywhere he went.
He got this crazy infection.
And then years later, he gets a letter from the FBI, and it was a guy who was illegally handled in donors, in whatever they need for knees and for everything, like organs.
And they found that guy, yeah.
And it was from a cadaver that was infected, and that's why he had all that problem.
unidentified
Holy shit.
Shit.
bas rutten
It was really crazy.
joe rogan
Did he get a discount or something like that?
Is that what the idea is?
unidentified
Yeah, maybe later.
You know, just write it down.
Rain check.
bas rutten
Before the other knee happens.
joe rogan
Benji Raddick is a guy a lot of people forgot about.
He's a fucking talented guy.
Very talented.
bas rutten
At the time, when they called me crazy, when Anderson Silva was at the peak of his career, I said, if I have six months with Benji, And he would listen to me because sometimes he gets that ego that, oh, I can strike with him.
No, you know, you don't need to.
Take him down, then strike him, you know, because he would knock people out with one punch.
This guy hit so hard, he would hurt my hands on the focus mitts.
unidentified
Wow.
bas rutten
I'm the craziest power he has.
And I'm telling you, his wrestling was so good, he would just take him down and just beat him up.
I guarantee you that.
That's how powerful he was.
joe rogan
Wow.
You know, there's a lot of guys that don't realize their potential.
And Benji Raddick was one of those guys that people would always talk about in the gym.
You know, they say, like, boy, if he could figure out how to put it all together.
bas rutten
We did a few times at the IFL. And when he was training for the Anacondas, he was there.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
And then he started listening.
And people go, like, man, you transformed him into a kickboxer.
No, he's just listening at this moment.
But when you face another guy, like, for instance, he fought Scott Smith.
Yeah.
You know, and I told him, I said, don't brawl with the guy.
Yeah, but are people going to think I don't want to?
I said, well, blame it on me.
Tell him that I said so, otherwise I'm not going to train you anymore.
And of course, the fight starts, Smith comes out, and he starts brawling with the guy.
That's what the guy does.
Don't do it.
It's like with Vanderlei Silva.
Don't brawl with the guy.
You know, you just got to pick him apart from the outside and shoot, take him down.
He got in trouble at the end of the first round.
Then he took him down, hit him once.
It was the end of the round, but almost had Scott Smith.
Second round, exactly the same thing.
I lost my voice.
I just stopped yelling.
I said, why don't you take him down?
unidentified
Take him down!
Beat him up, knock him out!
bas rutten
It's really that easy for you.
Do it!
But he didn't.
joe rogan
He goes to funny thing when guys want to beat guys at their own game, or they want to show that they're not afraid to stand with people.
unidentified
Stupidity!
joe rogan
It's hard to, you know, that fucking thing that makes you great in the first place, that makes you a fighter in the first place, a lot of times can bite you in the ass.
bas rutten
Just don't do what the other person is best at.
If there's one thing he's weaker than yours, go do that, whatever it is.
Whether it's ground...
When it was striking.
joe rogan
Well, that was one thing that GSP was always so good at.
He was always so good at imposing his strengths.
If a guy was good at wrestling, he would try to keep the fight standing.
If a guy was good at standing, he would take him down.
GSP was so good at that.
And being unpredictable, too, as to what his approach was going to be.
He thought he was going to strike, and then he's going to take you down.
You think he's going to take you down, and then he's going to kick you.
bas rutten
He was like the La Jolla.
The La Jolla, every time when he fought, he had...
New technique, he used new combinations.
And the same thing happened with GSP. Every time you saw him, Josh Kosciak, I remember the fight, it was a jab and it was a spinning back kick to the body.
And he nailed it over and over again.
You knew that for the six weeks, eight weeks, whatever he was training, they worked on that.
For the rest you ad-lib a little bit, what you normally do.
But you know, just pepper him.
joe rogan
Yeah, the Josh Kostek fight, man, that was an ugly one when his eyes swole up like that.
Josh was in seriously bad shape after that.
He couldn't fly after that fight.
That was one where they had a drive from, I think they had that fight in Toronto.
Was it Toronto or Montreal?
I think that was Toronto, right?
No.
I believe it was Montreal because I think Toronto was Jake Shields.
That was the big one at the Rogers Center, right?
bas rutten
I have no clue.
joe rogan
I think so.
Either way, he was in Canada and he had to drive down to Boston.
I believe he had to stay there for a couple weeks before he could even fly back home to San Jose.
bas rutten
Wow.
So you think that will blow up in the air as well?
unidentified
I guess.
bas rutten
I don't know.
joe rogan
It was so bad.
It was an orbital fracture.
There's a picture of it right there.
And that's after the fight.
But it was so bad that they had to operate on it.
And those blowout fractures of the eyes apparently are extremely painful and very dangerous, too, because it's the bone behind the eye that gets broken.
So they have to go in behind the eye and repair that bone, and sometimes when they do that, your eyeball is never the same again.
It looks different.
Like, do you remember Bob Sapp after Krokop hit him?
In Pride, I believe you called that fight.
bas rutten
I called that fight, yeah, I was there.
joe rogan
Remember, Krokop cracked him with a left hand.
unidentified
Was it Pride or was it K1? No, it was Pride.
bas rutten
Oh, wait a minute.
Maybe it was kickboxing.
joe rogan
I think it was kickboxing.
bas rutten
You know, it was because I was actually training Bob Seymour, whatever you call it, training.
I trained him one and a half times.
The rest he was doing interviews.
joe rogan
Oh, really?
bas rutten
I go, dude, this guy right now in Croatia, he's kicking a bag.
unidentified
He wants to kill you because you're on the top of the world right now.
bas rutten
He just beat Host twice.
joe rogan
Yeah, Ernesto Host.
That is crazy that he beat him.
bas rutten
So, yeah, then he came to train with me because I told him before the fight with Hoost, he said, if you would fight me, what would you go for?
I go for body shots because of your stamina, and I kick your knees instead of your legs.
I kick your knees because you have to carry that weight all the time.
Hoost dropped him two or three times with the liver shot.
So after that, he came and said, I really want to train with you.
I said, okay, well, then I'm going to be in Japan anyway, so let's work out.
But...
Yeah, he was too busy doing media.
I said, don't do that.
joe rogan
He was such a superstar in Japan.
He had to capitalize on the amount of money he was able to make.
I don't think people in America realize how big, for those few years, Bob Sapp got in Japan.
bas rutten
You have no clue.
We went out to dinner with him and they have to close the restaurant and have to let him out at the back because you see one person in the front, two, four, boom, and there was a whole group.
Couldn't get out anymore.
unidentified
Wow.
bas rutten
You couldn't go through the lobby of the hotel.
It's not like he can blend in.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
A 375 pound man.
bas rutten
He was huge.
This was in the Tokyo Post.
They had a picture of him on the cover coming out of like a massage place.
And you saw these little girls next to him and he's the mountain of a man stands there.
And all these little girls, they had that little black thing in front of their eyes, you know, that they do, so you don't know who that person is, which can still tell.
And he was upset.
He said, why didn't they put one in front of my eyes?
unidentified
And I go, yeah.
joe rogan
Even if they blocked your whole ad off, people are going to go, uh, what do you think that is?
bas rutten
It was hilarious.
joe rogan
Well, when he was fighting in Pride, I mean, he was like a character from a movie.
He was like the boss in a video game.
You remember?
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
bas rutten
It was hilarious.
He did all these dances, the Bob Sapp dance, and they got every show.
He was in every show.
And they just love him.
He's a freak.
And you know what?
The first time when he fought against Nogueira, I go, dude, we're going to hear from this guy.
He was doing really well against a seasoned guy like Nogueira.
Eventually, okay, he lost, but he just started.
I think if he would have kept focusing on the same training that he did at the time, It would have been a much tougher guy because he had a lot of talent, physically at least.
joe rogan
Well, he was just so fucking big too.
Maurice was training him at that time.
Maurice Smith was working with him.
They were working with his kickboxing and they were really trying to put some technique to all that muscle.
But you're talking about a guy who legitimately was 375 pounds with abs.
I mean he was like the greatest science project in the history of performance enhancing drugs.
unidentified
Right?
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, has there ever been a project like that guy?
unidentified
Yes, the blueprint.
joe rogan
He's like, this is as far as you can push it before you fucking explode.
Before your skin just explodes like a water balloon.
unidentified
Oh, man.
bas rutten
He was so big.
In the past, you've seen it with these guys who use a lot.
They always are around the fighters.
They start to become purple.
And then suddenly you hear they die of a heart attack.
I wonder what happened there.
joe rogan
Well, he made it through, he survived, and then he started just quick tapping.
He started doing all these fights where he would get hit, he would go in hard, and if it didn't work out, he would just tap.
He fought a bunch of guys like that where he would start off the fight really well and then wind up tapping out.
And then he would fight again in like three weeks and do the same thing and just kept doing it, living off of the name that he had created while he was in Pride.
bas rutten
That's a very sad thing.
For me, that's almost the same as going on the street and back for money.
It really is to me.
You know, I think that is...
And he's such a good guy.
If you meet him, he's very, very nice, trying to help people.
Great guy.
But yeah, I don't like that.
It's the same with Kerr.
You know, I saw that special or a thing that they did on him that he sells cars now.
You know, it's hard to look at that.
Because especially he knew where he was in the past.
And that all is gone now.
You can be really high, but you can fall really low.
You have fighters saying that.
They said, it's so great to fight, but when you're high, you're high.
You know when you win, but when the lows are there, it's really low as well.
The difference is too much.
Actually, look what just came out with Ellen and Rhonda.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Right?
bas rutten
I mean, she broke down just thinking about it.
And I know it is a moment that they're there, so everybody would have that for a few seconds.
But yeah, it will get you done, a big loss like that.
joe rogan
I know that after the fight, like that night, she was just devastated.
But of course, I mean, that was a brutal, brutal knockout.
And it was a fight where nothing worked.
I mean, just nothing worked.
She went after Holly, and she tried to bully her, and Holly just, great footwork, countered her, and that kickboxing and her movement.
Holly's movement is the best in all of women's MMA. Her footwork and movement, she's so good at getting out of the way, at countering when you're coming in, and the style, the bulldog style of Ronda's, especially the way she fought that fight that night, just played right into Holly's hands.
bas rutten
That's it.
She knew exactly where she was going to be all the time, because she just went speed forward.
joe rogan
And that head kick.
Oof.
One of the things I said after that fight, I'm like, she should take a long time off after that fight, because that's the kind of head kick, that's the kind of KO that it takes a long time to recover from.
You might look fine, you might be able to talk, but mentally and also the brain itself, that kind of an impact, like a high kick like that, can really take a long time for everything to heal, for everything to normalize.
bas rutten
Well, Kenny Rice said, because I took my words back, because we're talking about Floyd Mayweather versus Rwanda.
I said, well, if it goes to the ground, you know, yeah, I truly believe.
But Kenny said, footwork will make sure it's not going to go to the ground.
I go, no, no, no, five rounds, five minutes, 25 minutes, a long time, you know, there will be a clinch one time.
But that's exactly what happened.
joe rogan
Yeah, there's a difference, first of all, in fighting in an octagon, which is a huge surface.
Like, if you look at a boxing ring, most people...
bas rutten
Oh, you can look them up.
joe rogan
...much, much smaller space.
And also, I just don't think Rhonda would try to box a Floyd Mayweather.
I think she thought that she could stand with Holly Holm.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
And I think a lot of it is based on Holly's previous performances in the UFC, especially the Raquel Pennington fight.
Raquel Pennington, who's very tough, very durable, and Raquel, I always give her the nickname, the Ear Exploder, because she's had so many moments in the fight where you're like, You scream so loud that you blow people's eardrums out.
When she fought Ashley Evan Smith and Bulldog choked her, blood everywhere, and she choked her one second ago.
We were screaming at the end of that fight, like, she's out!
unidentified
She's out!
joe rogan
And then she died.
But Pennington's so tough and fought conservatively against Holly Holm and almost won.
bas rutten
Like, that was a split decision, right?
joe rogan
So, you look at that fight and you go, oh boy, man, maybe Ronda could stand with her and just go after her the way she went after Betch Cohea, the way she went after Alexis Davis.
But, man, Holly was just on point.
bas rutten
I think it's game planning also.
You know, after that fight with Raquel, that was perfect for her.
Because that means, okay, stay away from the big bumps.
You know, and they know that Ronda, she's an athlete.
She can hit.
She hits you.
When I saw that...
What is the Open Workout in Brazil?
And I'm one of these guys, I have always things to say.
Oh, this is not good.
You should do that.
You can prove this.
You know, I'm very critical.
And I think to myself, am I too much?
What am I doing?
But at the moment, I saw her training there.
And this is not fighting.
And I know this doesn't translate to fighting.
But hitting the focus mitt and hitting the bag or all that stuff.
It looked nearly perfect to me.
The rotation of her upper body, the movement afterwards, very Tyson-like also.
I really thought, man, yeah, okay, I have nothing to say now.
This looks really good.
joe rogan
I felt the same way.
Yeah, I felt like her hand techniques were on point.
And then when she polished off Betch-Cohea in the first round, it sort of Well look, obviously she hits hard, her technique is improving, and she's an elite athlete.
You're talking about an Olympian, you're talking about a person that has that mindset to push forward and figures out a way to get better at everything she does, but so does Holly.
So does Holly.
And Holly has got way better kickboxing skills and way better...
She's got way more diversity in her striking game.
Whereas Ronda's just punching.
Knees to the body when she gets close to the clinch.
Knees to the body.
But on the outside it's just punching.
Whereas Holly...
Holly can head kick you and knock you the fuck out.
And she sets those kicks up with kicks to the body.
She'll throw kicks to the leg.
The Jackson camp, they all like that oblique kick to the thigh.
This is a dangerous kick.
bas rutten
Yeah, it's gonna be outlawed, and when somebody's gonna snap their knee, it's gonna be over.
joe rogan
Do you think so?
Because knee bars aren't outlawed, heel hooks aren't outlawed.
bas rutten
I know, but that's a different thing.
Once your leg is a little stretched and you get hit there, that's it.
A knee bar, or you have to be in Pogliaris, but anybody else would just put the knee bar on and give you time to tap.
You won't have that with an oblique kick.
joe rogan
Yeah, I agree.
But it's so effective right now when it's legal.
I understand why they're using it, because Jon Jones is so good at it.
Winkle Jon is one of the best triking coaches in the world.
bas rutten
He really is.
joe rogan
He's so good and so underappreciated because he's such a humble guy.
He's not talking a lot.
He's not bragging.
He's a very down-to-earth, normal, humble guy.
But the results that that guy's been able to...
I mean, Holly's probably one of his best students, but of course, John Jones as well.
bas rutten
John Jones.
He's not a freak.
He can change the world.
If he's now on the straight and narrow and he's just fighting, I see this guy, nobody's gonna beat this guy.
joe rogan
It's gonna be hard, that's for sure, but the worry about John is that John's gonna fuck himself up because recently he just got caught driving with no license and no insurance and no registration.
You know, he lost his license.
He's got millions of dollars.
Get a fucking driver, man.
Get a driver.
bas rutten
Yeah, but look at Tiger Woods, what happened to him, because when all the crap happened with him, mentally he didn't come back from that.
And I understand this is golf, you know, but the same as fighting.
It's a mind game.
It's really a mind game.
So can he overstep that?
I think he can, because Jones is young.
And he knows how good he is.
But if I were him, I would say five, four, five more years.
Stop.
You're going down in history.
Like a thousand years from now, they will still talk about you if you do it correctly.
Or, you know, he sidetracks and something bad is going to happen to him.
Let's not hope.
joe rogan
Yeah, I hope he pulls it together.
He's a great guy.
I really like John as a person.
I mean, he has his flaws like most people, and he's young, and the amount of pressure that he's on to be the youngest ever UFC champion, to have this spectacular career so early in life, the only loss he had was a disqualification that was a bullshit disqualification.
I mean, this stupid rule of 12 to 6 elbows, they gotta get rid of that rule.
It's so dumb.
If we don't know what I'm talking about, folks, in the UFC, there's a rule, and it's a crazy rule, that you can't strike someone with an elbow from 12 p.m.
to 6 on a clock dial, like going straight down.
And the only reason why you can't do it is because when they were setting up the athletic commissions, the athletic commissions had seen those karate demonstrations on TV where a guy would break a brick with his elbow, and they said, well, you can't do that.
That's got to be illegal, because someone could die.
And this is what Big John McCarthy told me, that he had to talk to these people, and he's like...
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
Alright, then that one's illegal.
So that's the only reason why that's still illegal.
bas rutten
But the great thing is, if you're on your back, you're allowed to do it.
unidentified
Yes, because it's from 6 to 12. It's the dumbest thing ever.
joe rogan
It's so stupid.
It's one of the dumbest rules that's still in place.
bas rutten
Yeah.
Oh well.
We had a guy in Holland, Hippolyte.
Hippolyte and Witt.
Orlando Witt.
These two guys, when they fought each other, they would sell out all the time.
I saw three fights of them live because these guys were crazy.
Full tie rules.
And Orlando Witt and Hippolyte.
Both of them, they would, in the clinch, jump all the way up and then come down with the elbows to the collarbones, to the head.
They would go full blast.
joe rogan
Orlando Wheat who fought in the UFC. I think UFC 2?
Was it 2 he fought in?
bas rutten
Yeah, against Remco Pardul.
joe rogan
Remco got him in a scarf hole and pounded him out with elbows.
bas rutten
With illegal elbows now.
unidentified
It is illegal.
joe rogan
That's so true, right?
Well, it might have been legal because it was kind of coming from 12 around the side.
Maybe it was like 12 to 7 or something like that.
unidentified
Yeah, 11. 11 to 5 or 1 to 7. It's up to you what you want to call them.
joe rogan
It's so dumb.
It's so dumb.
You know, I have a problem with a few rules of the UFC, but that's the number one.
That's the number one.
I have also a problem with putting the hand on the ground to stop knees to the head.
bas rutten
I always go, if you have somebody, lift them up.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I feel like to a downed opponent, maybe that's a problem when they're up against the cage because you can't get your head out of the way.
In Pride, one of the crazy things about Pride, which I think to this day, and one of the reasons why I was so excited to have Mauro here too, you guys called the glory days.
Some of the wildest fights in the history of the sport where you have stomps, soccer kicks, everything.
But No elbows.
unidentified
No elbows.
joe rogan
No elbows to the ground.
bas rutten
Yeah.
No, I remember fights that they literally have Vanderlei Silva in the corner or Ninja or Shogun, you know, and they would hold the ropes and then just stomp somebody.
Skulling, pretty much.
It's scary.
I think that shouldn't...
That shouldn't be legal.
It's like what happened in the past with Roger Huerta, you know, at 1FC, it's now 1 championship.
When you look at that fight, you go, that was the referee really messed up on that one.
He literally dropped on all fours because he was exhausted, and then he got penalty kicked in the face.
That could have been really bad.
joe rogan
Well, I think it was really bad.
I mean, I don't know how much he recovered from that.
I mean, that was a devastating knockout.
And it was also Roger fighting at 170, which is not really his weight class.
It really should be a 155. And he fought a big...
Who was the Brazilian guy that he fought?
I don't remember.
I can't remember his name, but that guy's a big guy, and he had Roger Hurt, and then that soccer, they have like a rule at 1FC, I don't know if they still have it, where they'll say like, open, like where you're allowed to do a stomp or a kick to the downed opponent.
bas rutten
Well, this was a closed.
They should have said.
joe rogan
There's a guy's name, Zorro Babo Moria.
bas rutten
Zorro Babo.
joe rogan
It was a devastating, devastating soccer kick.
He said, I did not want to throw the kick.
Wow.
bas rutten
Well, then don't.
Why would you do it?
You can do it to the body, which will be very dangerous at that moment as well, because you're breathing.
You're going to crack some ribs, so it could be very dangerous as well.
joe rogan
But you can recover from the cracked ribs a lot better than you can recover from that.
bas rutten
Step away.
There's no need for that.
I never had that, you know?
It means being aware in the cage and know what you're doing.
You know, if I see a guy's out, guy's out.
I'm not going to hit him extra.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, good for you, man.
There's a lot of debate about the old rules of pride versus the rules of the UFC, and that was one of the things that happened when Krokop started fighting in the UFC and then fought in a cage for the first time against Gonzaga.
Well, you know, he fought Eddie Sanchez first, won that fight, but it's not on his level.
It was not on his level.
And then he fought Gonzaga, and Gonzaga took him down, held him up against the cage, elbowed the shit out of him, and then stood him up and high-kicked him.
But he was saying, like, the elbows confused him, like he wasn't used to that, and he also wasn't used to the cage being trapped, whereas the pride ring, you could move around.
Like, the ropes were there, you could get under the ropes, you could...
You know, you never were pinned.
bas rutten
But you can lock somebody up also in a corner, which you cannot do in a cage.
When I stepped for the first time in the cage, I was like, oh dude, this is awesome.
They can never lock me up.
This is the biggest thing I've ever seen.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think Gonzaga, that fight, and I always come back to this, I thought it was so smart what he was doing.
He was constantly throwing a right hand.
And it didn't even come close to his face like this.
And I'm constantly thinking, why is he doing that?
And then it really, you know, I got, oh, he's shutting his kick down.
Because Krokop, he might think, if I just throw a right straight, like every 20 seconds in front of your face, he's going to think, if I throw my left at the moment he throws that right straight, he's going to knock me out.
So he shut his whole game down and then he was moving to the left and that was the blueprint to Krokop because after that everybody started doing it.
joe rogan
Yeah, and it's interesting how Krokop got his revenge in the rematch in a big way with elbows on the ground.
It was kind of ironic.
One of the things that Krokop was saying before that fight is that he didn't particularly like grappling and he didn't particularly like elbows on the ground.
Meanwhile, that's what won him the fight.
The second fight he won by being on top and by the elbows that a real talented striker can throw from the guard.
The difference in those elbows is just unbelievably devastating.
We saw that in the Krokop fight.
bas rutten
Yeah.
No, he did a really good job with that.
I had him one time, also, somebody armbarred me, and I got out.
And when I fought him the second time, I didn't want to knock him out.
I wanted to armbar him first.
And I remembered that.
Armbar him, but it was with the rope escapes there.
I had him, and then he rope escapes, and I told him, I said...
joe rogan
Oh, so this is Pancras.
bas rutten
This is Pancras.
I said, now you got it back.
And then later on, I heel hooked him, actually.
joe rogan
Well, Pancras had crazy rules.
And you were the first guy to figure those rules out.
And I loved watching you fight back then because it was open hand striking with the hands, but kicks.
So, like, you were the first guy that ever saw a fight in that, first of all, that kick so fucking hard.
You could see when you would slam these guys with these kicks, they'd be like, oh, this is a completely different experience.
But also, you weren't slapping.
How the fuck do you pull your hand back so far?
bas rutten
Yeah, I got very limber hands hitting with the bone.
joe rogan
Yeah, you were pulling your hand way back and throwing straight punches and hooks and uppercuts like when you fought Funaki.
You were throwing uppercut palm strikes like a punch, like with the same motion.
bas rutten
Nobody does this still.
Look, if I'm in the guard and I just lift my hand like this, see?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
Just slide over his chest.
In the face.
Why is nobody doing this?
joe rogan
Why is nobody doing this?
bas rutten
Just leave it here.
Just hit him a little bit.
Look away.
Because most of the time when you look away, they think, and then bonk, just hit him in the face.
joe rogan
Yeah, like flat hand on the center of the chest and just shove it up.
bas rutten
Shove it over the chest.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, that does make sense.
That does make sense.
But wouldn't that work with a punch as well?
bas rutten
Yeah, but you have more space with a palm.
joe rogan
Right.
bas rutten
Like on this distance, this is much shorter than this.
This is like an extra 15%, which will make a lot of difference on that distance.
joe rogan
That's a very good point.
Like it's another five or six inches at least.
bas rutten
That's why I never understood nobody's throwing palm strikes now.
Left hook, right straight combination, right?
In boxing.
joe rogan
Right.
bas rutten
It's a dumb combination if you really think about it.
If it's a short left hook, I'm way too close for my straight punch.
It has no power.
I can't stretch my arm.
But if I do a palm strike...
And then a straight punch.
Now I got space for my straight punch.
It's much harder.
So why is nobody doing that?
Now I do clotheslines.
I posted a thing on Facebook like a year ago.
When I hit a bag with a clothesline, I don't think people can imitate my weight with a kick like that.
They can kick, and then I say, okay, now I show a clothesline.
You see the bag folding around my whole arm.
It's the craziest thing.
You can try to block whatever you want.
If I clothesline you, if you stand still, it goes straight through everything.
I guarantee you, it'll knock you out.
joe rogan
Why is that?
Why is a clothesline so powerful?
bas rutten
It is so powerful because you can really lock it up.
Don't stretch your arm, because if you miss time and you hit your, you're going to hyperextend.
But you can drag your whole body weight in there because you lock it up.
joe rogan
And your legs are planted on the ground.
bas rutten
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
So you're getting all that hip torque in there.
bas rutten
It is such a powerful strike, and also with the clinch, even when they stand like this, if I do this, it loops around the defense and hits the back of the head, still the legal part, because it's outside the Mohawk.
joe rogan
Well, even the back of the head standing never seems to get, like in boxing, they get penalized for punching the back of the head, like people say no rabbit punches, but when you think about a head kick, A lot of head kicks, especially the ones that go over the shoulder, they're the back of the head.
And it's legal.
bas rutten
And that's why they're effective.
And that's why it was so effective with me, with Pancras, I hit behind the ear.
If you look at Mike Tyson's fights, you know, I don't know how he did it, but he did it.
He was always the shorter guy, but if you see him hooking somebody, he hits almost the back of the head.
He's got very short hooks.
Now the body, it's ready for impact from the front and from the side because you're used to it.
Well, if you can see the punch coming.
The behind, I always tell people, just do with the palm, just do this to the back of your head and see what happens.
Like just me doing this, it's already going...
You're not ready for that.
So you can only imagine if you go...
unidentified
Hit as hard as you can behind the ear.
bas rutten
It's a sweet punch.
I can't understand nobody's doing it.
joe rogan
It drives me nuts.
Is the back of the head that much more dangerous?
bas rutten
Oh, do this!
Do this.
joe rogan
But I mean, is it that much more dangerous?
Should it be outlawed?
unidentified
No, on the side.
bas rutten
Just behind the ear.
Just do that.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
Right?
bas rutten
You got...
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Remember when Henzo fought in world combat against that judo guy?
I forget his name.
bas rutten
Oh, the Dutch guy.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He got his back.
Spikers.
unidentified
Spikers.
bas rutten
Ben Spikers.
I tried with him also.
joe rogan
He got his back and just...
If you can elbow the back of the head, rear naked chokes are out the window.
bas rutten
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Because everybody's just going to bang, bang, bang to the back of the head.
And it's almost more effective than a rear naked choke because guys are just going to try to cover up.
unidentified
Yeah, and eventually, one will slip through.
joe rogan
It's interesting to me that there's some really effective martial arts techniques that are outlawed, and that's one of them.
I mean, you can't hit that spot.
It's kind of strange because in a self-defense situation or in actual martial arts, if you think about what is the most effective technique to use, knees to the ground are very effective to head on a down opponent, elbows to the back of the head are very effective.
But are they that much more dangerous?
I mean, should they be outlawed?
Oh, here's the video.
Yeah, Henzo.
Oh, look at this.
unidentified
Boom!
Boom!
joe rogan
I mean, no need to choke, but he choked him anyway, I think.
bas rutten
Yeah, and now he's gonna step on his head, right?
joe rogan
Yeah, he smashed him.
He smashed that dude.
Well, that guy, here's the deal.
Henzo, who's a very nice guy, by the way, this fucking guy was calling Henzo all throughout the night and fucking with him.
Look at him, he stepped on his head as he walked off of him.
Yeah, he's out cold.
Henzo was in his hotel room, and this guy kept calling him and fucking with him.
He just didn't want him to have any sleep, so he just kept ringing his phone, and Henzo was like, oh, okay.
Just wait, motherfucker.
bas rutten
It's so funny when you see a guy like Henzo, and he's always smiling, you know?
unidentified
Don't do it.
What's wrong with people?
bas rutten
He's really nice.
unidentified
He smiles all the time.
bas rutten
Yeah, but he does the same thing when he kicks you in the bowl.
unidentified
You know?
bas rutten
I mean, watch out!
joe rogan
Did you ever see that Twitter sequence that Henzo put online where he beat the shit out of these muggers in New York City?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
These guys in New York City tried to mug Henzo Gracie, not knowing who he was.
So Henzo not only beat the fuck out of them, he followed them and kept beating the fuck out of them and was making all these pushes.
Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg, for making so safe New York City so I don't have to worry about guns.
This, to me, is a pleasure.
bas rutten
No, he already starts with...
There's two guys following me.
unidentified
They probably want to rob me or something.
And then he makes it into a game.
He's like, oh yeah!
This is really happening!
I'm so excited!
joe rogan
What a huge fuck-up on their part.
bas rutten
Well, he had one...
We were...
Kenny Rice and I, we were somewhere.
This is not that long ago.
And he was also, he was walking on the street, and two guys, same thing.
He came to tell the story, and he dropped the biggest guy, he said, I just picked the biggest guy, knocked him out.
And while he kept walking, the police came, they stopped, is there any trouble?
And he looks at the guys, and the guys go, no, no, there's no any trouble.
And he just got fucking and said, you just picked the wrong guy.
That's what he told them.
joe rogan
They fucked up.
bas rutten
You did, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, he looks so friendly and nice.
I mean, when he's got his game face on, he looks like a killer.
But most of the time, Henzo's smiling.
He's like one of the smiliest, happiest guys you're ever going to run into.
And look at him there.
Big smile.
Is that an IFL ring?
bas rutten
It's an IFL ring, but this is the paperweight.
This is not a fake one.
It's a paperweight that they gave to us.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Enzo couldn't be a nicer guy.
Couldn't be a nicer guy.
And it's so nice to see how well he's done with his school, too.
He has one of the biggest jujitsu schools in the world.
And in Manhattan, where it's so hard to be successful because it's so expensive, real estate.
bas rutten
I think the IFL had a big part in that because they did that thing on 20-20 for him, or 15 minutes, one of the two, and after that it just exploded.
Because once you get into the world of Enzo, you know, about what kind of person he is, you know, everybody likes him.
You know, even the guys like him.
So the people at home, they saw that guy and then they saw the technique and the, you know, talent.
Yeah, put hand in hand together and boom.
Anthony Bourdain trains there also as well.
His wife trains there.
Everybody trains there.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, he's done an amazing job of putting together a fantastic gym in New York City with Gary Tonin, Eddie Cummings.
So he's got these guys that are...
And John Donaher is a big part of that as well.
He's got these guys that are training there that are so successful in these jiu-jitsu competitions.
So it's not just the legacy of being one of the Gracies and being one of the most famous jiu-jitsu practitioners ever, but it's also on top of that, it's the product.
Like the The results they've gotten in competition.
bas rutten
Yeah, he's very smart.
You know, he's got a really good staff as well teaching there, which is a very important thing because most of the time guys who are really good, they want to control it too much, you know, and then it goes down.
He did a great job just getting the right guys for the job.
joe rogan
Well, it's also, you see extreme loyalty from the people that train there because they love Henzo so much.
There's like a real bond with Henzo Gracie.
Of course, Matt Serra, who came from that lineage, and then a lot of his guys as well.
Just can't say enough good things about Henzo.
bas rutten
Yeah, he's funny, Matt.
He's hilarious.
The first time looking for a fight.
joe rogan
Yeah, have you seen that show?
unidentified
The Dana White show?
You're a boat model.
You know, and Dana sits there, and then he gets all uncomfortable about sitting a certain way.
It's so funny.
joe rogan
If you haven't seen it, there's a show called Looking for a Fight, and it's Dana White, Matt Serra, and Nick the Tooth.
And what they do is they go to small MMA shows all over the world, and they see fights and find talent.
And that's where they find that kid, Mickey Gall.
unidentified
Not good.
joe rogan
Sage Northcutt as well, and then the guy who they were setting up to fight...
unidentified
Punk.
joe rogan
Yeah, CM Punk, which is, I don't know what's going to happen with that guy.
I don't understand this whole thing.
bas rutten
He's got a lot of injuries.
joe rogan
Well, I also think it's ridiculous for him to fight in the UFC. I think he should fight in a small organization.
Take a fight in a small organization, build yourself up.
I have always said that that's what should have happened with Brock Lesnar.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
I mean, if you look at Brock Lesnar as an athlete, I always said, if you took Brock Lesnar and got him to a guy like Matt Hume or Farah Sahabi and said, okay, make this guy a champ, you're dealing with a freak athlete.
bas rutten
Unreal.
joe rogan
Just train him correctly, build him up slow, get him through the ring, but he wanted to fight right away in the UFC. One fight in K1, right to the UFC, fought in that K1 LA show, and then right to the UFC. Yeah, it's a shame.
bas rutten
But it's his name.
Of course, they understand that once he fights for a pay-per-view, there's going to be a lot of people.
He's going to have a gun at a pay-per-view.
But that is short.
It's always short, like the money.
Later in your career, you regret all these things.
I'm happy I never did that.
joe rogan
Yeah, I feel like...
bas rutten
Make mistakes.
joe rogan
Well, I feel like he definitely had massive potential.
I mean, he beat Randy Couture.
I mean, that's just unbelievable.
I mean, he beat the shit out of Frank Mir.
I mean, he beat Shane Carwin in a fight.
We really had to show his resilience.
Got the fuck beat out of him in the first round.
Came back, submitted him in the second round.
So we had some legit wins against legit guys, but just wasn't ready for guys like Kane or especially Alistair.
That was a bad fight.
bas rutten
Yeah, that was a bad fight.
Well, if he could have taken it to the ground, it would have been different.
Against Couture, that was the first time that I thought, oh, hopefully now more people start doing it.
That was that crazy punch.
And with him it was because he was not super technical yet in striking, but he hit an overhand and it hit with this part of the hand with the fist.
The back of the head and couture went down.
Then when Junior Dos Santos knocked out came Velasquez like that.
I go, okay, we got it.
People finally, now they start getting it to it.
And then Velasquez did the same thing to Junior coming back.
So I figured, oh, they looked at it.
So now we're going to see this more often, but...
That was pretty much it.
You see it here and there one time, but it's not a real overhand.
Or they throw a real overhand, not with the side that hits the back of the head again, what we just talked about.
joe rogan
Yeah, almost like a ridge hand strike.
bas rutten
It's almost like a ridge hand, yep.
joe rogan
Well, you remember when Chuck Liddell used to throw that crate?
You got a Chuck Liddell sweatshirt on now.
There's new Roots of Fight ones, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I got a Boss Wooten t-shirt at home.
unidentified
Oh, you got it!
joe rogan
I just got one!
But Chuck Liddell used to throw it over the top of his head.
He would throw this crazy one, and that's how he hit Alistair when they fought in Pride.
He threw it, not circular at all, but like a 12-6 punch.
bas rutten
You know, it's a complete different punch.
That's what I tell people.
How do I say?
I always really liked the technique from Chuck.
He's also wide open, which gives him almost power equal left and right, just like Tyson.
I like to fight like that as well.
And he can hit really, really hard.
And he's not afraid about opening up.
Sometimes, though, with him...
If he gets too excited, instead of stepping back, he goes in for the kill and that got him in trouble later in his career because if he would simply step back and come back.
But that's why every person, every guy, everybody likes Chuck Liddell.
You don't look at Chuck Liddell and say, oh, he lost a couple of times by knockout.
Nobody will say that.
He did not lose one fan because he's always there to fight.
That's why I really like Chuck.
joe rogan
Yeah, he had one of the most exciting attitudes ever in fighting.
He was always do or die.
And early in his career, he had an incredible chin.
I mean, his chin was just iron.
You ever see the Pele fight when they fought in Vale Tudo in Brazil?
unidentified
Oh, no, no.
bas rutten
I heard about it, though.
unidentified
Jesus Christ!
bas rutten
Pele was crazy, too.
joe rogan
Crazy fight.
And that was a fight where they had a net under the bottom rope.
They fought in a ring, but it was modified for Valle Tudo where the bottom rope from the bottom to the floor of the ring was a net.
bas rutten
So he couldn't get out.
He couldn't slide out.
joe rogan
Yeah, and they're trapped.
Bare knuckle.
And Chuck's got him trapped in there and just beaten the fuck out of him.
Like, smooshed up there.
And this was back when, you know, Chuck was known for his striking, but he was a very good wrestler.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
Before that.
bas rutten
Yeah, that's why he stopped every day now.
joe rogan
You know, that was one of the things that, um, what the fuck was his name?
The guy who was the matchmaker for the UFC. John Peretti.
John Peretti.
John Peretti told Chuck right before he fought his first fight in the UFC. He said, if you take this guy down, you'll never fight for us again.
bas rutten
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
That's like, he said it to Chuck right before he fought.
They didn't want him to try to wrestle fuck his way.
So Chuck was like, oh, Jesus.
All right.
bas rutten
Let him out!
joe rogan
That's the debut of Chuck Liddell, you know?
bas rutten
Who knew?
You know, hey, I got great hand power.
joe rogan
Well, you know, Hackleman, you know, his trainer is also a legend, you know, and a great guy and a real wild man, too.
They were a perfect combination, you know, Hackleman and Chuck.
You know, with Chuck's early days, you know, you watch some of those fights, like the Babalu fight.
I mean, he was just a fucking destroyer.
bas rutten
That's the kick, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That was the second time they fought, right?
Wasn't it?
I don't know.
bas rutten
If we have Mauro here, he'll tell the dates, everything.
joe rogan
Well, when Mauro gets better, we'll definitely have him back here.
I would love to talk to him.
I love Mauro.
He's such a great guy.
bas rutten
He really is.
We have some crazy stories in Japan also because everything with us is fun.
We would come home, or we would come home, we would breakfast in Japan.
You know, you wake up early because of the jet lag.
We're there at 5.30 when the breakfast place opens.
We sit down and our table, we start with two.
It would be at the end 25 guys out there.
Everybody jumps to the table because it's Comedy Central.
All morning long.
All the fighters, you know, everybody's laughing.
Everybody's having a good time.
joe rogan
Well, you guys did a lot of comedy sketches, too.
There was like a lot of fun with Pride in those early days.
bas rutten
In the early days, yeah.
This was just...
That was with the Quadros.
Stephen Quadros, yeah.
They allowed us to do this.
And it all happened because I forgot my suit.
I didn't know that as a commentator, you needed to wear a suit.
So they thought I was messing with them.
And I go, no, I really didn't bring a suit.
Nobody told me to bring a suit.
So I was in my shorts, flip-flops, and I had this Hawaiian shirt on.
And that was the first one that I'm leaning back...
And there's a bunch of these geishas, they're fanning me down, they're feeding me grapes, and I'm doing, I'm talking to Steven, who is in the event, you know, we're going back and forth, and they say, hey man, we really like that, maybe we should keep doing this.
And then we start coming up at this crazy opening.
joe rogan
Well, a lot of what you were doing, it was, I don't even know if I was working for the UFC back then, but guys from Jiu Jitsu, we would all get together.
We'd either go over to my friend John's house, or we'd go over to my house, and we'd get together with a bunch of guys, and we would watch Pride.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
And oh, those were the days, man.
bas rutten
Those were the days, man.
joe rogan
Those were the days, because it was the early days of MMA. And, you know, we had had, in the 90s, you'd have the UFC, which was kind of struggling at the time, because they were kicked off a cable.
And the only way you could get it was on DirecTV.
This was pre-Zufa.
It was before Zufa bought it.
But that's like right around the time where Pride started to take off, with the first Hickson fight.
Hickson, a lot of people don't know.
Hickson started off Pride.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
Hickson was in Pride 1. Yeah, Takata.
Yeah.
bas rutten
That was the first fight.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
And then Sakuraba put him on the map by beating the Gracies.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
bas rutten
That's when it became big.
That's why I always say, you know, for Risen, for that new organism, Risen, they need a Sakuraba-like guy.
They need a Japanese guy.
They can do a few shows like this with a feather on me and ankle and now Vanderlei Silva coming back.
They can do a few shows, but eventually people want to root for their own.
You know, they need a Japanese guy.
Like Satake, you remember, in K1. Mm-hmm.
I think he won the first one, but that was before all the foreigners came.
That was an animal.
That guy also.
joe rogan
Bronco knocked out Hoost, remember that?
That guy could fucking punch.
bas rutten
I saw him fight in the Jaap Ederhall in Holland.
That was the most famous place.
Every fight was there, always.
That was one night we had...
Four guys from Thailand were there, and they were fighting all guys from Majira Gym, like Rob Kamen, Miloel Goebly.
I mean, all the great guys, all the great strikers from Meng Ho.
And it were all title fights, and they were broadcast live to Thailand.
joe rogan
Wow!
bas rutten
They all got knocked out.
unidentified
Wow!
bas rutten
Yeah, that never happened again after that.
They destroyed him.
It was awesome.
What a night.
joe rogan
That was the Holland days of the top Holland guys when right around the time where Ramon Decker started dominating and Rob Kamen started dominating, so much talent came out of Holland.
I mean, Holland is a small country.
If you look at the size of Holland, you look at the amount of high-level kickboxers that have come out of there, it's pretty incredible.
bas rutten
You know, the K1, for instance, at the end, from the final eight, they fight all year.
They make a final tournament for the people who don't understand it.
They fight ten times a year, or there's ten shows a year.
And then in December, there's the final eight, like the UFC started.
Eight fighters, the best from the whole year, compete against each other.
Whoever wins gets like $450,000, whatever the prize money is.
But they start realizing that the final eight, six were Dutch, seven were Dutch.
So now, if you're, for instance, a guy who was born in Morocco but lives in Holland, or even when you were born in Holland with Moroccan parents, you know, suddenly you come up with the Moroccan flag.
joe rogan
Right.
unidentified
Because they say, we can't have the Dutch flag the whole time.
joe rogan
Like Badr Hari.
bas rutten
I love Badr Hari.
joe rogan
Perfect example.
Yeah.
bas rutten
Roman Dekas, the first time I saw him fight, I was in the same card.
I was fighting as well.
So this is a long time ago.
It was just C-class.
You know, in Holland you have new, C-class, B-class, A-class.
And I just started, so I probably was new.
And he fought C-class, I believe.
And a friend of mine calls me, he says, you gotta watch.
I said, no, I gotta fight, I gotta warm up.
He said, you wanna watch this kid?
Watch this kid.
And I see him, and he's with a little mullet, and he is...
Skinny, and he fights this guy who's much older, he's like 16, 17 years old, an older guy with tattoos, so automatically you go, oh, man, he's gonna get killed.
And my buddy goes, just wait till he starts, you know?
And the first kick, I still remember, he kicked a guy, a low kick, and the guy He went horizontal and fell on the ground.
I'm looking at my body, I go, this is the craziest part I've ever seen.
It was so explosive and he was so skinny at the time, but his technique was perfect.
joe rogan
His technique was perfect and he was so ferocious.
Towards the end, his ankles were so fucked up that he wanted to fight southpaw because he didn't want to throw the right kick, but he would kick a few times and he would go, fuck it.
He'd go right back to it with his bad leg.
I mean, they were telling him, like, we're close to amputating your leg.
You've broken your foot so many times.
You've broken your shin.
Your whole leg is just a series of...
And he would wrap it up tight and just still.
Once the fight started, he didn't give a fuck.
He would just throw it right into elbows.
He'd kick everything.
bas rutten
Arm out of socket.
He would just place it back in the corner.
Yeah, he was an animal.
Cor Hammers, his trainer, he told me I never heard him complain.
Like he would say, oh, you know, I hurt my ankle or I hurt my hand.
He said, I never heard him say anything when he comes back like that.
He just goes like, what are you doing?
I'm putting my shoulder back in place.
unidentified
It's out of the socket.
joe rogan
It was almost like it wasn't his body.
Yeah.
Like he was using a borrowed body.
bas rutten
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
Crazy guy, man.
Super good.
You know, that's Kevin.
Kevin Redelman.
Look a freak in nature.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
I mean, he could have done any sport.
You know, guys like that.
And that's what Ramon Deckers do.
I'm happy they found fighting, though.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, Ramon Deckers really set the standard.
He really set the standard, I mean, for ferocity.
And he sort of embodied that Holland style, the Dutch style of Muay Thai, where they just, I mean, he was just a crusher.
A crusher.
bas rutten
Yeah, he was like Rob Kamen, all these guys.
What they did, what they...
The reason was they started winning fights in Thailand was because they had better hands.
They tied the hands and the kicks together.
And they didn't do that in Thailand yet.
It was predominantly only kicking.
joe rogan
Kicking and a lot of clinching.
bas rutten
And then you had Rob Kamen, who was one of the greatest kickboxers ever.
And then you suddenly...
That's the technical version.
The more smooth one.
Probably he had...
The slow twitch fibers, you know, because he, don't get me wrong, he'll knock you out with every punch.
But then you had Roman Dekkers, who was the explosive guy.
He had that technique, and he added the explosiveness to it.
joe rogan
It's like Dyson.
Recklessness, too.
bas rutten
Crazy power.
When he fights Koban the first time.
And he hits him with 26 punches.
You gotta see the shots.
Koban had 200 fights, never been knocked out in his life.
He was the first guy to do that.
And then you see after the fight, when he's down, the whole place is quiet.
Nobody moves.
unidentified
And then Rob Cameron jumps in the ring with a Dutch flag.
And he starts parading around.
joe rogan
Jamie, pull that fight up, man.
No, Rob Cameron.
Ramon Deckers versus Koban.
Koban Laksam Choytang, right?
Is that how you say it?
bas rutten
Yeah, just do Koban.
joe rogan
Just Koban.
unidentified
I always been with these Polish names, you know.
bas rutten
Okay, I call them my first name.
joe rogan
The Thai names are pretty crazy.
The amount of adverbs and adjectives they have in there.
It's like, whatever!
It's so strange.
The amount of consonants all just lumped in together.
And all these crazy names.
Here it is.
This is a different guy.
bas rutten
But just to take a little look to see what kind of power he has.
Look at that hook.
The kick, bonk.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, look at that left hook.
What Rob Kamen, the difference between Rob Kamen...
unidentified
Oh, here we go.
joe rogan
Yeah, here it is.
Rob Kamen was just more technical.
He didn't take as many chances.
He didn't get hit as much.
He was very smart, very technical when he fought.
And he's a great trainer, too.
You know, Rob Kamen was really one of the guys that was responsible for Brandon Vera early in his career.
You know, when Brandon Vera was knocking everybody dead in the UFC early in his career, he was training with Rob Kamen.
And when he stopped training with Rob Kamen is when things started, like, not going so well for him.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
Oh, this is Koban.
This is slow motion for some reason.
bas rutten
They show Koban now knocking people out, I think, so they know who Koban is.
They called him the Bufflehead.
That was his nickname because he never went down.
joe rogan
Well, he had a giant head.
See if they can show some...
bas rutten
Yeah, go a little further away.
joe rogan
Yeah, I don't want to see it in slow motion.
bas rutten
Maybe that's it where you are now.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I don't want to see it slow-mo.
I want to see them...
There we go.
Now they're actually fighting.
bas rutten
This is going to be so crazy.
The way he gives them the extra punch.
Watch in a bit.
You'll see it.
joe rogan
So, Ramon, most of the time, fought southpaw?
Is that what it was?
bas rutten
No, he fought orthodox.
joe rogan
He fought both.
bas rutten
So, most of the time, when he fights different, it's because he has an injury, like you said.
joe rogan
Oh, this is Lawrence Kenshin, who's an amazing analyst.
He does a fantastic job of breaking down fights.
His fight breakdowns are amazing, but he does a lot of it in slow motion to show technique.
So see if you can find just the actual fight instead of that video.
Definitely, if you're a fan of striking and you want to understand it a little bit better, watch Lawrence's stuff.
What is his YouTube channel?
Lawrence's YouTube channel, because we should give him some props.
unidentified
Just his name, Lawrence Kenshin.
joe rogan
He's amazing.
Lawrence is amazing.
He does such a great job of breaking down fights.
His videos are incredible, and he really deserves a lot of credit for that.
I love watching his breakdowns, especially Thai.
He loves a lot of Muay Thai, a lot of Muay Thai breakdowns.
So here's the actual fight itself.
Man, these are like, in a lot of ways, unprecedented times because the ties back in those days, we were used to karate and we were used to PKA, kickboxing.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, 10 kicks, WK. People didn't know.
joe rogan
And then when Westerners started going over to Thailand and competing against the Thais, we started seeing what high-level Muay Thai they had and their kicking technique and especially the low kicks was just devastating.
bas rutten
That was the first.
The American champions here, when they came, when they lost, it was low kicks.
joe rogan
Yeah, but remember when Rufus went and fought?
And it's kind of funny because Duke Rufus talks about it, he kind of laughs about it now, that they were saying when his brother got fucked up, I forget who his brother fought, but he got lit up with leg kicks and stopped, and Duke was like, well, there's not a lot of technique to that, and, you know, I don't think there's much, it doesn't take much talent.
It takes a lot of fucking talent.
unidentified
It takes a lot of talent.
joe rogan
They didn't know you.
bas rutten
Now watch this.
Look at these hands.
Bang, bang, bang!
unidentified
Look at this!
This is it!
joe rogan
Ramon Decker's in his prime!
Look at Coban gets up!
bas rutten
Wait, the finishing punch he's gonna give.
Watch.
One, two, three...
joe rogan
Oh my god, the fucking power in his hands!
How tough was Coban?
Look at him.
unidentified
He's out on his feet.
joe rogan
He's walking forward.
They're giving him a standing eight count.
bas rutten
The last right hand.
Watch that.
This is going to be so badass.
joe rogan
It's amazing how much Coban could take, though.
unidentified
Oh, move.
bas rutten
This one.
joe rogan
Oh!
bas rutten
That's it.
Incredible.
unidentified
Now watch.
bas rutten
Look at the audience.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
There's only Dutch guys.
Everybody is quiet.
unidentified
Yeah, man.
bas rutten
And then you see Cayman coming in.
Odess came in and he's gonna get the flag.
unidentified
I remember.
joe rogan
Man, how fucking tough was Koban, too, to take those shots?
bas rutten
A lot of people lost a lot of money there.
joe rogan
I mean, there's not a whole lot of people on the planet that are his weight that would have taken those punches.
As many as he took, clean to the face, and you saw...
Yeah, he's got the flag.
And Ramon Deckers was just teeing off, full power.
I mean, winging those shots in on him too, man.
This core hammer.
bas rutten
Such a scary guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, man.
Glory days.
bas rutten
Well, he's up there now with Kevin, so they're having a blast.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
bas rutten
Sean Tompkins.
joe rogan
He died young as well.
He died a heart attack while he was riding his bike.
bas rutten
His bike, yeah.
joe rogan
What was that?
Did they know what happened?
bas rutten
No, they first thought maybe he fell, but it was his heart.
And he's also, because we've all been crazy, we all liked going, pushing limits, you know?
We were drinking with everything, but he was totally like a year nothing.
We started cycling, and I knew, you know, once he starts something, and he loved cycling, I mean, this guy is going to go 50 miles an hour.
I know he's going to, because that's who he is.
He can't stop being the best at everything he does.
So I thought...
joe rogan
So he wasn't just riding his bike.
unidentified
No, no.
joe rogan
He was probably going crazy with it.
bas rutten
Yeah.
That's his attitude.
joe rogan
He's such a fucking animal.
Such an animal.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
He probably pushed himself to his heart broke.
bas rutten
And also when you see him, you know, all the punishment he got in time with all the cuts on his forehead.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
You know, he looks really badass.
unidentified
When you look at him, you go like, oh yeah, that's...
bas rutten
Yeah, I want that.
joe rogan
Well, I remember when he fought Dwayne Ludwig towards the end of his career.
I mean, his face was flattened out, his massive scar tissue all over his eyes, his nose was flattened out.
I mean, he took a lot of punches.
I don't think anybody's face changed more than Vanderlei's, though.
His face got flattened.
I mean, you look at Vandele during the old Valley Tudo days and then Vandele towards the end in Pride.
I mean, it changed his face.
bas rutten
Didn't they do surgery with the cheekbones like Nick Diaz did, you know, to make him flatter or something?
joe rogan
Once he was in the UFC. They not only did that, they took cartilage out of his rib and reconstructed his nose.
And Vandele had his nose made big so that he could get more air in.
I mean, it looked crazy because his nose looks very different than it used to look.
Like, I remember the first time I saw him was on the way...
He was, like, for the weigh-ins.
He wasn't fighting.
He was with someone else.
And he came up the stage, and I didn't know who the fuck it was.
bas rutten
Yeah, you didn't recognize him.
joe rogan
I didn't know who it was.
bas rutten
Oh, that is scary.
joe rogan
And someone said, that's Vanderlei.
And I went, what?!
unidentified
What?
joe rogan
Because he had just gotten the surgery, so his face was pulled tight, his eyebrows were pulled tight, and his nose was big!
It was like he had his nose made much larger with a big piece of cartilage so they could take punches.
bas rutten
Oh, yeah, you see?
That's the same with the stupid ears, you know, with those cauliflower ears.
I suck them out.
Three times a day, you got to stab through it, and you need a big syringe and a large needle, because I do not want to have those ears.
And they go, oh no, they're considerate trophies.
I go, okay, good for you.
Not for me.
joe rogan
I always wore ear guards.
I have little tiny pieces of it here and there, but I always wore ear guards.
It's just not smart.
It affects your hearing.
Like, it looks cool, but it affects the way...
The reason the ear is designed that way is so the sound echoes off the outside of the ear and you can hear better.
Like, if you take your ear, like folks who don't have cauliflower ear, take your ear, go over the top of your ear and bend it down.
That's what those guys are hearing like all the time.
Like, Randy?
Randy can't even use iPhone ear pods, those ear plugs, those little things.
unidentified
Yeah, they can't put them in.
bas rutten
I had a guy also, yeah.
They walk around with the Bluetooth, and I said, how can you listen to that thing?
joe rogan
I mean, it's a thing.
bas rutten
It's not even an ear.
joe rogan
Well, Randy told me, too, what happens, what it is, is calcification.
So when your ear breaks and bleeds, if you don't drain it, it actually turns to calcium.
bas rutten
The blood turns hard out.
joe rogan
So it's like a bone.
So what Randy would do is get on top of guys and grind his ear into their eyeball.
He would get his ear, like when he's taking guys down, he would shove his ear, right?
It's like he had a rock on his head.
bas rutten
There's something very wrong with this guy.
joe rogan
There it is, yeah.
bas rutten
Look at that, yeah.
And just as people know at home, a really tiny surgery can fix this right away.
I mean, they can fix this in 10 minutes.
joe rogan
One of Eddie Bravo's black belts, Brent, he had it done.
He had his ear cut, and then they pulled it back, and they pulled the stuff out.
But it can get very dangerous, too.
You can get some infections in there.
Like, you remember Dave Terrell?
bas rutten
Yeah, I remember.
joe rogan
Dave Terrell had his ear fucking removed.
He had his ear removed and he had to cauterize the inside of his ear.
Because his infections were so bad that it was fucking with his equilibrium, his balance was off.
The whole inside of his ear was just pus and infections.
bas rutten
The Kimbo against James Thompson fight, when they called it like a satellite was hanging and he hits it and you see the blood splintering.
joe rogan
Well, he went in there with, I mean, he didn't, not only did he not drain it, it was like a recent blood.
It was like he had a mouse living in his ear.
bas rutten
Yeah, it was big.
joe rogan
Oh, that was nasty.
bas rutten
And then he hits it.
joe rogan
That was nasty.
bas rutten
Yeah, splatter.
joe rogan
Well, probably no one's worse than Jessica Ai versus Laura Smith.
Was it Laura Smith?
What was her name?
bas rutten
The counselor, Leslie.
joe rogan
Leslie Smith, thank you.
And Jessica I hits her in ear and you see the blood shoot straight up in the air from her ear.
It was insane.
bas rutten
It would be crazy if she hits, she sees the blood flying and I go...
Try to catch it.
That means your opponent is crazy.
joe rogan
You can see it right there.
Look at that.
unidentified
It's insane.
joe rogan
And half of her ear was hanging off her head.
And by the way, how tough is Leslie Smith?
Because Leslie Smith was mad that they stopped the fight.
She had a fucking hole that you could see her brain.
bas rutten
Oh, I've always been a big fan of Leslie Smith.
That's her nickname, right?
The Gunslinger or something?
What is her nickname?
Something like Western.
joe rogan
I don't know.
I don't know her nickname.
bas rutten
But it fits her because she's that tough.
joe rogan
And Jessica just started targeting that one spot over and over again.
Oh, it was disgusting.
That was a nasty ear, man.
That was a bad one.
bas rutten
Yeah, I never got that, people.
You see, I will be too nice at that moment.
I won't hit that ear anymore.
Because people go like...
Hit the air again, they go by.
unidentified
The Peacemaker?
bas rutten
The Peacemaker, see?
Well, that's Clint Eastwood.
I thought about Clint Eastwood.
unidentified
The Peacemaker.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
I got a sick shot here.
joe rogan
Well, women's MMA is really heating up right now, right?
With Joanna Janjacek.
bas rutten
Oh, I love her.
unidentified
Woo!
joe rogan
She's fun, man.
That chick is wild.
She breaks her hands a lot, too, unfortunately.
She's broke her hands in two UFC fights so far.
bas rutten
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In the first runs, right?
In the last fight.
That's why she couldn't finish, she said.
Total animal.
joe rogan
Yeah, she's tough as shit.
bas rutten
I love also the way she gets in their head, you know, at the way into looking, that story behind her.
joe rogan
She gets low and looks at her from below.
She's dangerous.
She's dangerous.
But Klaja Gadea is a fucking beast, too.
That's a great fight.
And they're going to coach alongside each other.
They're going to coach on the Ultimate Fighter, and then they're going to fight.
And they're going to fight the day before the big July UFC 200 card.
bas rutten
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, so they're going to have the finals on Friday, where the Ultimate Fighter finals, and then they're going to fight for the title.
Ioana Jacek and Claudia Gadea, and then they're going to have the big 200 card, which they don't even know exactly who's going to fight in the 200 card.
I mean, that's July, so a lot depends on Conor McGregor vs.
Dos Anjos.
bas rutten
Now, this, just for Joanna, I would want to see the Ultimate Fighter now.
You know, because that's going to be interesting, because her personality, I think, is going to make it.
And Cadella also, I mean, it's an animal.
joe rogan
Well, they fought, and it was a split decision.
bas rutten
A split decision.
joe rogan
Very close fight.
bas rutten
And the way Cadella looks, right, her body, it's also like a machine.
joe rogan
Very good Muay Thai, too, but really good ground game.
So the question is, was she going to be able to get it to the ground?
Because Joanna hurt her in the first round, knocked her down, and won that round.
But a lot of people thought that Claudia might have won the second and third.
So it was a very close fight.
Very controversial and very tightly disputed fight.
So I think the rematch is going to be very exciting.
I'm looking forward to that.
bas rutten
Who's Jay Drejcik work with for wrestling?
joe rogan
That's a good question.
That's a good question.
I don't know who her wrestling coach is.
But I think she does a lot of her work in Poland, you know, because she lives in Poland.
So, I mean, there's so many good European wrestling coaches.
You know, Europe and wrestling, there's a lot of great, like, especially, they bring in a lot of Eastern Bloc wrestlers, a lot of Russian wrestlers.
Like, that's how George St. Pierre got so good.
The Russian nationals who are training up in Montreal.
So technical, too.
You know, those guys, the Russian style of wrestling is so technical, so drill-oriented, you know.
There's so many really high-level...
I mean, look at what's happening now in the UFC with all these Sambo guys, these high-level grapplers.
Like, well, first of all, you've got Habib Nurmagomedov, who's one of the best in the lightweight division.
But he's another one that has a hard time staying healthy.
Mm-hmm.
bas rutten
But you think it's the training or you think it's just the person?
joe rogan
Who knows?
It could be both.
He's such a fucking animal.
You see the way he fights.
You gotta think he trains that way.
The way he fights is just so grinding.
He's so fucking attacking and relentless like a badger, you know?
So, who knows?
bas rutten
I was guilty of that as well.
I trained really hard.
When I hear stories, I hear fighters saying, oh, we go, like, on Fridays we spar, like 70%.
And I go, and?
And they say, no, that's it.
I say, that's it for sparring, yeah.
I go, wow!
And they always ask, so how many times do you do it?
I say, every workout, because that's what we're going to do.
And we're going to try to...
I'll try to hurt your legs.
Well, if you have to fight, I won't.
And your body.
I will go with kickstand.
I expect them also to go hard with me.
And the head.
Yeah, of course, we watch out for the head.
We don't knock each other out too much.
joe rogan
Too much.
bas rutten
Too much.
Because it happens as well, right?
joe rogan
It's inevitable.
bas rutten
But that's why I didn't fight for seven years when I did that 2006 fight.
I felt great.
They say, no ring rust?
I say, no, because we're doing it two times a day.
We're trying.
We're training hard.
And if you're used to it, it's the same as a fight.
I mean, if they go hard, that's a fight.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, it's very similar if you train like that.
Some people feel like, I mean, that's one of the ideas behind hard training is that when you train hard, you fight hard, and it becomes normal to you.
But then other people think, well, you really should just train technical like a lot of the Thais do.
They train more technical and more light with their sparring, and the hard work is all pad work and bag work.
So there's people that think, like, that's the way to save yourself.
Like, Wonderboy says that.
He says he spars very light.
Because he wants to preserve his chin, wants to preserve his head.
It's like he saves the hard work for the bag and for fights.
bas rutten
I used to train a lot with my buddy Amir, Amir Peretz, the Navy SEAL guy from Israel.
And he's the one guy who could hang with me, I mean stamina wise, because I will not knock him out, but we will go hard, people who see us, They think it's out of control, but it's not at all.
So it's also about who you train with.
If one day your steady sparring partner is sick and somebody else pops up and you don't know that guy and that guy tries to make a name for himself, that's when you get the injuries.
But I truly believe in going hard.
How many times do you see...
It really angers me if I see guys in a clinch kneeing other people and they knee them like they knee in training.
They just lift their legs.
Nobody gives a real knee.
Look at Joanna when she makes a knee.
That's a different story.
joe rogan
Or Alistair.
bas rutten
Explode in there.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
Go full blast.
Alistair's knee is devastating.
Or the knees to the thighs.
It's not going to do anything if you do it like that.
If you do one hard one, It's worse than a low kick.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
Because they don't expect it.
The muscle is relaxing.
It goes straight through.
But nobody does it.
Yeah, there's a few.
I mean, we're talking about 1% of the fighters.
joe rogan
But isn't it, though, like all techniques?
Like some guys just aren't that good at certain techniques.
They just don't have the kind of pop.
Like you'll see guys throw kicks, and there's just nothing to them.
And it's not that they're not trying.
It's that they don't have the looseness of the hips.
They don't have that sort of snap into the kicks.
bas rutten
No.
Most of the time, it's just technique.
If you train your legs and you put like 10-pound ankle weights and you just start throwing knees from zero, don't make it a bouncing...
Like sit-ups.
I can do a thousand sit-ups as long as I use momentum to get back up.
That's the problem that a lot of guys do.
They do the knees.
It's all momentum.
Stand still.
Explode.
Stand still.
Explode.
And the trick also with knees is to move your hips away from your partner.
Same as with the straight punch.
The longer the knee is on its way, the more power it's going to have.
And these guys, they don't.
They actually, they teach, throw your hips in with a knee to the body.
It's the dumbest thing to do.
It's like me giving you a straight punch and closing the distance.
I'm jamming myself.
You don't want to do Free it up.
Let the hip flexor do the work.
And at the moment you connect, yeah, that's when you want to push your weight in.
unidentified
Right.
bas rutten
You see?
But a lot of guys don't do it like that.
They just knee like they do in training, in sparring.
joe rogan
Do you get frustrated at when, I mean, obviously there's some very high-level training going on in MMA. Some very high-level training.
But there's also some training where you see these guys, like, they're just not really prepared correctly.
bas rutten
Yeah.
Well, kicking in the balls.
You know, the inside low kick.
90% when it happens, it's just because the guy doesn't know how to kick.
joe rogan
Because he's kicking up.
bas rutten
He's kicking up.
His right foot, if he kicks with the left, his right foot, his toes, I guarantee you, pointing straight to the opponent.
What they need to do is open that foot.
Let the toes point to the side.
And then the angle is much easier to kick.
You will never have that problem.
These are just guys who don't know how to kick, and that's why they kick in the pills.
joe rogan
Well, it's interesting because that kick to the balls is so much more common in MMA than it is in Muay Thai.
Or in glory.
bas rutten
Because they know.
joe rogan
Exactly.
You know, we were talking about Glory getting, before this podcast started, we were talking about Glory getting picked up by Fight Pass.
bas rutten
Oh, man.
joe rogan
How exciting that is.
Glory right now is so good.
There's so much high-level kickboxing talent in the world, and now that, you know, Glory picked up, it's showtime, and K1's not really around anymore.
I mean, Glory's the game.
bas rutten
It's the game.
joe rogan
That's it.
bas rutten
You got the best guys on the planet.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
You know, Gokun Saki even, yeah, he got injured now.
What happened to him?
What happened to him?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I just found out.
Mauro told me because he was going to maybe do that show.
I think maybe now it's Ron Kruk falling in for him.
But Saki, that's a guy who was like Tyson and that's what I teach a lot.
Double rights, double left punches.
You know, everybody has a pattern.
The fight that really upset me is Pacquiao against Mayweather.
Raywater is hanging against the ropes.
Pacquiao is just unloading.
But everything is left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right.
Now, if you take a Mike Tyson, suddenly he throws in a left uppercut liver shot or a spleen right uppercut, double right, double left.
You mix that into a pattern.
Because if you throw a boxer in the corner and you start unloading on him with right, left, right, left, right, left punch, that's a pattern.
They just punch, yeah.
But if you go left, right, left, right, left.
Left.
And you change the second punch as well.
Like a three shot with a left hook and then you go to the body while keep looking in his eyes or a left uppercut.
Change the angle of the punch but use the same arm.
That's when you get really effective and you see this in boxing and Thai boxing.
Everybody who does it is really effective at it yet He didn't do it.
They got paid $80 million and $180 million.
You would expect to do that.
You had a shoulder injury.
That doesn't prevent him from throwing a double left or a double right.
Mike Tyson, spleen right uppercut.
I think he knocked six guys out like that.
unidentified
Bang!
Bang!
bas rutten
Over.
joe rogan
Unusual patterns.
bas rutten
Yep, that's it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Did you ever see the, well, John Wayne Parr has got a fucking amazing highlight reel, but I put one of them on my Instagram page the other day, where he hits this guy with like seven uppercuts in a row with the right side, just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
Like, you can't prepare, you don't know the guy's gonna do that!
bas rutten
I do this yesterday in my class.
Double right uppercut, left.
People don't know.
I had Hector Pena.
He had three left uppercuts.
And the third one, the guy fell already down.
He hit him on the way down.
Three left uppercuts.
joe rogan
Here's the John Wayne Parr highlight.
I love this highlight.
Look at this.
Boom, boom, boom.
He's an animal.
bas rutten
If one is good, two is better.
joe rogan
John Wayne Parr is a wild motherfucker.
bas rutten
Yeah, he really is.
joe rogan
Great guy, too.
bas rutten
Total animal.
He also came up with that striking organization where he lives with MMA gloves, pretty much, right?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's his.
Cage Muay Thai.
I love that combination.
bas rutten
I never got anybody who doesn't do that.
Why they don't do that here?
joe rogan
Well, they should, and maybe he can bring it to the United States.
But, you know, what he wanted to do was have, like, Cage...
Like, he likes the cage.
He likes the fact that you're trapped in there, and he likes the small gloves.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
So he's like, let's just do this and fuck the ground game.
Let's just strike like that.
I love a guy like that.
Yeah, he's a wild guy, man.
He's fun.
Have you ever seen the pictures of his face, like how many times he's been stitched up?
bas rutten
Oh, no, I can only imagine.
joe rogan
There's a picture of John Wayne Parr's face after one of his fights where his entire face is like a road map of stitches.
It's fucking crazy.
See if you can find that picture because it's one of those pictures you just look at and you start shaking your head and blinking like, what the fuck?
His whole face is like patched together.
Look at this photograph.
Look at this.
unidentified
Oh!
Jesus Christ!
It's real!
joe rogan
Yes!
bas rutten
That is the craziest thing!
joe rogan
It's one fight.
It's one fight.
His entire face.
bas rutten
Oh, was it Thai guy or what?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
unidentified
Elbows.
joe rogan
He got just the shit elbowed out of him.
Wow!
It's such an insane photo.
bas rutten
Leather face.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He's over 300 stitches in his face.
300. Wow.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
Well, the ears are still good.
At least he doesn't have the cauliflower.
joe rogan
He's got a little cauliflower in his left one.
unidentified
He's been hit there as well.
joe rogan
Yeah, from shots.
Not really from grappling.
He fought one MMA fight, but he's just never really trained grappling.
It's not really his thing.
But as Muay Thai goes, I trained with him.
I got a chance to work out with him and learn some techniques from him.
Everything he throws is with power.
The way he When he throws a jab, he pulls the right hand back as he throws the jab.
He doesn't just jab like a boxer would throw a jab.
The way he jabs, he's like pulling back the right and stepping forward.
He's like...
Everything he throws is designed to kill you.
bas rutten
Yes, but that's my thing also.
I like it like that.
Everything you throw...
When you said in the beginning, I kick somebody and you see their faces, and I don't care if they block it.
I just kick as hard as I can on the defense, just to get inside their heads that they know that, you better block this kick.
Because next time, if you're not blocking it, it's going to be a problem.
And then you start breaking your opponent down mentally.
Hit him, hold the hands up high, just hit as hard as you can on the hands.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
A lot of guys don't do that.
They truly believe that this is enough defense for like a right hook.
It's not.
It's like me putting on a helmet.
I say this in seminars, at seminars.
I say, okay, imagine I would tape a focus mitt to my face and you can give me a straight punch or a hook.
You think I go down.
And everybody goes, yeah, of course you're going to go down.
I say, so why is everybody doing this?
You make yourself one with your head.
I'm just going to hit your hand as hard as I can.
You will still go down.
But what happens in the mind of a fighter, as soon as I hit you and I see your hand going up, automatically I let my power off because it's like, oh, it's defended.
But if you just don't care or close line him, like I said in the beginning, he'll go straight through.
joe rogan
Yeah, well you started throwing kicks in the Pancrase days, I remember, you know, because I came from a kicking background, there was not that many good kickers in MMA. Before Maurice Smith fought Conan, we really didn't see that many head kick KOs in MMA. Yep.
And especially against a black belt.
When Maurice fought Conan Silveira, it was the first time.
That was in...
No, it was in that other one.
It was in the John Peretti organization, wasn't it?
Oh, Battlekade?
Battlekade?
Extreme fighting?
Yeah, extreme fighting.
Yeah, and that was the first time I was like, okay, now we're finally seeing a guy who can throw some kicks in MMA. But the first time really was you and Pancrase, because you would, and they make you wear those crazy boots.
You had like wrestling shoes on with a big boot shin and in-step.
bas rutten
Slash thing, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, but you still went slow.
Glam that kick into their arms.
Nobody wants to hold pads for a guy like that.
Forget about getting it on your raw arm.
bas rutten
It's a great way to go into a fight because you know you're capable of doing that.
So you only have to connect.
If you know that you only have to connect, just wait and connect.
I'm not the guy who likes to get hit.
I don't mind, but I'd rather not.
So I just use movement.
And then just explode at moments that you need to explode.
joe rogan
How many fighters are you training right now?
Do you train any active guys?
bas rutten
No.
I train a few guys at my gym, but I've been traveling a lot now, so the coaches that I have at my gym are training them, but we got only three pros and then a bunch of amateur guys.
joe rogan
So you're still doing inside MMA with Ken.
And you do World Series of Fighting still?
bas rutten
World Series of Fighting, actually this weekend coming up on, what is it?
Saturday, this Saturday on NBCSN. Really?
joe rogan
Okay, nice.
bas rutten
Yeah, Moraes is fighting again.
joe rogan
He's very talented.
bas rutten
I like his footwork too.
joe rogan
That's a guy that people sleep on.
They don't really realize how talented that guy is.
And it's unfortunate that World Series of Fighting is not getting as much attention as it deserves.
bas rutten
Yeah, well, there's a lot of MMA out there now.
You know, it's very hard to pull...
Eyeballs, too.
But it's the same with Glory.
Glory doesn't have the eyeballs, which blows me away because if there's something exciting, you know, it's a Glory event.
joe rogan
And that Justin Gagey kid, too.
bas rutten
Oh, what an animal, eh?
joe rogan
Fucking savage.
bas rutten
Yeah, he's...
joe rogan
He's fun.
That guy's fun.
bas rutten
He's fun to watch.
You know...
He should tone a little down, I'll always say, but maybe it's his fight style and he just wants to go.
Because sometimes he gets hit hard, and I think eventually, we had that with Clay Guida, you know, like fighters, eventually it's going to break.
Yeah, something's going to give.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can only get hit hard and just walk through things so much until eventually your body doesn't cooperate anymore.
bas rutten
And then, most of the time, once that happens, it's going to happen a lot.
joe rogan
So there's a lot of crazy shit going on right now in MMA. The big one, to me, the one that I'm most excited about is March 5th.
Conor McGregor vs.
Dos Santos.
That is a fucking crazy fight.
First of all, who the hell has ever been like Conor?
The best shit-talker of all time.
Hilarious.
bas rutten
I'm in love with that guy.
I... I love him.
I love everything about him.
We had him on the show.
He's funny.
You know, everything he does, every speech he does, it's different.
It's not like he's repeating everything I do.
Like, if I do an interview before, and it's about, let's say, a movie, you know, you say the same thing over and over again.
But he doesn't.
joe rogan
No.
bas rutten
You know?
And he doesn't really use profanity as well, so it keeps it clean, but very...
Imposing.
joe rogan
Very hot, yeah.
You can use it on television.
bas rutten
Oh, so great, you know.
joe rogan
How about when he wore the El Chapo shirt?
bas rutten
Oh, how crazy is he?
Who does that?
But you see, but he gets in everybody's head.
That's why he beat Aldo.
You could tell.
You could simply tell.
Everybody could say, oh, no, I'm used to that.
I grew up on the streets.
Rafael Dos Anjos says that also.
I say, eventually, it's going to come through.
You know, you've got to start doing something back.
You know, there's a few fun things that you always can do.
joe rogan
Dos Anjos...
It's not engaging him.
I like the way Dos Anjos is handling it.
He's just letting him talk, and he's like, when we fight, this will not matter.
He's just solid and stoic.
I think he's also learning the lesson of how Aldo sort of got rattled by it, and he's not going to get rattled.
I think Dos Anjos is a different guy.
Look at this.
unidentified
He's even doing the Chapo pose.
joe rogan
Chapo was shaking hands with Sean Penn in that picture.
He's so fucking crazy.
I love him.
God, that guy's fucking awesome.
bas rutten
He's hilarious.
joe rogan
And he can fucking fight.
bas rutten
And he can fight.
Great reflexes.
I mean, his timing is really good.
He's using his reach really well.
joe rogan
And the way Faraz Zahabi described his left hands.
Faraz Zahabi, by the way, did an amazing breakdown.
If you're listening to this, go to YouTube.
Faraz Zahabi, who, in my mind, is one of the true great masters of MMA training.
He did an amazing breakdown of this fight.
But the way he describes Conor, he's like he's got the touch of death in that left hand.
And it's true.
He just lights guys up with that left hand.
bas rutten
Plus, it's laser-guided, you know?
It's on target.
It's not just, he just doesn't hit the head.
He won't hit your jaw.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's so accurate.
unidentified
Great timing.
joe rogan
So accurate and so beautiful with his footwork.
The way he slid out of the way of Aldo's advance and just dropped that left hand in.
bas rutten
But, you know, RDA, this guy, you know, in the beginning, I go, he's always under the radar, right?
And suddenly, boom, he's there, and he's just beating everybody.
I mean, Cerrone, I never expected that.
joe rogan
He's a monster.
bas rutten
Yeah, he really is.
joe rogan
Well, a lot of what's going on, too, is his conditioning is off the charts.
He's working with Nick Kurson, who's one of the disciples of Marv Marinovich, and they've got him doing these crazy, explosive plyometric drills and all these footwork drills, and if you've ever seen his training routine, you're realizing they got a fucking oxygen mask on him, and he's throwing body shots on the bag.
It's all this incredible, brutal breakdown for strength and conditioning, so that he could really go five rounds like that.
bas rutten
There's no such thing as having enough stamina.
That's what I always tell everybody.
There's no such thing.
You got to go all the way.
That's why I trained so hard because I don't want to have that.
I had the experience in Thai boxing one time when I ran out of gas.
It's not fun.
And especially in longer rounds and with an opponent seeing, you know, he goes, is he getting tired?
Now they get wings.
You know, they turn it on and you're in a bad spot there.
joe rogan
It's the worst thing in the world to see an opponent notice that you're tired and he's not and he's coming after you and he starts dropping low kicks on you and punching you in the face and you can't do anything.
Your body's not cooperating.
bas rutten
And it gets worse because then your breathing starts going wrong.
The breathing pattern is not relaxed anymore.
You have to start flexing because the punches are coming.
It'll take your stamina even more away.
joe rogan
Stamina is a weapon.
Stamina is a weapon.
It really is.
I mean look at Nick Diaz who is a guy who fought So many guys and outworked them.
I mean the Frank Shamrock fight is a perfect example of that fight.
He just kept popping them with punches, like 50% punches, but he's hitting them and he can't breathe.
Because when a person is punching you, even if they're punching you and it's not full blast, you're still tightening up.
So you don't get a chance to breathe, and Nick Diaz just doesn't get tired.
He does ultramarathons.
The fucking guy swam from Alcatraz twice.
He's in incredible shape.
He's done triathlons.
I don't know if he's done ultramarathons.
He'll probably take that back.
But swimming from Alcatraz is a fucking crazy endeavor.
And he's done it twice.
bas rutten
Well, Pettis, for instance, I thought he was never going to lose, and the only times he was losing was against guys with great stamina, you know, Clay Guida and an RDA, who just keep pushing the fight.
joe rogan
Yeah, with grappling.
Grappling with Guida.
Yeah, I think physically, Pettis is not strong enough for those guys.
Guys like Dos Anjos that just put it to him, or Eddie Alvarez who just put it to him.
They turn it into one of those grueling wrestling matches.
I think his takedown defense is pretty good, and I think his grappling is not bad.
He won the title with an armbar against Spencer Henderson.
But I just think physically, when it comes to these grueling exchanges, I just don't know if he's physically strong enough to fight that kind of fight with Lega Dos Anjos.
Or even Eddie Alvarez in that fight.
bas rutten
Yeah, well, footwork again.
He's going to need a lot of footwork.
Like a Marais.
He stops takedowns.
Well, he doesn't even stop and just moves out of the way.
joe rogan
Moves out of the way and lights guys up, too.
And his power, too.
That's a big thing.
And Pettis has a lot of power, too.
I mean, I'm not counting Pettis out.
Pettis could easily come back and win the title again.
I mean, he's a monster.
bas rutten
I never expected him to lose.
I thought, because he's this complete package.
Here we see a great striker, great submissions, takedown defense.
I go, okay, this is the guy.
Put him on the weedy box.
joe rogan
He put away Cerrone even better and more impressive than Dos Anjos.
bas rutten
Yeah, that was the craziest thing.
joe rogan
Dos Anjos, he hurt Cerrone and battered him up against the cage, but I thought the stoppage was so weird because he looked at the referee and he's telling the referee to stop the fight and Dos Anjos has Cerrone, Cerrone's turtled up and he's still covering up.
I don't know when a fight should be stopped in that situation.
When a guy gets hurt to the body, he's obviously hurt, but Dos Anjos is hitting him and Cowboy's covering up.
When do you stop a fight?
If a guy's covering up and you're hitting his arms and he's trying to get back up to his feet, when does a fight get stopped?
When is it okay?
Because some referees wouldn't have stopped the fight.
Here's a perfect example.
Chris Weidman versus Luke Rockhold.
When Luke Rockhold got on top of Chris Weidman at the end of the round and was beating the fuck out of him, I was saying they should stop that fight.
He's not defending himself.
But that's not the same as the Cowboy Cerrone-Dos Angeles fight.
I'm like, man, that was a little bit of a more controversial stoppage.
bas rutten
Yeah, because it's still under the defense.
Yeah.
No, they shouldn't stop.
What else is he going to do?
joe rogan
If he doesn't cover up, he's going to get hit with a punch.
So he's got to cover up.
And when you're covering up and the guy's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, there's not a lot you can do.
Because you've got to put your hand down to get up.
And if you put your hand down to get up, you're going to get tagged.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
So it's almost like a guy can have a fight stopped without you being in real trouble.
Although Cowboy was certainly in trouble.
But it's a weird little kind of a...
It's so subjective.
It's up to the referee to decide.
bas rutten
It's a very hard decision.
That's why I don't want to be a referee.
It's a very hard...
joe rogan
It's a worse job.
bas rutten
It really is.
It's never good.
You're never great.
But you're there for the safety of the fighters.
If they don't, you know, they're on the ground, they don't defend them, I say stop right away.
If they really, because they don't, that's why they're doing it.
unidentified
Right.
bas rutten
I mean, you know how, like a big John, he tells me, and I've seen him doing it against the fighters in the dressing room, he'll tell them, do not come to me after the fight, that if you lay on the ground and a guy hits you and you're just bugging up, I will stop the fight.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
And he says it two or three times.
Do not come to me after the fight and complain about it, because you know right now, improve your position.
And sometimes you don't see that.
Also with, for instance, guillotine attempts, or you see guys who defend the guillotine, like a standing still.
And I go, don't defend the guillotine, you know, go for position.
Make sure that you get close, you hold a hand, make sure he doesn't jump guard, because if you defend, well, look at Pat Miletic against Hansel Gracie in the IFL. He's defending the choke, and he jumps guard.
Now he's got him.
Ronda Rousey against Karmouche.
You know, she's got a crazy crank on her head.
And instead of defending, people say, oh, defend, defend.
No, no, she didn't.
She's in position.
She grabbed the foot, feet, unlocked the feet, and she got out.
joe rogan
She took a chance.
bas rutten
She took a chance.
And that's what people should do.
On the ground also, they said to me, yeah, but if they hit you, I said, escape.
Buck up, move to this.
If you buck up, they're gonna have to look for balance.
Make sure they never sit on your chest.
Push him always to your belly.
If you can push him to your belly, you hold the knees and you push yourself upwards.
Same result, he's sitting on your belly.
But you gotta go, you gotta move.
How easy is it for you, if somebody mounts you to go to put him in at least a half guard?
joe rogan
Well, you got to train that.
bas rutten
It's real easy, right?
joe rogan
I think a lot of guys don't train off their back that much.
bas rutten
It's the craziest thing.
It drives me nuts.
Get them in the guard, man.
Mount position, it shouldn't even be happening.
Go to the side.
Mount position, when they can stop you, it's only when they stretch you out, they hook their feet, but then there's not a lot they can do.
Because you just stopped their arms.
joe rogan
Well, it's interesting when you see different levels of their game off their back, like Brian Ortega.
Have you been watching that guy fight?
Jesus fucking Christ, his triangles are good.
His guard game is so good, and he's one of those guys, he's like a gold standard for how to fight off your back.
When they get him on his back, he is just attacking, attacking.
You're not going to get him stagnant where he's just lying there waiting for the referee to stand him back up.
bas rutten
That's it.
joe rogan
And when you've got that kind of a ground game off your back, it's a totally new dimension for your opponents.
They're used to taking a guy down and maybe throwing some body punches.
With him, you're fucking defending.
bas rutten
Defending the whole time.
joe rogan
Legs are up on your neck, and you've got to try to posture up and get out of there.
That's the gold standard, and that's what everybody should aspire to, to have that kind of a dangerous ground game.
bas rutten
Yep, that's why I thought, for instance, Johnny Hendricks versus...
joe rogan
Wonderboy?
bas rutten
No, no, no.
Oh, my God.
How can I forget him?
Carlos Condit?
Carlos Condit, the national ball, I was going to say.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
I mean, I thought Condit won that because he's constantly attacking on the ground, you know?
And if somebody's on top of you and he hits you once every time, that shouldn't count.
If the strike on the feet, if it...
If it goes to a decision and nobody gets really hurt, but the guy who's constantly attacking is going to win the fight, right?
unidentified
Right.
bas rutten
Okay, so why doesn't that count on the ground?
joe rogan
Yeah, I agree.
Just because the guy's on top doesn't mean he's winning.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
How about the fact that that's how you won the title versus Kevin Randeman?
bas rutten
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Randeman took you down.
bas rutten
That was not even with submission attempts.
joe rogan
Exactly.
bas rutten
But like, man, there was...
joe rogan
Well, Randeman took you down and you just kept attacking from your back.
bas rutten
Yeah, that's what McCarthy said later, I didn't put him back on the feet because Bas was working from his back.
That was the reason they didn't put us back on the feet.
But you know, if you have guys like Carlos Conant or what you saw a lot at Pride also, great groundwork and they're constantly attacking and then they get rewarded for that after the fight.
They actually win the fight.
And it should be.
Because people go, yeah, but the defense is also...
No, no, it's not about the defense.
Same as the strike.
It's not about that.
You know, it's about the guy who takes the chances.
Because we all know if you have somebody in the guard, you go for an anbar, there's a high possibility he's going to be in side mount now.
That's the worst position for you.
So you're taking risks.
And if you're willing to take those risks, they should be...
Rewarded.
joe rogan
Well, I also like pride.
I like that 10-minute first round.
bas rutten
That was good, huh?
Makes it more strategical.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
You really can't burn out in the beginning.
That was the thing with pancreas in the beginning, with 30-minute fights.
That's why the R's came on my hand, because that means rustig, which is relax, because I was such a hothead in Thai boxing.
Like, somebody hits me, oh, dude, my...
I just knock them out.
And I go, man, these Japanese guys are known for being tough.
If this happens the first three minutes, I got 27 more minutes to go.
If I'm empty, that's not a good thing.
So stay calm, stay calm.
You start being more strategical.
joe rogan
So pancreas, was there any rounds or was it just 30 minutes?
bas rutten
At the end.
In the end, there were a few, like the undercard were 10-minute fights, but most of the time everything was 15 minutes, and the title fights in the end was 30. In the beginning, the first year and a half, it was all 30 minutes.
joe rogan
30 minutes, one round.
unidentified
Wow.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's a real strategic fight.
I'm a fan of that, though.
I like that.
bas rutten
I like that, too.
But, you know, and again, if you look at some UFC fights where they just lay, lay, lay, then, you know, in the old days, you remember, without the stand-ups, yeah, then it becomes kind of boring.
But that was one of the things when I moved to Pancras.
I always tell this story, but when I saw my opponent, he was 45 pounds heavier.
And I asked when the weigh-in was.
He says, there's no weigh-in.
Everybody fights everybody.
I go, oh, that's great.
Nice.
I was just bluffing, of course.
And I go, okay, so how many rounds we got?
One round.
One round.
Awesome.
How many minutes?
30. I go, awesome.
Awesome.
And I look at my manager.
unidentified
I go, dude, 30-minute fight?
Yeah.
bas rutten
45 more pounds than me?
joe rogan
As opposed to a three-minute kickboxing fight.
bas rutten
That's what I was thinking.
joe rogan
A three-minute round for kickboxing.
bas rutten
I came for kickboxing, yeah.
So yeah, that opened my eyes a little bit there.
And you become more strategical.
That's a good thing.
joe rogan
Well, it's also good for grapplers when they work, like say if you have a five-minute fight or a five-minute round, and you work for four minutes and 30 seconds to get the fight to the ground, you only have 30 seconds to try to secure a submission.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
Whereas if you take a guy to the ground in a 10 minute fight and you're forming it in 30 seconds, now you have 5 minutes and 30 seconds to try to finish him.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Which is a lot of time.
bas rutten
Yeah, but you know, there's always the other side of the metal.
You know, you can say, well, they should have taken him down sooner.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
Or these guys that say, yeah, but I just need more work on the ground.
Well, just go faster.
This is the game.
You have to adapt and not the other way around.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, you could definitely look at it that way.
What do you think about Fabricio Verdum returning against Kane?
bas rutten
I think it's going to be a great fight.
We know that stamina played a big factor.
But for Doom, man, he's only been on an arrow that's going straight up since Pride.
That fight that he lost against Alistair...
Really lose.
I think if you would count the punches and the kicks that Alistair get hit, because I was afraid at the time, because I was at Alistair's.
He was a big friend of mine at the time, and I go, ooh, because Verdum hit him more.
Connected more.
joe rogan
Well, Verdum blew his knee out, too, in that fight.
bas rutten
Yeah, see?
And Verdum's striking now with Cordero.
They're just working really well together.
Same with RDA and everybody there.
They're doing just a phenomenal job.
joe rogan
Rafael Cordero is just what a great striking coach that guy is.
He's done an amazing job.
bas rutten
Yeah, because you can talk to the guy.
They barbecue together.
You know, he's there in your best interest.
That's Dwayne Ludwig.
Same guy.
The late Sean Tompkins.
All these guys there are all the way there.
I remember stories with Sean.
We would come home partying five, six in the morning.
He would go straight, if it was the day of the weigh-in, straight to the...
Sona with the guys, helping them focus mids if they want to lose.
He never, ever missed a beat.
A lot of trainers have that, but there's a whole bunch of trainers who don't have that.
joe rogan
You've got to be completely obsessed to be a great trainer.
That's what makes Ludwig so good.
He's completely obsessed.
It's the same with a fighter.
It's the same with anything.
If you're not completely obsessed, you're just not going to reach your potential.
bas rutten
That's it.
You need to like it also.
I was talking about that yesterday.
You can have all the talent if you don't like it.
If you hear fighters, which blows my mind always when I hear Quentin, for instance, says, I hate training.
And I go, wow, I love training.
I want to get tired.
I want to try new stuff.
I always loved it.
Till the end, when I got my tendonitis and everything started hurting really, really bad.
You know, then you can't even think straight anymore.
That's when I stopped.
But before that, I always loved it.
And if you love something, you know, same in school, when you were a kid.
You know, math, well, I don't know math, but you were good at the things that you liked.
Your biology, oh, I love biology.
Boom, ace.
You know, it's all the things that you like, you automatically do your best for it.
Simple.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you're a passionate person, if you're passionate about what you're pursuing, you're going to do better than a person who's just doing it as a job.
And Quentin has so much talent.
unidentified
Unreal.
joe rogan
And unbelievable power.
He's got a fantastic chin.
bas rutten
Yeah, right away, Arona pops up, right?
Always, huh?
joe rogan
Oh my gosh.
bas rutten
Always.
When you talk about Quentin as the first.
And he arched even backwards.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
He didn't go straight up.
He actually went a little further and then he slammed him.
joe rogan
That was the most spectacular slam KO in the history of MMA. Ricardo Arona had him locked up in a triangle and Quentin slammed him into oblivion and headbutted him too on the way down.
I mean inadvertent headbutt.
But slammed him and then ba-boom.
Then his head slammed into him too.
Oh my god.
That was a horrific fight.
Ricardo never recovered from that fight.
unidentified
He was never the same.
bas rutten
Ricardo, I read a cool story about Kevin Rendon when he was talking.
I read it on SureDog that he said he just fought Kevin and he won.
He says, I was in the dressing room by myself in Japan.
There was nobody there.
And, you know, I was just taken in.
He said, because I just won the most important fight of my career.
And he said, suddenly he sees a shadow and he thinks it was Rendon.
So he automatically, he said, at that time, everybody was fighting.
It was before, after.
It didn't really matter.
It was this fighting thing.
And Rendellman came in and he thought there was going to be a fight.
And Rendellman walked up to him and said, Dude, great job!
Congratulations!
You know, you're awesome!
And that blew me away, he said.
Right away I saw the monster as a different person.
That's so hard now also with Rendellman.
You know him.
Everybody who knows him is such a good guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was a great guy.
He was a really friendly, happy-go-lucky guy.
It's so unfortunate.
You know, I don't know what happened with him.
What happened with Sean Tompkins?
How did Sean wind up dying?
bas rutten
You know, this was the saddest thing ever because when I went to the funeral, he was in the coffin.
I didn't want to see that.
I did that one time with a friend of mine and I didn't like that.
So I said, I don't want to do it.
And his mother, it was so sad, man.
She came to me crying and she said, he was in...
He was home, and that weekend, she was gonna tell him that he had to go to the doctor, because in the family, it runs in the family that they have enlarged hearts, and he needs to check that out.
And that was what was going down there.
There was no drugs, no nothing, because people started, of course, the conspiracy theories, they didn't find anything.
And the crazy thing was I talked the day before with Sean.
It was so weird, because then you guys announced it on USC, and it was, I go, whoa, Sean, so I started Googling.
But it was so weird.
He texted me something and I thought, for some reason I thought, oh, he wants to talk to me.
Because normally we would text.
So I picked up the phone and I called him.
And he was going out with Muscle Beach, one of our friends.
We called him Muscle Beach.
And Muscle Beach was drunk.
And he says, I can't leave a man behind.
I'm going to stay with him.
I'm going to make sure he's going to be okay.
Boom.
And he kept going, boss, boss.
And the problem that I was reading about didn't even come up.
We started talking about everything.
It was a great, great time.
He says, boss, I love you.
You know that.
I really love you.
And then finally when we hang up, he starts texting, you know...
That I love you.
The whole team Tompkins loves you.
It was really weird.
He never did that.
And the next day he passed away.
unidentified
Wow.
bas rutten
So it was almost like he felt that it was going to happen.
joe rogan
Wow.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
Yeah, he was another guy that was really loved by the guys that he trained.
Those relationships between trainers and students, trainers and fighters, they're so important.
You know, and it's so hard for a fighter to find the right trainer, the right trainer that fits their personality, someone who's technical, you know, someone who has also that emotional bond.
bas rutten
That's the thing, the 100% commitment.
That's the thing.
And being a fighter, it sounds cool, and that's why a lot of guys don't make it, because...
They only want to look cool.
You don't really fight foot to fight.
Once the fighters start fighting for money, don't do that.
Then it's going downhill.
Yeah, but I need a paycheck.
Then don't fight.
Find another job.
You need that commitment.
You need to be 100%.
And that's the same with the trainers.
You can't be off for a little bit because this guy is going to go in the ring or in the cage.
And you have to make sure he's going to stay safe.
joe rogan
Yeah, when you see a fighter that's only fighting for the paycheck, it very rarely works out.
Not at a championship level.
It might be okay at a journeyman level.
You might pull it off if you're tough and you're skilled.
But to beat the best guys, you have to be obsessed.
The best guys are obsessed.
bas rutten
Yeah, you want to be the best.
It's not about the payday.
I said, that will come if you are the best.
The payday will be better, but focus on getting good and fighting for yourself, I always say.
You know, don't put your family at number one spot.
I understand you want to do that, but you know, once you start, that means that you care, care, care.
It's a very...
How do you say it?
It's selfish.
It should be selfish.
unidentified
You should be...
bas rutten
I fight for me.
I don't care.
The way I explain it to my students when they, for instance, they're nervous.
I say, okay, let's take a step back.
Imagine your opponent now and you go in a room, they lock the room, and you guys are going to compete against each other.
Whoever wins, doesn't matter who wins, when the door opens, you both of you are not going to say who won or lost.
Nobody's going to say, do you really care if you lose at that moment?
And he goes like, no, yeah, because he's just a better fighter, right?
I said, so why do you care?
And then they start realizing, ah, it's because the people.
Oh, but he might think this, and he might think this.
And that's why I always say, fight for yourself.
If you lose, you give it your all.
You are always a winner.
It doesn't matter.
You know what bad is?
Not going all the way, not using all your potential, and then lose because you didn't do that.
That's something that after a fight you're going to say, oh...
Man, I could have gone harder.
So why didn't you?
Just leave it all out there.
And if you leave it all out there, there's no excuses.
And every other fighter will really enjoy you.
Winning or losing.
How many fighters you have who never became a champion, but I hear all the other fighters talking about them.
Say, oh, you fight him?
Oh, dude, really?
That guy's crazy.
Yeah, you better prepare now.
Because it's going to be a nightmare to fight that guy.
You see, that's what I think is the most important.
If your peers like it, the way you fight...
You're good.
You can't really lose.
joe rogan
Yeah, like a guy like Chuck Liddell, where he has that incredible fan base because he always fought with everything he had.
And whether he lost by knockout or won by knockout, people still loved him.
bas rutten
That's it.
Didn't lose a fan.
I always use Chuck as an example.
And that's what every fan...
And I tell my students, look at Chuck Liddell.
I want you to be like that.
Leave it out there.
You know?
I just want you to listen a little bit more because if I would get in Chuck's head, you know, as soon as Chuck hits somebody, that's the same with Benji Raddick.
They have one vision and that's the knockout.
And they forget about the rest.
joe rogan
Defense.
bas rutten
Defense.
And I say, as soon as you hit somebody, step back.
You're going to have some time.
Don't worry.
But you just hit the head.
Okay, what is he going to protect now?
The head.
Go for the body.
Do a cross-hoo-cross to the body.
Nobody does that.
But do it as hard as you can.
Cross-hoo-cross and then a left hook to the head.
Ba, ba, ba, boom.
Suddenly there's a left hook to the head.
If you do the cross hook cross as hard as you can, you will force them to block it, which will open up for the left hook to the head.
Same as with the body, body, head.
You know, body, body, head.
And they go, ba, ba, boom.
Ba, ba, boom.
I say, yeah, it won't work like that.
You see a Rico Verhoeven, who does his first mixed martial arts fight, body, Boom!
Body, boom!
And then the head.
Now, with the first two body shots, if this guy doesn't block him, he's going to get knocked out to the body.
So now he respects your power.
That's what Mike Tyson did.
Spleen wide uppercut.
He hits you so hard in the spleen that the second time when he loads up, he thinks...
He thinks it's going to be the same punch, but then he changes the angle to an uppercut, and his defense is here for the spleen shot.
If you do it powerful and hard, it will work.
But if you do a body, body, head, body, body, you know, it's not going to work.
Make everything count.
joe rogan
Yeah, a lot of guys are trying to conserve their energy.
bas rutten
Yeah, but...
I did after a workout.
I would put a bag on the ground and I would 30 minutes just go.
Punching on the back on the ground, rolling in the guard, keeping hitting.
You don't get tired from that.
Come on, guys.
You don't really get tired.
There's nothing there.
You can just go.
What is he going to do if he's on his back?
He's going to hit you back.
He's not going to hit you back.
You got to watch out for submissions, but that's not going to get you in trouble with your stamina.
unidentified
Just go!
bas rutten
Just go!
joe rogan
Do you think now, like looking back, when you have these tendonitis and all these other issues, were you too tough for your body?
Is that what it is?
bas rutten
No.
What I think is that because I was so sick as a kid that they overflowed me with cortisones.
I had so many cortisones.
I believe it was like 46 pills a day I took.
I had really bad...
Skin disease, asthma.
So I had a lot of stuff that I took for that.
And the tests they did on me.
I mean, every week I had to go get 20 shots, 10 shots in each arm.
And what they would do, they would inject a little tiny bit of where you were allergic for.
And then hopefully, it's like the flu vaccine, hopefully the body finds a way to counterattack that.
But every time when they do that, I'll be sick.
So I needed to recoup from that the whole time.
And I think eventually the cortisones, because they're really bad for the bones and the tendons, I think the cortisones really got my tendonitis.
unidentified
That's the reason.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
That's interesting.
I never heard that before.
I never heard of anybody having that many shots as a kid and then going on to be a world championship fighter.
bas rutten
Me neither.
The craziest thing is that when I was young I did track and field and I did it at a pretty high level already because I wanted to be the next Bruce Jenner at the time.
He was my hero.
That's how old I was.
He was the guy.
The decathlon guy.
That's what I wanted to do.
And I remember in the end every time with Javelin I already had that tendonitis.
And I started recognizing that and I don't know why it stayed away my entire career and came back only at the end.
It's got to be the gods of God telling me, okay, it's good.
You become a fighter.
But for some reason, at the end, it came back.
But I remember the pain.
joe rogan
Do you have a desire to train championship-level fighters?
You're talking about what guys don't do correctly and what you would like to see them do.
Do you have this desire to get involved with someone who's really trying to make a run at a title?
bas rutten
No, you know, I enjoy things like, for instance, Rico Verhoeven came in last week.
joe rogan
Love that guy.
bas rutten
You know, yeah, because he's an athlete, not just a martial artist.
joe rogan
Glory heavyweight champion.
bas rutten
Glory heavyweight champion.
joe rogan
Amazing kickboxer.
bas rutten
So when he said he was going to do MMA, I sent him an email right away.
I said, listen, Rico...
Come to me.
Give me two hours of my time.
I'll show you things that are going to be very, very helpful for you.
I'm not looking to be a coach because I don't have the time for that.
I'm way too busy for that.
But I can get you in two hours.
I can get you a lot of information.
Or like, for instance, John Jones, a while back I was interviewing him and then he said right away, I was in Albuquerque.
What are you going to do after this?
I said to my hotel, I said, man, do you want to train me?
You see, those are guys who really want to learn.
And then once you start learning and these guys listen, And then suddenly they start being more explosive with kicking and punching, they go like, dude, this is crazy.
You know, like sound effects, I do a lot.
At high pitch sound effects.
If you see somebody, for instance, if you do the focus mitts or you hit a bag, you go, one, two, three, four, like that punch.
And so if you just stop and you go, in your mind you go, just do that.
And then just by doing that, your body automatically will adapt and will get more explosive.
And he realized that.
He goes, wow.
And the next week or two weeks later, we had Greg Jackson on the show.
And Greg tells me, he says, man, what...
What have you been teaching?
I said, what do you mean?
He says, everybody makes these crazy sound effects.
I said, do they hit faster and harder?
unidentified
And he goes, yeah.
I said, so be it.
bas rutten
You know, so it really works to get in people's heads.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
And then if you have an athlete like Jones who will listen to you, yeah, that's gold.
joe rogan
But if a guy like that came to you, if a guy like that came to you and said, listen, boss, I want you to train me, is that something you would be interested in doing?
bas rutten
Yeah, it's going to be hard.
It depends.
You know, the division, the new podcast, the gym.
I mean, there's so much stuff, the World Series of Fighting, that I suddenly cannot do because then we've got to have the 100% commitment.
I like a lot because I'm a very basic guy.
Everything is the basics with me because everybody forgets the basics.
So most of the time when somebody comes out, like Tim Sylvia, a while ago he came to my gym and he threw the left hook wrong and I tell him, I said, man, this can be way harder and he starts learning to throw the hook without loading up and he won his fight in 15 seconds with the left hook.
He goes, dude, this is crazy, it works.
That I enjoy.
To give him an hour of time and show them what they do wrong And then if they actually listen to it, they realize, wait a minute, I got more power.
You know, I don't try to change the style.
I just show them how you get maximum power.
And if you mix that up between your styles, that's up to you.
joe rogan
But I see you have this incredible passion about this.
bas rutten
Oh yeah, I love it.
joe rogan
About improving guys and about working on technique.
That's why I'm curious.
Have you ever thought about just going into training?
bas rutten
Yeah.
Just too busy?
Too busy, but also, I don't know anymore, but a lot of guys that you do over the years, you invest a lot of time in.
joe rogan
And it doesn't work out.
bas rutten
It doesn't work out or they get a better deal somewhere else and they just leave you.
And you see this with a lot of fighters, you know, and trainers.
Finally, the trainer has something or a manager and then they just kick him to the side because I'm going to save 10% here.
But then again, those guys, most of the time you see him losing.
Because you broke the winning combination.
If you have something, my stretching routine, and everybody always says, please post it because you always talk about this.
My stretching routine is the same as it was when I started in 93. Well, that's probably even before my karate.
And they say, you never change that.
I say, no, I never change that.
Why wouldn't you do more?
Actually, because with that stretching routine, I never had a problem.
Why would I change it?
It never gave me a problem in training.
You see?
So now if I start adding things or subtracting things and suddenly I get injured, it's just my own fault.
I had a winning combination.
It always helped me.
Let's not break that.
Let's keep it the same.
And that's with everything.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's just, I know that you have your gym in Thousand Oaks.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
You know, what's it called?
The Westlake Village, Bas Routens Elite MMA. And it's mostly recreational people, is that what it is?
bas rutten
That's it, yeah.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, I'm there at 6 o'clock.
unidentified
What kind of class do you teach up there?
bas rutten
Tuesdays is...
Mostly striking, only striking on Thursdays, I start with ground, but only like for 20 minutes because people want to work out.
joe rogan
Right.
bas rutten
Like the fighter, if I do fight classes with the fighters, yeah, we do a lot of ground with escapes and reversals.
I always start like that.
That's how I trained.
I never started on my knees with grappling.
I always lay on my back and I tell my partner, you can take any position you want.
joe rogan
That's so important.
bas rutten
It's the most important thing for a striker.
joe rogan
Put yourself in a bad spot.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Put yourself in a bad spot and figure out how to be comfortable in those bad spots and work out of them all the time.
bas rutten
That's it.
You know, and with basics, I had a student one time coming over to me after class, and he said, Bosch, you know what's funny?
I said, tell me.
He says, I've been working here now for three years, and you're teaching the same stuff.
I said, yeah, that is funny.
I said, you want to hear something more funny?
And he goes, yeah.
I said, you're still not doing it.
And the reason I'm doing this is because of people like you.
Because you guys don't listen.
joe rogan
That's funny.
bas rutten
Look around.
Yeah, they don't.
They don't do it.
Everybody forgets the basics.
They all want to do the spinning backies to the head and the back fists and the crazy elbows and doing that.
Forget about basic stuff.
A simple one-two.
How many times in boxing you see a knockout?
Highest level on the planet.
A one-two will do the trick.
It's just the timing and when you throw it.
joe rogan
The timing, the efficiency of the technique and having it down where you own it.
bas rutten
Yep, that's it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So, you're enjoying teaching.
You enjoy teaching a couple times a week.
You enjoy doing that.
bas rutten
Yeah, that's why I'm doing it.
joe rogan
And your striking class, are guys sparring in there, or are they mostly just working on technique?
bas rutten
It's all technique, and my classes, you go, like, you see girls that I have in my class, when I strike the double left, double right, I can tell them any combination, and people who are watching, they go like, whoa, what is this?
But they've been with me for a while, and they're very technical.
And they do really well with the striking.
Like yesterday, again, they were laughing about it.
These two girls always work together.
Laura and Dana, they're really good.
They're probably going to listen to this also.
But I said, listen, everybody throws a low kick at the end.
For instance, a combination with a low kick.
But once you do that in a class, the low kick, they have their hands always down.
So I let them do it to me, that combination.
And then just before they make the low kick, I stretch my hand in front of the face.
And I say, I want everybody to do this because I just walked around, I said, and there were only three people from the 22 or 24 people there are who are doing it.
Just keep your hands up.
You don't have to hit them.
Just make them be aware that it could be a punch.
Keep your hands up.
And I walked over and they said, were we one of the three?
I said, you know you were one of the three.
Because you guys are always doing it.
You see, it's just a habit.
Make a good habit and don't lose the habit.
But unfortunately, a lot of guys lose it.
joe rogan
Now, what is this podcast you're doing with Morrow?
I mean, that was one of the reasons why you guys wanted to come in here together.
And like you said, unfortunately, Morrow got sick.
But you guys are doing a podcast together.
bas rutten
We're doing a podcast, the Ruten and Ronello.
It's called Ruten and Ronello.
And it's on iTunes, SoundCloud.
It's everywhere.
It's a really fun...
People have no clue who Mauro really is.
You know, they start now because that big piece on Sherdock, you know, he's bipolar, you know, and he goes up and down.
But the guy is a genius.
Like, there's no prompters, no nothing.
He just shoots.
Like, Kenny Rice, for instance.
Same...
You know, they have a brain...
You can ask him about a horse in 1989 and he will know in the name of this.
That's it with Mauro.
And I told you the story before here with the pro wrestling, the gig that he now has, and the people are raving about him everywhere.
Even the pro wrestlers say, you're the best guy I ever had.
And I told...
AXS TV, once they hired Mauro and George Burnett to do the Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV, I told them, I said, you watch.
Mauro's going to work for the WWE. After they hear him doing this, he's going to get a job.
Mark my words.
joe rogan
Well, he's doing everything now.
He's not just doing that.
He's doing Showtime boxing.
He did a bunch of glory fights.
Oh, this is your battle.
bas rutten
This is our landing page.
joe rogan
Beautiful.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
Root and Ranallo.
How many episodes have you guys done so far?
bas rutten
Seven tomorrow.
Tomorrow's the seventh, and tomorrow is dedicated to Kevin.
Kevin Rennelman.
We're going to have his wife on.
Mark Coleman on.
And we're going to talk about his life and all the funny things.
I mean, I got such crazy stories with Kevin.
I mean, I went to his wedding with my whole family and it was so my family destroyed.
I mean, they want to go with us to the funeral.
Everything was...
It was so sad.
The next day after the wedding, we were all at the pool, people laying there, a little hungover, and then suddenly there was a volleyball net, and somebody started to play volley, and all these competitive guys there.
Suddenly there's big teams on each side with the kids, and we're going to town, and everybody's waterfalling.
It was such a good time.
We had such a great time, and then a thing like this happens.
It's really upsetting.
joe rogan
It is.
unidentified
Yep.
joe rogan
It is.
He truly was a great guy.
I mean, all my interactions with him where he's always laughing and smiling and hugging people.
And I remember I ran into Kevin once.
We were at the fights.
It was a smaller organization.
There were some fights going on in Vegas.
And Kevin and I ran into each other at the concession stand.
And he gives me this big hug.
unidentified
What's up, man?
joe rogan
How you doing, man?
And then other people were coming over.
And it's just fans.
Fans coming over.
Hey, what's up, Kevin?
He was like, how you doing, man?
Hugging everybody and smiling.
I'm like, what a fucking jovial guy.
bas rutten
You know, the first time I fought him, right?
We fought and only met one time the fight before when he beat Maury Smith to make the picture in the cage and that became the poster later.
That was the only time I met him.
So now I'm in the hotel and I think it's before the weigh-ins and I'm waiting for the elevator.
I'm by myself.
The elevator door opens and there he is and he doesn't go out.
He needs to be in there.
So I get in, and the elevator closed.
Now we're with the two of us in the elevator.
And I'm looking, but I can't see his face, you know, in the mirror reflection there.
And he already has a smirk on his face, and I'm smirking, and I look at him, and I go, you know, good luck tomorrow!
unidentified
And he goes, thank you.
He says, you too.
bas rutten
And I go, yeah, thank you.
And then we look and he says, if you keep your feet on the floor, I promise you I won't take you down.
And I go, really?
unidentified
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
You know, so...
The door opens, and he gets out.
Now I don't know this crazy guy, so I know.
If you keep your feet on the floor, so no kicks.
joe rogan
That's a crazy deal.
unidentified
Yeah, right?
joe rogan
What a strange deal.
bas rutten
And so in the fight, the fight starts, and you'll see in the fight, once it starts, the first thing he does, he slaps his thigh.
unidentified
Like...
Kick me!
So now I'm confused.
bas rutten
So I go, oh wait, he's going to think I gave him a low kick.
So I'm going to act like I gave him a low kick, but I gave him a front kick to the face.
So if he wants to time it to take me down, I'm going to get him square in the face.
So I make a front kick and it goes just in front of it and he's backing up.
I just miss him with the front kick to the face.
And I see something in his eyes, and till this day, I couldn't, or till this day, till a while after, I couldn't figure what it was.
But in his mind, he, of course, thought, I thought we said we're not going to kick.
You know, but he did that slapping thing on his thigh, so it threw me off.
I thought, oh, now he wants me to kick him.
Okay, so I guess that whole thing was not real.
Let's start kicking.
But he got me, because I kicked, he took me down.
And then only that front kick, it missed.
He backed up.
unidentified
I go, oh.
bas rutten
It would have been fun.
joe rogan
Well, there's always gamesmanship, you know?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's definitely a lot of that.
bas rutten
Oh, I was talking to him the whole time, Big John wrote it in his book, because I was literally, people were booing because laying on the ground, I say, listen, man, I think the fans would like it much better if we stand back up.
unidentified
I'm trying to negotiate with him to go back on the feet, you know?
And he goes, nah, let's stay here.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
unidentified
Yeah, he was a good guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was a great guy.
You know, you guys were a part of the early days of MMA. I mean, you are one of the original pioneers of this sport, without a doubt.
I mean, you're fighting with Tiyoshi Kosaka.
For the longest time, I had that poster.
There was a poster announcing your fight with Teyoshi Kosaka that said, the world's greatest martial artist, Bas Rutten.
That's how they announced you.
I mean, they were building you up because you were like one of the first really elite strikers to fight in MMA. You know?
bas rutten
Yeah, they always said, I said, they messed up right there on that poster.
They forgot the word looking.
The world's greatest looking martial artist.
unidentified
I told them that, but they forgot that word.
joe rogan
El Guapo.
bas rutten
Yeah, it was a good time.
Oh, man.
joe rogan
When you look back on it, I mean, it's got to be pretty amazing.
The time that you came along, I mean, from becoming the King of Pancras, from entering into the UFC and being the UFC heavyweight champion, like, what number was that, UFC? 18 and 20. 20, I became the champ.
unidentified
Wow.
bas rutten
Yeah, almost at 200 now.
joe rogan
That's incredible.
bas rutten
It's crazy.
You know, that's why it was such a great honor, the Hall of Fame, when they said also the Pioneer section.
Because the Pioneer section is a section that will only grow so far.
unidentified
Yeah.
bas rutten
It will not be...
So even in 2,000 years from now, if this keeps going, whatever, it becomes a new Olympic sport, it doesn't matter.
We were always the ones that started it.
And that's a cool thing.
joe rogan
It is a cool thing.
I mean, it's crazy also that this is the oldest sport in the world, really, fighting.
bas rutten
It is.
joe rogan
It's the oldest form of competition.
It's also the newest sport, because there's no sport from 1993, which is when the UFC first started, there's no sport from then that has exploded.
A new sport that came along in 1993 that's exploded, and now in 2016, I mean, you have Ronda Rousey, who's on the Ellen Show that we talked about today, the Conor McGregor-Dos Anjos fight is probably going to get close to two million pay-per-view guys.
I mean, that's going to be fucking crazy.
You're dealing with this sport that's exploding.
We're just exploding now.
It's so strange that this combination of things.
The oldest sport is also the newest sport, and you, from the time you started competing, you caught it right at the beginning of the wave.
bas rutten
Yeah, it's really cool.
It's an amazing feeling.
Many times fans ask, wouldn't you want to be born like 20 years later?
I say, no, I'm perfectly happy right now.
I mean, also the way I wrapped it up, I didn't lose in my last 22 fights.
It's a great way to stop, you know, while I'm ahead.
I keep going, see if I can win one more, you lose.
You win one more, you lose.
You know, that's not a great way to wrap up a career, you know.
Of course, injuries with me played a factor.
You know, maybe I got the injuries because they said, hey, it's been going really well.
Maybe you've got to stop now.
You know, because you're getting older and you don't want to admit that you get older because you're still explosive and you still want to do it and you still train with guys.
When I came back, I trained with the guys in Vegas and I go, dude, everybody looked at me and they said, then you have a second career.
This is the craziest thing.
I said, yeah, this is crazy, right?
I'm feeling so good.
You know, I couldn't do the warm-up.
I couldn't do 20 minutes of warm-up when I started because I didn't train for three and a half years.
And six weeks later, I'm not taking breaks anymore.
I just go into the next opponents.
I was, even myself, I amazed.
I go, man, this is great.
And then all the injuries started coming back.
You know, and now I go, okay, now I got it.
My knees, my tendonitis, I tore a hamstring.
I go...
I pulled the rip, put the rip out at the place, at Dan Henderson's place.
You know, they took me down in the mid-air.
I reversed the takedown.
But with that, I used so much upper body strength that I popped the rip out.
So now, that was 12 days before the fight, I couldn't punch anymore.
Can't punch back.
The only thing I did was the workout I had, the audio workout, in the air.
That was the only thing I could do.
joe rogan
Wow.
But you got out of the sport with your faculties 100% intact.
That is the ultimate goal of any fighter, to retire, and especially you, because you're now a commentator.
You're also an analyst.
I mean, you do a fantastic job of breaking down fights.
I really enjoy you on Inside MMA, because you have such a knowledgeable perspective, but also you're very honest.
You don't play politics.
Yeah.
You're very honest about how you feel about a fight coming up, about where a guy fucked up, or where a person's chances lie, and I think it's amazing what you've done.
It really is amazing.
bas rutten
Thank you.
joe rogan
I mean, you're sharp as ever.
bas rutten
You know, I'm always trying not to get hit, you know?
It didn't really work in my title fighting as Kevin.
Because you beat the crap out of me for the first four minutes, but you know, but after that It was okay for the rest.
joe rogan
I don't think I ever got hit You know, I always try to you know slip and move well fighting intelligent is the most important aspect of fighting to use your mind to use your mind and proper tactics and techniques That's why I love Mighty Mouse Yep.
bas rutten
Mighty Mouse is a pound for pound the best guy.
joe rogan
I agree.
I mean, I don't think there's any competition.
I think John Jones is a phenomenal talent, and he's an amazing fighter.
But I think it's almost disrespectful to put him as pound for pound the best.
When you look at some of the wars that he's had with Gustafson, I mean, the war that he had with Daniel Cormier.
I mean, Daniel, obviously, is a great fighter.
He's a really good fight, and, you know, John won the fight, of course, clearly.
But you look at what Mighty Mouse is doing to the competition.
He doesn't even get hit.
Dodson is a fucking freak.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, Dodson's a freak, and Dodson just couldn't touch him.
bas rutten
Yeah.
Dodson, I always said in the beginning, it's like he's glued to the ground.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
Like, he moves back, he never slips, he never gets great footwork.
But, man, DJ, Matt Hume did a really good job there.
unidentified
Amazing.
bas rutten
That's really...
Yeah, it's a whole new level.
joe rogan
Well, he's got so much going on.
His mind, he's very smart.
He's very dedicated.
He's got a great control of his ego.
He doesn't fight like a fool.
He fights very, very technical.
His footwork is fantastic.
His choices that he makes in a fight, his unpredictable in his movements, he's just, I think he's the best ever.
I really do.
bas rutten
He needs a guy to fight like a Conor McGregor, though, because he has a big payday one time.
Because Rafael dos Anjos is going to make a lot of money this fight.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bas rutten
If two million, if that's really going to hit it.
And you watch.
That will probably get up also.
If for some reason McGregor wins this, it's going to be a very hard fight for him.
Because I think dos Anjos...
Yeah, it's going to be a very tough fight.
Because we saw with Mendes, we all know the same thing.
If once it goes to the ground...
But you still don't know.
joe rogan
You don't know.
bas rutten
In that fight, he's so aware of where he is when he fought Mendes, and I'm talking about McGregor, he was just laying on the ground.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
You know, he didn't even try to escape.
It was almost like he said, oh, he's going to run out of gas.
joe rogan
Mendes took that fight, though, in two weeks.
bas rutten
That's what I mean.
joe rogan
Just a different animal.
bas rutten
But if he could have done that.
But he knew that.
That's what I'm saying.
He knew, oh, I'm just going to carry it into the second round, and I'm going to get him.
You know, he didn't even try.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
So I think once against Rafael Dos Anjos, yeah, he's going to need this guy in the guard.
That's one thing for sure.
joe rogan
Well, it's a different animal.
He'll be there every minute of every round.
He'll be there for 25 minutes trying to kill you.
Yeah.
Dos Anjos is a fucking animal, man.
He's an animal.
He's a different animal.
Totally different kind of a fight.
So I'm so curious as to how that's gonna play out.
When you look at how obsessed Conor is with footwork and movement and being smooth and fast and laying punches.
Like, one of the things that he said when I was interviewing him after the fight, he's like, no power.
See that?
No power.
Just precision.
Just precision.
Like, all those coming at him, he just drops that punch in.
I mean, he's not grunting.
He just drops it in and, boom, takes him out.
bas rutten
The thing is, I see him everywhere.
So I hope he's not going to make the Rousey mistake.
Because I said it two weeks before.
I think what Rousey's doing is not good.
She's in every talk show, every magazine.
I go to the supermarket, three magazine covers.
I mean, it's insane.
Stop doing that.
Fight first.
Fight first.
That makes you big.
Once you lose that, all the other stuff that you're doing right now is going to go as well.
Because they want that champion.
So McGregor, I hope that he stays focused.
And only, you know, picks the ones that he needs to do contractually.
And that's it.
joe rogan
Yeah, I think he's going to be a lot smarter about it.
I think Ronda just got overwhelmed with the amount of superstardom that came her way.
Unprecedented him.
I mean, there's never been an athlete like that before.
This female ass kicker who's on top of the world.
I mean, she was a new thing.
And because of that, there were so many temptations.
bas rutten
And that's why for her it was also so hard when she lost.
She was such a high, you know, and then boom, there you have such a low.
This is how your opponents could have felt.
And I think that kind of stuff, you know, on one side it's really good for her because now she understands that.
Now she's going to go, oh, okay, now I tasted the other side.
You're going to make you a better person, and you start reminiscing about all the things that I, you know, was I, ooh, in that interview, I wasn't really, that wasn't really cool.
You know, those things start backfiring once you start losing.
It's with McGregor the same thing, although with him, there's always, it's a funny thing.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
You know, with Ronda, it's real.
Like, real, real.
With McGregor, it's real.
The reason he's so unbelievably good is, in his mind, he truly believes there's no way he can lose.
joe rogan
Yes.
bas rutten
You know?
And a guy, to beat a guy like that, Mendes hit him hard.
I mean, hard.
And he didn't even flinch.
There was no zero, no movement.
joe rogan
Crazy.
bas rutten
It was the craziest thing.
joe rogan
We see how Mendes took out Ricardo Llamas, rather.
bas rutten
Yeah, Llamas.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, Mendes hits fucking hard.
It's hard.
bas rutten
Yeah, it's a hard area.
joe rogan
But Conor just eats it.
bas rutten
Eats it.
On the tip of his jaw also.
It's not like just a head.
joe rogan
No, it's crazy.
His jaw is incredible.
His mind is incredible.
I'm so fascinated by that fight.
So fascinated by it.
bas rutten
And he says, when one of us goes to war, we all go to war.
All the way back when he said that, remember in Boston, I believe, right?
That's where he got me.
That went right away.
I said, okay, this guy.
That's why we got it right away on Inside MMA. And then the next time he was on Inside MMA, he says, man, I got my monograms.
Look, in my suit.
unidentified
How cool is that?
bas rutten
He was so happy that he's got his name.
Did you ever see the video?
Oh, I did some homework on him because we were going to interview him.
And I saw this video that he's in a hotel in Dublin, I believe.
And there's coconuts.
Did you see that part?
joe rogan
No.
bas rutten
Okay, so he's talking into the camera.
They're shooting this, whatever, you know, they're following him around.
And suddenly you hear his wife going, no way.
unidentified
Right?
bas rutten
And he goes, he's talking to the camera.
He looks to the side and says, what?
He says, no way.
And he says, one second.
So he walks over and she comes with a coconut.
And there's a hole in there and they put a little cork thing in there.
So he goes, no way.
You know, it's like they never saw a coconut, right?
unidentified
So they pull the thing out, they put the straw, and they go, oh, no way!
bas rutten
You think they did this because I have to fight a Brazilian guy?
That's why they start reminiscing, and that is a knock on the door.
So he opens the door, and he has the coconut in his hand.
It's his trainer.
And the trainer sees the coconut, and he does, huh?
And the trainer goes, no way!
unidentified
Ha ha ha!
Everybody does the same.
bas rutten
It is so funny.
And then you see him at the attic.
He lives at the attic from his mom and dad with his wife on the attic.
And he's putting a suit on.
And he's trying to figure out that thing in the pocket.
And he goes, I don't know how to do it, but I think in a few years from now I will.
This becomes second nature.
And then you see him now.
You know, how cool is that?
You see him really there, and now all the way up there.
Good guy.
joe rogan
Well, he's making so much money now.
It's unprecedented.
You know, I was talking to Dana on the phone today, and Dana was saying he's going to be the first guy to make $100 million.
bas rutten
Yeah, I heard that.
joe rogan
Aldo made $5 million from that last fight.
Aldo did.
bas rutten
Five million.
joe rogan
Five million.
And Aldo's going back to Brazil with that money, where it's worth probably like, who knows how much?
bas rutten
Fifty and twenty.
joe rogan
Yeah, probably something like that.
I mean, and for a guy like Aldo, who loves Brazil and loves to be in Brazil, that money goes a long way in Brazil.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, and he can help a lot of people in Brazil with that money, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Whereas, like, if you bring that money to America, I mean, five million dollars in Los Angeles...
You can get a decent house, and then it's gone.
But in Brazil, he can hold onto that money for a long time.
Well, who knows how much Conor's gonna make in this Dos Anjos fight, and even if he loses, he still defends his featherweight title, which is crazy.
What if he fucking wins?
If he fucking wins, and then he goes up and fights Robbie Lawler at welterweight?
Jesus Christ!
bas rutten
Yeah, Wonderboy.
joe rogan
It's gonna be insane.
bas rutten
Wonderboy has the same kind of timing that he has.
joe rogan
Wonderboy's different.
unidentified
He's special.
bas rutten
I always say, I always talk about distance.
Yesterday in my class I said again, the most important thing in fighting is keep your nose pointed to your opponent, because if you say eyes, they think, look in the way, this is eyes on your opponent.
It's not.
Keep your full vision.
And distance.
If you manage to stay just outside his reach, and then you can counter, it's gold.
And that's what Wonderboy did also.
joe rogan
What Wonderboy has that no one has is karate kicks.
He's got the front leg side kick to the body, the front leg roundhouse kick to the face.
When he was fucking Johnny Hendricks up with that, he front leg side kicked him to the body, and then front leg roundhouse kicked him to the face.
You can see Hendricks was like, whoa.
bas rutten
What is this?
joe rogan
Yeah, he kicks in a way that no one does.
When he wheel kicked Ellenberger, Ellenberger was saying before that fight, those kicks are a waste of time.
He's like, I think it's a waste of energy, all that spinning stuff.
He wheel kicks him.
Twice!
Twice in the head.
bas rutten
Hope Solo is a big fan.
Did you see that?
Hope Solo made a video message for Wonderboy.
Loves him.
How cool is that?
joe rogan
He's amazing, man.
His fight with Hendrix was his coming out moment, like where you really got to see him with all of his work that he's done with Weidman and his takedown defense and his wrestling.
And you're seeing that kickboxing that we always knew he had with the 57-0 kickboxing record.
bas rutten
Yeah, that's a crazy thing.
joe rogan
You're seeing it come together inside the octagon where all these other MMA skills have caught up with his kickboxing.
Fuck, man, that guy's good.
bas rutten
Yeah, he's something.
joe rogan
I was so impressed with that fight with Hendrix.
I was so impressed.
bas rutten
When his father said it before, his father was talking about the distance.
You know, I go, oh, well, let's see.
And then when I saw it, the footwork.
joe rogan
But he's like a snake.
He's like in and out and in and out.
bas rutten
Did he wrestle?
Did he?
It has to be, right?
I mean, how does he stop those takedowns?
joe rogan
First of all, he's done a lot of work with Weidman.
Him and Weidman trained together a lot.
And also, he's Carlos Machado's son-in-law.
bas rutten
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I read that.
joe rogan
So, I mean, he's learning jujitsu, I'm sure.
I mean, I don't know what belt he has under that, but Jesus Christ, that's a...
bas rutten
That's a high level.
joe rogan
That's a beautiful thing to be connected to that guy.
bas rutten
How...
Did I hear something that he was going to be, like, family of Weidman?
What was the connection?
Is he going to live there now?
joe rogan
Well, he trains with him a lot.
I mean, there's a big...
Weidman, of course, is an elite wrestler.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
You know, NCAA, All-American.
I mean, one of the best wrestlers right now in MMA. So to have a guy like Weidman training, I knew they do a lot of training sessions at Hofstra.
They go down there and do a lot of work with the wrestling team.
But that's what he needed.
He needed to be able to confidently stay on his feet.
And not worry about executing the kicks.
Because you see him earlier in his career, he just didn't, it wasn't loose.
It wasn't loose the way he is in a kickboxing fight.
Did you ever see him in the World Combat League, Chuck Norris' organization?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
Oh my god, you see him in pure kickboxing, you see what a talent this kid is.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
It's incredible.
bas rutten
I'm not going to watch it now.
joe rogan
But it's so unusual because it's hands down and loose and in and out like a snake.
Trying to find a guy who emulates those...
I mean, Lyoto Machida has obviously got great karate skill, but...
Wonderboy's on another level.
It's like several levels past that.
The combinations that guy throws.
Like when he hit Hendrix, he's tagging him and then as he's sliding out, he roundhouse kicks him in the body.
And then he slides back in and hits him with another combination.
And then he slides out and slides back in again.
And Hendrix is just overwhelmed.
We never saw anybody do that to Hendrix.
bas rutten
Yeah, I think what's interesting to try with guys like that, I always said this with Machida also, and even with Conor McGregor, and when he fought Aldo, and in this case now as well, because their stance is so karate-wide, right?
But it's a karate without low kicks, they're used to here in America.
So I said to my buddies, imagine that...
The camp from Aldo said four months ago, listen, you're going to face McGregor.
Eventually this is going to happen.
Let's switch you to Southpaw so we can use your left low kicks because the way they stand, it's going to be very hard for them to get away from low kicks on the outside.
Inside is easy because...
What McGregor does, he lowers himself and once his knee goes in the same line as his butt, so to say, you don't have any space to land that inside low kick.
It's really weird if you angle it up, the angle is gone.
But low kicks In that stand.
joe rogan
Outside low kicks.
bas rutten
Outside low kicks.
joe rogan
From the southpaw stance, yeah.
bas rutten
From the southpaw stance, powerful low kicks to that leg, because if you stop the legs, you're going to stop everything.
joe rogan
Well, Nicky Holtzkin and Raymond Daniels, because Raymond Daniels is a very similar style.
Daniels, of course, was a karate champion, has unbelievable kicking talent, but Nicky Holtzkin stays glued to him and throws leg kicks.
He just chops him down, chops him down, chops him down, and then beats him up.
And that's the same thing with Joseph Valtellini.
He did the same thing with Raymond Daniels.
Yep.
Chopped him down with low kicks, chop him down with low kicks, and then he head kicked him and knocked him out.
bas rutten
Yeah, Vatilini is also something, yeah?
joe rogan
Wow, yeah.
But he's another guy that he had to relinquish his title because of concussions.
And he's going to do the podcast soon.
We're talking about him coming on the podcast because he wants to talk about some of the situations he's gone through dealing with concussion syndrome.
bas rutten
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bas rutten
And he's young.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, just hard training, hard fights.
The Nicky Holtzkin fight was hard.
He's had some fucking wars.
bas rutten
You see, in training, I never get knocked out, thankfully.
I get hit a few times, but not every workout, for sure.
Once and for so many times.
You know, because I have good sparring partners.
It always happens when you go somewhere and then one of these, in a boxing club, and suddenly a boxer jumps up, hey, want to go a few rounds?
unidentified
And then it goes harder, harder, harder, harder, and then you're in the fight.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It becomes a fight.
Well, that's one of the smart things that Conor does.
Conor keeps all of his training partners very close.
He's got Gunnar Nelson, he's got a bunch of different guys that he trains with on a regular basis, and he keeps those guys very close to him, and everybody's got a common goal.
Everybody's trying to help everybody else, everybody's trying to get themselves healthy, so that they're going to be stepping into that cage at 100%.
bas rutten
That's it.
Winning combination.
See, he doesn't break it.
joe rogan
Winning combination.
bas rutten
He takes everybody from Ireland, but just come with me.
Very smart.
joe rogan
Very smart.
bas rutten
Yeah.
joe rogan
I gotta get the fuck out of here, boss.
bas rutten
You're the best.
joe rogan
I appreciate the fuck out of you.
You're awesome.
Anytime.
bas rutten
Same thing here, brother.
joe rogan
Open invitation.
bas rutten
With Mauro, we're going to talk about some crazy pride stories people are going to like.
joe rogan
Just let him heal up or get over his illness and we'll reschedule it soon.
I would love I'd love, love, love to do that.
And please check out Rutin and Ranallo.
It's available on SoundCloud.
It's on iTunes as well.
bas rutten
Yes, iTunes.
joe rogan
It's on everything.
bas rutten
Yep.
joe rogan
And of course Inside MMA. It's on AXS TV. Boss Rutin, El Guapo, the great one.
unidentified
Godspeed party on.
joe rogan
Thank you, sir.
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