Rich Chou AMA

Underground
, , , ,
1

Gentleman

I have a Rich Chou interview tomorrow

  • will drop on the 18th

Here are my notes, nothing is off the table

We will be concentrating on his time at Rumble on the Rock while throwing in pivotal questions about things that took place while he worked at other organizations

Graduated from Pepperdine

  • communications and Business manager

Started BJJ in 1999
Rumble on the Rock
Elite XC

  • Gary Shaw promoter
  • Liked WMMA
    StrikeForce

Purebred Clothing line

  • w/ Enson Inoue

July 13 2002
Superbrawl 22
Rich Chou vs Nick Bradley L Dec
RC Grappling Unlimited

1st ROTR
Dec 18 2002
Main event
Joe Riggs vs Cabbage

Oct 10 2003
ROTR 4
Bj Penn vs Takanori Gomi
BJ making demands on UFC

  • this was his flex against the UFC
  • IMO changed the entire direction of the UFC biz practices
    TG 14-1 regarded as top 3 in world - L- Joachim Hanson

May 7 2004
ROTR 5
Matt Lindland vs Tony Fryklund
Ronald Jhun vs Ryan Schultz

Nov 20 2004
ROTR 6
Bj Penn vs Rodrigo Gracie
Royler Gracie vs Kazuyuki Miyata

Sean O’haire on undercard

  • one of MMA tragedies RIP 2014

May 7 2005
ROTR 7
Headline was supposed to be
Bj Penn vs Ralph Gracie
Why was it cancelled?

  • Ralph trained BJ in past, bad blood?

Rumble on the Rock 8
Jan 20 2006
4 man tournament

  • was this supposed to be a one day but changed over the illegal kick?
    Yushin Okami vs Anderson Silva
  • US debut of each fighter
  • YO w/ illegal kick
    Jake Shields vs Dave Menne
    JS W Dec

MAIN EVENT
Cabbage vs Butterbean

  • Cab made a bet that he would stand with Bean the entire fight - Bean called him a liar
  • At one point Bean took his mouthpiece out and spit out several teeth
  • Bean W-KO
  • INCREDIBLE FIGHT
  • Cabbage went 2-6 ROTR

April 21 2006
ROTR
USA vs Japan
4 man tournament
Jake Shields vs Y Okami Dec
Carlos Condit vs Frank Trigg

  • arm triangle
    Shields beat Condit Dec

Nov 10 2007
First major to sign Kimbo

  • negotiations?

June 14 2008
Elite XC
KJ Noons vs Yves Edwards

  • KJ :48 KO W
    Tee Jay Thompson leads Nick Diaz (and Nate) into octagon for the post fight
    “Don’t be scared Homie” is born and a giant riot took place.
  • attorney Jerry Lappen has n cage
  • RC got a lot of pushback for allowing a boxing clause in Nick Diaz contract

Sep 2009 moved to San Jose

Oct 2009 Strikeforce matchmaker

  • Assisted Bob Cook
  • Team consisted of Scott Coker, Shannon Knapp

June 26 2010
StrikeForce / M1 Global
Fabrecio Werdum vs Fedor
FW L by triangle 1RND 1:09

  • RC in attendance

May 2011 UFC purchases StrikeForce

  • let Rich Chou go
  • Late June 2011 StrikeForce signed Ronda Rousey to first major contract
  • who found her
  • Rumor that a big part of the UFC interest in SF was for RR’s contract
  • 3 Ammy fights (all under 1 minute)
  • 2 pro fights under 1 minute
  • StrikeForce was $40M in debt when the UFC purchased them

Nov 2 2013
Bellator
Tito vs rampage

  • Bellator’s first attempt at PPV - fight got cancelled
  • Conversations behind the scenes

July 15 2014 Rich Chou named Bellator match maker

  • replaced Sam Caplan
    Fighters like Pat Curran, Danial Strauss & the Pitbull brothers came in under SC and voiced concerns
  • how did he smooth that over?
  • Working / Departing with Zach Light (Mar 10 2016)
  • Came in after the Eddie Alvarez & Dave Herman contract negotiation issues

Nov 15 2014
Bellator 131
Tito Ortiz vs Stephanie Bonnar

  • announcer refused to let Bonnar handle the microphone
  • Justin McCully was in a pro wrestler mask (former Ortiz training partner) - uncomfortable to watch

June 19 2015
Bellator 138
Kimbo Slice vs Ken Shamrock

  • why was the fight moved from Florida to St Louis last minute

June 24 2017
Bellator NYC
Matt Mitrione vs Fedor
Negotiating w/Fedor

2021 April
Left Bellator match making after 6 years to be the president of Wimp to Warriors

StrikeForce
Fighters would complain about lack of activity

  • they had a larger roster than the number of events that they were doing
  • while working for StrikeForce he lived in Silicon Valley

2020 UK match maker came under fire from Paul Daley in regards to MVP fighting “cans”

  • PD was released by the org over the statements

Made
Nick Diaz vs Paul Daley
Robbie Lawler vs Melvin Manhoff

Worked with
Scott Coker
Kevin Kay - spike tv president
Erik Apple
Barret Yoshida
Andy Wang

Thoughts on
Joe Silva
Dana White
Shawn Shelby

7 Likes
2

Did you or your affiliates ask Elvis to post here the other day?

What plans do you have to get other fighters or former fighters to post here?

1 Like
3

Why did he “like” wmma?
Its 99% shit.

2 Likes
4

Does the carpet match the drapes?

1 Like
6

XcellenTTT

He can kick your ass too :slight_smile:

5 Likes
7

Seriously though, do you think this antitrust suit has any legs or is that just business as usual in America?

3 Likes
8
1 Like
9

image
image1220×813 160 KB

10

Has he ever thought about going by Dick Chou?

2 Likes
11

Not an OGer
IMG_5568

12

image
image1000×600 29.1 KB

1 Like
13

https://www.kuam.com/story/11270635/former-st-johns-star-hired-as-mma-matchmaker?clienttype=mobile&removecgbypass

In mixed martial arts news, Guam’s Richard Chou has been hired by Strike Force to be the first-ever official matchmaker. Chou, a former star for the St. John’s Knights in volleyball in the mid-90s, got his start in the business with Hawaii’s Rumble on the Rock and has been in the MMA game for about 10 years.

Chou has relocated from Hawaii to San Jose, California to assume his new position where he will be working with powerhouse television networks such as Showtime, CBS and ESPN.

Chou told KUAM Sports, “That just led to big and better things and it led to where I’m at today. It’s definitely been a grind, it’s a very tough business to be in.” Asked how he felt when he got the phone call, and what his job duties are, he said, “It was a real process to get on board with Strike Force, I worked three events as a consultant before eventually landing a full-time position, which at the moment is match maker for the organization and truthfully I never thought I would be working for them, but it all just came together. I guess my experience and my relationships that I have established throughout my career really came into play here and I’m just really grateful for the opportunity.”

He also endorsed the potential of Guam’s fighters making it on the big stage, saying, "That’s something on a personal level that I’ve always wanted to do and pave the way for one of the boys back home to get some national TV exposure and move up to the big show, there’s been a few occasions where we had a opportunity to have given someone a shot, but things didn’t fall through, but we are not going to give up, that’s for sure.

“I’m in touch with all the local promoters on Guam and most of the fights camps over there. I think it’s only a matter of time, but there is definitely a lot of talent over there, so we are going to keep working at it.”

14

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNyQf6DpN6Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=247484a8-26ac-4df6-bc7d-2c2b3c72f5fb

15

Here is the thing

He is here, he is now the owner of this place

  • we might as well get to know him

On top of that
Does he own the entire site or just the message board

  • the word “aquired” was used by Kirik

What exactly does that mean?

We will be bringing up this site after we get his credibility within the sport established

6 Likes
16
1 Like
17

I have a question,

c201ca33d6ca7027b312e65e268743d0

Jk

4 Likes
18

image
image696×399 57.1 KB

19

We can all talk about fighters posting here

I am of the opinion that the fighter database and its content is possibly the most underutilized tool of the entire site.

When promoters look for opponents or you and I get lost looking at various fighters records
Tapology and Sherdog are the images that 99% of us go

Look up Randy Couture record and see where the international database ranks in terms of position as compared to the prior mentioned sites.

Get people lost inside the database and steer them over to the UG/OG

1 Like
20

Westside Baby

3 Likes
21