Bas Rutten

Early life

Rutten was born in Tilburg, Netherlands. At the age of 6 he developed eczema and severe asthma. Bas' eczema meant he always wore long sleeves, turtle necks and gloves, and his asthma meant he was unable to partake in exercise, and was consequently relatively skinny. He was bullied on a daily basis as a kid.

Bas started training boxing in the backyard of an elementary school with a friend. Rutten became interested in martial arts at age 12 after his family went on vacation to France; the movie Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee was playing at the local movie theatre. Bas could not get in because the movie was rated 17+, so he and his brother (Sjoerd) snuck into the theatre. After he saw the movie, he took an interest in martial arts. At first, his conservative parents didn't allow him to pursue, but after two years of begging his parents, at age 14, they allowed him to practice Tae Kwon Do. He picked it up very quickly and after a few months he got in a street fight with the biggest bully in town. Rutten, now more confident, took the challenge and broke the bully's nose and KO'd him with the first punch he threw. The police showed up at his parent's place, and Rutten was immediately prohibited by his parents from further practicing Tae Kwon Do.

At age 21, he moved out of his parent's house and once again started training Tae Kwon Do. He was committed and eventually earned a 2nd degree black belt. He then began learning Kyokushin Karate, and earned a 2nd degree black belt. Later he received from Jon Bluming an honorary 5th degree black belt after Bluming witnessed him breaking the shin bone of Kazuo Takahashi by way of inverted heel hook.

Kickboxing

At the age of 20 he started competing in Muay Thai Kickboxing. He fought 16 times and won the first 14 by knockout, 13 in the first round. He lost his final two fights by TKO.

In perhaps the biggest fight of his Kickboxing career, Rutten faced Frank Lobman for the European Muay Thai title on February 12, 1991. Lobman won by TKO in the first round.

Pancrase

Rutten began his professional Mixed martial arts career with the Pancrase organization in Japan. In 1993, Japanese pro wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki traveled to the Netherlands to scout fighters for their new "hybrid wrestling" (Bushido wrestling) organization, featuring submission fighting, but with no closed fisted strikes to the face. A precursor to modern mixed martial arts, the organization was the first of its kind, and featured early MMA names Frank Shamrock, Vernon White, Maurice Smith, Ken Shamrock, and Guy Mezger.

Rutten dominated his first two fights in Pancrase, winning each by KO. Rutten's first knockout was so brutal that his opponent Ryushi Yanagisawa (then the #4 ranked fighter in Japan) was carried from the ring and spent 2 days in a hospital. Rutten's striking was so powerful that, according to Frank Shamrock, it often intimidated other fighters. Frank Shamrock said, "His kickboxing was devastating. It was something everybody feared. The other thing he had was a basic understanding of real fighting...Bas had that street fighter mentality."

However, his lack (at that time) of ground-fighting experience led to a loss to the extraordinarily skilled Masakatsu Funaki. Rutten, realizing the importance of ground fighting, went to train with the master shoot wrestler Funaki. The training paid off, as Rutten knocked out previously undefeated Minoru Suzuki with a liver shot from his knee. Rutten later said that this win was one of the happiest moments of his life.

Just 20 days later, Rutten faced another steep test, fighting future UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, who was then one of the best Pancrase fighters. Rutten turned in a hard effort but ultimately lost the fight via rear naked choke. Rutten bounced back after the loss to Shamrock with a submission win over Jason DeLucia.

Rutten then participated in one of the biggest events in mixed martial arts history to date, the King of Pancrase Tournament. The winner of this tournament would be crowned the first champion of Pancrase. He was one of the four #1 seeds in the tournament and his first fight was against MMA newcomer (and future UFC champion) Frank Shamrock. Rutten lost a close (and somewhat controversial) decision in a fight considered a large upset, considering Rutten was a #1 seed in the tournament and Shamrock was then unknown and making his MMA debut.

Rutten found a measure of redemption after the upset loss in the first round of the King of Pancrase Tournament by choking out expert grappler and King of Pancrase Tournament Finalist Manabu Yamada in his next fight. With such an impressive showing against the tournament finalist, Rutten then received a rematch and a title shot against tournament winner and then current King of Pancrase Ken Shamrock for the King of Pancrase title, but lost early in the fight via submission due to a kneebar.

After his second loss to Shamrock, Rutten focused on grappling even harder than before and started training 2 to 3 times a day solely on submissions. Rutten won 7 out of his next 8 fights by submission. He put together a series of wins against future UFC champions Frank Shamrock and Maurice Smith and eventually challenged King of Pancrase Minoru Suzuki for the title. Rutten beat Suzuki for the second time, winning his first King of Pancrase title. After putting his title defenses on hold due to an injury, Rutten returned to the ring and beat interim King of Pancrase Frank Shamrock for the undisputed King of Pancrase title.

Rutten then avenged his loss to MMA legend Masakatsu Funaki in 1996 in what is considered to be one of the greatest fights in Pancrase history. Rutten described the war with Funaki in an interview:

Rutten then defended his title against both Frank Shamrock and the last one was against Masakatsu Funaki which he talked about above, and in so doing became a three-time King of Pancrase. In 1996, he relinquished his title to be present for the birth of his second daughter. Rutten returned to Pancrase, taking 8 more victories, bringing his unbeaten streak up to 19 straight fights.

Rutten left Pancrase as one of the most dominant fighters in the history of the organization. MMA legend Ken Shamrock was the only fighter Rutten did not avenge a loss to. In 2000, when Rutten was PRIDE FC's color commentator, a third fight with Shamrock was entertained. Rutten agreed to come out of retirement to fight Shamrock in PRIDE FC. However, Shamrock stated that he already beat Rutten twice and that a third time wasn't necessary. Later, in 2002, Rutten said that he would not fight Shamrock again even if it was offered to him because of the friendship they developed over the years, and that he could not put his mind and heart into fighting Ken.

UFC

In 1998, Rutten signed with the UFC, the biggest MMA promotion in the United States. Rutten entered the UFC with a massive amount of hype; he was undefeated in his last 19 fights and was touted by the organization as the greatest martial artist on the planet.

Rutten was originally scheduled to fight heavyweight champion Randy Couture in a title match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in his first fight, but Couture had a contract dispute and left the UFC to sign with a different promotion. The title was then stripped from Couture and a tournament of sorts was set up to determine the next champion.

Rutten's first fight in his quest for the UFC belt was against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at UFC 18, which Rutten dramatically won by KO with just a minute left in overtime.

On May 7, 1999, at UFC 20, Rutten faced Kevin Randleman for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The first four minutes consisted of Rutten taking a lot of punishment from his guard. However, after the fight was stood up to check Rutten's cut, Rutten landed a devastating liver kick to Randleman's body to turn the tide of the fight. Randleman's pace slowed down considerably after the liver kick, which ultimately helped Rutten score judges' points by being the more active fighter. Rutten pounded away at Randleman from inside his guard, using elbow strikes to open up cuts on top of Randleman's head and punching Randleman to the face. The fight went into overtime, with Rutten taking a very close split decision victory to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Judging at that point was not based on the current 10-point must system, but who the judges felt won the fight overall.

Rutten vacated the title later in the year, in order to drop down to middleweight (now known as light heavyweight) a weight closer to his natural weight, in a bid to try to become the first person to hold a UFC title in two weight classes.

While training for his next UFC fight in 1999, Rutten suffered multiple serious injuries, including blowing out his knee (a long running injury), tearing his biceps, and suffering a neck injury. He was forced to retire from MMA competition for the time being, by doctors orders.

During his MMA career he became known for two particular things: his fondness of liver shots and his habit of doing a jumping split after winning a fight. Rutten talked about the origins of the "Rutten Jump" on his website: "When I won my first fight in Pancrase, I was so hyped that I jumped up in the splits to each side of the ring. Why? I don't know. But, it became my trademark and I had to do it after every fight that I won."

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz has credited Rutten for inspiration during his early days. Ortiz said; "I looked up to Bas Rutten. Bas was my idol. People were just so scared of fighting him, he was like the man. I thought that was what I need to do now. If I train as hard as he does then one day I'll be as good as him and two years later look where I am, I'm on top of the world. I've got to say thanks to him, (Bas) for helping me out by making me believe in dreams."

World Series of Fighting

On October 23, 2013, The World Series of Fighting announced Rutten as a member of the broadcast team for WSOF events on NBCSN along with Todd Harris.

Post-fight career

After his retirement from fighting in 1999, Rutten focused on becoming an actor, getting small parts on TV shows such as Martial Law, 18 Wheels of Justice, The King of Queens, "Lights Out" and the Canadian series Freedom, as well as appearing in low budget movies such as Shadow Fury, The Eliminator, and the comedy short The Kingdom of Ultimate Power which was featured in the 2005 L.A. Film Festival. It also won the first prize at the short film festival in NY for "best comedy".

Rutten competed in Japanese professional wrestling a few times for NJPW from 2000 to 2002, including an IWGP title match against Yuji Nagata.

Rutten was also the color commentator for the English productions of Pride Fighting Championships events, calling nearly every event from Pride 1 through the 2005 Grand Prix. Known for his sense of humor and first hand knowledge of the sport, Rutten quickly became a fan favorite commentator. In April 2006 he announced that he would not continue to announce for Pride, due to the constant flying to Japan, and being away from his family every month.

Rutten has a cameo in the video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" on the in-game TV show called "The Men's Room." He also did motion capture for the main character's fighting moves. He said that when he arrived at the motion-capture place in New York he asked the people in charge how violent they wanted to have it and they told him to "give it all he got". After two hours they stopped him and said, "It's OK, you don't have to go any further".

He was also featured in WCW vs. the World for the PlayStation, but was named "Thunder Dome" to avoid copyright laws.

On January 23, 2008, he was announced as the new Vice President, Fighter Operations reporting directly to IFL CEO Jay Larkin. His role was to build relations between the IFL and its fighters as well as work on potential match-ups between fighters. He also hosted the weekly shows "Battleground" and "International Fight League" with Kenny Rice. This all ended when IFL went out of business in late 2008.

In 2009, he appeared in the music video for Listen to Your Friends by the rock band New Found Glory, "fighting" lead vocalist Jordan Pundik.

Currently, he and Rice host Inside MMA, a weekly MMA variety show on AxsTV. The pair also did remote English commentary and play-by-play for Dream events broadcast in North America on HDNet. The pair were eventually replaced by Guy Mezger and Michael Schiavello, who attend the events live in Japan. He is currently appearing in public health service ads, airing on Cartoon Network. He also made a public service announcement against trying out MMA at home but CagePotato ridiculed it for its mixed messages.

Rutten featured in 2012 American sports comedy movie Here Comes the Boom alongside Kevin James and Henry Winkler. Rutten played the role of a former MMA fighter and Dutch immigrant Niko trying to gain US citizenship. In return for his help in gaining citizenship Niko helps train 42-year-old biology teacher Scott (Kevin James) to become a MMA/UFC fighter. The film also features former UFC fighter Krzysztof Soszynski, former Muay Thai kickboxer Mark DellaGrotte along with cameo roles for Bruce Buffer, Chael Sonnen, Jason Miller, Satoshi Ishii, Mark Munoz, Herb Dean, Wanderlei Silva, and Joe Rogan amongst others.

Coaching

He is certified as an instructor of both MTBN Thai Boxing and Pancrase.

Rutten coached Mark Kerr during the filming of the HBO documentary The Smashing Machine.

In 2006 Rutten was tapped to coach a team for the International Fight League, an MMA organization that focused on team combat. His team, the Anacondas, defeated the Silverbacks 3–2.

Rutten is a former investor in the Legends MMA gym in Hollywood and used to teach there occasionally.

Rutten is now a part owner of the MMA gym Bas Rutten's Elite Mixed Martial Arts in Thousand Oaks, California. He teaches a MMA class on Tuesdays.

He also trained former street fighter Kimbo Slice for his professional MMA bouts, as well as former Ring of Honor champion and TNA World champion Samoa Joe.

Last fight

On May 2006, Rutten announced his return to MMA competition. Cleared by doctors to fight again, Rutten was slated to face Kimo Leopoldo in the now defunct World Fighting Alliance on July 22, 2006, at The Forum in Los Angeles. Two days before the event, Kimo tested positive for Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. In place of Kimo, Rutten fought Ruben "Warpath" Villareal. Rutten took a first-round victory by way of technical knockout after low kicks left his opponent unable to stand. With that he brought up his professional record to 28 wins 4 losses and 1 draw.

UFC Hall of Fame

On May 22, 2015 UFC President Dana White appeared on Inside MMA to announce that Rutten would be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame during International Fight Week in July. Rutten is the first European to be inducted, taking his place in the "Pioneers" wing of the UFC's new look Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Rutten currently lives in Westlake Village, California with his wife Karin and two daughters - Sabine and Bianca who is 11. Rutten also has a daughter from his first wife, her name is Rachele

Rutten is known by the moniker "El Guapo", which means "The Handsome One" in Spanish. Rutten recently became a citizen of the United States.

Rutten is a certified culinary chef.

Tattoos

Rutten has several tattoos, each of which is intended to help him spiritually and emotionally.

Street Fights

Bas Rutten is known for his legendary bar fights around the world. In particular a brawl that took place at a bar in Sweden, in which he fought several bouncers at the same time. This fight is particularly notorious as it landed Rutten in a Swedish jail.

Mixed Martial Arts

Works