Nah,I did alot of bad things for money in the Crack Era and then later. To many to list and I don’t want to glorify that part of the game. When I showed up things were already planned and guys knew it
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Was it hard to find bjj’ers to help train ken for the Gracie rematch?..
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What was the strength and conditioning like? Those guys were beasts! So ahead of their time!
Never did. We always said t hey fight in their pajamas and lay on the mat like lil bitches
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Insane. Before 2nd ufc fight Ken made me go a full hour in the ring no breaks and only 10secs on the mat than back up with the other fighters coming in so I had a fresh opponent always…it suxed,lol.
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Great tales from the good old days. Thanks for sharing.
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did u witness ken sparring with mark coleman?
just heard his take on it and wondered if it was accurate…
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How was the pay in the ufc compared to the pay in pancrase? Could you name exact figures or would you rather keep that private
No worries,guys I enjoy talking to guys that are legit fans not the casuals and dick riders. You guys really want to know and understand the history of what is now the biggest sport in the world. I have no problem telling you exactly how it was started and was run. So many stories I tell friends or kannon’s friends and people that ask about so and so or if the myth of Lion’s den is even close to reality.it really freaks people out when I tell them an answer to their question and they are totally confused because the guy they idolized for 30yrs is just another guy who believes his own hype. It’s sad to burst their bubble but if you idolize a Nile Crocodile that stretches 22ft. That’s great but know what he is and in a blink of an eye will drag you under and death roll you. Know the man not the myth.
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No
I cannot name figures. Lion’s den got paid usually about five times what what the other fighters made. In debut fight in ufc7 where I was an alternate I made almost six times what liddell made in his first fight in the UFC. The night before the ultimate ultimate 95 fight Bob Meyrowitz and Bob and Ken came to my room. Mr. Meyrowitz had a new contract for me,a 3 fight deal for triple what I was making just to show with incentives structured in. I think Ken, oleg and Severn probably had contracts but I think that was it
I know varleans told if you sign me to a contract I won’t go to the IFC1 in kiev. Bob said pass he went. Varleans had but to the finals with Ruas,had other fights but no contract. So I can say this I made a substantial amount of money for each of my Pancrase and UFC fights,put up in either the Hyatt or the Hilton, as Lions den we came out to train whenever we wanted to and the per diem from both UFC and Pancrase was like another paycheck. So not wanting to get other fighters all passed off I will leave the amounts blank. But when fighters said they couldn’t afford to fight and not still work another job without surviving. I can say my wife and I bought a very nice house,nice cars and lived quite well and I never thought about having to get another job.
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No problem brother, if you have a question that’s kinda out there or just anything you want to know about the beginning of it all just ask. This is how the truth gets spread around and buries the bullshit from posers
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What was your favorite fight inside the ring/cage? Favorite memory in there? I assume from what you said earlier you probably didn’t have any nerves before pro fights?
Did you ever see Ken roll with Gokor?
No have never felt fear. It was when Suzuki went to Australia to try out papadupalus, he had just won some big jj tournament. Suzuki rolled with him kinda just to see how he moved. Papadupalus went for broke and choked Suzuki out. So when I was fighting papadupalus Suzuki came to my dressing room and I still had just my neoprene knee sleeves on to not get raspberries from the mat. Suzuki told me leave those on and don’t put on the knee pads and go out there and really hurt him bad. So in the end I knocked him out with a Liver punch,broke 2 ribs and beat him up. For me to be turned absolutely loose in Pancrace was a dream come true and I made the best of it.
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Let’s get some winning footage up in here.This one was rare,but it’s commonly available now.
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Before anybody comments like always. My striking was not sloppy, I was hitting him open hand because I was hoping to replace someone in the finals, wear gloves and go to war with Ruas. The straight Viking way,somebody is gonna die so let’s get to figuring it out.
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[quote=“Gunthug1, post:76, topic:3699286”]
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Once at the Pancrase dojo in Yokohama. Gokar student harzten something like that was fighting. At the end of training gokar kept hounding Ken to roll with him. Finally Ken said okay but I just had some bone chips taken out of left elbow so Don’t mess with it and we can roll. Gokar agreed immediately went for the elbow over and over Ken got passed and worked him like a rag doll. Dominated him,humiliated him and embarrassed him. Gokar can tell you any story he wants about rolling with Ken but was there and Ken made gokar his bitch,plain and simple
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If you trained at any other gyms how were there methods different from kens?