Bas Rutten

Unfortunately, Bas Rutten claims that around the time of the Ken Shamrock fight, Kimbo stopped listening to him and actually started to get worse. Here’s what he told Fighters Only magazine about the situation and why he will never train Kimbo again:

“I misjudged him, he turned into a whole different person. I told him a few weeks ago, I had a sit down with him. I told him that he was an asshole and that I have zero respect (for him] and I cant train people that I have no respect for. Can’t ever,” Rutten told Fighters Only in a recent interview.

“He just turned into a different guy, he didn’t need to do the things that I told him to do. He wasn’t going to go to the ground, you know? The day before the [Petruzelli] fight, I told him I wanted to go over heel hooks and escapes, and he said “Nah, its not going to go to the ground”.

I said ‘Ha, I like that attitude – but what if it does go to the ground?’ but he said ‘Its not going to go’. So I said OK, but don’t let me tell you ‘I told you so’ if he snaps your fuckin’ leg in half. He said ‘I don’t know if that’s a good thing for you to be telling me mentally, before a fight’! I said ‘I don’t think its a good thing for you not to be doing what I tell you, before the fight”!

Bas Rutten is not someone you want to disagree with. A pioneer of the sport who used to fight in Japan alongside Ken Shamrock in the early 90’s, he became an internet celebrity due to his amusingly violent bar fighting instructional dvds, and was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto 4. While he’s one of the most entertaining jokers in the industry, his training chops are solid and Kimbo Slice has an even tougher hill to climb now that Bas has excommunicated him from his circle.

Post from: EveryJoe

Bas Rutten: “I have zero respect for Kimbo”

Kimbo Slice

You have to think about it this way. On Youtube Kimbo Slice was a bad-ass street fighter for quite a few years before being picked up in the MMA circuit. Elite XC more or less saw this guy and their eyes lit up green. They knew that a lot of people watched the viral Youtube videos and if they watched the videos then they would surely like to see how he faired in the ring in an MMA match. So they offer him a contract and you could almost say they exploited him in a way. They offer him a contract in hopes of making money. Of course Kimbo is not going to turn down a contract where he can potentially make money doing something that he’s pretty good at. Most MMA fighters have to work their way up through the circuits, but when a promoter sees money making potential, they jump on it before the next guy does.

If you were an MMA fighter (and some readers may be) and were offered a contract to make some real money in the sport and not have to work a normal day job, 99.9% would take it, right? Why not? Very rarely would you find someone that says, “Nah, I’d rather train longer and hold out, while taking more fists to the face before I take any contract.”. It’s not selling out, it’s taking an opportunity. Sometimes when opportunity knocks you have to open that door, drag it inside and put it in a rear naked choke because it won’t come around often. Sometimes you have to dive in head first to discover your own true potential.

Kimbo Slice was always pretty humble in his pre-fight interviews. He never talked immense amounts of trash in order to intimidate his opponents and make himself look like King Shit…or a Shamrock. He normally wouldn’t say much more than something like “I’m gonna go out there and do what I do.”. Unfortunately for him, he may have to work his way up the ladder top get to where he once was. Here is just a sliver of what Bas Rutten had to say about Kevin Ferguson in the last issue of Tapout Magazine. In case you were not aware, Bas Rutten did quite a bit of training with Kimbo Slice.

Kimbo didn’t ask for this; it just happened.Kimbo would never say he was the best–far from it– because in every interview that he did, he would always say, and I quote, “I am still a little squirrel in this big world trying to learn the game.” He didn’t disrespect other fighters, he wasn’t a bad role model, he trained hard and he actually tried to be a perfect role model since he knew that a lot of people, especially kids, watched his every move.

There was quite a bit more to this article that kind of opened my eyes about Kimbo Slice. Do I think he’s a great fighter? Better than I am, that’s for sure. The article just made me realize more that it wasn’t completely Kimbo’s fault that he was pushed in to the spotlight before he “earned” his way in to the MMA circuit. Just about every hardcore MMA fan and fighter is going to give someone a hard time when they are thrown a bone that perhaps they don’t deserve right away. Brock Lesnar is getting a lot of that now, but he’s fought a few top stars in his short career in MMA. The difference between the two is that Brock already made a name for himself in the world of wrestling, both “pro” and amateur. Kimbo was just a street fighter on Youtube. If you think Dana White didn’t sign Brock for monetary gain like Elite XC did for Slice then you’re crazy. The main difference is that Brock has fought hard hitting, technical and reputable fighters in his three fights in the UFC. That was the UFC’s choice.

Perhaps Kimbo would not have fought so well against fighters of the same caliber, but it was Elite XC making the matches kind of lop-sided. They didn’t want people to see Kimbo Slice lose his first fight, that wouldn’t have been good TV. Perhaps if they were not headlining events, he would not have got so much ridicule. I’m not saying that we should all just become Kimbo Slice fans, I just think maybe we should stop and think before we criticize someone for taking a great opportunity and being exploited by a promoter, that’s all.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Bas Rutten Speaks On The Kimbo Slice Issue