Bas Rutten Talks ‘Stale Ground Fighters’ And ‘Bulls**t Rules’

Bas Rutten is one of the biggest names in MMA history, and one of my favorite fighters of all time. His style was exciting; he entertained crowds and beat some of the best fighters in his era.

A three time King Of Pancrase chamion, and the UFC Heavyweight champion, El Guapo certainly reached the pinnacle of his sport. Between 1995 and his eventual retirement in 1999, Rutten never lost once. Compiling 21 wins (that’s including his comeback fight in 2006).

As well as being one of the best athletes, Rutten later showed that he was also a great analyst and commentator, appearing on Pride FC and HD Net Fights, and also making hilarious instructionals and giving very informed interviews; A true martial artist, in every sense of the word.

While trawling the webs I found a pretty cool interview with Bas, in which he gives his opinion on a wide range of subjects. Check it out, courtesy of Fightwords.com:

“People ask me if I’d like to fight in the first UFC and I’m like ‘No!’ No referee? Nobody to stop the fight? So if he knocks me out and I’m out and there’s nobody to stop it and he decides to throw five extra punches, I’m gonna walk away with a speech impediment..? I said… ‘I got a daughter, I’ll do it if there’s a referee.’”

“I started doing Taekwondo and one of the neighbor’s boyfriends—he practiced and was into that, so he took care of me. And then when I was 20, 21, I got into karate… And it was really good, because I was still a kid… I was crazy. Out of control. So when I started karate that was a good thing for me to focus, you know..? I loved absorbing techniques. Katas, that was my thing. But when I would run them, man I would run them… Exploding with every punch and kick…”

“But I really understood also that kata won’t me make a good fighter. And we’d have sparring classes, and I was dropping everyone there and I thought, ‘Ooh, that’s not good. I need to go somewhere I can get competition.’ I went to Thai boxing. And Thai boxing really taught me to fight. I got dropped the first class right away with the liver shot, I was messed up, you know… But like I said, those four hours in front of the mirror changed me, you know? And I’ve always been like that… If I can’t do it, I can do it tomorrow. I’m very driven with everything I do…. Martial arts gave me that focus.”

Rutten then gave some very interesting insight in to his interpretation of modern MMA:

“That bullshit rule with the hands on the ground? Fighters take advantage of that. That’s so weak. I hate it. I would even say take out elbows and keep the knees to the face (on the ground). It’s only lately that you see guys knocking guys out with it (the elbow). And I’m not saying that’s bad. That’s cool stuff. But it’s one knock out in 500 fights with an elbow. I think I can count on two hands fights that ended with the elbow knock out. Most of the time it’s cuts. Which is crazy. On the street, would you stop at a cut? No… It’s not a good win. It’s not clean.”

Rutten was around in a very different time for MMA, he was one of the pioneers of the sport. It was a lot more primal back then, and the potential for injury and even death was a lot higher. As with any new thing, it needs to be polished and perfected. The modernized version of MMA is miles away from when Rutten debuted in 1993 at Pancrase: Yes we are hybrid wrestlers 1.

“Well what you’re seeing is not a lot of submission victories anymore… Most of the time it’s ground and pound now, with maybe attached to it a submission—rear naked choke, that kind of thing. That you still see. But otherwise I think for fighters, a lot of them want a decisive win. They wanna knock them out. And I think that’s what’s behind today’s fighters… they want to keep it on the feet, knock the guy out, because now I won. On the ground, sorry, but there’s a lot of stale guys who won’t take risks on the ground… They just lay there, control, little punch here, little punch there. That’s not what people wanna see. That’s not how fighters wanna win. They want clean victories.”

“I still see the sport getting bigger. Because people are always gonna wanna see the biggest bad-ass on the planet.” He spread his hands. “Which, let’s face it, is the mixed martial artist—not the boxers or the Thai boxers. It’s the guy who knows it all.”

Bas Rutten-MMA badass, knowledgeable analyst, and the last guy you want to spill your drink over.