Interview conducted by Arjarn Nick Hewitson Of The Petchyindee Muay Thai Boxing Camp International

Q1. What initially got you to take up martial arts?

Jean-Yves: I was curious as to how I would react if I were assaulted, particularly when you see fights at school or on the street, and being a little shy I wasn't sure exactly how I would react, when the fight or flight instinct kicked in, so I went along with a couple of mates of mine to take a look at this ju-jitsu stuff. And the rest as they say is history, I have never been attacked on the street or the playground, I think it was just destiny, I was never interested in violence, I had friends who competed in karate at that time but had never really taken any interest that was until I saw someone getting there head kicked in that was the deciding factor.

Q2. How long have you been training?

Jean-Yves: I started martial arts at 17 years old, so I've been training now for 33 years.

Q3. What styles have you studied?

Jean-Yves: mainly kick boxing but also ju-jitsu, and a little judo and karate and Taekwondo and a little bit of Muay Thai.

Q4. Can you recollect your first fight?

Jean-Yves: absolutely it was against Serge Simard, a very honourable man we recently met up again after almost 20years. He was very happy that I was the guy who had beaten him. With regard to the fight, I had been training in ju-jitsu at the time and so started to do some roadwork and hitting the heavy bag for about 6 or 7 weeks, and decided I was ready for the fight, which I now know I wasn't, so I was very nervous and so went out very hard and luckily finished the fight in the first round. I then proceed back to the dressing room where I was violently sick due to the adrenaline surge.

Q5. What spurned you on to keep fighting after being a champion for so long?

Jean-Yves: I had been champion for about 7 years and part of the by product of my success was the fame that I have never been happy with, so I was still training hard for my fights but I no longer really had that hunger of a young fighter and so once destiny took a hand and got me involved with the make a wish foundation, where I got to meet the parents of these unfortunate sick children, and having been used to people coming up to me and telling me how really brave I was to step into the ring and fight in front of 10,000 people, and so when I met these parents who don't know if there son or daughter will be alive the following day, but can still remain positive and up beat, it really effected me, particularly as at that time I was a young father myself, so though that interaction I went back and it made me feel like I had when I first won the title, but from that point on I always felt like a contender rather than the champion. And so continued on for a further 7 years before eventually retiring, besides the fact I was 41 years old and it was about time I got a real job, together with the fact I didn't heal like I used to when I was young. I also had other interests that I wanted to get involved with so it took me about a year and a half to finally retire.

Q6. What do you think about the overall standard of kickboxing worldwide?

Jean-Yves: I don't really take that much notice anymore really, here in Canada there are pockets as there are in America where people are trying to do good things, but in Europe I think it has had its time, as there are so many other things now, the k1, the ultimate fighting, the shoot fighting, the Thai boxing, and these are all diminishing the appeal of the kick boxing, and people are very decimating in there viewing habits, making it a very much a niece market, where as when I was fighting your choices were boxing or kick boxing and so we had a much larger market share than is possible now.

Q7. What was your greatest accolade?

Jean-Yves: for me it is the smaller things, such as being a good father, rather than the exposure that I got as a fighter and the accolades that went along with it were probably more important to other people, the exposure that I brought to Canada etc, although it has been the things that I have done since retiring from fighting that have given me the greatest pleasure. Being able to be a mentor to people rather than a fighter or professional sportsman.

Q8. What was your greatest victory?

Jean-Yves: I think it was at the time before I was a champion, it was in the time of Bill Wallace who took the sport from one strike to continuous fighting and so lots of people were pushing me into adopt that particular fighting style, which I adamantly opposed I didn't want to be a copycat, I wanted to make it my own way rather than follow in someone else's foot steps, so I think sticking to my guns with regard to hitting hard and blending both the punches and kicks together was possibly my legacy to the sport of kick boxing and I think that was my greatest victory.

Q9. Who was your hardest fight?

Jean-Yves: there were many of them but what was regardless of the opponent, it was more a case of me beating the odds, I liked it more when every one was against me and didn't think I could win.

Q10. Who was your best opponent?

Jean-Yves: Rodney Baptisite who I fought twice I would say he was the best he had a lot of heart, a great boxer, good strategist, Kerry Roop was another though most people would think, Rofus and Kaman.

Q11. What is your focus now?

Jean-Yves: I have been working on a curriculum for my schools so that I can pass the information I have learned on to my students, I have been studying a great deal particularly in sports physiology, I would like our schools to be able to offer something different to most schools that only offer a generic kick boxing package, so we offer a nutritionist, massage therapy and alternative medicines.

Q12. What's your training program?

Jean-Yves: I have always been active, and so now as well as teaching in the schools, I run, ski, roller blade, anything and everything that keeps my fitness ticking over and that I find enjoyable.

Q13. Do you miss competing?

Jean-Yves: No! I don't, though there was a time when had second thoughts and I still had the feelings, when I entered an arena I could feel my heart start to beat faster, but that was just the adrenaline, thou I did for a while, thou because of the long time I took to think about retiring, I knew in my heart that it was my time to bow out and therefore those feelings weren't as strong as perhaps they had been if I had retired for other reasons.

Q14. Have you ever thought of as a comeback particularly with the money from say K1, where Ernesto Hoost and Rick Roufus have done so well and both of who you have beaten?

Jean-Yves: No! Money was never a driving force, and I was lucky that I had a good management support structure around me, and they always got me the best deal going, thou there was a possibility of me pricing myself out of the market, but obviously the promoters thought I was worth the money and that just reinforced my belief in myself.

Q15. What do you think of Thai boxing?

Jean-Yves: I think I made a mistake when I put a book together years ago when I expressed an opinion out of ignorance, that I didn't think much of it, but over the years having had much more exposure to it through people like yourselves, I know that it is much more physically demanding than the kick boxing, but in my defence in the past I was expressing opinions based around what we in Canada and north America were used to, which was kicks above the waist, rather than the leg kicks and knees that are so devastating in Thai boxing.

Q16. Do you think that Thai boxing will eventually take over from kick boxing in North America as it has in Europe?

Jean-Yves: not here in north America as I think it is more a cultural thing, if however it had received more attention in the 1970's at the same time kick boxing was expanding I think it probably would have but now there is to much of a difference in the mentality of the people doing these sports, and I don't think that is likely to change here to the same manner it has in Europe.

Q17. Do you think that your loss to Rob Karman was due to in part to his Muay Thai training as having seen you both box I would definitely say you had much greater boxing skills?

Jean-Yves: it was a big mistake on my part, had I not been injured, Rob Kaman wouldn't have lasted three rounds; I was simply too powerful and to accurate. And so I took the fight out of a professional obligation thou I was injured, thou I don't think it was a fair fight as the rules took away some of his skills, because he is such a strong kicker, but as a warrior you diminish your skills by having to adapt to specific rules rather than fighting inside your usual arena. And although rob is more than able to kick above the waist very hard, it requires conscious thought on his part and so the fight wasn't that fair. With regard to Rob's boxing skills I am much better technically than he was, he is very square as a fighter making him very easy to hit.

Q18. You know have your own promotions company, do you also manage the fighters and are you taking over the role of mentor that John therein did for you?

Jean-Yves: to a degree though its amateur so I guide rather than manage, my trainer was the same way, he wouldn't push me to train.

Q19 do you have any future champions?

Jean-Yves: I don't know, thou there are some diamonds in the rough, and thou I see assets or characteristics in some of them its hard to say as you don't know what there motivation is, how committed they are, in my own personal situation I always wanted to be a professional athlete and therefore my entire focus was challenged towards that, I lived it and I can't see that in other people, I can see there potential with regard to the skills that they have or that I can teach them but I have no way of knowing if they have heart. I know I did things that others perhaps wouldn't, an example would be my marriage, I know that unconsciously it took second place to my fighting and that's the same for anyone who wants to be the best in the chosen area.

Q20. Do you think that the fighters are better now than when you fought and would you say they are more knowledgeable about there training?

Jean-Yves: yes definitely, there is much more information available now, the benefits of fitness and exercise are much more well known and I think that the exposure to my knowledge tends to speed up there learning curve, where people of my time had to learn it first hand because we there was no one and no where to get that information.

Q21. has the way you train your fighters changed due to new techniques like cross training, plyometrics, etc or is it still bag work, sparring and roadwork?

Jean-Yves: yes the old familiar methods are still used but the new techniques are used to enhance the anatomical performance of our students, I was something of a visionary within my own training I would train in the gym lifting weights, I did marathon running and other sports training which at that time weren't thought of as fight training, but the insight that those sports and activities gave me greater strength and endurance than my fellow competitors and that paid dividends in the ring.

Q22. Where did the name 'the Iceman' come from and are you sick of other people using it?

Jean-Yves: it was Rodney Baptisite who the gave me the name following my first title defence, because he said I had no emotion, I was just like a block of ice, because he couldn't see any reaction from me during the fight when I was hit so he called me the iceman. With regard to other people using the name, no I'm not sick of people using it, fight fans will always know me as it and its easier to say than my name, or just as Benny the jet has Rick the jet Roufus. Perhaps when these people started out they took the name to be remembered or taken seriously by hijacking our name, though saying that Byiong Borg was called 'the Iceman' before me.

Q23. You also train in ju-jitsu, do you think that the traditional styles are being lost to everyone wanting to do Brazilian ju-jitsu which is more ground based?

Jean-Yves: I certainly believe that to be the case! Because everyone is now trying to create there own style, the Brazilian ju-jitsu has been marketed brilliantly for almost ten years, but however you look at it, they all lead back to the older style ju-jitsu, it is simply diluting the art and making it more palatable with more focus in particular areas such as ground fighting, etc.

Well thank you Jean-Yves for your time I'm sure that this will give your existing fans a clearer insight into the man as well as there beloved champion and I which you continued success in the future.