Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten on how to beat Ken Shamrock

Having fought Shamrock himself, which dates several years back—thirteen to be precise, he knows a thing or two about “The world’s most dangerous man”. This straight away gives Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Fergusson advantage over a legendary fore father of modern MMA, facing another obstacle which is father age.

Ken is now forty four and the only other man who is of a similar number and pulling power in MMA is Randy Couture, who has had a different, positive run of form and a legal wrangle on his hands.  

Tactically Shamrock is up against it, after having an unflattering few results over his last few fights. Five in fact—going back to when Rich Franklin TKO’d him via strikes on the first Ultimate fighter (TUF 1) finale; just recently to Robert Berry, another self styled “Brawler” from England.

Training and being at Slices side when this fight, which will probably break the record for most viewed in MMA history has an important role to play. Rutten is pretty much the think tank behind Slice and his game plan.

Kimbo must eventually fight but tactics, planning and executing them all in theory will be Bas's job and that’s where the modern day Yul Bryner will come in.

Bas took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to catch up with roguemag.com to share some insightful thoughts…  

Q. So Bas, You are now one of the best MMA coaches around- before a fight do you get someone like Kimbo to relax, joke around or is it all very serious?

A. Relax, that’s the most important thing, we are also cracking jokes. Not a lot of anger in my dressing room before a fight, it’s all about controlling that anger and let it out at the right time.
 
Q. Kimbo has a “date” with Ken Shamrock, who used to “love” Tito Ortiz—will you guys be using similar tactics to unsettle Ken? Will he feel the “love”?

A. No, Ken is always angry before a fight, he told us that on our TV show “Inside MMA”, he says he needs that. With Kimbo that’s not the case. Fighting plans will be totally different than when Ken fought Tito. Tito wants to get his opponents on the ground and rub elbows in their faces; he’s very effective with that. With Kimbo we want to stay away from the ground of course, Ken has about 20 years more experience there, so why go there?
 
Q. You are expecting Ken to come out with a submission and ground strategy, is Kimbo with you in the corner, up to it and can he counter that?

A. People who say that I have no submissions because I lost to ken are not the smartest around. I mean, with thinking like that they would also say that Anderson Silva has no ground game, I mean, he lost to Ryo Chonan by a heel hook, see what I mean? It makes no sense, and Anderson Silva already had a black belt when he fought Chonan. If you look at my record you see that after that loss against Ken I never lost again, I beat guys by submission that Ken lost to. I actually won my next 8 fights (after that loss) by way of submission, in my total record I won more fights by submission than by KO. With all this said, OF COURSE we prepare Kimbo for everything.
 
Q. The strategy is a Knock Out—is it realistic to KO someone like Shamrock who also knows a thing or two about Knocking people out?

A. Of course, for some reason Ken hasn’t been doing well lately and lost his last five fights all by KO or TKO. It’s very hard for a fighter to come back after a KO or TKO, I can’t imagine five! So Ken definitely wants to take this fight to the ground but of course we never underestimate his punching ability.
 
Q. As you know there are a lot of critics to Kimbo, what is your one answer to silence them both in and out of the cage?

Give me ONE other name that fights on this level against guys like he did? First fight against Mercer who was a World Champion, he outstroke him on his feet and guillotine choked him, then he fights a guy with 20 fights under his belt, Bo Cantrel, beats him in 19 seconds, next he fights Tank who had 22 fights under his belt, KO’s him in 43 seconds, then he fights James Thompson who had 22 fights under his belt, who beat Yoshida (who went the distance with Wanderlei Silva) and he beat Don Frye by KO.

Then saying that he avoids big names? He fights guys who have 20 or more fights than him and he NEVER had even one MMA fight, I think that’s pretty good and again, give me another guy who did that. And this is with only ONE year of training! Just name me one guy.
 
Q. Mark Hunt, who is a big reader of roguemag.com and a similar style as Kimbo with his hands, he has expressed interest in fighting Kimbo—what a match that would be, maybe sometime later on? Don’t forget the cartoon fight on the net…

A. That would be a great fight, Mark Hunt is a monster, I like him outside the ring as well, great and funny guy.
 
Q. Coming back to the Ken Shamrock fight and Kimbo, does Kimbo train a lot for submissions or should I say will he train to counter for this fight?

It’s pretty easy to predict what will happen; Ken wants this on the ground and will go for leg locks. Of course we will train for that, but of course we train also to keep the fight OFF the ground and if it DOES go to the ground, we don’t only train for the defence of leg locks, trust me.
 
Q. Your honest opinion—you see Kimbo finishing Shamrock with a KO, high light reel style and getting one step closer to his next goal, which is? Any hint of an opponent for us…

A. I see Kimbo winning this fight by KO, but… Ken is a great fighter and has been not so lucky lately, but there is one thing you can never do and that is to count Ken Shamrock out, he is always dangerous!
 
Q. What is your main motivation to be with a guy like Kimbo Slice—can you see him being the ultimate champion in the future?

A. Let him get his fights in first, just like any other fighter and after he had a bunch of those we are going to think about high level fighters, what I, WE, are doing is what every good coach should do, feed him opponents so he can get used to the game. Remember that they put Kimbo in the main event the whole time, he doesn’t ask for that; they (promoters) decide that. As a fighter I can tell you that is a lot of pressure. But it’s how it is so we better get used to it.
 
Q. Maybe Mark Hunt will get to fight Kimbo—we are more than happy to help and set up the fight, do you think in the future it could happen?

A. Lets see what happens first, but again, it would be a great fight, are you his manager? (Gentle laughter)
 
Q. Maybe you and Kimbo can get into pro wrestling; it would be a most marketable tag team?

A. It would be the best team ever, Kimbo is a great guy, when you meet him you will be blown away with how down to earth he is, and I truly respect him. Many other fighters would think they are the KING if they would experience what Kimbo does, Kimbo just stays the guy like he was/is, and that’s a great guy.
 
Q. Do ladies dig your bald head? Any tips for us baldies?
A. Yes they do, but I am also extremely good looking, and that has something to do with it also, haha, no, I think that ladies like “tough guys” in general, and if you ad a little bit of comedy (real comedy. Not the made up stuff) then you are good to go.
 
Q. Does Dana White and you use the same kind of Razor to shave yours heads?

A. I have no clue, I use head blade, if you are bald, try that out, you’ll love it! Also their shaving cream is great!
 
Q. You guys are tailor made for a movie, like international Samaritans hunting down bad guys—maybe get Gina Carano to be your hot assistant and maybe a movie in the pipeline?

A. You never know, I came to America to be in entertainment. I am doing that already, I host a weekly MMA TV show, “Inside MMA”: and other MMA fight shows that HD NET puts on, like Dream and now also the new Affliction show I will be commentating. So I am already entertaining people, movies are great, but it has to be the right part for me. Right now I am happy, again, entertaining is the stuff I like to do, doesn’t really matter to me in what format that comes, as long as I have fun doing it.
 
Q. Any final thoughts Bas?

A. To all MMA fans Keep supporting Kimbo and team Slice, oh yeah—keep reading roguemag.com you got to love it, have fun and Party on!
 
 
 Pictures courtsey of Getty (c)