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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=450373" target="_blank">
The day Joe Warren fought a Ninja
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<p>Bellator bantamweight champion Joe Warren recently appeared on Stud Show Radio (formerly Team Alpha Male Radio) and detailed his early sparring efforts - he would go to a karate studio, and fight people.</p>
“Right when I started, I didn’t even start fighting yet, I just went out to Team Quest with Mo and everyone," said Warren, as transcribed by Ryan C. Miller for BJPenn.com. "Dan and Heath at Team Quest sent me like a bag of gear, like 16 ounce gloves, shin guards, the whole deal. I’d never put them on before.
"They wanted me to fight, I flew out to Japan and saw like Mayhem and all them.
"Bottom line is I didn’t know how to fight and they were like you’ve got to go in the gyms and just try to fight. Just go into the gyms, throw on the gear and just get down. So I flew into the Midwest to do a wrestling camp and I drove down, I was getting gas—I looked up and I saw Ninjutsu. I was pumping gas and I was thinking 'Ninjutsu, what the f--- is that? That must be like ninja jiu-jitsu guys or something. I probably need to know that.
"So I threw all my gear on. I didn’t even know what the gear was. I put the head-gear on, I put the 8 ounce gloves with the fingers out, the shin guards, I had no idea what half this s--- was. I walked in this gym and I said I want to fight somebody. It was like a class, two guys teaching kids like Ninjitsu, I don’t even know what it was. So they said, we don’t fight people. I said oh so you guys are p---ies, you don’t want to fight me. I was just messing with them you know and he’s like no we can’t fight you.
"I kept saying, I’m going to be a fighter so I want to fight you guys. I didn’t know that this was like a self-defense school. So they went and got their sensei. He came out he had a black gi and white belt and like a beard. He was old. 60, maybe 55, but he was definitely up there.
"He said ‘no, no one fights in here’. I said, ‘Well, why don’t you fight me,’ and he said, ‘ok fine’. He circled up his crowd, I remember this. And I had no idea what I was doing. He stood there; he had his hands like this (gestures awkward striking stance). I didn’t know what to do, do you say go, like what do you do. He was like go and he had his hands like this. So I grabbed his hand and he like twisted my arm and did like a front flip. I was on the ground and he had his toes in my armpit and he was armbaring me and I was screaming.
"He let go of me and everybody was laughing. He was telling his class like this is why you don’t mess with people off the street, they’re idiots. So I was like okay, one more time. He was like ok, so he put his hands down so I faked like I was going to grab his hand then I super punched this old man in the face. I hit him like right here and messed his nose up. So he’s on the ground and just bleeding. He’s bleeding everywhere and I’m freaked out, I’ve never seen anything like this so I’m like oh s---. So I just grab my bag and bust out the front door.
"I’m in this rental car, I still have my headgear on and everything and I’m just screaming. I’m on the highway, I’m like holy s---.
"That was the beginning of the dojo stomping.”
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