Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten.
Fight sports pioneer and innovator. MMA legend.
TV show host. Pro wrestler. Actor. Inventor.
Terrifying bald man giving you life advice on YouTube.
Here are things you might not have known about the amazing Bas Rutten.
If you're an MMA fan, you probably know that Bas Rutten has a great record.
But it might be strange to discover that his status as a UFC legend is based on very few
actual UFC fights.
In fact, the vast majority of the fights that made his name were for the Japanese promotion
Pancrase.
His professional record of 28-4-1 contains only two UFC matches , one resulting in Rutten
winning the UFC heavyweight championship against Kevin Randleman.
Despite Rutten's relatively small role as an active UFC fighter, his high regard within
the circle was enough for UFC President Dana White to surprise Rutten in 2015 by announcing
his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame.
As MMA Junkie reports, Rutten was genuinely astonished when he learned of his induction.
He was a special induction in the Hall's "pioneer class," which was designed to honor professional
fighters who dominated the ring in the wild days before the introduction of unified MMA
rules in 2000.
As UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta stated:
"He's a pioneer of the UFC.
He was there in the early days as one of the guys that's really responsible for keeping
this promotion going."
It's entirely possible that Bas Rutten wouldn't be the multi-talented fighter we know today
if he hadn't decided to make an even bigger name for himself by moving from his native
Netherlands to the United States.
According to Sports Illustrated, a move to the U.S was something he had been considering
ever since he was young, but he remembers full well when the distant dream turned into
a full-on, rock solid decision.
The move later acted as a catalyst that propelled Rutten to assorted upwardly mobile career
moves and opportunities he might have never received otherwise, especially within the
entertainment industry.
When you look at Bas Rutten today, it's hard to imagine him as a child.
Surely a man like that was built at a shipyard, or at the very least was born with six-pack
abs.
However, the reality of Bas Rutten's childhood is very different.
According to Sports Illustrated, young Bas was an extremely sick child and spent much
of his youth battling asthma and suffering from chronic eczema.
Whenever it struck, he had to spend up to months in bed, bandaged up and requiring round-the-clock
care.
He spent his formative years reading comic books and daydreaming about the U.S.
Yet Rutten's illnesses and spending his days wearing protective clothing at school made
him a natural target for bullies.
But preteen Rutten became fascinated with martial arts after watching Bruce Lee movies.
After two years of begging, his parents enrolled him in taekwondo classes, Rutten once faced
down the town bully and one-shotted him so hard he broke the bully's nose.
If you're aware of Bas Rutten's famous self-defense instructional video, chances are you've seen
more than one variation of the "Street Defense" spot.
Rutten has demonstrated various brutal ways to incapacitate an opponent during a bar brawl,
while dropping hilarious one-liners and commentary like:
"I'm sorry sir, but I'm going to break your leg."
It's not hard to see the video's charm.
After all, it's pretty captivating to witness a large Dutch man sagely revealing the secrets
of his mighty, quote, "heel to the balls" special move.
The original version is called "Lethal Street Fighting," and the famous clip is a short
supercut.
Rutten quite appreciates the clip because it got him so much attention that he says
it essentially launched his career in acting.
If you're an MMA fan and have played Grand Theft Auto IV, some of main character Niko
Bellic's fighting moves might seem strangely familiar, because it's all Bas Rutten.
In an interview with Submission Radio, Rutten says he didn't really understand what he signed
up for when the developers approached him for the gig because he's not much of a video
gamer.
But he brought his signature work ethic to the game and even ended up improving on the
developers' original plans.
Rutten's involvement with GTA IV didn't end with a few nifty moves, either.
He also played himself in The Men's Room, a toilet-themed in-game talk show where a
psychopathic parody version of Rutten and a more traditional TV personality called Jeremy
St. Ives try to keep the show going before the episodes inevitably turn into wild rants
about Rutten's violent escapades.
"Because Bas believes in an eye for two eyes, or, better yet, an eye for two eyes and an
ear and a spleen, and maybe a new shirt because this one is covered in entrails."
Bas Rutten has been appearing in movies and TV shows since 1999, but his most visible
foray to filmland so far is arguably the 2012 MMA comedy Here Comes The Boom, where he played
the meaty supporting role of a trainer called Niko.
Sports Illustrated says critics lauded his, quote, "delightfully affable screen presence,"
and the L.A. Times even said Rutten stole the show from star Kevin James.
In an interview with Sherdog, longtime MMA fan James said the movie got its start when
he and fellow standup comedian/MMA commentator Joe Rogan started talking about ways to incorporate
mixed martial arts into comedy form without making it too silly.
Rutten's in-ring flips, demented demeanor, and proficiency at knocking people out made
Rogan and James instant fans, and when Rutten signed up with UFC, James got a chance to
meet him and the two became great friends.
Rutten's personality and humanity ultimately inspired James to make the movie, so it's
probably not a huge surprise the former champ wound up with such a significant role.
Sports Illustrated notes that Bas Rutten entered the world of MMA from a background of taekwondo,
karate, and Thai boxing.
None of those styles really prepare you for the grappling side of things and Rutten found
out the hard way when he started training the MMA way.
Despite this initial setback, Rutten rose to the challenge and started obsessively studying
the world of submissions.
He wallpapered his home with sticky notes detailing various techniques and dragged friends
to the gym at night to test out ideas about various chokes and holds.
When Rutten fought his first matches for Japan's Pancrase federation in 1993, he was still
very much a student of the submission game.
When he eventually got his mat game together, he became unstoppable.
He earned the King of Pancrase title three times, and tore through 19 straight fights
without a single loss, and just one draw, before leaving Pancrase in 1998.
There are many words you can use to describe Bas Rutten, but chances are that inventor
wouldn't be one of them.
Rutten actually has four different patents to his name.
The patents are all variations of an oxygen training device he calls the O2Trainer, a
mouthpiece that offers resistance during inhalation while allowing free exhalation, thus helping
the user to build up respiratory strength.
The interchangeable "endcap inserts" of the mouthpiece allow the user to control the amount
of resistance.
According to O2Trainer Blog, Rutten says the idea of the device is to help you build stamina
so you never, quote, "run out of gas" during competition.
He also says that the increased lung capacity training the O2Trainer builds is quite handy
for dealing with chronic asthma - something that Rutten, a lifelong sufferer of the condition
himself, is more than familiar with.
"You know that's another great thing that came out of the disease, right?
First I come up with this fighting style and become a champion and now, suddenly I came
up with an invention."
Scientific studies of similar devices suggest they have limited effectiveness, but who knows?
It seems to help Rutten just fine.
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