Bas Rutten, the host of Inside MMA, UFC Hall of Famer, former UFC Heavyweight Champion, former Pride FC announcer, and overall MMA legend, joined the folks at Submission Radio (embedded above) for a new interview. Among the topics covered was the latest goings on with his protege, Duane “Bang” Ludwig, who has a black belt in Rutten’s combat system and recently had another public spat with Urijah Faber.
To me it’s not true. That’s what I think. Ask any person, ask any other fighter on the planet what they think of Duane, and I don’t think one person will say he’s a disrespectful guy. You know, when he said “oh he’s a racist with black guys”, [that’s] the furthest away from the truth. What happened in that situation – and he does these things for fun, and that’s kind of a Dutch insane humour that he has – but he does it right in front of the guy. So like there’s 40 people and there’s one black guy, and he says “ok, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to stand in the back”. And then everybody starts laughing. That’s the joke. And then this guy starts laughing because it’s fun. We don’t…he’s not making a…you know, it’s a fun thing. He tries to crack a laugh, and everybody will understand, including that person. And [for Urijah Faber] to use that example, I go, come on man. I mean everybody who was there at the seminar knew that is absolutely not true.
[Duane] will do that with anybody. If it’s the other way around, if there’s only black guys and there’s one white guy, then he says to the white guy “hey, you gotta stand in the back of the line”. He’s doing it with everybody. So it’s just his way of humour and being funny. But if he would do it secretly and say “oh, you know that guy, I rather have him standing in the back”, but he’s not. He’s making a joke out of it. So I asked everybody at [Inside MMA] – Cain Velasquez’s coach, Javier Mendes. He was on our show and we were talking about it. I said “what do you think of Duane?”. And he said “that is the nicest gentleman I’ve ever seen in my life”. I said “see”. That’s why I’m going – then I started asking every fighter, and everybody has the same words. So I don’t believe it. I know Duane too well. He’s just a really good guy.
As for Faber’s claim that Ludwig won’t train female fighters:
What he says, it’s not like he doesn’t like women fighting. He thinks it’s unnatural when women get hit in the face. He doesn’t like to see that. That’s his thing. It’s not like he has anything against their techniques or anyone. Like Rousey, he talks always great about Rousey and about great women fighters, but he says “to me it feels unnatural when I see a women get beat in the face”. You know?
I think also he was on the show with Brendan Schaub ‘The Fighter and the Kid’, and they were also talking about the fact, when you see Cyborg for the first time against Gina Carano, you know, yeah you can kind of understand, okay that is…it’s a weird picture. But these women choose for it and they want to do it, so it’s all good. He just says that [he doesn’t like seeing women get hit in the face]. He doesn’t say anything about the technique or the women or about being bad. No. He just says ‘I thought it was unnatural when a woman gets punched hard in the face’.
Finally, what does he think of T.J. Dillashaw, Ludwig’s star pupil, leaving Team Alpha Male for Elevation Fight Team?
Well yeah, he did it last time as well. He went to Duane also, to train with Duane. I think they just…there’s a connection. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that something like that happens, when a coach really clicks with a fighter, and instantly when they meet, he changes them completely as a fighter, as a striker – and of course he had the great wrestling and submissions already. All that from the Team Alpha Male guys – but then to tie everything together, that was Duane. He came, and suddenly, boom, they changed. All the numbers went up from everybody over there, and he just thought, “okay listen, I became a world champion with Duane on my side”, so he chooses Duane.
I think it’s a logic thing. Never break a winning combination, guys. That’s the one thing I said. In my entire life, I always did my same workouts, my same stretches. And everybody was bored. They said “dude, you’ve been doing the same stretch for the last 15 years”. I’d say “guess what? I never had an injury when I did these stretches, so why would I change it?”. Because then there might be a possibility I’m gonna get an injury”. So as long as it works, you never wanna change it.
In the full interview, Rutten also talks about Jon Jones and the return of Fedor Emelianenko, so make sure to listen to it.
