(While not without his faults, Jones remains a much better role model than Peyton Manning.)
It has been an…eventful six months for former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, or at least, that’s how he describes them in his recent interview with Ariel Helwani. I’ll spare you all the readily available details, but suffice it to say, Jones has screwed up, repeatedly, and it’s cost him nearly everything.
But finally, it appears the maybe, just maybe, his past mistakes are having an effect on his present mindset. With his UFC suspension now lifted and his court case settled, Jones has rededicated himself to recapturing his belt, and the results thus far have been astounding. He may have a long way to go still to earn back our respect, but with the lengthy interview after the jump, he’s at least taking the first step and accepting the blame for what he’s done.
(While not without his faults, Jones remains a much better role model than Peyton Manning.)
It has been an…eventful six months for former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, or at least, that’s how he describes them in his recent interview with Ariel Helwani. I’ll spare you all the readily available details, but suffice it to say, Jones has screwed up, repeatedly, and it’s cost him nearly everything.
But finally, it appears the maybe, just maybe, his past mistakes are having an effect on his present mindset. With his UFC suspension now lifted and his court case settled, Jones has rededicated himself to recapturing his belt, and the results thus far have been astounding. He may have a long way to go still to earn back our respect, but with the lengthy interview after the jump, he’s at least taking the first step and accepting the blame for what he’s done.
Vitor Belfort was on steroids when I fought him. The UFC was very well aware, way before the fight. They did nothing to penalize him. They let the fight go on knowing that I was fighting a guy on steroids, which is a hazard to my life. What do you do?
I haven’t brought it up to them yet, but the fans know. The power of the UFC and this Athletic Commission, eventually something needs to be done about it. To know that they put me in there with him, knowing that he was on something, it’s really a slap to the face.
I would like to be more of a company guy and do things right, but at the same time, I’ve been bent over quite a few times by them. It’s just like…it’s hard to see where I stand man. I just hope the fans are aware of some of the shenanigans they pull.
I don’t know about you guys, but I am shocked — SHOCKED I tells ya! — that the UFC would be willing to potentially put one of their own athletes in a dangerous situation to make something as frivolous as money. Ick, you guys. Ick.
Check out the entire interview if you’ve got the time, and let us know if you think that the redemption of Jon Jones is something you’ll ever be able to get behind.
MMAMayhemRadio‘s Ashley Luther caught up with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson following his Bellator 120 decision win against King Mo, and first off, I just want to congratulate Rampage for making it through a two-minute segment with a female reporter without getting his hump on. (Although he did give us a new quote to add to his interview highlight reel: “I don’t beat ladies…I just beat it up.” Quinton, you classy son of a bitch.)
With Rampage’s next fight in Bellator uncertain, Luther asked him who he’d like to fight next. Jackson’s answer time-warped us back to the MMA glory days of 2009-2010:
“Actually, to be honest, I want to fight somebody else that’s on my pissed-off list. I got two more guys. I got Titties, and I got James Toney. I want to fight one of those guys, honestly…I just want to beat up everybody who’s been pissing me off.”
MMAMayhemRadio‘s Ashley Luther caught up with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson following his Bellator 120 decision win against King Mo, and first off, I just want to congratulate Rampage for making it through a two-minute segment with a female reporter without getting his hump on. (Although he did give us a new quote to add to his interview highlight reel: “I don’t beat ladies…I just beat it up.” Quinton, you classy son of a bitch.)
With Rampage’s next fight in Bellator uncertain, Luther asked him who he’d like to fight next. Jackson’s answer time-warped us back to the MMA glory days of 2009-2010:
“Actually, to be honest, I want to fight somebody else that’s on my pissed-off list. I got two more guys. I got Titties, and I got James Toney. I want to fight one of those guys, honestly…I just want to beat up everybody who’s been pissing me off.”
“Titties” of course is Darrill Schoonover, the soft-spoken heavyweight who became a target of Rampage’s on TUF 10 simply because his body had developed earlier than the other boys. James Toney is the gibberish-speaking boxing champ who Randy Couture choked out at UFC 118, and who later called Rampage a “slave to the white man” who “got the Klu Klux Klan behind him.” I gotta be honest — I would happily pay money to see James Toney get humiliated in another MMA fight. And if any promotion is crazy/desperate enough to put it together on pay-per-view, it’s Bellator, right?
You may know Casey Oxendine as the MMA: Inside the Cage co-host with the most hated-on goatee in sports media. (If that doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you remember the “referee KO’s cornerman after fight” video we posted a while back. Yep, that was him too.) A longtime crusader for MMA regulation and awareness both locally and globally, Casey has signed on as co-host and American promoter for Hip Show: Arena Combat, the Russian 2-on-2 fight league that will make its North American broadcast debut on AXS TV this Friday, March 14th.
Although Hip Show has been building a strong fanbase in Russia since 2012, not everybody is on board with team-based MMA on an obstacle course. When we first announced our sponsorship of the 3/14 broadcast, we were hit with numerous negative comments from readers who called Hip Show a “spectacle,” “freak-show crap,” and “absolutely unacceptable to anyone who respects combat sports.” We called up Casey last week to discuss why team-fighting isn’t as crazy as it seems, the irony of MMA fans calling it a novelty act, and his current efforts to hold Hip Show events in the U.S.
Whether you think Hip Show looks badass or you think it’s a sign of the end-times, please tune in to AXS TV this Friday night at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT and give it a chance. (You can also follow the league on Twitter and Facebook.) Now on to the interview…
CAGEPOTATO: How did you and Cyrus Fees get this gig in the first place? Did you approach Hip Show to work on an English-language broadcast, or did they approach you?
CASEY OXENDINE: We saw Hip Show about a year ago, and we were like, “Wow, this is the craziest thing we’ve ever witnessed in our lives.” We started to get in contact with them because of our show MMA: Inside the Cage — we wanted to cover it, and to talk with them about exactly what we were seeing. They wanted to take this thing bigger than just Russia, where it’s been extremely popular. So through that course of action, we began repackaging a lot of their first-season footage into episodes and so forth to get it aired here in America, so that the English-speaking [market] could understand what was going on. From there, it evolved into what it is now.
We got in touch with [AXS TV Fights CEO] Andrew Simon — Cyrus had worked as a ring announcer for XFC on AXS TV — Andrew took a look at it and he’s like, “Man, this is really cool.” Then Andrew cleared it through Mark Cuban himself, which was really neat, and they said, “Go for it. We’re going to give you a two-hour special, let’s show the world what this is all about.”
What made you think that Hip Show had the potential to be more than just a novelty act?
You may know Casey Oxendine as the MMA: Inside the Cage co-host with the most hated-on goatee in sports media. (If that doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you remember the “referee KO’s cornerman after fight” video we posted a while back. Yep, that was him too.) A longtime crusader for MMA regulation and awareness both locally and globally, Casey has signed on as co-host and American promoter for Hip Show: Arena Combat, the Russian 2-on-2 fight league that will make its North American broadcast debut on AXS TV this Friday, March 14th.
Although Hip Show has been building a strong fanbase in Russia since 2012, not everybody is on board with team-based MMA on an obstacle course. When we first announced our sponsorship of the 3/14 broadcast, we were hit with numerous negative comments from readers who called Hip Show a “spectacle,” “freak-show crap,” and ”absolutely unacceptable to anyone who respects combat sports.” We called up Casey last week to discuss why team-fighting isn’t as crazy as it seems, the irony of MMA fans calling it a novelty act, and his current efforts to hold Hip Show events in the U.S.
Whether you think Hip Show looks badass or you think it’s a sign of the end-times, please tune in to AXS TV this Friday night at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT and give it a chance. (You can also follow the league on Twitter and Facebook.) Now on to the interview…
CAGEPOTATO: How did you and Cyrus Fees get this gig in the first place? Did you approach Hip Show to work on an English-language broadcast, or did they approach you?
CASEY OXENDINE: We saw Hip Show about a year ago, and we were like, “Wow, this is the craziest thing we’ve ever witnessed in our lives.” We started to get in contact with them because of our show MMA: Inside the Cage — we wanted to cover it, and to talk with them about exactly what we were seeing. They wanted to take this thing bigger than just Russia, where it’s been extremely popular. So through that course of action, we began repackaging a lot of their first-season footage into episodes and so forth to get it aired here in America, so that the English-speaking [market] could understand what was going on. From there, it evolved into what it is now.
We got in touch with [AXS TV Fights CEO] Andrew Simon — Cyrus had worked as a ring announcer for XFC on AXS TV — Andrew took a look at it and he’s like, “Man, this is really cool.” Then Andrew cleared it through Mark Cuban himself, which was really neat, and they said, “Go for it. We’re going to give you a two-hour special, let’s show the world what this is all about.”
What made you think that Hip Show had the potential to be more than just a novelty act?
The biggest thing is the complexity of the production and the complexity of the rules. This is not one of those crazy misfit shows where they just throw a couple of wild guys into a ring and having them do 3-on-3 — they’ve done a few of these crazy novelty acts in America. It’s not the same thing. The production level of Hip Show is higher than any product I’ve ever seen. We’re talking like nine different camera angles, and they have a camera inside the headgear of some of the competitors and the referees. It’s the smallest camera in the world; it’s like half the size of a GoPro camera. It’s amazing.
And then there’s a very complex rule system. It’s basically the Unified Rules, but then on top of that you score points on how you deal with the arena. It’s not something that a guy came up with on the fly and said, “Hey, let’s throw some guys into this area here and let’s see what happens.” It was very well thought-out, and that’s what made the difference. When you watch it, you can tell that there’s a lot of money backing this and the people involved are very passionate about it.
Speaking of the rules, Hip Show fights aren’t really decided by judges subjectively. If a fight goes to a decision, a scoring system is in place based on occupying the different obstacles and things like knockdowns. It makes the judging more precise — which is a good thing. Do you think MMA can take any lessons from that?
I think it’s more similar to the characteristics of a grappling tournament. If you’re in the middle of a grappling tournament, you know exactly how you’re scored. You look up in the middle of that match and you see the points, and whether you agree with the score or not, you know exactly where you stand, and you know exactly what you need to do to win. I don’t know if that would work out in mixed martial arts competition — I think that the whole process of scoring in MMA, just like in boxing, is almost an artistic expression of the judge himself. But I think because Hip Show is so complex, the scoring system is something that simplifies it.
A lot of people are saying, “This is so crazy, this is so different,” and it is, but to me, it is the evolution of mixed martial arts. Twenty years ago, we had boxing analysts saying, “Hey, this MMA stuff” — they called it NHB back then — “is the craziest stuff we’ve ever seen. This will never happen, this can never be.” But over the last 20 years, the sport has been refined and scrutinized. Now is the time that we can see an evolution. Now the sport is ready to do more.
Does it bother you when people call Hip Show a “freak show”? We had a lot of negative feedback from readers who didn’t seem to take this seriously.
This is what’s so crazy. The people who are saying this are the same people who supported mixed martial arts during its inception. They battled for this evolution, and now all of a sudden, they’re telling the new generation of people, “We can’t have any more evolution, this is all you can have.” They were upset with the boxing promoters telling them that they can’t do it, but yet they’re doing the same thing here.
The general fans that are seeing this, they love it. When we were showing Hip Show to UFC fighters at the Arnold Classic, as a whole — aside from one exception — everyone loved it. All of them loved it! Guys like Ryan Bader, Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, and older guys like Don Frye and Mark Coleman. They were like, “This is coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” These are guys who experienced mixed martial arts back in the day, and now they want to be involved in it.
So my answer to all those people who feel that it’s a spectacle? Fine. You should watch it regardless. Eventually we’re going to change your mind, because there’s a lot more coming. There’s an evolution. We can go into the rules and discuss how Hip Show is more of a sport than any other combat sport that’s ever been. If you take standard mixed martial arts, that’s an individual sport, right? But when you put a minimum of two guys on a team, suddenly it becomes a team sport. Now even at the gyms, you’re going to see more unity. And when they go into the arena, obviously they’re going to be more unified, because they’ve got to watch each other’s back.
Also, look at the people who are training in these gyms who aren’t competing in Hip Show, but they’re learning these techniques. Imagine learning how to defend yourself in a 2-on-1 situation. That might save your life. Martial arts are created to emulate real-life situations. And one-on-one combat is not the only real situation out there.
You have the “best of” Season 1 special airing on March 14th, so North American audiences can get their first look at the sport. What’s planned after that, in terms of broadcasts on AXS TV?
The way that these episodes are formatted are in 30-minute episodes. What we’re going to see on March 14th is the best of Season 1 — just the highlights, the championship rounds and those sort of things. Following that, you will get to follow the Season 2 tournament in its entirety.
I’m not divulging any information — Cyrus would probably kill me — but Hip Show coming to America is a very real possibility. I had a large part in getting mixed martial arts legalized and regulated in the state of Tennessee. I actually promoted the very first event ever in Tennessee that was legally commissioned. I’ve been speaking with a lot of people that I know very well — commissioners, judges, different officials involved in different state commissions — and they’re not just straight-up shutting down the idea [of Hip Show]. What they’re doing is asking, “Well, what about these concerns? What about these rules? How does this work?” And when I go into explicit detail with them, they’re like, “This is not as dangerous as you would think.” You see people flying off an obstacle, but that’s not legal in Hip Show, you can’t do that. You’d get disqualified immediately if you do those things. And then they start to realize, “Wow, and these guys are wearing protective headgear.”
You want to compare it to any other sport, let’s look at mixed martial arts, and look at Dan Henderson vs. Shogun. Those guys beat each other half to death in that fight. Blood everywhere. The fans loved it, I loved it — hey, don’t get me wrong, I still love mixed martial arts, I’m very passionate about it. But those guys beat each other half to death. Nobody in Hip Show has ever been beaten up like that! Ever! It’s never happened. So, you put these things into perspective, and you start to realize that people just don’t understand the sport yet. But once we get the rules in place and get these competitors used to it, it’s just as safe as any other combat sport.
What kind of fighters participate in Hip Show? I’m assuming these are prospects who don’t have much pro experience or are just starting out in the sport.
It isn’t necessarily that way. Of course we have different tiers of competitors, just like in any sport. But the championship tournament of Hip Show, you’re going to see guys who are elite Sambo specialists and champions, jiu-jitsu champions, kickboxing champions, and Russian Army combatives champions — which is extremely cool, because you never see the Army combatives stuff really come out in a mixed martial arts setting, but you certainly do here. These guys are going after submissions, they’re going after ankle locks, they’re setting up really pretty combinations on the feet.
And don’t get me wrong, it won’t translate directly to what you would think that a mixed martial arts fight should look like, because there’s more to it. These guys could be throwing [strikes], and then they could fast break over to their partner’s opponent and land a shot, if they see their partner in trouble. So things are going to be a tad bit scattered, and at first you’re gonna be like “Man, what are these guys doing?” But once you understand that they’re putting their skills together with a particular type of strategy, it’s much easier to understand. Then you’re like, “Wow, these guys really know what they’re doing.”
We haven’t been to Moscow yet, and we do plan on visiting. But our number-one priority right now is the first event that we’ll have here in the States. We’ll be providing American competitors, but we’ll also be bringing over Russian competitors as well.
On the Hip Show website, I see the UFC fighter Ali Bagautinov listed as a referee, and some of the fighters come from his gym. Is Ali still involved with Hip Show?
Yeah, he’s actually going to appear on the two-hour special on March 14th. You’re going to see a lot of him. He’s kind of the first face of Hip Show in Russia, so he plays a very strong role in the first couple of seasons there. We’re gonna see a lot of him and a lot of his training partners and so forth. And there are a few other big faces and big names who appear there, attending the events and talking about how much they love it as well.
Ultimately, what’s your goal with Hip Show? What’s the dream scenario for you?
We want to bring something to expand the minds of combat sports viewers — and really, combat sports competitors as well. Like I said, we’ve had 20 years of mixed martial arts, and it’s here to stay. Anybody who says, “You’re hurting MMA, you make it look bad,” hey, I’m telling you man, I was there in the ’90s, I was competing in the ’90s, I was around when everyone said it never would happen. And it was a rage against the machine, of sorts. We were fighting for our right to do this. And it was because people wanted to see more.
Even when I was a small child, I remember watching professional wrestling and seeing boxing and I’m like, “Man, professional wrestling is fake, boxing is real, but why don’t they have a real sport that encompasses both?” I always thought that, and I think a lot of people in the Generation-X era felt that way. This is a new generation, and I think after 20 years of the sport’s development, we can have more enlightenment to what sport combat truly is, and not close our minds and say, “It’s always gotta be a one-on-one situation in a cage, in a controlled environment this way, and we can never do anything outside of this box.” I think that’s very close-minded, and I think when you really start talking to the people who are supportive of this event, you’ll see that a lot of people who are involved in MMA love the idea and the prospect of having this sport grow and evolve.
Final question: Are international audiences ready for your beard?
I think the international audiences are definitely ready for it! When I go [out of the country], they treat me like a king, they love it. I didn’t just start doing this as a gimmick. When I was a kid, I watched Jesse Ventura, Mad Dog Vachon, and all these old-school wrestlers like Ernie Ladd who used to come in with their crazy beards, and I always thought that was the coolest thing in the world. So I always played around with it as soon as I was able to grow a beard. When we went to MMA events, it’s something that I shaped up a little bit just to add some flair, and then when we started [MMA: Inside the Cage], it gave us a little bit of a spectacle to draw from. Even if people didn’t like it, they were watching and paying attention, and it worked, because now we’ve gone all over the world and we’ve seen just about every type of mixed martial arts competition anywhere, every little nook and cranny of every nation, country, continent in the world, we’ve been a part of it and we’ve seen it. So I guess some people may not like the beard, but it’s really served its purpose.
Thanks so much for your time, Casey. Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Just be sure to watch Hip Show, March 14th on AXS TV. Take a look at it. You can like it or not like it, but you’re gonna be glued to that TV set, because it’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before in your entire life.
As Jason “Mayhem” Miller puts it in the above video interview, “2013? Pretty unlucky number for me.” Indeed, the semi-retired MMA fighter and former media personality spent the past calendar year getting arrested, getting arrested, getting arrested, and dropping N-bombs during a public scuffle with Uriah Hall. Now, a humbled (but still pretty kooky) version of Mayhem is training full time with Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA, looking for a return to competition, and he has a few things to say about the controversies that have surrounded him recently. Some notable quotes…
On leaving MMA and coming back: “I took some time, I retired, I totally got away from it, and realized the love and the passion that I have for the sport is just undeniable. I realized I love it so much. And the way I am, I got real passionate and jumped right back in. I’ve been here training at Kings for about a year now, and I feel like a new fighter. I’m ready to get on out there. I’m entertaining some offers from some different leagues that are around the globe, and I’m just trying to find my home.”
On who he’d like to fight next [WARNING, MAYHEM AHEAD]: “I don’t know man, I would like to fight Stephen Hawking. I’d like to punch him out of his wheelchair, maybe get him in an armbar. He can’t defend. No one can defend. [*pauses, switches to Stephen Hawking robot-voice*] Ow. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Physics!“
As Jason “Mayhem” Miller puts it in the above video interview, “2013? Pretty unlucky number for me.” Indeed, the semi-retired MMA fighter and former media personality spent the past calendar year getting arrested, getting arrested, getting arrested, and dropping N-bombs during a public scuffle with Uriah Hall. Now, a humbled (but still pretty kooky) version of Mayhem is training full time with Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA, looking for a return to competition, and he has a few things to say about the controversies that have surrounded him recently. Some notable quotes…
On leaving MMA and coming back: “I took some time, I retired, I totally got away from it, and realized the love and the passion that I have for the sport is just undeniable. I realized I love it so much. And the way I am, I got real passionate and jumped right back in. I’ve been here training at Kings for about a year now, and I feel like a new fighter. I’m ready to get on out there. I’m entertaining some offers from some different leagues that are around the globe, and I’m just trying to find my home.”
On who he’d like to fight next [WARNING, MAYHEM AHEAD]: “I don’t know man, I would like to fight Stephen Hawking. I’d like to punch him out of his wheelchair, maybe get him in an armbar. He can’t defend. No one can defend. [*pauses, switches to Stephen Hawking robot-voice*] Ow. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Physics!”
On personal growth: “I change all the time, man. I change every day. And recently, I’ve changed the most. Out of necessity. I realized that I wasn’t surrounding myself with the right people. I wasn’t really in the right state of mind to really be successful in life, let alone mixed martial arts. And now I have a second chance. I forgive everybody and I hope they forgive me, because what’s the point in holding a grudge?…It’s 2014, all that stuff’s behind me, it’s all in the past. If you don’t have my number, twitter me. I’ll apologize, or if you want to apologize, it doesn’t matter, I forgive you anyway.”
On his confrontation with Uriah Hall: “I was just giving him some publicity. I knew people [had their] cameras out and stuff. He’s my brother. I love him. He’s a good man. He’ll be the damn champion, if he just allows himself to become the champion, he’ll be the champion. I mean, he’s gotta get through a damn sea of tough dudes, but I wish him the best. People really hurt my feelings calling me a ‘racist,’ that was like the worst, I’m like ‘What, get outta here.’ I’m more black than I am racist.”
If it wasn’t for his cauliflower ear and your knowing how a person gets such a proud deformity, Shinya Aoki is the type of fighter you’d never suspect was, in fact, a fighter, just from looking at him or speaking with him outside of training or competition. To the untrained eye, Aoki looks like just another Tokyo hipster or backpack kid — slight in frame, stylish, with thick-framed glasses.
Sure, he’s got a gravely, action-hero voice but it delivers extremely humble words, for the most part. Shinya Aoki always appeared to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken person from the interviews I’d seen of him over the years.
As he sits in a conference room in a Tokyo high-rise on this rainy late December afternoon, nothing I see on the surface changes that perception. For a half hour, Aoki is warm, engaging, quick with a smile and nervous laughter.
In just over one week’s time, however, Aoki will be in a ring, attempting to snap another man’s arm in half. The only reason he will not is because the opponent will smartly tap out before his limb breaks.
Like many great fighters, Shinya Aoki flips a switch, so to speak, from Clark Kent to a kind of malevolent Superman when it comes time to compete. Not only has the ordinarily calm and friendly Aoki not hesitated to break the bones and tear the ligaments of opponents, throughout his career, he also isn’t above standing over their prone bodies and flipping them the bird, as he did to Mizuto Hirota in 2009.
The submission wizard and MMA veteran of over forty professional fights, knows exactly when he makes that shift from civilian to ruthless warrior.
“From the moment I get in line to make my entrance [to the cage or ring],” he says. “That’s when it switches.”
Aoki’s psychology going into a fight is simple and logical. In fact, it is the mindset one could easily imagine would develop in any other skinny teenager who started doing martial arts. Aoki may have developed into one of the world’s best fighters, but when he steps onto the mat, all that is on his mind is survival.
“When I’m out in normal street clothes, I’m a regular person,” he explains. “When I get in the ring, I’ve got to turn on that animal instinct. I’ve got to become a survivor. That’s what switches in my head.”
(“I’m honored that anyone would watch me fight, but my goal isn’t to appeal to people.” Photo via MMAWeekly)
If it wasn’t for his cauliflower ear and your knowing how a person gets such a proud deformity, Shinya Aoki is the type of fighter you’d never suspect was, in fact, a fighter, just from looking at him or speaking with him outside of training or competition. To the untrained eye, Aoki looks like just another Tokyo hipster or backpack kid — slight in frame, stylish, with thick-framed glasses.
Sure, he’s got a gravely, action-hero voice but it delivers extremely humble words, for the most part. Shinya Aoki always appeared to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken person from the interviews I’d seen of him over the years.
As he sits in a conference room in a Tokyo high-rise on this rainy late December afternoon, nothing I see on the surface changes that perception. For a half hour, Aoki is warm, engaging, quick with a smile and nervous laughter.
In just over one week’s time, however, Aoki will be in a ring, attempting to snap another man’s arm in half. The only reason he will not is because the opponent will smartly tap out before his limb breaks.
Like many great fighters, Shinya Aoki flips a switch, so to speak, from Clark Kent to a kind of malevolent Superman when it comes time to compete. Not only has the ordinarily calm and friendly Aoki not hesitated to break the bones and tear the ligaments of opponents, throughout his career, he also isn’t above standing over their prone bodies and flipping them the bird, as he did to Mizuto Hirota in 2009.
The submission wizard and MMA veteran of over forty professional fights, knows exactly when he makes that shift from civilian to ruthless warrior.
“From the moment I get in line to make my entrance [to the cage or ring],” he says. “That’s when it switches.”
Aoki’s psychology going into a fight is simple and logical. In fact, it is the mindset one could easily imagine would develop in any other skinny teenager who started doing martial arts. Aoki may have developed into one of the world’s best fighters, but when he steps onto the mat, all that is on his mind is survival.
“When I’m out in normal street clothes, I’m a regular person,” he explains. “When I get in the ring, I’ve got to turn on that animal instinct. I’ve got to become a survivor. That’s what switches in my head.”
That reality, that essence of what martial arts is for, is often forgotten amidst the sportsmanship and high-level skills pro fighters typically demonstrate. But martial arts are for learning to fight, and learning to fight is to learn to survive attack. The physical conditioning, the inner peace, all of those things which one hopefully also gets from martial arts training are there to serve the end purpose — survival.
Aoki, evidentially, has never forgotten that. It doesn’t always make for classy behavior or sportsmanship, but so far, Aoki has survived.
The attitude may be also be partially due to how he first began fighting MMA. In 2003, Aoki was training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo when his instructor told him that he had a fight coming up.
There wasn’t a discussion. This wasn’t the first step in a well-planned career of a blue-chip athlete. Shinya was thrown into the deep end to see if he could keep his head above water with the sharks.
“I don’t remember a lot of details of my first fight,” he says.
“It was back in 2003. I do remember that I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, though. They told me, ‘you’re going to fight. Get ready.’”
That was it. Backed into a corner where he would eventually make his career, Aoki thought in black and white terms.
“All I put in my head was, ‘I have a fight. Let’s go.’ I didn’t have time to think ,” he explains.
“From the start I’ve always been able to make that mental switch when it was time to fight.”
Aoki won that fight. He’s won just about all of his fights.
The submission fighter has lost some big ones, though. Losing to top-ten American fighters like Eddie Alvarez (whom Aoki has also beaten) and Gilbert Melendez is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but losses can still wreak havoc on a professional athlete’s psyche.
Questions about what those losses say about him as a fighter could have easily gotten into Aoki’s head and made him a less-confident, less active and less successful fighter. Instead, Aoki has managed to rebound well after every loss.
His approach to dealing with losses is characteristically simple and, really, genius.
“I think like a baseball pitcher,” Aoki details.
“If a pitcher faces a batter and that batter gets a home run off of him, he lost that one but the pitcher still has to prepare for the next time he faces that guy. That’s how I look at fighting. Each time I face an opponent, if I lose to that opponent that just means I have to train to become better if I face him again.
“That’s how I mentally prepare. Each opponent is a challenge at a specific time. If I lose to them, I just have to be ready to face them the next time.”
Most fighters can’t disassociate themselves from past selves effectively enough to work past the demons of loss, improve and do better the next time out. It was one of former two-division UFC champion Randy Couture’s biggest strengths as a competitor.
One of the most significant losses of Aoki’s career wasn’t even a fight of his, however. When the Pride Fighting Championships folded, it shocked the young fighter and changed his world.
To Aoki, being a Pride fighter was the definition of being a professional fighter. When asked how, why and when he decided he would make fighting his full-time career, Aoki time and again simply cites the moment he was offered a contract with Pride eight years ago.
“Eight years ago, I was a police officer,” he remembers.
“Here in Japan, it was hard to make a living as a fighter so I needed another career. I became a police officer to support myself and because I thought it would be a good job for keeping myself in shape anyway.”
Aoki didn’t see much action as a cop, however, because he only stayed on for a few months before Pride – then the largest MMA organization in the world – came calling. That’s when he decided to give up everything else and train and fight full-time.
When Pride closed down and was sold to the UFC, Aoki’s whole profession was turned upside down. To this day, he has never gone to fight in the UFC like many of his fellow ex-Pride stars, despite even recently being offered a contract with the American company.
“More than anything, I was surprised. I had worked so hard to get there and so I was more surprised than anything,” Aoki remembers of when Pride closed its doors.
Aoki has been a true international fighter since that time, fighting in many different organizations, all over the world. Now, he finds himself in ONE FC, where he is the reigning lightweight champion.
The fighter says that though he loves fan support, he isn’t concerned with not being very well known by Western MMA fans because he’s mostly fought in Asia.
“I’m honored that anyone would watch me fight, but my goal isn’t to appeal to people,” Aoki says.
What Aoki is trying to do is improve on his weaknesses — notably the stand-up striking component of his game. Aoki is the rare breed of Jiu Jitsu fighter that is good enough to be able to do normally suicidal things like pull guard in an MMA fight and still win.
He isn’t content to rest on his strengths anymore, though. That’s why Aoki says he decided to begin training at the Evolve MMA gym in Singapore.
Aoki wanted to learn Muay Thai and so went to the MMA gym most renowned for its Muay Thai training in all of Asia.
“I’ve always been interested in Muay Thai. I’ve known people from Singapore that were very good Muay Thai instructors so I felt like it was the smart choice. I went to the place where people are known for it,” he says.
As for his improvement in striking thus far, Aoki is characteristically humble.
“I feel I’m getting better but there’s always room to improve. I’m never the best. I’ve always got to improve and then I’ve got to show it in each fight,” the fighter maintains.
If Shinya Aoki has any more grand plans or goals for his MMA career, he is keeping those cards close to his chest. If he doesn’t have a desire to go to the UFC and become a recognized world champion, what are his goals, I ask.
“As long as I’m doing what I’m doing, I don’t really have any other goals,” Aoki explains.
As long as he can train and fight, he’s happy, it seems. Aoki’s perspective on life and his career hasn’t even changed with fatherhood, if he can be believed.
The new father says that he keeps his career and his family life separate. So, don’t expect Aoki to spout any of the touchy-feely poem-like statements about how fatherhood has changed his mindset as a fighter that many of his peers have given after having children.
And although his decision to thus far stay out of the UFC and stay fighting in Asia could be construed from the outside as Aoki not willing to consistently fight the best of the best, he certainly isn’t running from any rule-set or regulations. In fact, if Aoki had his way, he says he’d choose to fight in a cage and with just about no holds barred.
Of course, even though Aoki carries an old-world warrior mentality into this century, the rules he fights under are very modern and restrictive. Still, he says he wants to continue to fight under them often and for as long as he can.
The closest career goal Aoki divulges is basically a wish that he be able to ride it ‘till the wheels fall off. Aoki’s goal is the fight.
If he fights, he is happy. How long can he do it for, though? Aoki says he isn’t even beginning to plan for retirement.
“If I take a lot of damage and I feel my body can’t take it anymore, then I’ll quit. Otherwise, I have no time I think of stopping,” he says.
When that time does come, Aoki doesn’t yet know what he’ll do with his life.
“Right now I don’t have any plans for what I’d do after retiring from fighting,” he says.
“But I’ll know when I see it.”
There’s a game still going on. Shinya Aoki is still on the mound, throwing heat and he can’t be bothered with thoughts of what may happen after the 9th inning. For now, all this pitcher is thinking about is the next guy up to bat.
Duke Roufus had an illustrious career as a kickboxer before becoming even more well-known as an MMA coach. In recent years, his highly regardedRoufusport camp has produced such talents as UFC champion Anthony Pettis, his younger brother Sergio, and former Bellator champ Ben Askren. In advance of the Glory 13 event in Tokyo this Saturday that Roufus is doing color commentary for, CagePotato sat down with him to look back on the twists and turns of his career, and look towards the future of some of his biggest stars.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: What would you say your role with Glory is, Duke? We hear and see you doing color commentary during events but when you were in Chicago last fall, you also had a big presence in all sorts of other pre-event activities.
DUKE ROUFUS: Well, about ten years ago they had me do color commentary for K-1 on pay-per-view broadcasts. This was really a natural progression when they came back with Glory. My role is that of a color commentator but I’m also just a huge kickboxing enthusiast. I love the sport. I’m just as big a fan as a participant.
We’ve always heard Joe Rogan talk about “K-1 level striking” in certain UFC fighters — meaning that a particular guy had great striking, so much so that he could survive in K-1, which was recognized as the top kickboxing promotion in the world. Has Glory replaced K-1 in that role?
Yeah, for sure. K-1 just struggled internally. Japanese kickboxing and MMA have had some internal issues. The guys from Glory have really stepped up. They are also huge kickboxing enthusiasts. Now, all the best fighters are fighting for Glory. We also did something similar to what MMA did with unified rules, and we’ve tried to set that up for kickboxing. We want to make it a fan-friendly fight. The fans can really tune in and enjoy the fights. We created a rule set that makes it fun for the fan.
As an expert kickboxer and one who knows Muay Thai so well, don’t you think that the Glory rules could be better, though? You have many fighters who have trained and competed under full Muay Thai rules — using elbows, using the clinch, using sweeps — and now they get to this point and they’re not allowed to use these effective weapons.
Well, with those things allowed, the tournaments would have a different outcome, that’s for sure. There would be more cuts from elbows and so more guys wouldn’t be able to move on in the tournament. And clinching is how you defend not getting elbowed.
The uneducated fan boos when the clinch happens. Uneducated MMA fans do the same thing when Jiu Jitsu happens in a fight. I understand clinching and the art of it. I understand trips and dumps. Unfortunately here in America, people want to see big punches and big kicks. It can be difficult to understand Muay Thai. Even the scoring is a little difficult to follow. Kickboxing is very similar to boxing. That makes it easy to follow.
(Roufus [at far left] with Sergio Pettis, Anthony Pettis, Ben Askren, and Roufusport BJJ coach Daniel Wanderley. Photo via Dave Mandel/Sherdog.)
Duke Roufus had an illustrious career as a kickboxer before becoming even more well-known as an MMA coach. In recent years, his highly regardedRoufusport camp has produced such talents as UFC champion Anthony Pettis, his younger brother Sergio, and former Bellator champ Ben Askren. In advance of the Glory 13 event in Tokyo this Saturday that Roufus is doing color commentary for, CagePotato sat down with him to look back on the twists and turns of his career, and look towards the future of some of his biggest stars.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: What would you say your role with Glory is, Duke? We hear and see you doing color commentary during events but when you were in Chicago last fall, you also had a big presence in all sorts of other pre-event activities.
DUKE ROUFUS: Well, about ten years ago they had me do color commentary for K-1 on pay-per-view broadcasts. This was really a natural progression when they came back with Glory. My role is that of a color commentator but I’m also just a huge kickboxing enthusiast. I love the sport. I’m just as big a fan as a participant.
We’ve always heard Joe Rogan talk about “K-1 level striking” in certain UFC fighters — meaning that a particular guy had great striking, so much so that he could survive in K-1, which was recognized as the top kickboxing promotion in the world. Has Glory replaced K-1 in that role?
Yeah, for sure. K-1 just struggled internally. Japanese kickboxing and MMA have had some internal issues. The guys from Glory have really stepped up. They are also huge kickboxing enthusiasts. Now, all the best fighters are fighting for Glory. We also did something similar to what MMA did with unified rules, and we’ve tried to set that up for kickboxing. We want to make it a fan-friendly fight. The fans can really tune in and enjoy the fights. We created a rule set that makes it fun for the fan.
As an expert kickboxer and one who knows Muay Thai so well, don’t you think that the Glory rules could be better, though? You have many fighters who have trained and competed under full Muay Thai rules — using elbows, using the clinch, using sweeps — and now they get to this point and they’re not allowed to use these effective weapons.
Well, with those things allowed, the tournaments would have a different outcome, that’s for sure. There would be more cuts from elbows and so more guys wouldn’t be able to move on in the tournament. And clinching is how you defend not getting elbowed.
The uneducated fan boos when the clinch happens. Uneducated MMA fans do the same thing when Jiu Jitsu happens in a fight. I understand clinching and the art of it. I understand trips and dumps. Unfortunately here in America, people want to see big punches and big kicks. It can be difficult to understand Muay Thai. Even the scoring is a little difficult to follow. Kickboxing is very similar to boxing. That makes it easy to follow.
At the end of the day people don’t care how stylistic a fighter is sometimes. They don’t care about his background in Muay Thai. They just want to see two people put on an incredible show. It’s not about education, it’s about entertaining.
That’s why I moved back into K-1 to fight. Muay Thai is a hard sport to make it in. You struggle financially. It’s like saying, “Hey we gotta go back to the old UFC.” As a purist, yeah that’s cool. But at the end of the day we want mass audiences. It’s why there’s a shot clock in basketball, even college. Dean Smith used to have his Tar Heels get up by ten points and then run the four corners offense to run out the clock.
How did you start getting so involved in MMA?
I always tell people that I wasn’t a big fan of old-school UFC. It was more about finding out who the best street fighter was. And the best street fighter is who can react best to getting hit and doesn’t get knocked out. Street fighting is so far away from real prize-fighting.
But there were a few different things that pulled me towards MMA. In 2002, Duane Ludwig had me help him out for a training camp in Vegas. “Bang” fought Genki Sudo and I haven’t missed a fight show since then.
I also had old friends like Mirko Cro Cop and Mark Hunt from K-1 who got involved in MMA. To see them do great in Pride, I couldn’t help but watch. Chute Boxe was also a big influence. Seeing their success in MMA with a striking background caught my attention.
In 2004 I started having some young students who would get into MMA and in 2005 we brought Stephan Bonnar to the gym, and a week after a little Anthony Pettis joined.
Striking for MMA and for kickboxing can be very different. Did transitioning to coaching striking for MMA come easy, or was it challenging?
I purposely pulled myself out of the kickboxing world to be able to coach for MMA. If I were an actor, I would be a method actor. I started sparring with these guys a lot. I actually did wrestle in high school a little bit. That’s not saying I’m very good but I never wimped out when it hit the mat. I’m a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu now. I’ve won the Grapplers Quest at the [UFC] Fan Expo and won the Arnold’s. I’m comfortable on the ground.
So, back to when I started coaching for MMA, what I did was I started sparring a lot. I got used to trying to strike while being taken down.
Another collaborator and good friend of mine is Pat Miletich. Early on, I spent a lot of time at MFS with him. He’s an old, good and dear friend of mine. We have a lot of same philosophies and mindset when it comes to fighting and training.
Now, it’s funny because things are kind of going backwards. I’ve got a lot of amateur students catching the Glory bug. So, I teach a different curriculum depending on what they are preparing for. It’s just like if you were getting ready for the gi world championships you’d train differently if you were preparing for MMA or even Metamoris.
I enjoy that, though. I’ve been training since I was four and doing competitions since I was six. I enjoy the process of figuring out what it takes to win. One of my favorite compliments that I’ve ever gotten came from Ben Askren. He told me that I have good takedown defense. That was just about the best thing anyone could tell me, considering that he’s a world class wrestler.
I like to get in there with the guys and play around. All that helps me be able to work with Askren. What I teach Ben is anti-striking. We reverse engineer striking in every little nuance. I teach him how to punch hard, about weight distribution so that he can read the keys and cues. That’s why he doesn’t get hit. People say they want to see Askren go in there and stand and bang. That’s silly. That’s like saying,”we want to see Roufus wrestle.” No one cares to see my old fat ass wrestle.
If that’s the way you feel, why are you fighting MMA? Ben said it best after he beat [Douglas] Lima, right to the crowd when he told them “if you want to watch two guys stand and fight all night there’s a sport called boxing.”
Philosophically, is being a striking coach any different than being a grappling coach?
It’s harder teaching striking to people. In wrestling, in Jiu Jitsu, you get to practice killing people every day. You pin, you tap them out; it’s practice killing. If we try and kill each other in striking in practice every day, we would die.
Striking is a very chaotic art. I could grapple all day for the next five years and I could never submit our BJJ instructor, Daniel Wanderley. It’s the same thing with wrestling. I would never be able to pin Askren.
In striking anyone can knock anyone out. I’d have to hit Askren with a shovel to pin him. I’d have to roofie Daniel to get a submission on him. That’s the weird thing about striking. It’s very dangerous.
You gotta realize what’s working in striking for your guys and you’ve got to give some options to them. People want to see Pettis fight stand-up every fight for five rounds. You can’t do that all the time, you’d wreck your body. That’s why he mixes it up. He can take you down, submit you or kick you.
I remember when I started coaching Stephan and he was going to fight James Irvin. Right before we went out there, I told Stephan that if he threw a left hook at him, to duck under and take him down. Stephan said, “you’re my striking coach and you’re telling me to go to the ground?”
I told him, “I’m your winning coach.” He got a Kimura on Irvin and won the fight. Fighters are a little misled sometimes.
So, it isn’t about making a point that you can turn grapplers into slick strikers? You just want to make sure they win?
I try to stay out of the spotlight. That’s why I fought; I had my own lil’ moment to shine. Now, I live vicariously through these athletes.
Like with Anthony arm-barring Ben Henderson. Before the fight I said that he can beat him any way he wants. People said, “Yeah, yeah, right.” Anthony is the prototype for the future of MMA.
Speaking of Pettis, how frustrating is it to have him injured and not be able to keep the ball rolling?
It’s the sport. He also fought five times in the WEC in one year at one point. Anthony wishes he could fight more than anyone else. He’s got a great new contract and it makes him want to fight even more (laughs).
Anthony’s younger brother Sergio just made a successful UFC debut. How happy are you with his performance?
Sergio is doing great. He looked great in that fight against an excellent fighter and he can do even better. He was nervous but he handled it very well.
You had a successful fight career. Now, you’ve got a top kickboxing team, a top MMA team. You do color-commentary for an international promotion. Are you surprised that all this has happened from martial arts? Or, did you always know you’d do all this?
Both. I’m surprised, but it’s what I wanted. It’s just one of those things.
