Check out what Bas “El Guapo” Rutten has to say about BJ Penn’s boxing skills, what Dana White has done for MMA, IFL’s current financial condition, Kimbo’s last fight, and much more!

This interview took place on Thursday June 12th prior to the Adrenaline and Dream 4 show.

MMAyou.com: First, how are you doing?

Rutten: I’m doing good, doing very good.

MMAyou.com: What’s new with you?

Rutten: Uh… nothing. I got to leave on Friday. I am doing the Adrenaline show for Monte Cox and then from there I go to do the Dream 4 event.

MMAyou.com: The IFL CEO came out today and he had some statements about how the IFL is doing. As the….

Rutten: The Vice President of Fight Operations!

MMAyou.com: There you go. Nice. How are things with the IFL?

Rutten: It’s shaky, right? I mean everybody can see it. We’re an open book because we’re a public company and it’s not going that good. But we have a strong fighter’s base, I think everything looks good. I think the shows that we have, especially the last two shows were all good, especially the last show was really good so that’s not the problem. We thought that CBS was going to help us. We kind of had high hope from EliteXC, then the show was great and everybody watched but the press afterwards kind of killed it. They started talking bad about it which was very weird to me. We were hoping more companies would say, more big TV stations were gonna say “Hey listen, we want Mixed Martial Arts”. And with the IFL being in a ring, and with the elbows out, a little bit more suitable for TV and for a larger audience, because of that I thought we were going to do good.

We didn’t hear anything yet but you know, you never know, we’re still in the running.

MMAyou.com: Has Kimbo’s new opponent been announced yet?

Rutten: No, not yet.

MMAyou.com: I’m going to name some names and you tell me the first thing that comes in to your head.

Rutten: Oh God, okay….

MMAyou.com: Dana White.

Rutten: What did I say today? I said something… “They can say whatever they want to say about Dana but when he does something he does it right”. He made Mixed Martial Arts where it is right now. He’s responsible for it.

MMAyou.com: Gary Shaw.

Rutten: Great boxing promoter. What did I say about Gary Shaw? Let me see…

MMAyou.com: (laughing) It was the first thing that popped into your head!

Rutten: That was it. Great boxing promoter.

MMAyou.com: Kimbo Slice.

Rutten: Very raw talent.

MMAyou.com: Bas Rutten.

Rutten: Hell of a nice guy.

MMAyou.com: Gina Carano.

Rutten: Oh! Very good looking and can fight on top of that.

MMAyou.com: Fedor Emelianenko.

Rutten: They have the nickname “The Prodigy” for BJ Penn and that would be “The Experiment” or “The Prodigy” also for Fedor Emelianenko. He’s just on a different level.

I think the most talented guy on the planet I think would really be BJ Penn. I mean he blew me away with his boxing skills finally. I literally believed that you know when he trained three years Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he had a black belt and he went to Brazil and he won the world championship right? I think that if he trained like six months or a year he’s gonna become the world champion boxing in his weight class. He’s that good, that talented.

MMAyou.com: When’s the infomercial coming out?

Rutten: I think in like three weeks. They’re really busy with the animation.

MMAyou.com: I didn’t know there was animation involved.

Rutten: Yeah it’s like when I make an uppercut it goes into an animation where it points out all the muscles that go into an uppercut.

MMAyou.com: Like Fight Science kind of?

Rutten: Yeah like that and then you know “this is where you burn..”, “this is your rotation of your upper body” and then you see the side of your abs. They put some real cool stuff in there.

MMAyou.com: Anything you want to say to our readers?

Rutten: Just what we said before. Take into consideration, if you really look at the thing with Kimbo, the whole fight what happened, just think about it as somebody who had three fights and then you will totally look differently at the person. People say “Oh Bas, he lost a lot of credibility in putting himself involved with Kimbo Slice”. I don’t think… Absolutely not. I think he’s one of the most talented fighters I ever had. The things, the way he escaped in the first round, some escapes he did. Tried one escape, didn’t work and right away go to a backdoor escape. Those are things that pros who have been fighting over twenty fights still don’t make. And when you see pictures, how relaxed he is when punches, his face is totally calm.

I see a great future for Kimbo as long as he stays away from the injuries.

For more information on Bas Rutten you can check him out at www.basrutten.tv

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Comments (9)

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written by KJ Gould, June 17, 2008

Bas needs to appreciate that even though Kimbo is a rookie, even though he's had 3 official MMA fights, no one else with his level of experience is getting the pay days and hype he is in American MMA other then Brock Lesnar, and he has a legitimate combat-art background (Amateur Wrestling) which he became world class at. Kimbo was a football player (not even an established one) who lost everything in a hurricane and became a bareknuckle brawler while bouncing at nightclubs and doing security for porn companies. So yeah, if he wants people to respect Kimbo and wants him to be brought along slowly, that should include not main eventing a prime time network TV live event, and that should not include getting paid more then MMA fighters who paid their dues the right way by legitimately fighting their way up to the big show.

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written by Rick, June 17, 2008

That first comment is dead on. Its not Kimbo I dont like, its the fact that the first exposure many people had to MMA was a main event featuring a 1/2 dimensional fighter with 3 fights. A ton of guys have worked for years in this sport for little money and a guy with no experience and a bare minimum of skill is reaping the benefits.

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written by swirldog, June 17, 2008

Bas is swinging from BJ's nuts worse than all but the most adamant huggers on Sherdog.

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written by Chris, June 17, 2008

Everybody is gonna hate that Kimbo is making the most amount of money... But i'll tell you one thing... It don't matter how inexperienced he is... cause he is still the biggest draw out there.. and one of the most exciting fighters to watch.... Only hardcores care that he is paid more... and to be honest... the average joe.. .don't give a damn.. the watch fights to watch fights... not to find out how much they are paid.... Kimbo's had a long hard life... and he deserves every penny... I'll continue to watch him win or lose... Cause Kimbo represents real life... and the struggles you must go through to get where you want to be....

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written by fg, June 17, 2008

Leaving comments here is a privilege.Keep your comments clean. Many fighters read our comments and interviews.

Thank you,

MMAyou.com Staff

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written by asd, June 17, 2008

kimbo represents real life struggles? do u mean fighting and kicking drunk ass man in your backyard is a struggle for living?

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written by KJ Gould, June 18, 2008

Here's the thing. I wouldn't care if Kimbo was paid as much as he is if his paycheck was balanced out by a competitive opponent. Take Brock Lesnar. It's not a secret he's getting paid a lot of money, but at least he's fought a former UFC HW champion (which was NOT the headline bout), and is next fighting a very respected fighter with international experience who's faced some of the very best in Heath Herring. So while Lesnar is an attraction, he's being booked as a sportsman to face legit competition. Kimbo is an attraction, and is being booked as nothing but an attraction by a shady promoter who's trying to con a gullible audience by claiming opponents with losing records or have lost a few in a row haven't been handpicked in Kimbo's favour. But that all backfired when Gary Shaw underestimated James Thompson who exposed his larger then life posterboy and made him look mortal infront of millions of viewers on national prime time TV.

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written by jy, June 18, 2008

so should kimbo turn the money and spotlight down to make evryone happy?would you turn down a pay raise because others though you didn't deserve it? would you care what they said while you fed your family and paid your bills?you guys can say "kimbo hasn't fought anyone yet" but you'll watch his next fight even if it's to see him lose.

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written by KJ Gould, June 18, 2008

It's not Kimbo I'm criticising, per se. He's been given an opportunity and no one can fault him to run with it. That doesn't change the fact Gary Shaw is essentially exploiting and pimping a fighter for his own means and is setting Kimbo up for a fall in the future. Lesnar lost but is still with the UFC. If Kimbo gets beat badly, especially agaisnt a fighter that's been handpicked for him to beat, Gary Shaw seems the type of person to drop Kimbo like a bad habbit and kick him to the curb. Gary Shaw brings his BS boxing background and mentality and is infecting MMA with it. Boxing promoters are the ones that are killing boxing, and if they crossover to MMA like Shaw did, expect the same to happen.

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