Very fascinating thread. I remember hearing back then that Bessac was brought in to help Ken train for Severn. It’s too bad we didn’t see more of Bessac in the UFC. Always fun to hear about the old old days of MMA. People don’t realize how crazy it was, it was like the wild west basically.
My question for Scott is outside of Pancrase and UFC we didn’t see many guys from the Den fight in many other events. I think Vernon fought in an 8 man tournament in IFC and Bohlander fought in Brazil when Bustamante KO’d him with an upkick. Was there a reason for that or was it just money, whoever paid the most?
I picked up on that in the book. And came away thinking I’d love for the lion’s den guys to write their own account of what really happened. Thanks for the thread, great to have you here!
I really can’t say I like him as a person after reading how he put down and abused his own fighters.
I wasn’t brought in for Ken to fight dan,Dan, was Ken’s first fighter and student before lion’s Den was even a thing. I just was the only one that trained with ken,I mimicked Dan perfectly and Ken almost took his head off. At the ultimate ultimate 95 Mr.Merowitz brought a contract to my room and it was a multi-fight deal for almost 5 times more than I was making before plus incentives. I broke my hand on Joe that fight. I got a letter in the mail from Campbell McLaren that said I was suspended for 60 days with a broken hand as soon as I can get a doc to sign off on it call them because they are really looking forward to having me back. A lil later big dust up cracked skull,lost my entire frontal left lobe and an instant stop to my career
To be fair though Shamrock was probably doing it the way he was taught not that its right…trial by fire type shit. A lot of those early pancrase guys would test/stretch the fuck outta you or legit beat you within an inch of your life to see what they were working with. Beat you til you question everything, then they teach you after earning a rite of passage.
Question for Scott: In your opinion was the Lobe damage an accumulative buildup over years of hard fights/sparrings/street fights? Or is there a specific fight you caught were after you felt off and that things just maybe were just not right?
Also my favorite event ever is UFC 6…watched it 100 times on VHS as a youth… not dick riding but I think if you are in the UFC 6 bracket you make it to the finals no question and maybe get to flatten Tank on the way. Your fight style in that tourny would kill it.
If you could fight ANY current MMA fighter in your prime, who would it be?
Any Enson Inoue memories or Egan stories? They seemed a bit wild as well at the time. Ties with Yakuza, drug circles, etc
I just skimmed the book when a reporter buddy of mine downloaded to my phone. For almost thirty years I have been listening to the uneducated,unintelligible, arrogant, self deluded, Narcissistic, self absorbed, look at me,look at me,attention whore that is Ken. He has no morals,ethics and wouldn’t know what critical thinking was if it ran him over. I feel the same way for him as I feel for a rock. In 30yrs I never listened to the rock and I never will. He’s to useless to either kick out of my way or not. Sometimes inconvenient is as far as he ever gets
A man’s duty is to provide for his family. It’s up to him to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. As such, if he has to conveniently trip over something or maybe not be able to make it all the way to his feet by 10, then it’s sad but understandable.
I don’t really have an opinion on it and I was really only curious about it.
I’m saying that he did what he had to do at that point of his career to be a man that provides for his family.
Since this is the internet, I’m not complaining or attempting an insult here. Quite the opposite, in fact. Even though I was never the biggest fan of him, I still very much respect and appreciate what he did for the sport.
