If Randy Couture is the most beloved person in the MMA community, the only person he might take a back seat to is Bas Rutten. Bas' fighting career is a testament to hard work - after starting off his career basically as a pure striker with no ground game, Rutten became so versed on the ground that he's now known for his "Bas Rutten Big Book of Combat", which covers most any hold or submission you can imagine. A former King of Pancrase and UFC Heavyweight Champion, Bas is currently the commentator on "IFL Battleground", which airs Saturdays on MyNetworkTV, and he'll be ringside for the International Fight League: 2007 World Grand Prix Finals, which take place December 29 at 7:30 PM at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut.
What do you think about the recent changes the IFL has undergone, switching from city-based teams to camp-based teams?
I think it's great. It's always been done that way. The names will still be there, so the Silverbacks will still be the Silverbacks, but it's good. If you think about it, a lot of the fighters came from all over the place, not the same city. The gym as the big name is part of MMA, so yeah, I think it's great.
Is there a fighter in the IFL who you think is a little bit under people's radar screens right now but is going to really present himself this year as an excellent, world-class fighter?
Chris Horodecki, Benji Radach… you got so many! All the guys in the Grand Prix are very good. They'd give anyone in the world a run for their money.
Is there anyone who's only got a little bit of experience or exposure you think is going to emerge as a big star within the IFL itself? Who's next, basically?
You know, Shad Lierley, that fight against Horodecki was the second fight [of his career], and it was great.
Was that the best fight you saw all year?
Oh yeah.
What's been your favorite fight to call as a commentator?
I have so many... the one I was waiting for was Mirko Filipovic vs Fedor Emelianenko. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Heath Herring, at the time was big, Nogueira vs. Fedor, those were all great fights. They were gonna be great fights and we knew it, so knowing we were going to commentate on them made it really exciting.
Well, Frye-Takayama is like Lierley-Horodecki, who would've thought? When I knew before that it was gonna be great, like with Fedor-Crocop, I was more excited. With Frye-Takayama, it just happened and we were like "Hey, what's going on here?!"
Putting you on the spot here - pound for pound, who's the best fighter in the IFL?
Ooh…I'm probably biased, but I would say Horodecki's up there. People would say maybe on the ground, this guy or that guy is better, but then Horodecki's better than them on the feet, so I... I'd have to go with Horodecki. Of course, I'm a little biased. I give it to the guy on the Anacondas team, who I used to be the coach of.
You've been training Kevin Ferguson, who's obviously a very controversial figure in MMA. How do you think his development has gone, and how good do you think he can be?
He's doing very well, he's training very hard, so that's a good thing. He can come a long way. The only thing is reality - what happens when he gets put on the fire? Hopefully, that will happen in the next fight or the fight after, because there's not much you can learn from a first round knockout, especially a 19 second knockout. I wanna see what happens to him under pressure, when he goes to that second round. I think he'll be ok, but people act differently when the heat gets turned on them. With me, seeing is believing. It's not hearsay, I'm not gonna say a guy is good just because I heard someone else say it, I need to see it myself before I can say he's good.
Is there a particular fighter or fight that you remember being the most proud of when it comes to your fighter's performance?
When they listen to me, I'm proud! A lot of guys, you train for three for four weeks, and then they do something totally different in the fight. Benji Radach really changed in his last fight. He used short bursts of energy instead of the go, go, go style he used to fight with, and he really took it to the next level. People came up to me and said "What did you do?", and Benji even said that he wanted to fight this way all the time, but it's just listening. Duane Ludwig, too; if I stand in the corner with him and tell him "Right straight, right hook", two seconds later, he does it. He really listens. It's really difficult, but a lot of guys just go in and fight, and you need to focus, listen to your corner, and turn on your opponent's mistakes. It's hard with a screaming crowd, but you just have to.
Do you think that's the thing that holds back some really talented fighters from becoming elite fighters?
That's the last thing they have to conquer, I believe so. Guys fight on a high level, but you realize that they don't know what they're doing. With me, when I fought, when I watched the videotape, I remembered exactly what had happened. I could see it and predict what I'd throw next. I've worked with some top guys and they don't remember whether they threw a kick or a punch, and that means they're not in control.
What current fighter reminds you most of yourself?
Hmm... that's a difficult question. Horodecki and Duane Ludwig are good strikers, but they're also good all over the place like me. There was a fight this year where Ludwig broke his hand on the first punch, changed his style into going for submissions and choked a Pancrase fighter Shinya Kumazawa into submission. He focused on submissions and getting good on the ground. People call me a striker but don't realize I won 50% of my fights by submission.
Well, to bring back up your striking abilities, you were very successful in your career with liver shots. Why haven't they become a more popular technique?
People are dumb, that's why! Everything is focused on the head, and the body is just as vulnerable as the head, trust me on that one. If you hit someone real hard to the body, they have to defend it, so you hit the body as hard as you can, they have to drop and defend it, and then you go for the head. I hate it when you see top-level fighters go head, head, head, and don't go to the body. They're not great strikers. To bring the hands down, you have to hit them hard in the body, not just tap them, otherwise, they won't need to defend it. In the guard, they tap tap to the body, then try and attack the head, and they should do the exact opposite, attack the body with big punches and then go for the head. It's not a big secret! You just have to set it up properly. Takanori Gomi does it. Karl James Noons did it really well against Nick Diaz, Ludwig, Horodecki, those guys go to the body. Jens Pulver, Spencer Fisher, they're doing it. It's dumb if you wouldn't do it. It's like going to MMA without knowing submissions. Why leave the body shots out?
Any interest in doing pro wrestling again?
Maybe, but I've tried to save my knees. I just started training two weeks ago. Just striking, no ground working, I won't be fighting, I'm just doing the Bas Rutten workout. I started to feel pretty good. It's a lot of pain involved, and I'd have to see what the knees said about it. And no less than a million dollars!
Any good, family-friendly stories from outside the ring while you were fighting for Pancrase?
So many! Um…we had a lot of fun fighting in places like the Sumo Arena, where all the famous sumos fight; you go in the dressing room there and you see these big wooden branch trees that sumos hit with their palms. It's oak! And there's dents! It's very special to go to Japan and be invited to train with them - I was invited to train with the third-ranked sumo at the time - and then go eat with them! I ate 1/12th of what they eat and I was eating pretty well at the time. Obviously, now, they eat much healthier because they were dropping dead before they were forty, so a lot less saturated fats. To go to K-1 and see Peter Aerts fight and be there ringside was so cool.
Oh, definitely, they deserved more credit. I met them in Amsterdam when they were having tryouts, and that's where I kicked a guy into the hospital. He wanted to hurt me because they were filming and he thought it would be cool to have it on camera, so I kicked him in the head, and then six weeks later I was fighting in Japan.
If you could come back for one fight tomorrow, who would it be against and where?
Whoever they want to put against me.
Fedor?
Maybe. Maybe I'll drop him! I'm at 205, so I'd be at that weight already, and it would just be like the Fedor Emelianenko - Matt Lindland deal. He would be the biggest test, and that would be what I'd want. As long as I leave it in the cage or the ring, I'm happy with it.
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Flashing Blade
