Kimbo Slice and Bas Rutten were, at one time, considered a match made in heaven. Slice, an internet street fighting legend, needed MMA experience, and Rutten, a former UFC heavyweight champion, had plenty to spare and a noted penchant for teaching the sport.
Their partnership yielded three consecutive victories, including the most watched MMA match up of all time when an estimated 7.3 million people tuned into CBS to watch Slice defeat James Thompson in May of 2008.
But Slice's last fight revealed huge cracks in the relationship between Slice and Rutten. Slice was infamously dropped by Seth Petruzelli just fourteen-seconds into their match up last October. Not long after the loss Rutten revealed that the two had split. Rutten issued blame of the split squarly on Slice's broad shoulders.
"He just turned into a different guy, he didn't need to do the things that I told him to do," Rutten told Fighters Only. "I misjudged him, he turned into a whole different person. I told him a few weeks ago, I had a sit down with him. I told him that he was an asshole and that I have zero respect [for him] and I can't train people that I have no respect for. Can't ever."
Slice, who's since moved on to star in Spike TV's tenth season of their venerable reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, was unaware of Rutten's distain for him telling Fighter's Only that he had "no idea [Rutten] felt that way. Slice maintains that Rutten was a less than stellar instructor and could make a case that Rutten owes him money.
"I guess with him, he pretended to be a friend but he really wasn't." Slice said. "It was just business with him. You pay a guy good money to teach you things and be a good teacher and they take your money, but then they turn round and say ‘I tried to teach you stuff but its not working?' Come on man, you're not a good teacher - so really he owes me some money right? But its all good, we all do what we gotta do."
Rutten responded with the following email:
Hey guys,
I didn't say that he was an asshole, I said that he TURNED into an asshole, I actually told him this also about 5 weeks before the Petruzelli fight, I told him that I thought he turned into a asshole, he said that he didn't realize that and apologized, he did that two more times that day and even called me to say he didn't knew he was doing that. Later I called him an asshole because all of the shit that he took for granted, I also told him that I had no respect for him in our last meeting, but why I said that? I won't even go there.
I never said "I tried to teach you stuff but its not working", I don't say the word "stuff" when I mean skills or technique, I said, I try to teach you skills but you are not listening. Example, all the fights before the last one, he would print out my game plan, well, he didn't need to print out my game plan the last fight he had against Petruzelli, first line in the game plan? "DO NOT rush in!"
The night before Petruzelli I told him to do some heel hook escapes (he was still going to fight Ken at that time), he said he didn't need to do that because it was not going to the ground. I told him that I liked his attitude but I wanted him to do it "Just for sure", but he said no. I told him "Don't let me tell you "I told you so" when Shamrock rips your leg in half", he said "I don't know if that's good to say to me before a fight, mentally wise?? Mentally wise? WTF? I don't think it's a good idea to not do what I tell you to do. See what I mean? He didn't listen.
Pretending to be a friend and getting paid GOOD for my work? Ha ha, OK, lets see here.
Lets say that he made $100,000, I couldn't train him two times a day so I told my buddy at my gym, Randy Khatami, who's a great boxing coach and also teaches some basic submissions, that I would take him in the morning, and he would take him at night. Now everybody tells me that I just have to pay my friend a certain amount of money, like a "per hour" deal because it would be better "money wise" for me. But since I believe that a TEAM works together, I just pay him half of what I make.
Lets do the math here, 10% of 100,000, is $10,000, that I split in half, so I make $5000 in 5 or 6 weeks. I also told him BEFORE I started training him, that he had to understand that when I had a commentary job, that I had to do that, since this was not a "money making machine for me" (try to live in CA from $5000 in 6 weeks and support a family, haha, I dare you). He and his manager Mike, who's a great guy, told me they understood that.
Since I believed in him, and considered him a friend, I said NO to a whole bunch of commentary jobs because I wanted to be there for him for the entire time. Meaning, I actually LOST money training Kimbo. Well, actually, with the last fight (because they re-negotiated), I think I evened it out, but never made money.
I did all this because I liked the guy, I like his friends and I think he has a great family that needs support. We would have a lot of fun when we were travelling. EVERYBODY told me to NOT train him, "He's a thug, it will backfire, he will f**k you in the end", and God knows what more they told me.
Nope, "he's a great guy, a family man and friend", that's what I told the whole freaking world! You think was lying about that? You know me, I always tell the truth, it's funny that he says this, because I considered HIM my friend.
After our split I even told his manager Mike that I could set him up with pro wrestling in Japan, he still had to provide for his family right?
And a bad teacher? Ah well, I don't need to answer this, but just so HE can read this.
-I started Genki Sudo's career, when Genki heard I was in the US he moved to LA to train with me, I trained him about 2.5 years, I put him in his first fights, he was just a wrestler coming in, look at him now.
-Carlos Newton came to train with me for three months, lived in the gym, I really made him better, ask him what he learned and how his career went after that, won his next 5 fights in a row.
-Mark Kerr, I brought him up to speed, every fight that I trained him for, he won, what happened to him after that, was his own fault.
-Duane Ludwig did/still does good, he was the first one to KO Jens Pulver, and I don't think he ever lost when I trained him.
-The guys from the IFL, the Anacondas, were kicking ass when I was with them.
-And then I helped a whole bunch of "already top fighters" who came to me to help them, to polish up their fight game.
-Oh, and lets not forget that I trained him and he won all his fights until he stopped listening.
If Kimbo would have done everything that he did in the beginning when he came in, he had great potential. To now blame that on the people who trained him, very loser thing to do. And if it was so bad, why is he still with Randy Khatami? He trains him in the style as I do because I told him so. See what I mean? He makes no sense.
Lets see what he did in the "Ultimate fighter" with his new and improved training.
To put it in his own words. "Haha, but its all good, we all do what we gotta do".
Godspeed and party on!
Bas
