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UFC Fight Night 25 had some great fights on it, but it may have been Joe Rogan’s interview with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and challenger Rampage Jackson, that stole the show. The UFC 135 main event will feature these two very talented…
UFC Fight Night 25 had some great fights on it, but it may have been Joe Rogan’s interview with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and challenger Rampage Jackson, that stole the show. The UFC 135 main event will feature these two very talented 205-pounders, who have been involved in some major controversy surrounding their fight, […]
UFC Spygate: Quotes from Jon Jones and Rampage Jackson Interview with Joe Rogan
Filed under: MMA Fighting Exclusive, interview, Japan
Since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, former Shooto heavyweight champion and Pride veteran Enson Inoue has been tireless in his charity efforts, repeatedly traveling to northeast Japan to directly help those in need.
Inoue’s work has helped countless people and brought much needed light to the situation in Fukushima and the areas affected by the disasters. This work has been costly though, Inoue sacrificing a gym, his pets and spending an incredible amount of money and time in the process.
On his last trip, Enson Inoue possibly made the greatest sacrifice of all – he risked his life by traveling to one of the most dangerous places on earth.
Speaking exclusively with MMA Fighting, Enson Inoue describes his journey directly into the highly radioactive Fukushima evacuation zone and his covert visit to the the heavily damaged Fukushima power plants.
Enson Inoue: Nine times. Nine times already.
How have you seen things progress since you’ve been up working up there? What is happening with the people in the evacuation centers?
The last time I went to Fukushima prefecture and everyone was starting to move into the temporary housing. They are given these temporary houses and allowed to stay there for up to two years. They are free but the problem is that the moment they leave the evacuation centers, they are being cut off from most of the aid. A lot of people need support though so basically, they don’t want to leave.
The evacuation centers are short staffed though and they need to get the people out of there so they are doing things to make it less comfortable – turning the lights out super early for example. That caused a lot of big fights of course, so now people are just leaving.
Are evacuees given assistance in moving or setting up their new homes?
In Fukushima, they are given 30,000 yen (approximately $390 US) by the government or TEPCO, they are basically the same thing, for bills – water, electricity or whatever and they are also given five items: a refrigerator, washing machine, TV, rice cooker and a microwave. In other places, like Iwate, they are just given a 10-pound bag of rice.
Most of these people lost their cars and businesses or jobs so it’s really hard for them to get back on their feet. What I’m doing now is going to the people in these temporary houses and giving them things they need to get set up. Soap, you know, basic things you need to buy when you move into a house.
What are these temporary houses like?
They are actually pretty nice, I guess. They are adequate, but they are temporary. A lot of people in these temporary houses will never be able to return to their real homes because of the radiation. They are talking about not being able to live in some places in Fukushima for at least a century.
What I’ve heard lately is that some of the older people are committing suicide. They think that even if they have these places to live for two years, they can’t pay the bills. They can’t support themselves now. They are too old to get jobs and so they just commit suicide. There’s a lot of suicides.
What do they need? How do you think they can be helped?
The last time I was there, the people were really cold. I don’t know why. I guess I haven’t met a lot of these people before so they are wary of me. I try to help them but they just say they are OK. You know they aren’t OK. They are hurting. They lost everything. I think it’ll just be a matter of time until they are comfortable with me, until I get to know them.
You’ve also been making trips into the Fukushima evacuation zone to feed abandoned pets. This last time though, you went right into the Fukushima power plant?
The last time I was up in Fukushima I met one of my friends for drinks. He’s a contractor who works inside the evacuation zone. We were sitting at a bar and he told me, “Enson, if you want to go in, this is the time.”
I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “The security. All the security is really going down. We can get you in easy.”
I was with another friend so I asked if he could get him in too. He said OK, but because he isn’t Japanese, he has to hide under blankets.
Why did you want to go in there though? It’s one of the most dangerous places on earth right now.
I felt like it was an opportunity. No one can go in there. My mother asked me why too. She said, ‘Why do you want to go in there? You want to go in just feed dogs?! Why?!’
No one can go in there, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the opportunity to go in there again. It wasn’t about the dogs. I mean, while I was in there I brought more food for the dogs, but it was just being able to go in there and not turning this opportunity down.
She never could understand that. I just told her to drop the conversation. I told her, ‘One – You’re in Hawaii and you’re not here. Two – you don’t consider Japan your home.’ So I told her, ‘You are not here in my shoes. The bottom line is you’re there, I’m here. We are coming from completely different places.’ She never completely understood that.
What did you want to do inside evacuation zone though? Was it just curiosity?
I wanted to go in for two reasons.
One was to feed the animals, and I also wanted to see what the radiation was really like and see how far I could get towards the plant. It was out of curiosity but also to let people know what I found there. I had bought two radiation meters, they were both geiger counters and dosimeters, and I wanted to put one inside of my suit and one outside of my suit.
What kind of suit?
Those white radiation suits you see on TV. They are thin, almost like paper. The contractors have a whole bunch of them. Masks and everything. We were completely sealed off. They have to burn them after every time they go in so they had a bunch of them.
So what did you find out?
Well those suits aren’t working. They do nothing. If the meter on the outside of my suit was reading 19 micro seiverts or whatever, the one on the inside was reading around 17. The suits don’t do jack s***. They aren’t protecting those workers. I don’t understand how those people are allowed to go in. They have a false sense of security.
Did you tell the contractors about this?
Yeah I showed my friend the meters, and he kind of freaked out, and said it was his last week working there. You don’t feel anything, you get a real false sense of security. We weren’t really supposed to be there though so we didn’t talk to anybody else.
Once you were in there though, you went right up to the power plant?
Yeah, we just kept driving further and further in and there was no security or anything. We got to the plant and there was a checkpoint, but we just kind of waved our way through with these fake IDs and my other friend hid under some blankets.
What did you do in there?
We got out to take a few pictures, or whatever, but then our driver got really freaked out. We were right there, you know? We were standing right next to one of these reactors and it was completely blown up (pictured above). Our driver jammed the car into reverse and raced out of there so we had to go too. We were never checked or monitored or anything.
What did you feel in there? No fear at any point?
It’s hard to fear radiation because you can’t feel anything. I was talking to a former marine nuclear expert and he told me everything I needed to know. I was watching the meters, and I knew what levels were safe. I felt educated so I felt safe. It is kind of scary in a way though. It’s so bad for you, but you can’t feel a thing.
Do the contractors hired to work in there have the same amount of information as you?
No, they don’t know anything. They take off their masks all the time, and they don’t have meters or anything. All the workers are like that. When they first started going in they were freaking out over every little thing, but as time goes by, because you don’t feel it or see it, you get careless.
You know what was crazy though? There is no one checking you as you leave either. We could have gone to a restaurant or something before cleaning and radiated all those other people. No one is really checking that. I was thinking about going to the doctor actually, just to check.
What was the rest of Fukushima evacuation zone like?
Like a ghost town. Convenience stores cleaned out, no one around. The animals that are still alive are walking all through the towns. There are some real hot spots of radiation in there but some places, I guess because of the mountains and valleys or something, have almost nothing. I don’t understand why the people who live there can’t be allowed to go in and retrieve their things. They aren’t allowed to make that choice.
What do you learn from an experience like this?
There are three kinds of things in your life. Three circles I guess. The circle of things that annoy you, the circle of things you don’t care about and the circle of things you appreciate and enjoy.
Before I went to jail, the circle of things that annoyed me was pretty big. (Note: Inoue was jailed in 2008 for possession of marijuana. Inoue spent 30 days in prison and is currently serving a three-year probation.)
You know, sitting in traffic used to p*** me off, having to do chores or whatever, people that get to you. That circle was pretty big in my life. Your every day things like eating breakfast, going for a run, showering – they were in the circle of things I didn’t care about. Going out and meeting friends, eating a really good meal – they were the things that I enjoyed.
When you go to jail though, your values change. Having miso soup for breakfast is all of a sudden something you really enjoy. You look forward to taking a shower. You become much more patient so traffic doesn’t p*** you off. The circle of things that annoyed me shrank and the circle of things that I enjoyed grew. It really made me a lot happier and a more relaxed person.
After jail, I did the pilgrimage and that helped me enjoy and appreciate things more. (Note: after his release from prison, Inoue completed a 30-day 750-mile pilgrimage on foot, visiting 108 temples in Shikoku.)
Just getting a bottle of water from someone was amazing! When I was in jail I knew what it was like to have nothing and on the pilgrimage I had nothing there too. Before I would say thank you and forget about it. But now, I’m so appreciative! I still haven’t forgotten the people that helped me!
Appreciation is what drives me to go up north. I can understand what they are going through, to some extent. I can’t compare going to jail to what the tsunami victims and people from Fukushima are going through, but I know what it’s like to have everything taken away from you. I know how good the small things can feel.
Going into the Fukushima power plant is part of me appreciating my freedom. Yeah it’s dangerous, but when I was in jail, I had no opportunities to make any choices – even dangerous ones. They told me when and how to do everything. Enjoying my freedom and making the most of all the opportunities I get in my life – doing the pilgrimage, going into Fukushima, spending all my time helping the people up north – it allows me to shrink that circle of annoyance even more. It makes me a more appreciative and happy person.
Support Enson Inoue’s work by purchasing a handmade rosary. Proceeds go towards Inoue’s charity efforts.
Filed under: MMA Fighting Exclusive, interview, Japan
Since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, former Shooto heavyweight champion and Pride veteran Enson Inoue has been tireless in his charity efforts, repeatedly traveling to northeast Japan to directly help those in need.
Inoue’s work has helped countless people and brought much needed light to the situation in Fukushima and the areas affected by the disasters. This work has been costly though, Inoue sacrificing a gym, his pets and spending an incredible amount of money and time in the process.
On his last trip, Enson Inoue possibly made the greatest sacrifice of all – he risked his life by traveling to one of the most dangerous places on earth.
Speaking exclusively with MMA Fighting, Enson Inoue describes his journey directly into the highly radioactive Fukushima evacuation zone and his covert visit to the the heavily damaged Fukushima power plants.
Enson Inoue: Nine times. Nine times already.
How have you seen things progress since you’ve been up working up there? What is happening with the people in the evacuation centers?
The last time I went to Fukushima prefecture and everyone was starting to move into the temporary housing. They are given these temporary houses and allowed to stay there for up to two years. They are free but the problem is that the moment they leave the evacuation centers, they are being cut off from most of the aid. A lot of people need support though so basically, they don’t want to leave.
The evacuation centers are short staffed though and they need to get the people out of there so they are doing things to make it less comfortable – turning the lights out super early for example. That caused a lot of big fights of course, so now people are just leaving.
Are evacuees given assistance in moving or setting up their new homes?
In Fukushima, they are given 30,000 yen (approximately $390 US) by the government or TEPCO, they are basically the same thing, for bills – water, electricity or whatever and they are also given five items: a refrigerator, washing machine, TV, rice cooker and a microwave. In other places, like Iwate, they are just given a 10-pound bag of rice.
Most of these people lost their cars and businesses or jobs so it’s really hard for them to get back on their feet. What I’m doing now is going to the people in these temporary houses and giving them things they need to get set up. Soap, you know, basic things you need to buy when you move into a house.
What are these temporary houses like?
They are actually pretty nice, I guess. They are adequate, but they are temporary. A lot of people in these temporary houses will never be able to return to their real homes because of the radiation. They are talking about not being able to live in some places in Fukushima for at least a century.
What I’ve heard lately is that some of the older people are committing suicide. They think that even if they have these places to live for two years, they can’t pay the bills. They can’t support themselves now. They are too old to get jobs and so they just commit suicide. There’s a lot of suicides.
What do they need? How do you think they can be helped?
The last time I was there, the people were really cold. I don’t know why. I guess I haven’t met a lot of these people before so they are wary of me. I try to help them but they just say they are OK. You know they aren’t OK. They are hurting. They lost everything. I think it’ll just be a matter of time until they are comfortable with me, until I get to know them.
You’ve also been making trips into the Fukushima evacuation zone to feed abandoned pets. This last time though, you went right into the Fukushima power plant?
The last time I was up in Fukushima I met one of my friends for drinks. He’s a contractor who works inside the evacuation zone. We were sitting at a bar and he told me, “Enson, if you want to go in, this is the time.”
I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “The security. All the security is really going down. We can get you in easy.”
I was with another friend so I asked if he could get him in too. He said OK, but because he isn’t Japanese, he has to hide under blankets.
Why did you want to go in there though? It’s one of the most dangerous places on earth right now.
I felt like it was an opportunity. No one can go in there. My mother asked me why too. She said, ‘Why do you want to go in there? You want to go in just feed dogs?! Why?!’
No one can go in there, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the opportunity to go in there again. It wasn’t about the dogs. I mean, while I was in there I brought more food for the dogs, but it was just being able to go in there and not turning this opportunity down.
She never could understand that. I just told her to drop the conversation. I told her, ‘One – You’re in Hawaii and you’re not here. Two – you don’t consider Japan your home.’ So I told her, ‘You are not here in my shoes. The bottom line is you’re there, I’m here. We are coming from completely different places.’ She never completely understood that.
What did you want to do inside evacuation zone though? Was it just curiosity?
I wanted to go in for two reasons.
One was to feed the animals, and I also wanted to see what the radiation was really like and see how far I could get towards the plant. It was out of curiosity but also to let people know what I found there. I had bought two radiation meters, they were both geiger counters and dosimeters, and I wanted to put one inside of my suit and one outside of my suit.
What kind of suit?
Those white radiation suits you see on TV. They are thin, almost like paper. The contractors have a whole bunch of them. Masks and everything. We were completely sealed off. They have to burn them after every time they go in so they had a bunch of them.
So what did you find out?
Well those suits aren’t working. They do nothing. If the meter on the outside of my suit was reading 19 micro seiverts or whatever, the one on the inside was reading around 17. The suits don’t do jack s***. They aren’t protecting those workers. I don’t understand how those people are allowed to go in. They have a false sense of security.
Did you tell the contractors about this?
Yeah I showed my friend the meters, and he kind of freaked out, and said it was his last week working there. You don’t feel anything, you get a real false sense of security. We weren’t really supposed to be there though so we didn’t talk to anybody else.
Once you were in there though, you went right up to the power plant?
Yeah, we just kept driving further and further in and there was no security or anything. We got to the plant and there was a checkpoint, but we just kind of waved our way through with these fake IDs and my other friend hid under some blankets.
What did you do in there?
We got out to take a few pictures, or whatever, but then our driver got really freaked out. We were right there, you know? We were standing right next to one of these reactors and it was completely blown up (pictured above). Our driver jammed the car into reverse and raced out of there so we had to go too. We were never checked or monitored or anything.
What did you feel in there? No fear at any point?
It’s hard to fear radiation because you can’t feel anything. I was talking to a former marine nuclear expert and he told me everything I needed to know. I was watching the meters, and I knew what levels were safe. I felt educated so I felt safe. It is kind of scary in a way though. It’s so bad for you, but you can’t feel a thing.
Do the contractors hired to work in there have the same amount of information as you?
No, they don’t know anything. They take off their masks all the time, and they don’t have meters or anything. All the workers are like that. When they first started going in they were freaking out over every little thing, but as time goes by, because you don’t feel it or see it, you get careless.
You know what was crazy though? There is no one checking you as you leave either. We could have gone to a restaurant or something before cleaning and radiated all those other people. No one is really checking that. I was thinking about going to the doctor actually, just to check.
What was the rest of Fukushima evacuation zone like?
Like a ghost town. Convenience stores cleaned out, no one around. The animals that are still alive are walking all through the towns. There are some real hot spots of radiation in there but some places, I guess because of the mountains and valleys or something, have almost nothing. I don’t understand why the people who live there can’t be allowed to go in and retrieve their things. They aren’t allowed to make that choice.
What do you learn from an experience like this?
There are three kinds of things in your life. Three circles I guess. The circle of things that annoy you, the circle of things you don’t care about and the circle of things you appreciate and enjoy.
Before I went to jail, the circle of things that annoyed me was pretty big. (Note: Inoue was jailed in 2008 for possession of marijuana. Inoue spent 30 days in prison and is currently serving a three-year probation.)
You know, sitting in traffic used to p*** me off, having to do chores or whatever, people that get to you. That circle was pretty big in my life. Your every day things like eating breakfast, going for a run, showering – they were in the circle of things I didn’t care about. Going out and meeting friends, eating a really good meal – they were the things that I enjoyed.
When you go to jail though, your values change. Having miso soup for breakfast is all of a sudden something you really enjoy. You look forward to taking a shower. You become much more patient so traffic doesn’t p*** you off. The circle of things that annoyed me shrank and the circle of things that I enjoyed grew. It really made me a lot happier and a more relaxed person.
After jail, I did the pilgrimage and that helped me enjoy and appreciate things more. (Note: after his release from prison, Inoue completed a 30-day 750-mile pilgrimage on foot, visiting 108 temples in Shikoku.)
Just getting a bottle of water from someone was amazing! When I was in jail I knew what it was like to have nothing and on the pilgrimage I had nothing there too. Before I would say thank you and forget about it. But now, I’m so appreciative! I still haven’t forgotten the people that helped me!
Appreciation is what drives me to go up north. I can understand what they are going through, to some extent. I can’t compare going to jail to what the tsunami victims and people from Fukushima are going through, but I know what it’s like to have everything taken away from you. I know how good the small things can feel.
Going into the Fukushima power plant is part of me appreciating my freedom. Yeah it’s dangerous, but when I was in jail, I had no opportunities to make any choices – even dangerous ones. They told me when and how to do everything. Enjoying my freedom and making the most of all the opportunities I get in my life – doing the pilgrimage, going into Fukushima, spending all my time helping the people up north – it allows me to shrink that circle of annoyance even more. It makes me a more appreciative and happy person.
Support Enson Inoue’s work by purchasing a handmade rosary. Proceeds go towards Inoue’s charity efforts.
By Jason Moles
Somewhere in the back your mind is a Mt. Rushmore of MMA, one for fighter and one for non-fighters. On the latter, you’d undoubtedly have Dana White in addition to your pick of Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., Bruce Buffer, or Joe Rogan. However, you only get to pick two of the guys I’ve listed because the second spot on the mountain is reserved for the most recognized referee in all of MMA, “Big” John McCarthy.
No one has had a bigger impact on the sport of mixed martial arts without having actually fought someone or having the last name of Fertita or White. Few have stepped inside the Octagon more times than McCarthy and almost no one has helped grow the sport from birth to the dark ages and into the mainstream arena that it is in today. And you thought he just asked the fighters if they were ready and raised the winner’s hand?
“Big” John McCarthy was kind enough to sit down with CagePotato recently to discuss his new book ‘Let’s Get It On!‘ which can be purchased on Amazon. The book is 50% MMA history lesson, 50% autobiography, and 100% worth every penny spent to own a copy and every minute spent reading. So, without further adieu, let’s get it on!
By Jason Moles
Somewhere in the back your mind is a Mt. Rushmore of MMA, one for fighter and one for non-fighters. On the latter, you’d undoubtedly have Dana White in addition to your pick of Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., Bruce Buffer, or Joe Rogan. However, you only get to pick two of the guys I’ve listed because the second spot on the mountain is reserved for the most recognized referee in all of MMA, “Big” John McCarthy.
No one has had a bigger impact on the sport of mixed martial arts without having actually fought someone or having the last name of Fertita or White. Few have stepped inside the Octagon more times than McCarthy and almost no one has helped grow the sport from birth to the dark ages and into the mainstream arena that it is in today. And you thought he just asked the fighters if they were ready and raised the winner’s hand?
“Big” John McCarthy was kind enough to sit down with CagePotato recently to discuss his new book ‘Let’s Get It On!‘ which can be purchased as of yesterday on Amazon. The book is 50% MMA history lesson, 50% autobiography, and 100% worth every penny spent to own a copy and every minute spent reading. So, without further ado, let’s get it on!
CagePotato: Can you tell us how you got the nickname “Big”? Was someone you know a big fan of Big John Stud or something?
Big John McCarthy: (Laughing) No, you know what – my mother used to call me that for a while but Art Davie is the one that put that out there. There was an incident where I was joking around with him and I picked him up over my head. He started screaming. “Big John put me down!” From that point he always called me that and people just got used to it so it stuck.
CP: Why did you decide to write this book? Was it because you wanted to share the history of the UFC?
BJM: It was exactly that. You know if it weren’t for Loretta Hunt bugging me to death about writing the book it never would have been written. The one thing she told me that really convinced me to go ahead with this is that there is a huge history within the sport of MMA that people don’t know. There are a lot of things that have gone on, and basically people look at MMA from the year 2005 when The Ultimate Fighter series came out and think that’s how it all got started. But there’s a lot of people that deserve credit for getting it to that point.
Lorenzo Fertita – I think he deserves a ton of credit. He really put his money where his mouth is and took on a lot of personal debt to help see this thing survive and get people to buy into MMA. At $40 million in debt he still kept going.
Bob Meyrowitz – He did much of the same thing – invested a lot of his own money. He kept trying to keep this thing going even though he wasn’t making any money.
Jeff Blatnick – This is a guy people need to know about. The sport borrowed his credibility, he was an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and came to UFC 4 and fell in love with MMA.
There are a ton of people who helped get the sport where it is today — some at the beginning, others at the end — that people just don’t know about. That’s why I decided to write the book.
CP: You copyrighted your catchphrase “Let’s get it on!” much in the same way that Michael and Bruce Buffer did with “Let’s get ready to rumble!” and “It’s time!” respectively. Was that really necessary and have you ever had to pursue legal action against someone using your phrase without permission?
BJM: Is it necessary? I don’t think so. It’s one of those things where people force you into things because they want to take part in something, or be part of something. It forces you into doing something – but have I ever sued anyone? No. I’ve told people, “Hey, don’t do that.” That’s something I have to do to keep this thing copyrighted. I know Michael has sued people over using his line and won because you can’t do it without permission, but no, I’ve never done that.
CP: You followed in your dad’s footsteps and joined the LAPD at a young age. With such a busy career nabbing bad guys, how did you get involved with the UFC?
BJM: I got involved in the UFC because of the association I had with Rorion Gracie. I started working out with the Gracie’s before there was a UFC and when it came about, I was Royce’s sparring partner for the fights getting him ready and then it was the very first fight in the UFC between Gerard Gordeau and Teila Tuli that got me the position to be the referee. It was supposed to be that the referee could not stop the fight; the fighter was to tap out or the corner was to throw in the towel. Well then Tuli gets kicked in the mouth and punched in the face and he’s down. Then [referee] Joao [Alberto Barreto] came in and stopped it and said he couldn’t continue fighting. Then there was a conference of sorts between the Joao and Rorion who was upset because he didn’t want refs stopping fights. That’s how I got my job, because you have to have compassion for another person and they needed a steady guy.
CP: Alright, I have to ask and I’m crossing my fingers hoping you’ll tell me. Which fighter crapped themselves and who did you tell to go back to the locker room and take a shower?
BJM: You know what? That’s gonna stay with me. I’m sorry but I owe it to the fighters not to do that to them. As I was doing the book, I did not want to infringe upon the relationships I had with fighters or put them in a position where they felt like they couldn’t trust me. Stuff happens all the time in fights and back in the locker room and it’s embarrassing for that person. If they want to share it, they can share it, but I’m not gonna.
CP: Of all the people you’ve met, who are you the most grateful for knowing? Who do you wish you never met?
BJM: (Laughing heartily) Oh wow! You know I don’t think I could put one person down that I’m most grateful for knowing. There are several people who have been in the martial arts for a long time that I take great pride in the fact that I know them and I respect everything they’ve done in the martial arts.
Helio Gracie is somebody I felt honored to meet, spend time with and roll with. To me, he’s an incredible man who lived an incredible life and did incredible things. So that’s a special person on my list.
Chuck Norris is someone else; Chuck Norris is the real deal at everything he does in life. The way he’s gone about representing the martial arts throughout his life is something that I hold in high esteem. Another person that I just love as a human being is Gene LeBell. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time. Gene’s a super tough guy, but one of the nicest and most generous guy you’ll ever find.
When it comes to people I don’t like, I don’t worry about those things. That’s not what life’s about. If you know someone who you don’t like or they don’t treat you right, just move on.
CP: During the Tito Ortiz – Ken Shamrock feud, you detail an incident that occurred at a weigh-in where Ken threw a chair at Tito only to have it snatched out of the air by Dana White. You made the remark that it was a pretty good catch for a guy who didn’t know it was coming. Are you implying that White staged the altercation or am I just reading into it?
BJM: Yeah, it was awesome! No, he didn’t know it was coming; you’re reading into it. Dana didn’t know Ken was going to kick that chair and he caught it without ever expressing surprise. I mean, Ken stepped back and kicked that chair and it popped up and Dana stuck his hand out and grabbed ahold of it. It was a moment I thought was very funny and I thought he handled it very well.
CP: I guess Shamrock wasn’t training kicks with Steven Seagal or else that chair would’ve hit the mark.
BJM: HAHAHA! You’re probably right!
CP: Speaking of staged events, you’ve seen a few fixed fights over the years. Have you seen any recently, UFC or otherwise?
BJM: No – I want to make it clear to people when they hear that. There have been promotions that have put out fake fights. It’s what we call a work. It’s wrong and it should never happen. The UFC has never done that. When it did happen in the UFC, it was early on because we had tournaments where the two guys fighting were managed by the same guy. He’d say, “This guy has a very good chance of winning it and this guy doesn’t so I want him to throw the fight.” That’s when it happened. The first one I put in the book was Oleg Taktarov vs. Anthony Macias; they both had the same manager named Buddy Albin. Buddy’s the one that put them up to it and the UFC had no idea. When it happened I went to the owner, Bob Meyrowitz, and told him that [Macias] threw that fight and gave up on purpose and that he had no intention of fighting.
CP: What does C.O.M.M.A.N.D. stand for and what should fans know about it?
BJM: Certification of Officials of Mixed Martial Arts National Development. Our goal is to bring awareness to both judges and referees as far as the way the sport of MMA is evolving and what they should know about it. If they’re a judge, the way they should look at it to credit fighters for good technique. We want them to know what it looks like if a fighter’s stalling a fight. The main thing is to get everyone involved in the officiating process to be looking at things the same way and doing things the same way. We want everyone in everywhere to be on the same page because it’s good for the fighters; it’s good for the promoters; it’s good for the fans, and everyone gets accustomed to seeing the same thing. We want fights officiated and judged with consistency across the board.
CP: It’s been well documented that you and Zuffa/Dana White had a falling out a few years back. How are things now between you and the UFC and why did you feel compelled to accept full responsibility for all that transpired?
BJM: Life is about learning from your experiences. Some things you do are good or bad, or they work for you or they don’t. If I do something, I’m going to take responsibility for it. I’m not going to dwell on the past, nor do I harbor any ill feelings towards Dana White at all. If he’s gonna have hard feelings towards me, then that’s him and that’s the way it will be; it’s up to him. But I don’t think I’ve done anything bad towards Dana. I absolutely respect everything he’s done in this sport and I that he helped build and take this sport to the mainstream forefront. I love the UFC and all the fights they put on and if I’m not refereeing the fights, I’m watching them.
CP: Some fans may not know, but you helped write the first rules in the early days of the UFC and later went on to help draft the Unified Rules as well. What, if any, rules do you wish were added or done away with altogether?
BJM: HAHAHA! You know there’s rules that I don’t like or that I know are there but aren’t really doing a lot but you know what? They’re not going to change. The athletic commission is a government body and they’re going to look at a rule that’s been around for basically twelve years and find that in those twelve years it’s been working for them, we haven’t had any problems with it, so why change it?
That’s understandable because if you change something then somebody gets hurt because the rule was changed then you’re looking at a liability issue, which means someone could go and sue the state because the rule was changed which led to them getting hurt. I’m not saying it would happen, just that it could. I don’t see the rules changing much. There’s nothing really to add or take away and the ones we’ve got are working.
CP: What has been the scariest moment you experienced in the cage?
BJM: I haven’t really had any scary moments. Let’s break it down into fighting: The scariest thing that can happen in fighting, if you understand fighting and injuries, is the thing you don’t see and that is concussions. You see a guy get knocked out and the fans say,”Ohh, he’s knocked out,” or whatever, but when that happens it can have a lasting effect on someone. Concussions and brain trauma are the scariest things that can happen and it’s what I worry about the most.
*** There you have it, the one and only “Big” John McCarthy, ladies and gents. I seriously recommend you buy yourself an early Christmas present and get this book. In my opinion, it’s the best MMA book since ‘Blood in the Cage‘. ***
JS: Hi Brian, many thanks for affording me the opportunity to conduct this interview. You seem to have a new lease of life at middleweight. Do you now feel in retrospect that MW has always been your natural fighting weight? BS: Yes. I had been told sev…
JS: Hi Brian, many thanks for affording me the opportunity to conduct this interview. You seem to have a new lease of life at middleweight. Do you now feel in retrospect that MW has always been your natural fighting weight? BS: Yes. I had been told several times by my cornermen that I would end […]
MMA Exclusive Interview: Stann Believes He Could Be the First Man to KO Sonnen
Filed under: MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, interview, JapanSince Pride shut its doors in 2007, the MMA world has been dominated by American promotions. With leading Japanese promotion DREAM struggling to stay afloat, the focus of the MMA world has shif…
Filed under: MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, interview, Japan
Since Pride shut its doors in 2007, the MMA world has been dominated by American promotions. With leading Japanese promotion DREAM struggling to stay afloat, the focus of the MMA world has shifted to the West and Asia, the world’s most populated continent and the birthplace of martial arts.
Victor Cui, CEO and owner of the newly-formed Singapore-based ONE Fighting Championship, sees opportunity.
After spending the last 15 years organizing events such as the X-Games, the Olympics, PGA Tour and World Cup Indoor Soccer, Cui now shifts his focus to MMA and with ONE FC aims to create,”the king of MMA in Asia.”
With the PGA Tour, Canadian Golf Open, LPGA Canadian Women’s Open, 2000 Olympics and the X-Games on his lengthy resume, Victor Cui is no newcomer to promotion – and that resume includes MMA.
While working at ESPN Star Sports in 2010, Cui put together the Martial Combat series to gauge interest for MMA in Asia. Although Martial Combat pilot was much smaller in scale than the forthcoming ONE FC, it was still ambitious as Cui promoted 12 events in six months with two shows on consecutive nights every month.
Promoting Martial Combat proved to be a valuable experience as the pilot promotion allowed the ONE FC staff to become acquainted with the MMA business in a very short time. The incredible schedule ensured that a tight ship was being run and it also enabled Cui to convince “some high-powered friends with deep pockets” to support ONE FC.
“The small test pilot project (Martial Combat) that I did while working for ESPN StarSports last year, it was exactly that – a small test pilot project to test the waters and to gauge interest levels for MMA in Asia,” says Cui. “It was a small experiment held in a hotel ballroom whereas ONE Fighting Championship is the real deal. ONE Fighting Championship is the Asian major leagues.”
The first ONE FC event is set to take place at the 12,000-seat Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sept. 3. Cageside and VIP tickets sold out in hours and demand was so high that the ticketing service server reportedly crashed. The event will be broadcast on network TV in Singapore, shown in 500 million homes in Asia on ESPN StarSports and will be streamed free online to the rest of the world.
An MMA event of this scale has never been held in Singapore before, but a look through the inaugural card for such a highly hyped event is somewhat confusing as only a handful of fighters on the card have any significant MMA experience. Names such as Yodsanan Sityodtong, Vuyisile Colossa and Ma Xing Yu are unknown to many Western fans, but that is not the case for Asian audiences.
“Fans want to see the best of the best compete against one another. For that very reason, ONE Fighting Championship has signed practically every Asian world champion or national champion in martial arts to compete under MMA rules. Most of our fighters are already household names in Asia.”
As Cui implies, a significant number of these household names and champions are not actually famous due to their MMA accomplishments. Many draw from the locally established sports of Muay Thai, karate, boxing, sanda and wushu or are from Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In many ways it feels like a throwback to the early 90’s era of style versus style. But getting these big names from other combat sports is part of the plan to appeal to mainstream fans in developing markets.
“Take a guy like Yodsanan Sityodtong,” says Cui. “WBA boxing world champion with a 58-3 record with 48 KOs…he’s a national hero in Thailand…he’s been a national hero for the last 10 years. The guy gets mobbed by fans in Thailand. Our entire roster is made up of heroes like him, but for each Asian country.”
History has shown that hedging your bets on stars from other fight sports is risky and for ONE FC to compete in the modern MMA world, they will need a more stable source of athletes.
“For MMA to succeed in Asia, you essentially need an MMA ecosystem,” explains Cui. “MMA gyms, MMA promotions, MMA sponsors, media broadcasters, etc. Historically, Japan was the only place in Asia that had an MMA ecosystem. And sadly, MMA in Japan has always had historical ties to the mafia. Well, times have changed.”
Although Japanese MMA has been on the decline since the demise of Pride, until now Japan has still undoubtedly had the best gyms in Asia. That has the potential to change though with camps like Singapore’s Evolve MMA leading the way. The 12,000-square foot Evolve MMA has facilities and a coaching staff that are unheard of in Japan. DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki recently signing on with the gym is a testament to the potential shift in Asia.
“The Asian MMA ecosystem is exploding everywhere in Asia, especially high quality MMA gyms and quality promotions,” Cui explains. “And with our capital, our media reach, our sponsors, our Asian world champions, etc., ONE Fighting Championship is happy to lead the way for the creation of a legitimate and thriving Asian MMA ecosystem. There are MMA gyms in every country in Asia right now and the numbers are growing rapidly. Of course, it is not like the US yet, but there is definitely an ecosystem developing.”
As Cui acknowledges, a few high quality gyms and a solid promotion to support them is only the beginning of the growth of the sport in Asia. Looking at how the American market blew up though, Cui sees the potential.
“MMA has skyrocketed with 30x growth in the last 10 years and it’s barely scratched the surface of its potential, especially for Asia,” says Cui. “For example, less than 1 percent of the 3.9 billion people in Asia have heard of or watched MMA. And yet, everyone here in Asia practices or knows about martial arts. Asia has been the home of martial arts for the last 5,000 years. Muay Thai in Thailand, Silat in Indonesia, Kung Fu in China, Karate in Japan, etc. And I believe that MMA has a real chance of becoming the largest sport in the world … yes, even bigger than soccer.”
For MMA, or ONE FC, to have a shot at becoming bigger than soccer, Cui will first need to find a way to introduce the sport to the 48 countries of wildly different economic status and culture that make up Asia. The marketing plan starts in Singapore and it is, in a word: aggressive.
“We have to market very aggressively since we are essentially introducing the sport to a mainstream audience for the first time,” Cui says. “For example, for our inaugural show, we have TV commercials through our broadcast partners. Actually we have tied up with the major movie theaters here in Singapore to show our TV commercials during the previews, we have tie-ins with the movie Killer Elite with Robert de Niro and Jason Statham. We have full body-wrap ads on taxis, on subways, we have TV commercials playing on large outdoor TV screens on Orchard Road (the main shopping district in Singapore). We have ads in magazines, newspapers, etc. We have partnered with all the major associations, we have online ads … in a nutshell, the marketing program is a 360-degree effort to blanket the entire Singapore.”
For such a wide-reaching marketing campaign, ONE FC needs strong backers. Given Cui’s corporate history, he has been able to bring some major names on board.
“I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves. You can read between the lines though … the fact that ESPN StarSports and MediaCorp and a few other broadcasters jumped on board without a single event … or our sponsors like Energizer, Schick, Holiday Inn, etc. They all came on board without any product to show them,” says Cui. “Well, put it this way, they have all seen our plans and know how much capital we are investing … you guys will just have to wait and see. All I can say is that we are the real deal and it’s a first for Asia. ONE Fighting Championship marks the first time in Asian MMA history that a legitimate sports media industry veteran has led an MMA organization. It’s never happened before and so the access to capital, media, sponsors, etc. is unprecedented.”
ONE Fighting Championship, by any measure, is an extremely ambitious undertaking. For Cui though, the biggest challenge will be simply be the fights themselves.
“The biggest challenge is always to put on exciting fights that fans want to see. If we can put on explosive and entertaining fights between the best martial artists in Asia, then everything else will fall into place. Asians understand martial arts – we’ve been doing it for the last 5,000 years.”
In this exclusive full interview with Phil Davis, Bleacher Report talks to the UFC fighter about Dana White’s decision to not have him fight in 133 after a training injury that effected his knee, the Rampage, Suga, Jones debacle, watchi…
In this exclusive full interview with Phil Davis, Bleacher Report talks to the UFC fighter about Dana White’s decision to not have him fight in 133 after a training injury that effected his knee, the Rampage, Suga, Jones debacle, watching fights as a spectator, his all around training regiment, and more. “If you don’t have wrestling […]
UFC Uncut Interview: Phil Davis Talks 133, Injuries and Dominick Cruz