Introduction

This article was made possible by Wahid Wennekes formerly of the Mejiro gym in the Netherlands and now the owner trainer of the Mejiro Gym, Milton, New Zealand. Wahid is a friend of Bas from back in their home country and gave me the introduction making this interview possible.

The approach I've taken to this article is extensive to say the least and in the words of Bas is the biggest interview he has ever done and he jokingly stated he wasn't sure if I was going to write a book. He was clear that if it wasn't for Wahid he would never say yes to an interview of this magnitude but anything for Wahid as he said.

This extensive article will begin with an introduction incorporating some basic facts and statistics in relation to the life and fight career of Bas Rutten. The second part of this of the article is a more detailed look at his life and fight career and the final section is answers to questions I put to Bas as part of this cover feature.

Bas Rutten was born February 24th 1965 Tilburg, Netherlands, now residing in California, USA.

His tale of the tape: height 6'1" [186 cm]; weight 205 pounds [93 kg].

Fight record: 28 wins – 4 losses – 1 draw.

Top wins against Frank Shamrock (on two occasions), Kevin Randleman, Maurice Smith, Masa Funaki, and Guy Metzger.

Titles taken: 3 times King of Pancrase, UFC heavyweight champion.

Martial arts ranks: 5th degree black belt Kyokushin karate awarded Master Jon Bluming, second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. His hybrid style incorporates equally stand up and grappling aspects and the make up of his stand-up system could be described as a combination of Karate, Muay Thai, and Taekwondo.

Noted techniques: strikes and kicks to the liver and for his leaping split kicks as part of his post winning show of victory.

Nickname: El Guapo (The Handsome One).

Personality and attributes, as a fighter, confident and competent, and in his role in television and as a ring announcer, a real entertainer with charisma and talent.

Retired from fighting in 1999 as a result of serious injuries in training to his knee joint and a major bicep tear. Come back, May 2006 he was scheduled to fight Kimo Leopoldo, but unfortunately Kimo tested positive for an anabolic steroid and was replaced by Ruben "Warpath" Villareal, who Bas defeated in the first round by TKO as a result of leg kicks.

Life after fighting: pursued an acting career with parts in the following productions: Martial Law, Freedom, The King of Queens, 18 Wheels of Justice, Shadow Fury, The Eliminator, and the Kingdom of Ultimate Power etc. He has a cameo appearance in the Grand Theft Auto IV, the video game, as well as being involved in fight scenes motion capture for the movie industry. Fight commentator: Pride Fighting Championships, and host Inside MMA. Books and DVDs: Bas Rutten's Big Book of Combat volume 1 and 2, Big DVDs of Combat, Lethal Street Fighting, MMA workout, Superior Free Fight Techniques, Extreme Pancrase, Training with Bas Rutten.

• The Bas Rutten Experience!
• Bas Rutten MMA System Store

Bas Rutten was born February 24th 1965 at Tilburg in the Netherlands. The young Bas suffer from asthma and also a very bad skin condition and as such he had few childhood friends. He very much enjoyed reading comics like Spiderman and the Fantastic Four, which led to his climbing of trees. He lived near a grass field that had a row of trees and also adjoined a forest. He became a proficient climber being able to move from tree to tree without touching the ground. His climbing extended to the rooftops of houses where he would watch the stars fantasizing about turning into Spiderman or Wolverine.

Because of his skin condition and having to wear gloves and he became a target for bullying and found his climbing ability came in handy when being chased by such bullies. From age 12, Bas focused his attention on athletics in the form of high jump, long jump, javelin and discus. He really enjoyed athletics but unfortunately sustained regular knee injuries that led to him giving it away.

While on holiday with his family in France in 1976 Bas, accompanied by his brother, snuck into a movie theatre that was playing ‘Enter the Dragon'. Bas was captivated by Bruce Lee and the martial arts and this movie begun his lifelong involvement in martial arts. In his own words this was a life-changing experience for the young Bas and immediately on his return to Holland the first thing he did was make up a set of nunchaku from two pieces of wood and some chain. They become an important accessory for the young Bas and he carried them around his neck even to the local grocery store.

By now he was an avid movie-goer of Bruce Lee movies, watching his every kick and punch and of course use of the nunchakus and as soon as he got home imitating the moves and practicing them until he got them right. Bas begged his parents constantly to allow him to train in martial arts and after considerable persistence they agreed and he begun training in Taekwondo.

He had only been training for about a month when accosted by a bully, but this time he did not run or climb to get away but struck the bully with a single punch breaking his nose. He was ecstatic with the result and the life-changing effect martial arts had given him; that is until his parents found out and put an end to his use of martial arts in the street. From then on he convinced the bullies that he was a black belt and if confronted would deter them with his controlled skill in true Bruce Lee like manner he would extend a sidekick holding his foot directly in front of their face.

By now he had moved on to a new school and although he still had the severe skin disease and had to wear gloves that led to him being less than popular he had made friends with other students that were also accustomed to being bullied and ridiculed. They stuck together and become known amongst each other as ‘The Champions', and looking back Bas laughs and comments what a name for a bunch of wannabes but it worked for them at the time.

One of the group began boxing and proved pretty good at it passing on pointers to the keen to learn Bas. Strength by association and the numbers and where, as individuals, his new friends may not have fought back before now when singled out for some adverse attention they would initiate the action.

At age 20 Bas left home to live with his girlfriend and this was a point in his life where he really become involved and committed to martial arts training. For starters it was karate and Taekwondo and then moving on to Thai boxing. Everything started to happen so fast from training to fighting in Thai boxing and maintaining an undefeated record and beginning work as a bouncer which in turn put his ring fighting on hold as he was working most nights.

The next four years he worked as a bouncer and partied, that is until one New Year's Eve he was asked if he would take a fight against Frank Lobman. Before he knew it the fight was being promoted and Bas could not really even remember his New Year's Eve agreement to take the fight against a fighter that was at the top of his game with no losses and a 90% knockout rate. This opponent would be tough and had just been released from prison and was ready and wanted to fight. On the other hand Bas had been partying hard and was out of serious training with working the doors.

When his memory was jogged of accepting the New Year's Eve offer and he was asked if the fight was still on he simply replied, "Let's try it." So the first thing was to decide on where to train and Bas chose Maeng Ho in Holland as this was where Ramon Dekker trained a fighter he had always admired.

He quickly realized after the first session that he was way out of condition as completing skipping sets a real challenge and realistically should have started training for such a fight much earlier. The end result was a hard lesson as he lost this, his come back bout.

His next encounter against an up-and-coming fighter, Renee Roze, started well for Bas with him dominating the first round. However in the second round his opponent bit clean through his ear and would not release the bite even after Bas warned him. The situation required immediate action in the form of a full power knee to the groin, which led to a full on brawl outside the ring between both fighters' supporters that were made up of mainly bouncers. Bas saw the funny side of this observing all the outer ring action from inside the ring.

His next fight was against a French fighter that he trained very hard for but unfortunately as life would have it the week before the fight Bas got an infection and on top of that was involved in street fight and spent two days in police custody and was only released two days before the fight. Being the fighter he is Bas took the fight and in the first round knocked his opponent down three times once with what the officials called an illegal blow, a back fist, which was a new rule to Bas.

The effects of his medication for the infection he was suffering were overwhelming and at the beginning of round two being tight-chested with real breathing difficulties he could not continue. After this fight the armchair experts were starting to say that he could not fight even though he had won 14 fights by KO and this annoyed him to the point he did not want to fight again in Holland and entertain those with no idea of the fight game.

Frustrated with the fight game but still with the burning desire to keep practicing martial arts he decided to focus his attention on martial arts to music, so along with his friend Chris Dolman the focus was on martial art shows set to music with the shows rising in popularity to the point where they were featured on television.

Chris was well aware of the fight ability of Bas and after observing him performing skills such as split kicks he asked if he would like to fight for him in Japan in what was called at that time free fighting and Bas quickly replied, "sure I'll come and try it out."

The training was in Amsterdam about 80 miles away from where he lived and at the first training session Bas was repeatedly choked by a class full of little guys that he thought he could resist. This resulted in a very tender throat and the inability to eat for several days.

The second training session was so intense that Bas stopped his car on the roadside on the way home phoned his wife and told her that he was so tired he would sleep in the car on the road side. His wife asked him when he arrived home the following day if he intended to return and he replied I intend to tap out those that tapped me out.

Bas improved his submission skills even though finding training time was difficult between his bouncing work, instructing and the 80 miles travel required to train at Amsterdam. Several months later Chris Dolman contacted Bas regarding the Pancrase organizers, Funaki and Suzuki, who were visiting and looking for fighters to compete in Japan in a new organization called Pancrase.

Bas went and met with them and they watched him training and sparring with a big-name fighter from Japan who tried his utmost to hurt him. Bas kicked him in the head and he was off to hospital to get his eyebrow stitched, which done it for the Japanese confirming they wanted him to fight in Japan.

Japan, September 21, 1993, a day he will not forget, as his opponent was 50 pounds heavier and unbeknown to him the bout was one round of 30 minutes over the usual kickboxing five times three-minute rounds he was accustomed to. Bas tried not to show his concern at the 30 minute round by saying, "that will be okay as I'm in shape." Deep down he thought, "Oh my god, 30 minutes! What would happen if I tried to KO him early being the aggressive fighter I am and he survived with over 25 minutes to go and I gassed. I would get killed!" To ensure this did not happen he put two Rs on his hands which in Dutch was short for "rustig", and by coincidence means relax in English.

In his corner was his former manager and good friend Clovis Deprets, and he instructed Bas that when he got hit he was not to lose his temper and go berserk but was to keep calm and cool. The fight was over in 43 seconds, a win to Bas by KO. Ecstatic happiness took over and Bas executed a split kick to each corner of the ring and they became his trademark along with the letter R on his hands. This is how the trademark ‘Rutten Jump' got started.

Fight number two in Japan was an epic saga in relation to pre-fight travel with an 8a.m. departure from Holland and the 3 p.m. arrival in Japan coupled with five hours wait until he fought. He managed only one hours sleep before being woken to fight, had jet lag, and was throwing up, he was so ill to the point that his manager had to carry his gear. Bas made a mistake when in the guard by straightening and stretching out his arms and as a result was caught in an arm bar.

These were the early days for Bas as a ground fighter but being the determined competitor that he is even though he felt like tapping out he did not and thanks to the Pancrase rule of rope escapes even when caught in a submission if you can physically touch the ropes the submission must be released. You only lose one point for this but with the allowed 30 minutes of contest time have the ability to out point or submit your opponent via the break up rule and continuation. Bas took advantage of this rule by pulling his opponent to ringside and touching the ropes at which point immediately post the required release and stand up rule being enforced he let go with two knees one to the head and one to the liver winning by KO. At that point he made up his mind never to quit, as there is always a chance of winning and ensured when he later trained his understudies that they were taught never to straighten out their arms when in the guard.

Pancrase fight number three was a real turning point for Bas when pitted against Japan's number one fighter in Funaki. The Japanese realized Bas was a predominant striker with limited ground fighting skills and exploited this weakness. He got caught in a hold he'd never even heard of in the form of a toehold a very painful hold and lost the fight. This was the turning point in his training regime highlighting that he needed to work more on submissions and ground fighting.

The problem was, back in Holland he could only train once a week in Amsterdam because of the considerable travel involved. Even with a lack of submission training he kept fighting and achieving good results up until he fought the Shamrock Brothers losing to Ken then Frank and Ken again. Right about this time he started training a young very strong lad called Leon van Dijk. They would work out together and whenever they managed to catch each other in a submission they would write it down and how it was achieved and work on both the application and the escape.

After his last loss to Ken Shamrock he decided to omit striking from his training regime as he was well versed in this facet.

To improve his grappling he would train at it twice-daily with Leon and would also leave earlier for his fights in Japan so he could train at the Pancrase dojo where he would remain vigilant recording anything of value in grappling that he could then practice on his return with Leon. From this point he won his next 7 fights by submission, he never lost a fight and wins started to come via submission.

Bas became the king of Pancrase, defeating Suzuki with a front choke followed by a successful defense of his title against Frank Shamrock winning by a referee stoppage after knocking him down twice. He kept active between title defenses by fighting regularly.

His next fight was very important to him as it was a rematch with Funaki and proved to be a great contest highlighting both his improvement and Funaki's tremendous heart. Bas won after knocking him down four times, but to the credit of Funaki he showed his resolve by coming back constantly, until Bas knocked him out with a knee to the head. Many consider this to be both fighters best Pancrase fight ever, with Bas taking a sound win, and Funaki being so formidable and resilient.

When his wife become pregnant and was so ill that there were fears for her life and the babies he decided not to defend his Pancrase title. Pancrase asked him to relinquish his title if he did not defend it and that is exactly what he did. In his own words, thank God he did because on the day he was scheduled to leave his tiny daughter Sabine was born weighing only 2 pounds and had to live the first seven weeks of her life in an incubator before she could be taken home. His wife had to stay in hospital for two weeks and at the same time he broke his hand during filming a TV show.

Before his daughter was born he had visited Los Angeles, California and come to the conclusion that this was the place for him and his family and informed his wife with the news. His plan was to begin an acting career and six months after his daughter was born they moved to Los Angeles.

The reality was, outside martial arts Bas was unknown in the United States and this led to his decision not to sign with Pancrase when his contract ran out, but to fight in the organization that was best known, that being the UFC. The plan was simple become recognized as a fighter in the UFC and hopefully this recognition would create openings for an acting career. From his entry to the UFC everything happened so fast, starting with his first UFC win against Kohsaka and in his second fight capturing the heavyweight title against Kevin Randleman.

Bas was a natural middleweight and decided to surrender his heavyweight title and get back to middleweight chasing the middleweight title, which would have made him the first fighter to take both titles. Unfortunately injuries in training prevented this.

Bas Rutten – Photo by Landry Major

Q&A

How would you describe yourself as a youngster physically and in your general pursuit of achieving in sports hobbies and schooling?

Good athletic motoric skills picked everything up fast. Was good in track and field, climbed a lot in trees and could go from tree top to tree top through the forest. I was a dreamer and very difficult in class, too much energy, mom had to come to school many times, I changed schools like 5 times.

Were any of your family members or friends involved in the fight game and did any of them influence you getting started?

Nobody, and they didn't like it that I did it, I started very late, like 21 years old. When I was 14 I saw Bruce Lee in a movie (Enter the Dragon) I begged my parents to let me do martial arts, finally they said yes and after 4 weeks I got in a street fight, KO'd the bully and broke his nose. The police came to my house and I couldn't do Martial Arts anymore. I was very sick as a kid, had eczema and really bad asthma, I got bullied a lot.

Were there any individuals as a youngster you admired or aspired to be like and if so who were they and could you tell us a little about them and their backgrounds and achievements?

Bruce Lee, and Bruce Jenner (decathlon Gold medallist) I wanted to be the Dutch Bruce Jenner, but my knees gave up on me.

What sports were the most popular when you were a child and did you play any of these or other sports and to what extent?

Track and field, I was very good, good high and long jump, good javelin, discus, shot-put and 400 meters

Was it the martial arts movies that first got you interested in martial arts training and if so what was your first style of martial arts and who was your first instructor?

Enter the Dragon from Bruce Lee. My first instructor was Roland Jansen, very good Tae Kwon Do practitioner.

Tell us about your progress in martial arts, the styles the grades you achieved and if you competed could you tell us about your early competition results.

I have a 2nd degree Black belt in Tae Kwon Do, 2nd degree black belt in Karate. 5th degree black belt in Kyokushin Karate (given to me by Jon Bluming).

When I started Thai boxing I continued with all the other Martial Arts as well, after only 6 weeks training I had my first fight, KO'd him in 43 second with a body kick. Later in Japan for Pancrase I won my first fight in exactly the same time by KO.

In your youth did you ever have to defend yourself or get into teenage fights where you had to use your flight skills?

Yes, because of my illness, I never lost a fight in the street.

When did you move on from traditional martial arts into ring sports and was it stand-up or grappling you first moved into?

When I studied all the other arts. I did everything together. When I did Tae Kwon Do I knew there was no punching involved, so I started Karate, then I realized there was no punches to the head, so I started Thai Boxing. I became Dutch Champion. Later at the age of 28 I went to Japan, I went on to become the three times World Champion in Pancrase, never lost that title, went to the US and became the UFC heavyweight Champion.

Tell us about your achievements in the stand up ring code and your tale of the tape in relation to your fight record and your height and weight as well as your reach and favoured techniques.

16 fights in Thai boxing, 2 losses. The wins were all by KO, one in the second round, the rest in the first.

When you first begun training in grappling what type of grappling did you train in and for how long and to what level before you first completed?

Never did it in my life, I started after fighting for like a year in Pancrase because other fighters would take me down and go for submissions. I taught everything myself and only ONE sparring partner. After my last loss (Ken Shamrock) I trained two or three times a day, never lost again and in the end I won more fights by submission than by KO, 12 KO's 13 submissions.

Tell us about your first grappling competition and what was the result you achieved first out and with your early grappling code fights.

Never competed in grappling only, but trained with the best in the business, all of them, and submitted all of them, myself I never tapped in training since the last lost fight, actually I did two times, but then I submitted those guys at least 10 times, haha, they all think that I am a striker, but when they roll with me they don't know what happens. Liborio, the trainer from the American Top Team, is considered one of the best trainers in the world of submissions. When he saw me he asked me if I could teach a ground fighting seminar at his place, not striking, ground fighting. BJ Penn told me that I made the best instructional series he ever saw. I am telling you this not because I want to brag (well, a little, haha), but to make sure that people know what I can do on the ground. I am getting sick of people who think that I am just a striker.

What gym did you represent when you fought in the ring and who made up your ringside team?

My own name, I never brought a coach because I trained myself.

Tell us about your fight name and the meaning and background behind it as well as your tattoos.

I always said that I was the most handsome fighter in the fight game (of course that's a joke). The three amigos is one of my favourite comedies, the bad guy in that movie is ugly and his name is El Guapo. When I asked Tina Shamrock (Ken Shamrock's ex-wife, she's Mexican) what El Guapo meant, she said "the handsome", some fighters over heard us, when Kevin Randleman left the table he said "See you later Guapo", then the fighters just started to call me El Guapo, everybody joined in.

On my right palm I have a Kanji "Chi", life energy, life force, when I put that one, I never lost anymore, so I thought, "hey, it works, so I put in my other hand SJOU, that means a long life. Snake on my shin I was born in the year of the snake, on my right fore arm I have a Samurai logo which stands for FAMILY. On my wrists I have my three daughter's names. My left forearm, A Buddhism God who protects people who are born in the year of the snake. The rest on my knees and elbows are for relaxation and power.

I have read that you have fought under several codes of grappling and with major success. Could you tell us about your introduction and participation with the various organizations and codes of combat sports and your fight recollections and results?

Never did this.

Tell us a little about your instructors and coaches in those that you hold in the highest regard in shaping your career and the reasons why and also about their backgrounds.

Trained myself

In relation to opponents could you tell us what opponents you found the most formidable and for what reasons.

Funaki Masakatsu, he beat me in our first encounter. They gave him again to me when I was in my last fight on my contract thinking he would beat me and that helped them with the negotiations for the new contract. I beat him really bad, knocked him down five times, he had the heart of a Lion, kept getting up when the whole place was chanting for him. My last knee was full in his head and he stayed down. He was one of the best submission fighters at the time.

Outside of the fight game did you have other employment prior to during or after your fight career?

I am a professional chef cook, worked in restaurants. I was teaching Martial arts and a bouncer during my first 10 fights in Japan. Then I realized that I could be a world champion and I stopped the bouncing.

Tell us about your family and if you have children training in martial arts.

I have three daughters, Rachele, Sabine and Bianca, 19, 12 and 8 years old. My wife Karin is with me since 1991, she predicted a half-year before they asked me to go to Japan that I would be a famous fighter. I told her that I would never fight again because I didn't like the people in Holland who wrote me down after two losses, she said "Not in Holland, in Japan". Later she told me that we would move to the US and I would be in the entertainment business. It all came true.

Over the years of training and competing how has your body stood up to it and have you managed to avoid serious injury?

I have been very fortunate with injuries. The most injuries I had came in Training, not fighting. Slowly my body started to get more and more injuries. I always trained like a maniac and I think my body told me Screw you", haha. No, I am blessed with crazy genetics, can eat what I want and never gain weight. I didn't train for 4 years and partied a lot, then I took on a fight in 2006 and trained only two months in which time I got injured and didn't train two weeks of those 8 weeks. I KO'd the guy in the first round, felt one of the best shape in my life, I beat all the guys who trained with me and they were professional fighters, again, I am blessed. Now I can't train ground anymore I have NO cartilage on my kneecaps, it's the ONLY thing that they can't fix in a knee. I went to all the best surgeons in the world. The ONLY thing that might help in the future is STEM CELLS. I put capitals down because people say the whole time "Oh, but knee replacement is possible, or they can put a jell between your knee caps", guys, knee replacement is for when I am 65 years old my doctor told me, I will blow every knee out, and for the gel, it's a freaking knee cap, it will "scrape the whole day, every time I bent my leg, so nothing will work other then, hopefully in the future, stem cells.

Tell us about your favourite training and sparring partners.

Leon van Dijk in Holland, really good guy to train with and he was my ONLY sparring partner. I trained Genki Sudo and Carlos Newton. Marco Ruas was a great sparring partner also. Marc Laimon was a really good ground fighter, IS actually.

When and why did you decide to retire from the competitive aspects of the fight game?

Like I said, problems with my knees. Tendonitis in both my arms, extremely painful. Last fight I tore my knee, my groin, had a rib out and had tendonitis. Couldn't kick higher than the legs. I KO'd the guy with three leg kicks.

Have you been involved with training up-and-coming fighters and whom would you consider the best prospects?

Duane Ludwig, Mark Kerr, Genki Sudo and Carlos Newton. My last one was Kimbo but I stopped teaching him, he thought he knew it al and didn't do what I asked him to do the day before his last fight. Now I stopped, don't wanna do it anymore, burned myself too many times, put all my heart in it and don't get anything back, ah well, that is fighters for you. Of course not all the fighters and guys I trained though.

Tell us about your fight commentating career and how you become involved in commentating and what major fights you have been a commentator for.

I was at the Pride Fighting Championships with my student Mark Kerr. I was in the locker room and there were some people there from the promotion. We had a TV in the dressing room with the fights on it that were in the hall. I told them "Watch, he's gonna go for an arm bar" and 10 seconds later the guy won by an arm bar, I did that with three more fights. They asked me how I knew that, I told them that I could see the "set ups" from the fighters. Then they asked me if I ever did commentary, I told them no, and that's when they offered me the job. I have been commentating ALL the big fights at Pride FC.

Have you ever had or considered comeback fights and if so could you tell us the details and outcomes?

Yes I did, if I would have the knee and tendonitis problem, I think I still would have been one of the best, again, sounds like I am full of myself, but its not, I train with current Champions (not the last year because of my knees) and would still drop them or submit them, they never did with me.

Do you still live in the Netherlands or have you moved abroad and if so the reasons why and to where you have moved to?

I moved to the US, better opportunities here. I came here because I was asked to fight in the UFC, I did, became the World Heavy weight Champion and love this country a lot. I told me wife and we decided to move. I really live the American dream right now, have a show on TV here, do many short comedies, commercials, come out with a new product www.bodyactionsystem.com, do work for the channel CARTOON NETWORK, work on three more TV shows that are coming up, did three movies, working on two movies right now and will come out with an invention that I think will be used my almost every athlete in the world. I can't tell what it is yet because I am getting the patent as we speak, but you will see it. A couple of months ago I became a proud US citizen, I love this country!

Check out:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SklGwjpJ2A
• https://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=60564669
• https://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/07/bas-rutten-fights-cellphone-plans-for-net10.html
• https://cartoon.atlmac.com/upload/View/2m1l291c092y0330292q
• https://mmaopinion.com/2009/05/21/nbc-will-air-ultimate-women's-combat-reality-show/ 
• https://mmamadness.com/insight/news/4349

These are a few things that I did.

Tell us about your movie career how you got started and the roles you have had and what you have featured in.

Pretty much everything that I did came from the YouTube clip of my bar fighting instructional. Please check out:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1008015/  

Have you been involved in fight promoting or in a corporate role in the fight game and what was your role position and the nature of your corporate and promotional duties?

No I have not, I have been a ring/cage announcer, judge, referee, commentator and I hosted shows. Actually, I did the "Bas Rutten invitation" for a while in Colorado; it was an MMA show, it's too much work and too much hassle. Fighters get injured, they can't make weight, they bitch about their opponents etc, I didn't want to do it anymore.

Do you have your own fight centre and if so where is it located what is the facility named and what type of training do you provide and who assists you?

Just have my gym in Thousand Oaks CA, "Bas Ruttens Elite MMA"; I am going to a bigger location. Friends of mine are teaching there, no big names other then Hector Pena who is teaching the Striking, he's the highest decorated Mexican fighter of all times, 13 world titles.

What publications and productions do you have available for public purchase on training or your background or life story?

Bas Rutten's Big Books of Combat (biggest book instructional in the world) My three DVD career set, Bas Ruttens Big DVD's of Combat (yep, biggest DVD instructional in the world), Lethal Street fighting DVD, Bas Ruttens MMA workout, (one DVD with 4 CD's), pretty much all the gear you need. Just pay a visit to: www.basrutten.com, and you will see what I have to offer.

Tell us about your training regime for kickboxing and MMA including your physical routines sparring and diet.

I only train 10 times a week, one hour each time. People think that it's not enough but look what I did. I make my body get used to throwing out a lot of energy in a short amount of time, just like in a fight. I don't believe in 2.5-hour workouts, not for me. Then again, I have fighters coming to me to train and they cannot even do the "warm up", so you can understand that my workouts are quite crazy.

I run hills, run "hills" on a tread mill, power training circuits, wrestling, striking, Thai pad training, and submissions. I do it all spread out over those 10 times. I cannot go into detail because I simply don't have the time, it's very long and detailed. I have many answers like this also on my website, I have there questions that people asked me in the past and I gave them the answer. You probably find there everything broken down.

One thing though, I train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday two times a day. Wednesday and Saturday I train one time a day and Sunday I am off.

Did you cross train with heavyweights and if so could you describe the exercises sets and repetitions as well as what weights you lifted in the various exercises?

This is what I did: Take 12 exercises, conditioning and power, mixed up the right way ("pushing then pulling", so not biceps and pull to the chest after another)

1. Push ups;
2. Jumping squats;
3. Biceps curls free weight;
4. Hitting a bag (3 hooks, 4 hooks, 5 hooks, 6 hooks, then back, 5 hooks, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc);
5. Kettle bell swings;
6. Sit ups;
7. Dips;
8. Sprawls;
9. Ground and pound on bag on ground;
10. Short sprints (10 yards back and forward);
11. Pull ups
12. Kneeing a kicking shield (somebody holds it).

Do them all for 30 seconds each, one after another, that would make a 6 round minute. Before a fight I would do 7 rounds of those, 4 times a week, no more because you will over-train, this is really hard on the body IF you give it 100%, so watch out. Find a weight for the kettle bell swings and biceps, that you can JUST do the 30 seconds with, if you can do more, take more weight.

Write down what you did every day and every week you set higher goals, more repetitions and more weight.

Were you a good runner and how much roadwork sprints and hill work did you do preparing for fights?

I was a good runner; I did 17 minutes flat on the 5K. I did this really hard treadmill exercise; don't do this too many times a week. I would warm up for 10 minutes on 11Mph, after that I would let the treadmill run but I would stretch even more than I did before I jumped on. Then put the incline all the way up, lower the speed to 9Mph and then I would look at the clock, begin with a nice round number it's easier for you. Now you jump on for 45 seconds and off for 30, repeat till you can't anymore and then you twist it around, 30 seconds on, and 45 seconds off. I used to do 10 rounds of 45 on and 30 off. This is not only good for your stamina, it's also a "mind breaker", very tough!

Do you consider yourself more of a stand up fighter or grappler?

Both, I am very proud of my record, not many fighters have that, in fact, a month ago I was called the number 1 fighter in History with his record, wins and how.

From my 28 wins, only three went the distance, 12 KO's and 13 submissions. Any kind of KO, low kicks, knee to plexus, liver punch, liver kick, knee to the liver, knee to head, kick to head, punches to the head, you name it. Also the submissions are all different, heel hook, toe hold, knee bar, figure 4 arm bar, straight arm bar, triangle choke, Kimura arm bar, man, I can go on.

Normally fighters can do only one thing, like ground and pound, or only ground fighting, or only KO people to the head. I have a whole plethora of techniques that I actually used in MMA, whatever mistakes my opponent makes, and I take it.

What were your strengths that gave you an edge in tough fights?

First of all, the most important, I make sure that I am always in great shape, if in the fight I get hurt, I only want to hurt my opponent back more, I simply don't quit. I rather get KO'd then I would tap on strikes. On submissions I would tap though, I like to fight the next month, when you don't tap and break an arm, you are stupid because you can't make money with another fight, when I see my opponent getting tired, I turn it up. Simply don't quit is the best one, I have been SO tired sometimes thinking "My God, what am I going to do?" but you can't tell on the outside, I have a great way of camouflaging it, and even then, I would still win, haha!

Godspeed and party on!
Bas