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 If you read one Bas Rutten interview this year, this has got to be it. MMAyou.com sat down with legendary fighter and trainer Bas “El Guapo” Rutten. Rutten puts to bed all the rumors regarding his student Kimbo as he discusses Kimbo's fight with Thompson, the allegations that the fight was fixed, Kimbo’s ground game, Kimbo’s supposed tap, and the rumors that UFC fighter Forrest Griffin knocked out Kimbo in a sparring session.
MMAyou.com: Yo Bas!
Rutten: What's up dog?
MMAyou.com: You ready to start?
Rutten: Yes I am!
MMAyou.com: First, give us your thoughts on the fight.
Rutten: Of course I wanted … After every fight that he (Kimbo) had in the past I always said, "I wanted Kimbo to be tested". But of course I wanted him to be tested in such a way that he would still pull off a victory but I wanted him to go deep. Well, apparently my questions got answered. They said "okay, here you go" and man did he have to dig deep because he had the pressure on. He knows now also what it is to get really really tired. But if you ask me, of course I wanted him to finish the fight quicker and more technical but later on after the fight I thought about it and said "Yo wait a minute. This guy had three fights. This was his fourth fight".
For him after round number two he was really really tired. He was sitting there and to come out in round number three and to suck it up and to still go and to go for those heavy shots that he gave and the referee stopped the fight, I was really really happy with that.
MMAyou.com: What do you have to say to the people that say the fight should have been stopped after the second round?
Rutten: They are right. The referee didn't stop the fight. Officially if you don't improve your position they stop the fight so they are right with that. The thing that happened is this, when he got elbowed Kimbo was so tired at that moment, that's what he told me later, and he said "Bas, I was so tired I was just trying to recoup because I knew round number three was gonna come up. He gave me those elbows but they weren't hurting me so I gave my thumbs up to the referee". If you see the fight you'll see him putting his thumbs up to the referee so I think the referee was kind of caught in the middle here But yes, by the rules the referee should have stopped the fight. They were right with that, but again, nobody knew what was going on with the thumbs up. Difficult decision for the referee.
MMAyou.com: What do you have to say to the people that said the fight was the work?
Rutten: That's very sad to hear that because it's not. And from who? From who was it a work? How did this work? I don't really understand it. It is a work from Kimbo's side you know? Did he ask to get so tired and get caught in those things? Is it a work from James to get almost knocked out in the first? Two times in the second. Is that work? How can you pull your punches so you don't knock your opponent out? I don't get it. I don't know they would see that it's a work. If they mean that the referee was "bought" I say that they are also wrong, Dan Margliotta is a stand up guy, would never do a thing like that.
I called Big John McCarthy yesterday to get the number from Dan Margliotta and he called me two hours ago and gave it to me, I just talked to him. I will let the people know on Inside MMA what he said but because of that phone call I believe that Dan is NOT paid off and would never do a thing like that.
MMAyou.com: What do you have to say to the people that said Kimbo tapped?
Rutten: Kimbo didn't tap, he put his thumbs up to the guy. I told Kimbo all the time and thank God he listened to that really good, I said "When you get caught" I said even "if somebody catches you in a guillotine I would make sounds like I am in trouble" but before you do that you gotta make eye contact with the referee and give him a thumbs up. Make sure he knows you are okay. Now he didn't do those sounds, he didn't do that but he made sure the referee saw he was okay while dropping hard knees to the inside and the outside of the legs of Thompson. So no, he didn't tap whatsoever.
MMAyou.com: While we are talking about these types of things, I'm going to ask you about a rumor I heard a while back. Did Forrest Griffin KO Kimbo with a head kick while sparring?
Rutten: No. Forrest kicked Kimbo in the head during sparring and Kimbo shook it off, never went down, never wobbled, never did anything.
MMAyou.com: That should put that to bed. Who is Kimbo fighting next?
Rutten: I don't know. I heard that the winner between Brett Roger and the other one was gonna fight Kimbo and now Brett Rogers was actually pretty disrespectful to Kimbo after the fight. Of course he saw an opportunity to get a challenge there, so I understand what he did. He says the fight was garbage but I don't think it was. Not for somebody that had only three fights, I don't think it was garbage at all. I think in the first round he had some good reversals and he did a good job. He was too hungry and then when he got tired, fatigued, he of course didn't have those cool escapes anymore. But we have a lot of fighters in the business who are currently fighting who fought over fifteen to twenty fights and they do exactly the same thing when they get tired.
How many times you hear me saying when I do commentating I say "Well, the only thing they have to do right now is to buck up and then roll them over" but they don't because they're fatigued or they want to save their energy. This is the problem too. There is so much pressure on Kimbo and there are such high expectations from him. He's the headline of the show but people forget because of all these headlines and all these articles, people forget he only had three fights going into this fight. Everything he does he needs to make it perfect because if it's a little less then perfect they will criticize the sh** out of him.
I think for the amount of fights that he had I really think that he did a great job. I think that his progress is getting there. He made some huge mistakes like not closing the guard, he was too hungry when he connected and brought Thompson in trouble and some more little things. Now he's gonna watch the fights at the moment he sees his mistakes he's gonna go "Oh wait a minute, Bas told me to do this this and this" and then this what they call learning the hard way. Learning the hard way is always the best way to learn because that you bring with you in the preparation and to your next fight so it won't happen again. And that hopefully won't happen again but I'm (laughs) pretty freakin positive that won't happen again.
MMAyou.com: Another thing I wanted to add to that is that James Thompson has over twenty fights. He's been in the game for a long time.
Rutten: James Thompson stopped Don Frye and he stopped Yoshida. There's not a lot of people who did that. He's got a suspect chin, but he's a tough guy. And understand this, this was his time to shine. He had nothing to lose going into this fight, Kimbo had everything to lose. James Thompson trained really really hard and he looked really really good. Kimbo hit him with some good shots but you know, you gotta give it to James Thompson man, he was in a real good shape. And I'm telling you, that's why he stayed up because he was just in real good shape. He's a tough guy, he was twenty pounds heavier on top of Kimbo and now he knows what it is to really dig deep and like I said I think this experience is gonna help him a lot in the future.
MMAyou.com: I agree. How much time does Kimbo spend training his ground game?
Rutten: You know, this is aaaah!…. I hate this so much. Enough. He does train the ground. Of course we will probably do it even more now but this is not about that. How many fighters do you see that…. How do I say this? OK, let me give an example and I am NOT talking bad about fighters here, I am just giving you an example!, Anderson Silva got taken down by Travis Lutter and Lutter was sitting high on his chest in mount position, Silva didn't go right away for an escape, it took a while. Why did Travis Lutter didn't go for an armbar there? I mean Silva's arms were all the way stretched upwards, now these guys have been doing this for 15 years and both have black belts. Why didn't he escape there right away? Why? Because these are all things that seem easy when you are outside the fight, but you are not the one that takes the risk, the fighter is. Also, this happens when you're tired, plus if you make a mistake with like, going for an arm bar, you might lose your dominant position (mount) and your opponent might escape and gets a better position because of it.
I can get you a hundred examples like this from guys who are great submission fighters but make mistakes in a fight (same as for strikers of course) . Training and fighting are two totally different things. You have "Dojo fighters" those are guys who can tap people in training and brag about how good they are, but they never fought themselves because they can't do it under pressure. That's now with all these guys that say "Oh, Kimbo has no basic ground skills", he does have them, trust me, only bringing it from training to a fight is something different. Kimbo in the beginning of the fight, I think he did really good when it went to the ground. He had a reversal, he had an escape for the guillotine, he moved to the side, he did those things. Once the fatigue kicked in, it slows everything down in your game and that's what simply happened to him same as would happen to other fighters. Can you imagine if he comes in and he can go through three rounds like he went round number one? I think it's gonna be A okay. And look at other fights, people focusing only on this one. Look at, even some of the top guys right now. Sometimes they're in trouble and they have to do only a little move to escape but they don't do it. Why? Because it's pressure. Fighting in a nice little dojo with your friends there, that is an easy thing to do. Bringing that fight to a ring or a cage with your friends, family members, everybody's watching on the TV there, that's a whole different ball game, then you start forgetting things plus there are risks involved.
Think about this, Kimbo was headlining maybe the biggest thing for MMA in a while, major Network TV, prime time, cover of news papers, ESPN magazine, appearances at TV ceremonies, radio interviews, I mean, EVERYBODY is talking about Kimbo. For somebody who only had three fights before, that is a LOT of pressure. I said it before, Kimbo didn't ask for that attention, he just wants to fight. But pressure like that makes you get tired faster also. Ask any fighter what they thought about their stamina in their first bunch of fights? They will say that they thought they were in great shape but got tired fast, how can that be? well, that's pressure my friend.
How many times in interviews I have been saying that if you can take the way you fight in training to the day of the fight itself, you are going to do really good.
Example about pressure: you are standing on a 2 by 2 foot square spot, you have to jump now ten times with your knees to your chest and land inside that 2 by 2 spot, easy right? Now do the same thing but 10 yards high up. Suddenly its a whole different ball game. Why? consequences, that's why, you make a mistake now, you die. In fighting if you take a chance, your opponent can get a better position over you or you even might lose the fight. You have to get used to that pressure and than it will be OK.
MMAyou.com: Does Kimbo train with any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts?
Rutten: No.
MMAyou.com: Okay, next question. Kimbo said in an MMAyou.com interview that if you were to come back a lot of people would be in big trouble. How often does it cross your mind to come back?
Rutten: It crosses my mind a lot but the pain that I have once I start training doesn't encourage me to start training again. It's a lot of pain.
MMAyou.com: Last question, is there anything you would like to say to our readers?
Rutten: No, just look at the fight as a fight. Look at other fights what happened there and then just put in consideration, put in your mind that this was his fourth fight and then do it again. Go like "This was his fourth fight. He fought James Thompson over twenty fights". Was this his best fight? Actually I think it was a real good fight if you look at it like that. Imagine that Kimbo's name would have been John Hancock with a three and o record. No hype, no nothing. Now he would have had the same fight against Thompson, wouldn't you say after that fight, "Who is that guy? That's a tough guy!". And that's what I mean, he is just over hyped, but he's making really good improvements, my thoughts about him didn't change, I am happy that this happened now early in his career because it will help him a lot in the future.
Last thing, I found THIS on a website, this is regarding the “early stoppage”:
Head of commission Nick Lembo said this: “At the end of the second round, Dan came up to me and said ‘Both fighters are completely exhausted.’" And he didn't think they were going to complete the next round and basically he stood them up because, again, there was no damage and he thought whoever connected with some decent punches standing, that the fight was going to end. “At that point, I immediately went into see him and asked him ‘Why did you stop the fight?’ And he said ‘Thompson's eyes looked odd. His head went back and he dropped his hands.’" And then we he swatted at Dan (after the fight was stopped), “I asked him ‘Do you want me to recommend a suspension for James?’" And he said, "Nick, I don't even think he knew who I was at that point." And once he regrouped, he immediately apologized.
For an official statement from Rutten regarding the fight please visit http://www.basrutten.tv/newskimbo.htm
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