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Wheelie
08-03-2005, 12:35
Earlier this month it was confirmed that Pride Commentator and MMA legend Bas Rutten would be traveling to Gresham, Oregon to work with Randy Couture and Team Quest in preparations for Couture's upcoming UFC title defense against "The Iceman" Chuck Liddell in April. MMAWeekly's Mick Hammond spoke to Rutten amidst his hectic traveling schedule to talk about Couture, sobriety and the upcoming Pride Middleweight Grand Prix.

MMAWeekly: First off Bas, tell us about your plans to go up to Oregon and work with Randy for his next fight.

Bas Rutten: Randy is a great guy, he's in my decade in the age department, actually I just entered his, I just turned 40, and this guy has an unbelievable mind and body. He's so mentally and physically strong and everything. I know Chuck is training really hard so we are going up to help Randy all we can. My little sis (Shannon Knapp) is helping him out as his personal assistant and I'm going to help him prepare for Chuck.

MMAWeekly: I know you've been up to Oregon for things other than training. You've done seminars up there and attended Sportfight, are there other activities on the docket along with training?

Bas Rutten: This is the first time I've worked with him. You're right I've gone to do a seminar there, but this is our first time really training together. The seminar is on Saturday (March 12th) and that's going to be after a week of long work together. A Swedish TV station is going to come over to do an interview. They are going to come over and shoot stuff with the whole gym. The greatest thing is that Duane "Bang" Ludwig is coming too. I haven't seen him in a while. The last time was he came to California was when he was training to fight (Serkan) Yilmaz in K-1. I'm sure that Randy and Matt (Lindland) are going to have a lot of fun with him.

MMAWeekly: What can people expect from a Bas Rutten seminar?

Bas Rutten: First of all you'll meet the whole Team Quest, Randy, Matt, and all of them will be there. Little sis and Bang will be there, and let's not forget El Guapo himself (laughs). It's going to be lots of fun, lots of striking and submissions teaching. There will be some takedowns too, sometimes when people are new I don't like to do takedowns because they are not used to it and they get injured, so we do a lot of striking. If you want to come to a seminar and learn and have fun this is the one you want to go.

MMAWeekly: You mention your little sis Shannon being part of the seminar and helping Randy as an assistant. I know she also plays a big part in Bas Rutten Enterprises and is working on the upcoming Sportfight TV show. How happy are you to see her starting to make an impact in the MMA community?

Bas Rutten: She's great, she keeps going and is great at doing what she's doing. She is working on Sportfight with Randy, they are working on getting that on TV and she's wonderful on it. She will be boom up to the same speed we do (Rutten and Mauro Ranallo) in front of the camera. In the strength department, she's just as strong as anyone and a great trainer.

MMAWeekly: Sounds like she has a chance to become more popular than you are.

Bas Rutten: It's okay, she can be more popular because I'm better looking (laughs).

MMAWeekly: Do you ever get the urge to return to fighting?

Bas Rutten: You know what, all the fighters that have come and trained with me they say that I should go back, but the answer is real easy, I'm going to be home for five days over the next few weeks. Needless to say my lifestyle is too busy right now for fighting. I have a family and I want to spend time with them, but it's hard with everything I do. It's different when money talks and you have to make a living to support yourself and your family. If they (a fight promotion) came to me with a good deal and I'd have to put everything aside and train for 2 or 3 months and I can't do it. I came to California be an actor, that's my first goal, if that doesn't work guess I can go back to fighting, it wouldn't be easy but I'm still kooky enough to do it (laughs).

MMAWeekly: You mention that you're only going to be home for a short time due to your schedule, how do you balance it all?

Bas Rutten: I feel like I'm in not in good shape sometimes. My stomach is bad, all tied up, it's like an ulcer. It's too crowded, it's too much, sometimes, and it really affects me. Right now as I'm talking to you I'm in San Francisco doing a seminar, then I go to Portland, come home on 13th, then I leave on the 16th for Holland, I come home on the 29th and then on the 31st I'm in Japan for Pride. That's like 5 days in total I'll be home. The trick is to stay sober. I stopped drinking and that's the only way to do it.

MMAWeekly: I know those of us in the industry that know you and your friends were concerned about your drinking at one time. What finally made you decide to clean up that aspect about your life?

Bas Rutten: The thing is that I don't want to have a real job (laughs). I love what I do and I want to keep doing what I do. I don't care if I go for 18 hours straight as long as I'm focused. When you are working very hard, it's difficult to stay focused and do it right, and it's worse when you drink. I know that to stop drinking it's for a better future and it's going to be. I stopped drinking so I have a future for myself and my family.

MMAWeekly: The next big thing for Pride is the upcoming Middleweight GP that starts in April. Tell us your thoughts about it.

Bas Rutten: I think the people around the world know those 16 guys in the middleweight tournament, they are freakshows. They are all going to be unbelievable fighters. Everybody from Wanderlei (Silva), (Ricardo) Arona, Rampage (Quinton Jackson), (Dan) Henderson, sixteen of those guys all in one tournament, it's a scary middleweight tournament this year.

MMAWeekly: At the last Pride, Fists of Fury, we saw perhaps some precursors to the GP with some of the fights on the card. Who were you most impressed with that could possibly be entered into the GP?

Bas Rutten: You know what to tell the truth, the thing about being me is I know everybody and it's difficult to watch fights and not be bias. So with Quinton against Ninja (Murilo Rua) I heard on the net that Bas is bias, but hey I just put down one of my best friends. It' was a great fight and I hope both of them get a chance in the GP. I think personally the biggest impression I got was from Igor Vovchanchyn. He has a big chance to win the whole GP. I mean him and Wanderlei they match up so good, it could be the best fight of the year if they fought in the GP. That for me is the biggest breakthrough in last three years that Igor went to middleweight. I saw him in 1996 in the Ukraine, he was 196lbs fighting in a tournament and the lightest guy he faced was like was 300lbs, he knocked out everybody, I was blown away and now he's back to the weight. I think that Jackson, Silva, and Vovchanchyn could all win the tournament. There are so many good middleweights now in Pride, Shogun (Mauricio Rua) I think for Chute Boxe has a great chance too. I think he's better than Ninja at this point. He's accurate, got the reach, is good on the ground, he's just a complete fighter. They (Chute Boxe) are exciting, they will never be boring; I look for him to have a great tournament.

MMAWeekly: Someone else that made quite an impression was Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. He continues to evolve into such a complete fighter and very quickly. What are your impressions of his performance against Mark Coleman?

Bas Rutten: Mirko is just scary. I think I was the first that said that Cro Cop when he came to Pride, I said watch this guy he is going to be a champion a lot of people gave me grief about it. But this guy's sprawl is better in a month than mine was and is to date. I mean now I have a good one but he's better. He's so strong and fast and if Mark Coleman cannot take him down he's unbelievable. He and Fedor (Emelianenko) will make a great fight. I think in the future when we and go back in history that this is the best fight ever, it's gong to be a super match.

MMAWeekly: How important is a Cro Cop VS Fedor bout for Pride?

Bas Rutten: I think it's very important for Pride. They want to have Japanese fighters in the title fight, the reason that K-1 is not big in the US is because they don't have an American champion, so for Pride the next best thing is to have Fedor and Mirko fight. In Japan it's about unorthodox fighting, in Japan they would love to have a Japanese guy against a foreign guy, but I think with all the fights available the biggest draw would be Mirko and Fedor. I think that show would be sold out six weeks before. These guys could sell out a show if it was just them fighting, that's how big it can be.

MMAWeekly: Let's talk about some of your other business ventures you've got coming up. I know one thing you mentioned on the last Pride and the last time I interviewed you was the Big DVDs of Combat, tell us where that project is at right now.

Bas Rutten: The DVDs are going to take longer than I expected. They will be out soon and anyone who buys it they are going to be happy with it. It's going to be the biggest instructional set in the world. It's got over 12 hours of instruction, over 60 armbars alone with escapes. It's not like a separate thing, all the techniques and instruction is on one thing. Like with the leglocks, I show how to apply it and then right away show to escape it. The menu is great also. It's set up for like if you want to see an armbar from sidemount you can go into the menu and find it easily. The menu is going to be big for sure. People keep telling me I should split it all up and sell it individually and make more money and I could have split it up, but I'm not. I'm simple guy from Holland who likes to do things simply and everybody is going to get it all in one set for 100 bucks.

MMAWeekly: Also recently you were featured on TV as well. Tell us how the acting career is going.

Bas Rutten: Yesterday I was on the Extreme Makeover, I didn't see the King of Queens because I was traveling. I did something called Kingdom of Ultimate Power, it's a short comedy and we are talking to HBO about it. I've seen a really bad rough version of it and I like it a lot. If I like it in this rough way then I say it's going to be the funniest thing in the world when it's completely done. This is going to be like Bas Rutten on 40 cups of coffee it's really funny; I play 4 different characters and have a blast in it. It's a lot better than anything I've done so far.

MMAWeekly: Sounds great Bas, can't wait to see it, is there anything you'd like to say to the fans before we close out this interview?

Bas Rutten: Okay guys this is El Guapo saying he loves you all. When I'm walking around anywhere talking to little sis people stop me and tell me I'm great and how big a fan they are. That shows how great that MMA is breaking through into the States and the world, I get stopped everywhere by fans, it's unbelievable. I stopped fighting 4 years ago and I'm more popular now than ever and it's thanks to all of you fans.

MMAWeekly: Thanks for the interview as always Bas, it was an honor as always. Have a safe trip up to Oregon and when you get there take it easy on Randy, okay?

Bas Rutten: Anytime my friend and I should ask Randy to take it easy on me (laughs). When people in the future ask me how many times I train I will know it because after training with Randy I won't need to train for a year (laughs).

MrMiyagi
08-03-2005, 13:05
Vet interview, thnx wheelie :thumbs:

Tsuki
08-03-2005, 14:16
en hij komt naar nederland , hoe cool is dat dan ...............................

KO TKO
08-03-2005, 14:30
Leuk interview

Marco
08-03-2005, 14:41
Ben wel benieuwd hoeveel blessures hij heeft gehad en waar hij nog last van heeft want je leest in elk interview wel over zijn conditie en blessures en volgens mij hebben vechters als Rutten elke dag wel pijn of komen ze sochtends met moeite hun bed uit en de trap af naar de woonkamer :wink:

Emilio
08-03-2005, 16:39
leuk interview! Sympathieke kerel die bas! :)

Anonymous
08-03-2005, 17:21
Bas gestopt met drinken?!

redjuh
08-03-2005, 23:18
NICE!!!

nou ik zal wel een paar koude heinekentjes meenemen en hem es proberen te verleiden hehehe

}|^-_-^|{
08-03-2005, 23:28
I'm with redjuh. paar harinkies mee, biertje erbij... ik ben benieuwd...

Kato
09-03-2005, 10:32
Bas gestopt met drinken?!

Ik wist niet eens dat hij een drank probleem had??????

Wanneer is dit dan allemaal begonnen?
Ik kan me nog herinneren in de Docu met Mark Kerr dat hij tegen mark zei dat hij moest ophouden met pijnstillers maar dan zit hij zelf aan de drank??????????

Kato
09-03-2005, 10:33
Bas gestopt met drinken?!

Ik wist niet eens dat hij een drank probleem had??????

Wanneer is dit dan allemaal begonnen?
Ik kan me nog herinneren in de Docu met Mark Kerr dat hij tegen mark zei dat hij moest ophouden met pijnstillers maar dan zit hij zelf aan de drank??????????

Iwan
09-03-2005, 10:38
Bas gestopt met drinken?!

Ik wist niet eens dat hij een drank probleem had??????

Wanneer is dit dan allemaal begonnen?
Ik kan me nog herinneren in de Docu met Mark Kerr dat hij tegen mark zei dat hij moest ophouden met pijnstillers maar dan zit hij zelf aan de drank??????????

WTF? Wist je dat echt niet?
Een avondje stappen met Bas is gewoon niet vol te houden. Die kan blijven zuipen, en hij word gewoon niet dronken, ongelooflijk!
Bas is altijd een enorm feestbeest geweest...

Kato
09-03-2005, 10:53
Nee ik hoor dit echt voor het eerst........

Maar goed, ik drink ook bij het stappen, maar dan wel aaleen bij het stappen.Maar had hij ook echt een alcohol probleem

Iwan
09-03-2005, 10:59
Nee ik hoor dit echt voor het eerst........

Maar goed, ik drink ook bij het stappen, maar dan wel aaleen bij het stappen.Maar had hij ook echt een alcohol probleem

Tja, als je 6 dagen per week gaat stappen dan lijkt het me dat jou theorie ook niet helemaal meer op gaat toch.
Marco Ruas noemde Bas altijd Bas ROTTEN, omdat Bas zo'n slecht invloed op hem had...
Dat zegt genoeg denk ik!

Ronny
09-03-2005, 11:22
hahahahahahahahaha....

Biiyen
09-03-2005, 11:49
Trainen met team quest......Couture, Chris Leben, Nathan Quarry, Duane Ludwig

super cool

Kato
09-03-2005, 12:18
Nee ik hoor dit echt voor het eerst........

Maar goed, ik drink ook bij het stappen, maar dan wel aaleen bij het stappen.Maar had hij ook echt een alcohol probleem

Tja, als je 6 dagen per week gaat stappen dan lijkt het me dat jou theorie ook niet helemaal meer op gaat toch.
Marco Ruas noemde Bas altijd Bas ROTTEN, omdat Bas zo'n slecht invloed op hem had...
Dat zegt genoeg denk ik!

Hahahah Ik mag blij zijn als ik tegenwoordig 1x per maand kan stappen..... (klote euro)

Jay Hoov
09-03-2005, 13:27
Bas is de man...Wat hij allemaal bereikt hebt..pittig hoor!!

Chico
09-03-2005, 13:50
leuk interview :mrgreen:

Nickuraba
09-03-2005, 14:06
nice job!

Anonymous
10-03-2005, 14:40
Goed interview... altijd leuk hem weer eens in Nederland te zien!

smatti
10-03-2005, 14:42
nice job indeed!