FanHouse BasRutten

At the April 11 Strikeforce MMA event, Benji Radach lost to Scott Smith by third-round TKO, and he wasn't happy about it. Radach said later that he believes Smith gained an advantage by grabbing the cage in the second round and by hitting him in the back of the head in the third, and that the referee robbed him of the fight.

Radach now says he's going to appeal the fight to the California State Athletic Commission, and try to get his loss overturned. But he's going to have a hard time convincing the commission to take such an extreme action -- especially considering that he hasn't even convinced his own cornerman, Bas Rutten, who said on HDNet's Inside MMA that he doesn't see Radach winning the appeal.

Back in the old days of mixed martial arts, Bas Rutten was the first to effectively demonstrate what everyone who follows MMA now knows: You can incapacitate an opponent by giving him a hard shot to the liver. But is Rutten's liver shot the best move in the history of MMA?

Bas Rutten's whole life has revolved around fighting, from being a teenager in the Netherlands who loved Bruce Lee movies to becoming UFC heavyweight champion, from working as a trainer for fighters like Kimbo Slice to working as an MMA commentator all over the world.

But it's a six-minute self-defense video (above) that may be Rutten's greatest legacy. With millions of viewers the video has taken on a life of its own, causing Rutten to be recognized on the street and parodied on comedy shows.

When I interviewed Rutten on Monday, we discussed issues ranging from his own MMA career to the reasons he says he would never train Kimbo again, even if someone offered him $1 million. But we started with that YouTube video.

During the HDNet broadcast of today's Affliction: Day of Reckoning weigh-in, the retired MMA star turned announcer Bas Rutten had some choice words for M-1 Global executive Jerry Millen.

After Millen introduced Fedor Emelianenko, the camera lingered on him, and Rutten (who may or may not have known that his microphone was on) could be heard saying, "That's the a**hole. Oh, did I just say this on TV?"

Rutten and Millen worked together in Pride and have a long history of animosity, with Rutten claiming, among other things, that Millen knows nothing about MMA. If there's any down time during Saturday night's show, I'd love to see Rutten and Millen step into the ring together.

UPDATE: Interestingly, when HDNet re-played the weigh-in on Saturday, Rutten's comment stayed on the broadcast and was not bleeped out.

As regular readers know, I don't have much respect for Kimbo Slice as an MMA fighter. But I do have a lot of respect for Bas Rutten as a fighter, trainer and commentator, and I was interested in some of the complimentary comments that Rutten had for Kimbo on this week's edition of HDNet's Inside MMA.

A segment of the show included a question from a viewer asking Rutten to name the best fighters he's trained. Rutten mentioned several, including Kimbo, whom he has consistently praised for his natural ability as a striker and his hard work and dedication to improving his craft.

"I think Kimbo's striking really came together," Rutten said. "His boxing got better and better."

There's something so lovable about Bas Rutten. He was one of the best mixed martial arts fighters of the 1990s and who can instantly move between an intense stare and a mischievous grin.

At least, that's his persona on television. Is he like that in real life, too? I asked Duane Ludwig, the Strikeforce fighter who has trained with Rutten, what the real Bas is like.

"You ever seen a Jack Russell Terrier dog, how intense those things are?" Ludwig said. "He's the human version of that. He's so intense, and he goes and he goes and he's so energetic. He gets you in shape. He's an intense individual who knows the game, knows the right way to train every fighter, he recognizes that there isn't one style for everybody and will find the best style for you."

Right now, Rutten is best known to casual fans for training Kimbo Slice. And a Jack Russell Terrier personality might be just the right thing to whip Kimbo into shape.

Bas Rutten is a legend in mixed martial arts, a former UFC heavyweight champion and King of Pancrase, and he's now one of the most respected trainers and commentators in MMA.

So for all the critics -- and there are many -- of EliteXC's street fighter-turned-MMA fighter, Kimbo Slice, the fact that Rutten is Kimbo's trainer is the one thing that gives Kimbo an air of respectability. And Rutten speaks very highly of Kimbo.

On a conference call to promote Kimbo's fight with Ken Shamrock next month, I asked Rutten whether Kimbo has the potential to be a top 10 heavyweight some day, and if so how long it will take.

"He's not far away," Rutten said. "I'd put him up against everybody."

We've previously noted the hilarious video that mixed martial arts legend Bas Rutten made in which he teaches people how to fight. Now the video has crossed over into the mainstream enough that MTV Live has spoofed it:

Pretty funny, but even funnier is Rutten's reaction to being spoofed, after the jump.

Bas Rutten is a legendary figure in mixed martial arts, a former UFC champion, and currently the trainer for Kimbo Slice.

Because of his affiliation with Kimbo, everyone wants to know what Rutten thinks about Kimbo's victory over James Thompson on Saturday night. Rutten answers with a post on his official web site, and although he mostly defends Kimbo, he says something shocking at the end: He actually thinks referee Dan Miragliotta should have stopped the fight and awarded it to Thompson late in the second round. Rutten writes:

People ask me if the fight should have been stopped at the end in the second round, I say YES because those are the rules, it should have been stopped because Kimbo didn't do anything to improve his situation. But I think what made the ref NOT do it was the fact that Kimbo was giving his thumbs up the whole time to let the referee know that he was OK.
This was the refs decission, not Kimbo's.

So Rutten believes Thompson should have been awarded the victory late in the second round. I disagree.

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson is nowhere near America's most accomplished mixed martial arts fighter, but he's one of the most famous, and depending on how things go in his network TV debut on CBS next month, he may soon be the most famous. A lot of other MMA fighters don't like that, and Slice's trainer, Bas Rutten, explains why in this video:

(Via MMA Junkie.) "You know why it is," Rutten said. "It's because every time all the fighters hear, 'What about Kimbo? What about Kimbo? What about Kimbo?'"