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Legends of the Cage: Bas Rutten
30 Jun 2010
By Ben Cartlidge
To be described as the funniest man in MMA somehow doesn’t seem to sit right. It seems to be on a par with most honest politician as far as unlikely accolades go. In the most physical of combat sports there would appear to be little time for a comedian. Bas Rutten may have been a joker outside the ring, but he was a killer inside it. A UFC champion and multiple time King of Pancrase, Rutten’s achievements and influence in the evolution of the sport can never be underestimated.
Sebastiaan “Bas” Rutten was born in Tilberg, a small city in the Netherlands, on February 24th 1965. He showed a lot of interest in sport growing up but it wasn’t until he sneaked into a cinema to watch Enter the Dragon that his love affair with martial arts began. Rutten was allowed to train Taekwondo originally by his parents but this soon stopped following a confrontation in the street where Bas would break another boy’s nose. He would manage to convince them to allow him to continue training and it soon paid dividends. Rutten earned a black belt in Taekwondo and then went on to repeat the feat in Kyokushin Karate. Bas was a legendary hard worker in the gym and was constantly travelling to find different people to train with and different styles to adapt. It was this willingness to learn new skills that would shape his evolution as a fighter over his career.
At the age of 20 he began competing in Thai boxing and his talents quickly became very apparent. Rutten would fight 15 fights and only lose once in that time. All of his victories were knockouts and all occurred in the first round. The word about this Dutch destroyer was spreading quickly and it wasn’t long before he received a call from a bigger organisation.
Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling was a new promotion but would go on to play a huge part in the development of modern mixed martial arts. Pancrase was started by Japanese Pro Wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki and was advertised as hybrid wrestling. Pancrase combined submission fighting with striking and can be seen as one of the first respected mixed martial arts organisations. Rutten was an obvious choice to take up the challenge as his hard hitting style would go on to be fantastically well received by the Japanese public. In his first ever fight for the new organisation Rutten made clear his intentions by defeating favourite Ryushi Yanagisawa in just 43 seconds. His piston like right straight, which would go on to be a trademark, was the key factor in the fight as even with open hand striking he was still able to shatter his opponent’s nose. Rutten was overjoyed by this display and in victory did a celebratory mid air splits kick which would go on to be christened “The Rutten Jump.”
It would be Rutten’s lack of submission grappling that would cost him over the next few fights as he lost fights to Masakatsu Funaki and MMA legend Ken Shamrock. These losses made Rutten change the way he trained and the fighters that he trained with. Over the next few years he would go on to become an undisputed King of Pancrase and avenge his loss to Frank Shamrock. It would be at the 1996 Pancrase Anniversary Show that Bas would get a chance to avenge another defeat and put on one of his most memorable performances.
Masakatsu Funaki had handed Rutten his first defeat in Pancrase with a painful toehold. Bas fought like the predator he was but only minutes into the fight Funaki kicked him in the head while he was down. It was an illegal strike and it infuriated Bas who set about destroying his opponent with ruthless intentions. Bas hit Funaki with so many palm strikes that after the fight his hands were black and bruised from the punishment he had inflicted but we could not force his foe to quit. Rutten downed Funaki on four separate occasions and broke his cheekbone and also his nose. In a scene reminiscent of when Rocky Balboa knocks out Clubber Lang, Rutten stayed on his dazed foe landing shot after shot until he was able to halt the proceedings with a huge knee. Bas Rutten was undeniably the biggest European star in Pancrase and his loss to Ken Shamrock in 1995 would be the last one in a career that would span another nine years.
Following on from a successful string of wins in Pancrase, Bas made the move to fight in America for the UFC. The UFC still had a poor reputation at this time due to its anarchic promos and limited rules but by the time that Rutten joined the ranks things were changing. The UFC now had rudimentary weight classes and more regulations and Bas would make his debut against Rings veteran Tsuyoshi ”TK” Kosaka. UFC 18 was part of a makeshift elimination tournament for the Heavyweight belt which had been vacated by Randy Couture. Rutten would struggle early on to deal with his foe as he was taken down and looked to survive. It was a testament to the durability and heart of Bas that he was able to overcome such odds and still look for his opportunity. It would come at the end of the first round as a flurry of punches and a swift knee would force a referee’s stoppage. Rutten had won his first fight in America and a new generation of fight fans were fast becoming acquainted with his back catalogue of carnage in Japan.
Rutten’s reward for his win would be a place in the finals of the tournament to determine the new heavyweight champion against Kevin Randleman. This fight was Bas’s chance to win a title in America and to put himself on the mixed martial arts map. Early going, however, wasn’t easy for Rutten as Randleman took him down and rained down some heavy shots which took their toll. Bas did well to survive the initial onslaught from his larger foe and it took a lot of heart to get him through some tough spots. It wasn’t until Bas managed to land with a weapon that he had become feared for that he was able to turn the tide. The liver kick had become synonymous with Bas and his fights in Japan and was a dehabilitating body assault that had won him many fights. Randleman buckled but still managed to take Bas down again but he was unable to land any meaningful shots whereas Rutten would land numerous elbows and punches from his back which would open up several cuts. In perhaps the best display of striking from the bottom in mixed martial arts history, Rutten was able to take a close decision and win the UFC Heavyweight belt. It would prove to be the last fight that Bas would have for a long time as he suffered a number of injuries in training, partly due to the Spartanesque way that he organised his camps.
Bas had been offered some work commentating for upcoming MMA promotion Pride FC and he jumped on the opportunity establishing one of the all time great commentary partnerships with Steven Quadros. Rutten’s enthusiasm for the sport that he had been so instrumental in shaping was obvious and some of his calls have gone on to become the soundtrack for the explosion of mixed martial arts.
As his profile grew around the world he was offered a lot of work from film and television producers. Rutten’s personality and humorous nature made him a natural for television work but his physical presence and persona made him the right fit for action roles.
Bas also did some work for the now defunct IFL as a team coach as his team the Anacondas were able to secure a 3-2 victory over the Silverbacks. This truly was a transitional period in the life of Bas Rutten as he relocated himself to California with his new wife Karin and began, once again, training with many different fighters. Bas had always been a fighter and the more he trained the more he realised this. His last fight had been in 1999 but it was clear that El Guapo, a nickname given to him by his first wife, still had another fight in him.
That fight would come in 2006 for the now collapsed WFA. The WFA was a midsized promotion that had recently expanded and signed up some of MMA’s more high profile free agents. Rutten was offered a fight with Kimo Leopoldo which he duly took and the world looked forward to the return of El Guapo. Leopoldo went on to fail a drugs test before the fight but the WFA found a replacement in Ruben “Warpath” Villareal, a former pro wrestler turned fighter. It was a vintage Bas Rutten that turned up that night in Los Angeles. He mixed up textbook straight punches with crippling body and leg kicks and in the end was able to chop his foe to the floor. Rutten would go on to win by TKO from these leg kicks but shortly afterwards he announced that he would not be fighting again. Years of hard fight preparations had finally taken their toll on Rutten who would go on to retire from active competition.
Bas Rutten would finish his MMA career with a record of 28-4-1 and with an impressive 22 fight unbeaten streak. The effect that Bas would have on mixed martial arts can never be overlooked. He was one of the first fighters to enter the UFC with fully rounded skills. One of the pioneers of cross training for mixed martial arts. Rutten was a devastating striker who worked hard to develop a formidable arsenal of submission weapons. He still remains one of the funniest personalities in the sport as a quick YouTube search of Bas Rutten Scarface or a quick read through some of his famous quotes will testify. He once said of Rickson Gracie, “Everyone says the only way to kill a lion is with a rear naked choke. I would just kick him in the head!” He also remains very active in the mixed martial arts community that he has contributed to so much towards throughout his career. Bas Rutten is a true legend in mixed martial arts and will always be remembered for his combination of decimation in the ring and cool wit outside it.
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