From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bas "El Guapo" Rutten
Statistics
Nickname	El Guapo
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	205 lb (93 kg)
Nationality	Dutch
Born	February 24, 1965 (1965-02-24) (age 42)
Fighting out of	Los Angeles, California
Town of birth	Tilburg, Netherlands
Fighting style	Pankration, Kickboxing
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	28
By knockout	12
By submission	13
Losses	4
Draws	1

Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten (born February 24, 1965) is a Dutch mixed martial arts fighter and color commentator. He was a three time King of Pancrase, former Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight Champion, and is a certified MTBN Thai Boxing instructor, Pancrase instructor, a 5th Degree Black Belt in Kyokushin karate and a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is also the founder of "The Bas Rutten System" and the author of various martial art books and videos. He holds notable wins over Frank Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki, Kevin Randleman, Guy Mezger and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Pancrase 1.2 UFC 1.3 Retirement 1.4 Coaching 1.5 Return to MMA 2 Record 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Books and videos authored 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Videos

Born in Tilburg, the Netherlands, Bas Rutten became interested in martial arts when he was 12 after watching Enter the Dragon in the movie theatres in France. He wanted to learn how to fight, especially with the nunchucks. His conservative parents didn't allow him to fight but after 2 years of begging, he finally started training Tae Kwon Do and got his black belt in only a year. He eventually got his 2nd Dan in Tae Kwon Do, then he trained in Kyokushin Karate. In high school, he was not big and strong and had a skin condition on his hands for which he was teased occasionally. (He would return for his high school reunion as a champion fighter years later and issue a friendly challenge to fight his former tormentors; none accepted.) At the age of 20 he started competing in Thai boxing, going undefeated. Although he credits Kyokushin karate as the base of his striking skills, starting as a striker and later learning submission fighting, Rutten implemented a well balanced mixture of many techniques.

Bas Rutten calls himself "El Guapo" (Spanish for "The Handsome One"). This nickname was given to him by his wife. It is the name of the villain in the movie "The Three Amigos". In his fights, Bas' "trademark" was delivering punches and kicks to the liver of his opponents. In his "Bas Rutten's Big DVDs of Combat" Bas refers to this as a "liver shot". Bas is also known for his characteristic "Rutten Jump," which he performed in the ring every time he won a fight, resembling a jumping split.

Bas began his professional mixed martial arts career with the upstart Japanese fighting organization, Pancrase. In 1993, Japanese pro wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki traveled to Holland 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 what would become modern mixed martial arts, the organization was the first of its kind, and featured such early MMA names as Frank Shamrock, Vernon White, Maurice Smith, Ken Shamrock, and Guy Mezger.

His lack (at that time) of ground-fighting experience leading to early defeats at the hands of Masakatsu Funaki and the then "King of Pancrase" Ken Shamrock, and more controversially losing to Frank Shamrock by way of a split judge's decision, Bas would come back in 1995 and be dealt another loss from Ken Shamrock, but would go on to beat the previously undefeated Minoru Suzuki and win his first "King of Pancrase" title. Avenging his losses to both Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki in 1996, he went on to defeat both Jason Delucia and Guy Mezger and in so doing became a three time "King of Pancrase." In 1996, he relinquished his title, in order to be present for the birth of his second daughter. ^[1] Bas returned to Pancrase, taking 8 more victories, bringing his winning streak up to 19 straight fights.

In 1998, Bas signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the biggest MMA promotion in the United States. His first fight in the UFC was against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at UFC 18, which Bas won by KO. Next he faced Kevin Randleman for the UFC Heavyweight Champion at UFC 20, this fight went into overtime, with Bas taking a close decision victory to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Bas vacated the title later in the year, in order to drop down to middleweight (his natural weight class), and try to become the first person to hold a UFC title in two weight classes.^[2]

While training for his next UFC fight in 1999, Bas suffered multiple serious injuries, including blowing out his knee (a long running injury), and tearing his biceps. Bas was forced to retire from MMA competition for the time being, by doctors orders.^[3]

After his retirement from fighting in 1999, Bas focused on becoming an actor, getting small parts on TV shows such as Martial Law, 18 Wheels of Justice, The King of Queens, 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".

Bas 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, Bas quickly became a fan favorite commentator. In April of 2006 Bas announced that he would not continue to announce for PRIDE, due to the pressure of constantly flying to Japan, and being away from his family every month.^[4] He handed off commentating duties to fighter Frank Trigg.

Bas now has three shows on TV, two from the IFL, named "Battleground" which airs on "My Network TV" and "International Fight League" on "FSN". On "HD Net" he hosts an MMA News show named "Inside MMA", all these three shows he hosts together with the talented Kenny Rice.

Bas gained fame as Mark Kerr's fighting coach in the highly acclaimed HBO documentary of 2003 "The Smashing Machine: the life and times of extreme fighter Mark Kerr" directed by John Hyams. Bas was shown kickboxing and wrestling with Kerr in his dojo and commenting on Kerr's strengths and weaknesses in an honest and insightful manner.

In 2006 Bas was tapped to coach a team for the new International Fight League, an MMA organization that focuses on team combat. His team, the Anacondas, defeated the Silverbacks 3-2.

In May of 2006, Bas announced his return to MMA competition. Cleared by doctors to fight again, Bas was slated to face Kimo Leopoldo in the now defunct World Fighting Alliance on July 22, 2006 at The Forum in Los Angeles. But just two days before the event, Kimo tested positive for Stanozolol, a form of anabolic steroids. In place of Kimo, Bas fought Ruben "Warpath" Villareal. Bas 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 winning streak to 22 wins. Ironically, due to a dramatically improved ground game, this "striker" from Holland actually won more fights by submissions than by KO.

Bas has recently announced that he is teaming up with UFC legend Randy Couture in starting up a brand new fight-gym in Hollywood, called "Legends Mixed Martial Arts Training Center", which will train Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Boxing. Besides Bas and Randy, several other well known instructors and pro-fighters will teach there, including: Karo Parisyan, Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Eddie Bravo.^[5]

Rutten now is the host of the show named "Battleground" every Saturday night on MyNetworkTV together with Kenny Rice, both of them also host the show "International Fight League" Friday nights on FSN AND "Inside MMA", a weekly news show about MMA that airs Friday nights at 6:30 on HD Net.

• Muay Thai (The Netherlands - pre 1993)
  • Wins: 14 KOs
  • Entire Muay Thai career record: 14-1

• Mixed Martial Arts (Japan and USA - 1993 to 2006)
  • Wins: 12 (T)KOs - 13 Submission - 3 Decisions
  • Losses: 3 Submission - 1 Decision
  • Entire MMA career record: 28-4-1

Result	Opponent	Method	Event	Date	Round, Time	Notes
Win	Ruben Villareal	KO (Leg Kicks)	WFA-King of the Streets	7/22/2006	1 3:24
Win	Kevin Randleman	Decision	UFC 20-Battle for the Gold	5/7/1999	1 21:00	Wins UFC Heavyweight Championship and retires due to injury.
Win	Tsuyoshi Kohsaka	KO	UFC 18-Road to the Heavyweight Title	1/8/1999	1 14:15
Win	Kengo Watanabe	TKO (Lost Points)	Pancrase-1998 Anniversary Show	9/14/1998	1 2:58
Win	Keiichiro Yamamiya	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	Pancrase-Alive 11	12/20/1997	1 4:58
Win	Osami Shibuya	Submission (Body Crunch)	Pancrase-1997 Anniversary Show	9/6/1997	1 3:15
Win	Takaku Fuke	Submission	Pancrase-Alive 7	6/30/1997	1 4:28
Win	Kiuma Kunioku	Decision (Lost Points)	Pancrase-Alive 4	4/27/1997	1 15:00
Draw	Osami Shibuya	Draw	Pancrase-Alive 3	3/22/1997	1 15:00
Win	Manabu Yamada	Submission	Pancrase-Truth 7	10/8/1996	1 0:54
Win	Masakatsu Funaki	TKO (Lost Points)	Pancrase-1996 Anniversary Show	9/7/1996	1 17:05
Win	Jason Delucia	TKO	Pancrase-Truth 6	6/25/1996	1 8:48
Win	Frank Shamrock	TKO (Cut)	Pancrase-Truth 5	5/16/1996	1 11:11
Win	Katsuomi Inagaki	TKO (Lost Points)	Pancrase-Truth 4	4/8/1996	1 14:07
Win	Guy Mezger	Submission	Pancrase-Truth 2	3/2/1996	1 19:36
Win	Ryushi Yanagisawa	Submission (Choke)	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 7	12/14/1995	1 27:35
Win	Maurice Smith	Submission (Choke)	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 6	11/4/1995	1 4:34
Win	Minoru Suzuki	Submission (Guillotine Choke)	Pancrase-1995 Anniversary Show	9/1/1995	1 15:35
Win	Frank Shamrock	Decision (Split)	Pancrase-1995 Neo-Blood Tournament, Round 2	7/23/1995	1 15:00
Win	Jason Delucia	Submission	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 5	6/13/1995	1 1:32
Win	Maurice Smith	Submission (Kneebar)	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 4	5/13/1995	1 2:10
Win	Takaku Fuke	Submission	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 3	4/8/1995	1 1:52
Loss	Ken Shamrock	Submission (Kneebar)	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 2	3/10/1995	1 1:01
Win	Manabu Yamada	TKO (Strikes)	Pancrase-Eyes Of Beast 1	1/26/1995	1 1:05
Loss	Frank Shamrock	Decision (Majority)	Pancrase-King of Pancrase Tournament, Round 1	12/16/1994	1 10:00
Win	Jason Delucia	Submission (Guillotine Choke)	Pancrase-Road To The Championship 5	10/15/1994	1 1:43
Loss	Ken Shamrock	Submission	Pancrase-Road To The Championship 3	7/26/1994	1 16:42
Win	Minoru Suzuki	KO	Pancrase-Road To The Championship 2	7/6/1994	1 3:43
Win	Yoshiki Takahashi	TKO	Pancrase-Road To The Championship 1	5/31/1994	1 1:37
Win	Vernon White	Submission	Pancrase-Pancrash! 3	4/21/1994	1 1:16
Loss	Masakatsu Funaki	Submission (Toehold)	Pancrase-Pancrash! 1	1/19/1994	1 2:58
Win	Takaku Fuke	KO	Pancrase-Yes, We are Hybrid Wrestlers 2	10/14/1993	1 2:03
Win	Ryushi Yanagisawa	KO	Pancrase-Yes, We are Hybrid Wrestlers 1	9/21/1993	1 0:43

Bas currently lives and trains in Westlake Village with his wife Karin and together they have three daughters, Rachel (pronounced like Rah-shell), Sabine (pronounced like Sa-been-ah) and Bianca. Bas also has a 17 year old daughter who lives with his ex-wife in Holland.^[6]

• Shadow of the Dragon (1992) [1]
• Shadow Fury (2001) [2]
• The Eliminator (2004) [3]
• The Vault (2005) [4]
• The Kingdom of Ultimate Power (2005) [5]
• Backlash (2006) [6]

• Bas Rutten's Big Book of Combat, Volumes One and Two (2002)
• Bas Rutten's Big DVDs of Combat (7 DVD set)
• Bas Rutten's Lethal Street Fighting (2003)
• The Bas Rutten MMA Workout (4 audio CDs and 1 DVD)
• Bas Rutten's Superior Free Fight Techniques

• Official website
• Professional MMA record for Bas Rutten from Sherdog
• Legends Mixed Martial Arts Training Center Official Site
• Bas Rutten at the Internet Movie Database

• The Kingdom of Ultimate Power Trailer

Previous champion Randy Couture

4th UFC Heavyweight Champion May 7, 1999 - stripped

Next champion Kevin Randleman