by Ron Merrill

Therere worse ways to spend your Saturday afternoon than calling up mixed martial arts legend, Bas Rutten and shooting the breeze about nothing in particular. I started things off by asking Bas about his recent appearances.

Bas Rutten: I went to Frank Shamrocks ShootBox event. That was a good event. I like the ring also. Its special. Its like a pit kind of, really a cool design.

IF: I got a chance to check that out on his website. It was pretty interesting. I was wondering if they were going to have a problem in the future with people following up on that design.
BR: Yeah, I know. But he already took care of that. I told him right away, I said, man youve gotta trademark this thing, and he said, I already did. So

IF: So tell me a little bit about the movie.
BR: Its an action movie, you know. Its the way to start for me and its a good part. Eight people get dropped on an island by eight rich people who put them there who think that their contestant is the strongest guy. And theyre gonna play a game with them during the night theyre gonna get hunted and the guy whos gonna win gets ten million dollars. Of course, theres also criminals involved as well. And the contestants, theyre gonna try to kill each other during the day too.

IF: Now is this the same movie that we saw a clip of during the last Pride FC event?
BR: Yeah. But the clip you guys saw was like totally unedited, un-color corrected or nothing. What happened was, they called one day to the editing room that they needed some stuff, and they needed it really fast, so they send them some raw material. The film will look much better.

IF: So do you have a main part? Are you one of the eight guys?
BR: Yes. I am the guy who is left standing. How do you say that? The last man standing. I break everything down and @#$%^# up the whole place.

IF: Are there any other professional fighters in the film?
BR: Yeah, I put Marco Ruas in it. I have a good fight scene with him.

IF: So hes also one of the eight guys?
BR: Yes.

IF: Bas, I have a very, very important question for you.
BR: Okay?

IF: I want to know what is in the shot glasses on the Pride FC telecasts.
BR: Ohhh, yeah, yeah. It was tea. Yeah. [laughs]

IF: Do you mean to tell me that you cant sit down and drink a dozen shots of Tequila in a row?
BR: I can do it easily. I drink only double or triple shots of Tequila normally. I could do it easily. But you know what? After, I thinkif you miss a few lines and you have to redo a few things and you have twenty shots of Tequila, I dont think the audience is going to enjoy it as much. I dont think it would look good. [laughter] Once I step into Japan, theres no drinking for Bas Rutten until after the fights, I will drink a couple beers. As of the last eight shows or so, I dont even go out anymore. I go to bed right away. Ive had my turn.

IF: Are you getting too old?
BR: No, its too many good things happening for me and I dont want to mess it up by doing the wrong things.

IF: Well, even if you mess up a couple lines during the filming and youre just drinking tea, you could still be running to the bathroom quite a bit.
BR: Yeah, with the Tequila thats okay, but Im used to doing it without running to the bathroom. And probably the lines would be more funny also.

IF: What about the beer during the telecasts?
BR: Oh, what they do is I will drink maybe 3 or 4 sips and every time they refill it they stir it up. They stir it up with like a spoon or something so it foams again. Then they get a new glass and you wont actually drink it. But listen, they wont tell me not to, so its not like because they say not to. Its just a rule that I made for myself. Im still from Holland and I still have a lot of things to translate in my head. And if Im drinking the day before, it just goes a little bit slower in my head. In the broadcast that might ruin everything.

IF: Do you still talk to Stephen Quadros once in awhile?
BR: Yes I do.

IF: He had a small part in Cradle To The Grave. Do you ever tease him about the size of his role compared to the size of yours?
BR: Yeah, but then again, that movie went right away to the big screen. And this one, theyre gonna try but its probably gonna go to HBO or Showtime. Overseas in Japan theyre probably gonna put it on the big screen. Its a building thing, you know? Ive got the next movie coming out. Ive got two movies coming up this year, for the end of the year. And theyre all like leads or costars.

IF: What else have you got going on besides the movies?
BR: Um? The website of course. Its up. Im just sitting here finally finishing up my Pay Pal accounts so that people can start buying online. We have really nice t-shirts with the Rutten Jump logo with some country-writing underneath. We have the El Guapo shirts that are out. And about next week Im gonna finish up the DVDs. There are two DVDs coming out with all my fights on it. All my Pancrase fights too, so yes, also the fights that I lost. Normally people dont put them on but I think for everybody its a learning process.

IF: So youre getting ready for the Pride FC Bushido event?
BR: Yes, yes. Im going to it with Mark Broadway. This is a different broadcaster. Its Mark Ranalo actually, thats his real name. We call him for fun, Mark Broadway. And hes gonna be the play-by-play guy for this show and Im gonna do the color.

IF: Is he going to be with you on all future events or is this a one-time deal?
BR: I think hes gonna beif he does a good job, I think theyre gonna use him for the Bushido events.

IF: We learned from sources close to Zuffa that the UFC was dropping its Lightweight division, so that should send some fighters over to Pride FC.
BR: Oh yeah. Especially to the Bushido show now. They will probably go over to Japan with the new show.

IF: That would be very big for Pride.
BR: I think so too. I mean, its the Saitama Super Arena, man. Its 35,000 people. Last time we filled it. There was 40,000, the maximum that could get in there.

IF: Why havent we seen a show back in the 90,000-seat Coliseum?
BR: I dont know. Its an open-air thing and in Japan you have the seasons and maybe they are going to do it again, you know? Its a little risky. You have the rain season and the humidity and everything. For a fighter its just better to fight in air-conditioned spaces I guess. [laughter]

IF: Are you training still? Are you trying to stay in shape?
BR: I started training after six months again. I didnt want to train for six months because I have this defect in my head. That means that if I do something I do it 100%, and when I do conditioning again Im like a wild guy, you know? I go all the way and then my face gets too slim. And I didnt want that for the movie. I wanted to make sure that I looked better on film. Not physically, but just my face, more relaxed. Otherwise I train too hard. I get that marathon look.

F: But no more professional fighting?
BR: No. I dont want to take any risks. Theres so many things going on, you cannot believe. These two movies are just the beginning and theres a lot of things happening now for me.

IF: Anything you care to talk about?
BR: No, I really dont want to elaborate any more. Lets just see whats gonna happen for now with this. But theres a lot more things coming. Also things for TV. I dont know, man. Its sudden. It came out of the blue with me and suddenly the ball started rolling. Its difficult because I did the seminars in-between, I go to Japan for the Bushido show and then I got the new Pride show November 9th and in-between I got to travel and travel. I gotta be in Florida for three weeks with a shoot. From there I gotta go to Japan, then I gotta get back here right away then I start filming again. Its out of control.

IF: Well I just wanted to tell you that I think its really terrific how you manage to stay in touch with your fans on the message boards.
BR: Yeah, I try to do that as much as I can. And now I did a super smart thing. From now on for the last while I copy/paste all the questions and answers that I give and I put them in a Word program and Im gonna later put them on my website. Because a lot of times the same question comes up, so then they can actually go to the questions from the website.

IF: Also, that way you can keep from being misquoted.
BR: Yeah, also that happens a lot too. Yeah.

IF: Before we go, do you have anything youd like to say to your fans?
BR: Man, I love my fans. Its crazy to see how the whole El Guapo thing is growing. I cant even leave the place anymore. [laughs] Its a lot of fun. Obviously everybody loves the commentating, because I get a lot of compliments about it. Everybody talks about it and they think its funny and Im having a blast with them. You know? Lets face it, every fighter who says, oh, I only fight for myself, is a liar. You fight for the fans too, you know. Thats why you fight, for recognition in the world. As you can see everything really worked out for me, a guy from Holland living in America, you know, the American dream. When I was a kid I wanted to live in America. Now, through fighting, I could go to America, I got my green card, my first American child because she was born here. Its a dream come true, man.

IF: Well congratulations on all of your success, Bas. We look forward to seeing you at future Pride FC events.
BR: All right! Thank you!

On behalf of InsideFighting.com, Id like to thank Bas Rutten for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak with me. You can check out all the newest Bas Rutten gear at BasRutten.tv !

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