IFL Names Bas Rutten Vice President

[Dirty Fighter]

Found this little nugget hiding in Gygax's siggy.

IFL Names Bas Rutten Vice President - MMA on Tap

NEW YORK - The International Fight League today announced the latest step in its reorganization heading into the 2008 season, naming Mixed Martial Arts legend Sebastian ‘“Bas’” Rutten to the newly-created position of Vice President, Fighter Operations.

Photo courtesy of IFL.
Rutten, who has been with the IFL since its inception as a coach and commentator, will oversee the contact between the IFL, its current athletes and other athletes in the sport, as well as working to create potential future matchups and cards both internally and with other organizations. He will report directly to IFL CEO Jay Larkin. The 42 year old Dutchman competed professionally for over 20 years in various MMA disciplines, and was a three time champion in Pancrase (the Japanese precursor to what is now MMA) as well as holding the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight title.
He became interested in martial arts when he was 14 after seeing the Bruce Lee classic film “Enter the Dragon,” and began taking up Tae Kwon Do and other forms of karate. He had had skin problems and asthma as a youngster in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and martial arts became an excellent outlet for his growing athletic ability.
His professional career began with Pancrase, the upstart Japanese fighting organization in 1993 and he rose through the ranks to take his first “King of Pancrase” title in 1995, defeating Minoru Suzuki. He defended the title twice and ended his Pancrase career with 19 straight wins.
In 1998, Rutten signed with the UFC, taking the heavyweight title from Kevin Randleman in just his second bout. He vacated the title later in the year in order to drop down to his natural middleweight category, but a series of serious injuries forced him to retire. In July 2006 he made one more come back, he defeated his opponent Ruben Villareal by way of leg kicks in the first round and finished his career with 22 straight wins.
Following his retirement, Rutten moved on to coaching, acting and broadcasting, landing roles on TV shows like “Martial Law,” and “The King of Queens,” as well as three movies, “The Eliminator,” “The Vault” and “The Kingdom of Ultimate Power.” He was also the color commentator on PRIDE’s Fighting Championship events, where his sense of humor and intimate knowledge of the sport immediately made him a fan favorite. He has also produced four DVD’s on workouts and techniques and written two books, Bas Rutten’s Big Books of Combat.
Bas, who uses the nickname “El Guapo” (named after the villain in the comedy The Three Amigos) has been with the IFL as one of its founding coaches, most recently training and coaching IFL standouts like current welterweight champion Jay Hieron, Chris Horodecki, Benji Radach and Alex Schoenauer, and rising MMA legend Kimbo Slice, among others.
He has also been the face of the IFL on television, teaming with Kenny Rice on IFL broadcasts on FSN, MyNetworkTV and HDNet that have been seen in over 200 countries worldwide in 2007. He is also the co-host of “Inside MMA” with Rice, a role which he will continue. Rutten also owns two gyms in the Los Angeles area and is one of the top trainers for many of Hollywood’s elite.
Rutten lives and trains in Los Angeles with his wife and has three daughters.

[Crashsti]

The IFL seems to really have the support from the fighters both active and retired. I don't understand why they're not creating more buzz in the industry?

[subgenius]

I think that the IFL needs to revamp itself. I see that they added in titles for weight classes. (Or did I misunderstand that?) I think they should keep the idea of a tournament format.

But, I think that they should abandon the team versus team concept at event and drop the idea of a season. I don't mind teams of fighters, but maybe they should do it like NASCAR and have teams of fighters that fight all year for team points as well as individual accomplishments.

I don't know. Whatever. The current IFL set-up is not gripping me or holding my attention as well as it first did. I like individual aspects of the promotion and individual fighters, but the team stuff just does not work well for me.

I am glad that Bas Rutten is now the VP.

[Crashsti]

I am pretty sure that the IFL does plan to do things differently this year. Not abandoned the team concept but in other ways. They did indeed have an individuals tourney at the end of last season for titles. So you could've won all your fights and not won as a team and still have a chance at some glory. With Bas having more say in the promotions day to day operations we may see something differant.

[T-Bone]

Originally Posted by subgenius

I think that the IFL needs to revamp itself. I see that they added in titles for weight classes. (Or did I misunderstand that?) I think they should keep the idea of a tournament format.

But, I think that they should abandon the team versus team concept at event and drop the idea of a season. I don't mind teams of fighters, but maybe they should do it like NASCAR and have teams of fighters that fight all year for team points as well as individual accomplishments.

I don't know. Whatever. The current IFL set-up is not gripping me or holding my attention as well as it first did. I like individual aspects of the promotion and individual fighters, but the team stuff just does not work well for me.

I am glad that Bas Rutten is now the VP.

I'm not a huge fan of the team v. team concept either but I recently read that they're moving to a camp v. camp set up (I think we both like that) and at the same time focusing on individual title fights.

Bas is great!

[Gygax]

First off, hiring the shrewd Rutten is an extreme positive for the organization. I have a feeling this is in part due to the previous hiring last year of Jay Larkin as VP. The guy is brilliant and knows his way around the sports business with an extensive background in television and boxing. If the IFL can be saved, Larkin is just the guy who can do it. He's that good.

The IFL has a lot of problems. They knew the team concept was going to be hard to sell and it has been. As one of the changes this year, the city affiliations have been replaced by fight team designations. For instance, it won't be the New York Pitbulls this year, instead it will be something like the Renzo Gracie team. The Lions Den, Miletich, Team Quest and Xtreme Couture have already signed on. The weird thing is, the team concept with a place affiliated was finally getting over with the fans at the live events. At the semis last year in NJ, the New York team had alot more fans simply because of the local team name. But selling that concept on the TV shows was pitiful and thus the change.

For hardcore MMA fans, we understand the history behind the cage vs ring debate. But for all the newbie fans, MMA is supposed to take place in a cage in their eyes. I don't want to turn this into a cage vs ring debate, just saying how newer fans view the cage.

For regular season fights, the rounds are 4 minutes instead of the normal 5. IMO, this hurts the promotion, but that's just me.

The IFL really has a good amount of young talent, better than the more accepted EliteXC. But their other shortcomings has hurt their product.

The financials of this company are the most worrisome, another reason why many on the industry have not bought in as they worry about how long the brand will be around. In December 2006, after a piece on the IFL was broadcast on 60 minutes, the IFL stock went to $17 a share. As of 10 minutes ago, the IFL stock is at $.105 a share. It doesn't take a rocket scince to see how bad that is.

The company has leaked a very aggressive schedule for the coming year and I hope they make it, especially considering they'll be in the NY area 3 times this year off their successful Semi-finals show here last August. But they are going to have a fight to survive. I'm hoping they do.

[subgenius]

Very well put, Gygax. I like the idea of a ring, but I like the idea of a cage more. I also like the idea of five minute rounds. I hope that the IFL takes off in 2008. As a publically traded company they seem to hang it out there far more than the UFC when it comes to money matters.

But, one of my bigger complaints about the IFL has been their lackluster approach to the TV aspect of their marketing. Maybe I am being overly harsh, but their house shows on MyTV and FSN have not been all that impressive by way of production values and time alloted.

It would help the IFL if they found a strong time slot in the week during primetime. Give the show two hours to display the product properly. And, they need to get off of MyTV and other lesser cable networks. They need to get their product on a single TV station that has a history of sports and a larger audience. (Ted Turner? TBS? TNT?)

[Crashsti]

Originally Posted by subgenius

Very well put, Gygax. I like the idea of a ring, but I like the idea of a cage more. I also like the idea of five minute rounds. I hope that the IFL takes off in 2008. As a publically traded company they seem to hang it out there far more than the UFC when it comes to money matters.

But, one of my bigger complaints about the IFL has been their lackluster approach to the TV aspect of their marketing. Maybe I am being overly harsh, but their house shows on MyTV and FSN have not been all that impressive by way of production values and time alloted.

It would help the IFL if they found a strong time slot in the week during primetime. Give the show two hours to display the product properly. And, they need to get off of MyTV and other lesser cable networks. They need to get their product on a single TV station that has a history of sports and a larger audience. (Ted Turner? TBS? TNT?)

Ted Turner are you listening!? seems like more his style to buy an already established organization and pump money into marketing it.

[lwbfl]

I've been talking to former IFL fighter Josh Odom (Tallahassee MMA) and they've also lost several fighters and coaches (including his coach Frank Shamrock). The reason Josh left them is that you can no longer choose what team to try our for, as they will be assigned by the IFL. He's from Tallahassee, has his own school, and doesn't want to move to Canada.