Bas On Couture, P4P Best Today, Tons More [Pt. 3]

By Luis Cruz

The following is our third and final installment of our exclusive interview with MMA legend Bas Rutten. The interview was conducted by Luis Cruz of MMANews.com on March 14, 2007.

BAS RUTTEN INTERVIEW - PART THREE

Luis Cruz of MMANews.com: Alright we'll leave Jerry ...or Gary Millen alone now. Moving on. In your career as a fighter, what was your biggest accomplishment or just your favorite moment?

Bas Rutten: Hmmm. One of my favorite moments was my rematch against [Masakatsu] Funaki because he beat me the first time and I had him the second time so that was really cool. And of course when I got the King of Pancrase title. Oh and that's another thing! Frank [Shamrock] said that he was King of Pancrase. That's another lie - he was never the King of Pancrase. He was a temporary King of Pancrase. I couldn't defend my title so they had to make something up. They thought "what are we gonna do?" and then thought "oh I know what [are] we gonna do, we [are] gonna let the number one and two guys fight." So you have the champion, Bas - and then number one and two which is [Minoru] Suzuki and Frank [Shamrock] fighting for the temporary King of Pancrase title. This was a different belt with a different stone in it and then the winner of that temporary King of Pancrase is gonna fight the real King of Pancrase, which was I, and then the winner of that is gonna be the King of Pancrase. So he never was King of Pancrase.

MMANews.com: [laughs]

Bas Rutten: See, that's another one!

MMANews.com: So he was kind of like what would be called today an interim champion?

Bas Rutten: That was it. Absolutely.

MMANews.com: Alright now obviously Randy Couture just regained the [UFC] Heavyweight title, in dominant fashion. What was your thoughts on that, being a friend of Couture's?

Bas Rutten: Oh yeah it was very dominant fashion. Now listen. Randy's a very focused guy and what he wants - he's gonna get it. I gotta say though on the other side, Tim [Sylvia] didn't do anything. People say what did he throw? Well let's think about it. Against a guy like Randy Couture, what Randy does is pressuring the fight. Putting you backwards, putting you backwards. So for a guy like Tim, it's gonna be hard to do something if somebody is pushing you backwards the whole time. So Randy's game plan was top-notch and now the big task is gonna come now against [Mirko] CroCop, of course. But I think he should do exactly the same though. Push the fight so that CroCop can not take that left kick off.

MMANews.com: Do you think Randy could actually pull that off?

Bas Rutten: It's gonna be a very hard one to pull off. That's one thing for sure. But you know what? Randy surprises me many times, right?

MMANews.com: Absolutely.

Bas Rutten: And everytime he does it again [laughs]. So you gotta give him that man.

MMANews.com: Yeah I will never say never for a Randy fight ever again.

Bas Rutten: Yeah, I know. Absolutely.

MMANews.com: Let's say you were healthy. Would you ...I know you guys are friends, but I think he [Couture] said he would fight his friends. Would you fight him if the money was right and you were healthy?

Bas Rutten: Yeah. You know it's ...I fought friends before. It's a game, it's still a game you know? If you wanna be a champion and your friend is the champion, well your gonna fight him right? But thank god I don't have to make that decision because I can't fight anymore. HA!

MMANews.com: [laughs] Now you've dabbled in acting here and there. Would you ever consider a full-time career in that field if the opportunity arose?

Bas Rutten: You know what? I'm very fortunate with the IFL. I'm gonna be hosting their new show with Tiffany Fallon, Monday nights and they told me to be totally Bas. So I said: "no this, no that, no leashes. I could do whatever I want?" and they said, "yes, that's why we want you to do it." That's one reason I wanted to do it and I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with the Battleground show. I'm gonna invite the people at home to the fighters' homes. I'm gonna give them an inside look at what the backstage is all about. It's gonna be all about the fighters and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to this. From there, a lot of people saw some comedies I've done so there's a lot of offers right now for when the IFL is done. But for now, I think one thing at a time and I want to fully concentrate on this IFL "Battleground" and I want to make that the best show possible.

MMANews.com: Definitely looking forward to you hosting this show because you do bring a great sense of comedy with knowledge. I was looking forward to you hosting on the premiere and kept waiting for you after commercials but you never showed up.

Bas Rutten: Well I need some time also with my team of course. Because, well, we gotta fight. So I believe that maybe the next show they gonna show us in our rematch against the Silverbacks. That's what I believe, I could be wrong. Then from that point on, I believe I'm gonna be hosting the show.

MMANews.com: Who are the number one and number two pound for pound fighters in the sport right now in your opinion? I say number one and two because usually number one is the same for everybody's list.

Bas Rutten: Yeah, right now it is so difficult to say but let me talk about technical wise. Don't let me talk about champions. I will say who's the most well-rounded fighter - let's talk about that.

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