4min chapter

#621: UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten on Fundamentals of Real Self-Defense, Savage Fight Stories, How He’s Handled Bullies, Breathing Techniques for Increasing Stamina and Endurance, The Art of Personal Reinvention, and Cultivating the Practice of Prayer

The Tim Ferriss Show

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CHAPTER

I'm a Catholic and I'll Be That Guy.

"I want to be a man who can overcome his weaknesses, vices, and imperfections," he says. "We think that pleasure is the same as being happy... It's not ... You don't have to do every time, everything you like." He adds: "Once I read that I was a slave, that alcohol was telling me what to control my life, that was it".

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UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten on Fundamentals of Real Self-Defense, Savage Fight Stories, How He’s Handled Bullies, Breathing Techniques for Increasing Stamina and Endurance,The Art of Personal Reinvention, and Cultivating the Practice of Prayer | Brought to you by Maui Nui Venison wildly delicious venison, LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 800M+ users, and Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating.

Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten (@BasRuttenMMA) is a Dutch-American actor, former mixed martial artist, kickboxer, and professional wrestler. He was a UFC Heavyweight Champion and a three-time King of Pancrase world champion, finishing his career on a 22-fight unbeaten streak with a strike accuracy of 70.6%, the highest ever recorded by FightMetric.

Rutten was co-host of Inside MMA on AXS TV from 2007 to 2016, and he has been a color commentator in several MMA organizations, including Pride Fighting Championships. He has appeared in numerous television shows, movies, and video games as an actor and continues to be involved in MMA through his coaching and publishing of instructional materials. Bas became a naturalized American citizen in the late 1990s, and in 2015 he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Please enjoy!

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[08:20] My first exposure to the unbridled might of Bas Rutten.

[10:03] Why is there such a strong martial arts tradition in the Netherlands?

[12:28] Breathlessness, Bruce Lee, bullies, and birds: a glimpse into Bas’s childhood.

[20:10] Why Bas walked out on a culinary career path and gave up modeling.

[23:28] How Pancrase entered the picture.

[33:08] Pancrase rules.

[35:47] Why Ken Shamrock is known as Wayne Shamrock in Japan.

[36:11] On fighting Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki.

[41:43] Underrated Japanese fighters.

[44:03] Remembering Pride, UFC’s Japanese predecessor.

[48:52] Pranks.

[54:17] Absolute monsters.