Ha- I will spill the beans this is a book
I think we are back in Feb - shooting Overeem Fedor and Sergui so I will
find out then.
here is a run down of the conversation.
I say something like I will admit to being a fan, and Josh is like “of bagels”
and we talked about what the tournament format meant for ‘fans’
then we talked about wrestling- that when I was in college and shortly after I heard
very vague rumors about this MMA thing.
That at the Olmpic training center - all the back in 1992 some people where already talking about it.
I mentioned that I went to school for a year with Mark Kerr, and that he got involved early on- but fizzled out and how sad that was…
Josh asked if this was at Syracuse, and we spoke about that.
where did I go to D3 , camps, what clubs where like then
talking about early shows he told me that people used to go to world team trials and scout the guys who lost
and offer them gigs overseas in brazil or Japan for Vale tudo fights
or how bleak it might look to an NCAA guy getting out of school who was say an all american,
and what kind of job was he going to get and how depressing that can be.
or after the olympics what kind of debts you might have or your family for
helping you with training for so many years.
we talked allot about that- how your broke and how appealing this might be
and how slimy some of the early promoters even Pride where- as far as
getting you onboard, not revealing all of the info that they could
trying to not pay or underpay people
and really preyed on people who needed money
then we talked about Greco- and how Greco seems to be better for MMA but he felt its not always true
- except in the cage- but he felt that is more about refereeing then anything else
but he said that most takedowns are very basic- cause they work.
He said that Couture , only uses doubles Singles, and an inside trips,very little pummeling and no throws
yet has taken down everyone.
he felt it did not take allot to take some or most down
-that its about timing -
learning the other guys timing.
then we talked about Henderson, I said I knew him a little from OTC this part is good
" its so crazy watching Dan Henderson fight and not ever wrestle"
"he got taken down in almost every fight’
that was kind of funny- but he wasn’t being a dick about it… he was impressed that Hendo felt he hardly needed his wrestling
‘you got to wonder what kind of collegiate career he had, and then went to the olympics twice, twice!
and then he never wrestles in his fights’
that was kind of eye opening that he was very candid- but then went on to praise him and say then
rolling with Hendo is freaky
but was super surprised that he just never used his wrestling like he may have.
we agreed that is was sad that a university cuts a program like wrestling, and what that means for wrestling
in the next ten years or so for this country…
Title IX was passed in the early 90’s about how universities sports funding needed to be equally split among mens and womens athletics, and it impacted wrestling very hard, its not that simple but that is the jist.
we talked about how archaic training was then what we did in HS what I did in college,
spoke allot about weight cutting- and he was curious how some of my coaches felt about it
that some where very opposed and most where very pro cutting
if you won
he admitted to never having to deal with that, having been a heavyweight or close to it since the age of 19.
he said he did not start wrestling til his freshmen year of HS and sadly by college where he went no longer had a team
and that MMA was a natural extension of football, wrestling etc.
He talked about charity
how lots of his friends talked about if I ever won lotto or mega millions what they would do
what kind of research charity they would start.
and he said he would bring back wrestling and how someone needs to get on that-
getting wrestling back at the big schools and small schools that dropped it
we talked about other stuff-
like that today’s shoot- flying on a plane - stopping what your doing for your agent, manager promoter or whomever kind of sucked but you had to except it
that interviews, press stuff, photos, conferences all that shit that takes you away from a camp or a fight
is more important than your actual training that the business of it is tedious but a far far bigger part then
most of the players felt.
we talked allot.
