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Thank You phooey!
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In for when I get a chance to peep this out!
I believe Mannys account
Who ended up winning the tourney? I’ve never actually seen a vid of Rockson competing.
I heard Rockson was good
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I remember him from Choke, that’s it.
From what I was told
- Rockson was a savage and much more experienced and advanced then the belt that he was wearing.
Many and Karo
- they were so problematic in high school that after being thrown out (multiple times)
The parents would drop them off with Gokor’s in the AM and pick them up at night.
I was told that the skill level of them was unquantifiable due to all of the mat time and general intensity of the two
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It was probably from all the heroin
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I read your comment and said “ouch” and then I followed with a “WTF” after seeing your screen name
In to add antidotal / comment later.
Ah hell will try now and butcher it.
Knew a guy trained ( summers only while in CA ) at Rigans right around that time frame.
I recall him saying students and others talking about some of Gokors students finishing people / doing quite well at BJJ tournament. It seemed like as much a comment as people not being prepared for leg locks.
Also I told a few friends about being impressed with Gokor so they stopped in while visiting town for work ( not training while there more of a tourist stop)
2 different people visiting at different times mid 90s described being very impressed with a young student or 2.
Years later I kind of wondered if they happened to see a young Karo and possibly Manny.
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I trained at Hayastan MMA for 3 months. Manny was there 24/7 almost and would train none stop.
Gokor was very passionate about teaching. Took his time and would teach for 2-3 hours instead of the 1 hour the class was originally schedules for.
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Gokor showed a version of the aoki lock in Grappling magazine over 20 years ago.
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some kewl stories brahs
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Glad you mentioned this as I have passed this along before.
It stuck with me or I always recall Gene & Gokor at a seminar hanging out way after the seminar ended to answer questions, watch people roll / wrestle and offer pointers.
People/students/ AKA let’s say customers would point out items or areas they had trouble with and Gene would help.
This was hours after the seminar ended and someone notified Gene they were going to miss their flight, he told them to book another one of find them another flight and kept teaching.
So yea man Gene, Gokor and the other guys with them (Ken Hart, and “Silverado”) all stayed and helped.
Funny note I kind of naively told Gokor early in the day that I heard a story of Rickson rolling with X#(maybe it was 80) of people at a seminar and submitting everyone (. Old days right this was a long time ago).
Anyway so as things were wrapping up Gokor put on a Judo and submission grappling exhibition if you will. Tapping out several Judo black belts from a local military base and then a bunch of other people. Easy work.
I watched in awe (old days right) and towards the end of it he looked at me and said " see it is no big deal to wrestle and submit 80 people or 80 rolls when the people don’t know what they are doing".
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Love these stories man. Both of them where really passionate about the sport. I remember Gokor putting away black belts as well with these crazy pressure point locks that they had no idea how to defend against. Gene was always there in his old age watching along.
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Just outside of St Louis there was a show called Reality Shoot Fighting
Randy Greenman was the promoter
- he was easily 500# and his heart was even bigger
Randy was obsessed with Gokor and the Hyastan guys and would fly them out as guests at his shows.
Imagine going to a high end regional show in southern illinois and seeing Karo and Monvil
Fast forward
Randy was a HUGE cocaine dealer and was taking care of his favorite mma fighters/camps with some of his proceeds
He was later found in several places all at the same time
I loved that guy
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This is more of an attempt at a humble brag.
But I have always thought it was truly an interesting note on the way that techniques could travel or make the way around the world in small pockets and maybe in the oddest places/ways.
Pre internet era at least. (Also no secret techniques that is not the claim but maybe lesser known/used smiley face )
Junior High wrestling a teammate who came from a big wrestling family, older brothers etc showed me a takedown that one of his brothers learned in Europe while in the Airforce I believe it was. He may have mentioned it was from working out with some Sambo guys (not sure but I really had no idea what Sambo was at the time).
But anyway he showed taught me this takedown, kind of a variation off of Russian 2 on 1 turned into a hip toss of sorts.
I pulled it off in competition from time time even leading to some long time wrestlers from PA asking "what the hell was that some sort of “Judo Move”.
Anyway I pulled that takedown at a Gokor seminar and he came up and asked where I learned it. It was not a casual ask, but truly curious to know.
Neither here nor there but always thought it was cool some takedown learned in a small town rural small JR High wrestling program caught Gokor’s attention. More so because it did have a European root to it/at least the way it traveled.
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