Bas Rutten News

Tom Taylor - May 30, 2019

Earlier this week, former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks — one of many fighters not to be paid by World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) last fall — implied that former WBKFF president Bas Rutten likely knew something about the promotion’s dicey finances.  “Dude, why didn’t you tell us? He had to have known something,” Hendricks told Bloody Elbow‘s Pull No Punches podcast recently (transcript via MMA News). “He had to have. Was he sitting here thinking along the same line as that guy… Why hasn’t he said anything? It sucks, the whole aspect of it.”

Tom Taylor - May 28, 2019

Former UFC welterweight champ Johny Hendricks was one of many fighters not to get paid by the now defunct bare knuckle fighting promotion WBKFF in late 2018. He’s understandably not happy that he ever got paid for his efforts in the ring. Furthermore, Hendricks has some questions for former WBKFF president Bas Rutten. Rutten claimed to have no previous knowledge of WBKFF’s sketchy finances, and also claimed that he believed WBKFF founder Tom Stankiewicz would eventually pay the fighters he owed money too.

Tom Taylor - March 7, 2019

Conor McGregor has recently been traveling across the United States. During his travels, he’s popped into a number of notable gyms — including the home base of former UFC heavyweight champion Bas Rutten. Speaking on Submission Radio recently, Bas Rutten detailed what sounds like a pleasant visit with the international superstar Conor McGregor, and explained how the Irishman comports himself in the rare moments when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Tom Taylor - February 17, 2019

Although Conor McGregor is known for his venomous pre-fight trash talk, he is always quick to pay respect to the MMA legends that preceded him. Speaking on Instagram over the weekend, the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion did just that, heaping praise on former UFC heavyweight champ and MMA pioneer Bas Rutten. He even credited Rutten with inspiring some of the techniques he used in his recent fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Tom Taylor - November 16, 2018

Last weekend, World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) hosted its first event. The sans gloves card, which went down in Casper, Wyoming, was headlined by a middleweight scrap between UFC veterans Chris Leben and Phil Baroni, and also featured a showdown between former UFC welterweight champ Johny Hendricks and Dakota Cochrane. Originally, this inaugural WBKFF card was supposed to include quite a few other big names, such as former NFL player Shawne Merriman and former Bellator star Brennan War. Unfortunately, both of these stars withdrew from the card citing contract issues — which was certainly not a good look for the upstart bare knuckle promotion.

Drake Riggs - August 10, 2018

Mixed martial arts is a very complex sport. When broken down and the layers are peeled back, all techniques come from someone or something. Every punch, every kick, every takedown… Anything that a coach has taught a fighter, that coach has been taught by their coach and so on. It then continues through the fighter and on and on.

Drake Riggs - May 4, 2018

When it comes to MMA legends, there are few quite like the former UFC heavyweight champion, ‘El Guapo’ Bas Rutten. Rutten captured the hearts of many throughout his mesmerizing run from 1993 to 1999 in Pancrase and the UFC as well as his super fun self-defense videos and commentary for PRIDE FC that followed his competitive career.

Justin Golightly - December 1, 2017

Tonight we have The Ultimate Fighter 26 finale, but tomorrow is UFC 218 which is stacked with ridiculous fights. Sandwiched between the main event between Max Holloway and Jose Aldo and the violent scrap of Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez, will be an slobberknocker between Alistair Overeem and Francis Ngannou. It will be a battle between a calculated veteran and a young, explosive contender. Absolute MMA legend Bas Rutten does an in-depth breakdown the heavyweight match-up. “We know [Francis Ngannou] can hit, but if you look at his record, yes, he’s 10-0, he’s never been finished, but in the UFC – and I’m not taking away from anybody, everybody in the UFC is good, but if you look at the records that they have, the guys he’s fighting, these are not guys that [Alistair] Overeem fought. Overeem fought literally the top guys on the planet in kickboxing and in mixed martial arts, so he fought the better competition. And that’s the only thing I’m concerned about. Trust me, Ngannou, when he connects, it could be over because we know that Overeem doesn’t have the strongest chin for heavyweight, and he’s got an incredible punching power. […] If Overeem goes back to the way he was fighting when he did really well, and that is keeping in mind that his chin is not the strongest and that means single shots, not single kicks, single shots, you have one hand at the defense at all times, then I think he might win this fight. But the killer is here, does he get hit? He only needs to get hit once against a guy like Ngannou because he’s got so much power.”

Tom Taylor - April 2, 2017

Though nothing is confirmed just yet, it’s very possible that new UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie’s first title defense could be against destructive MMA superstar Cris “Cyborg” Justino. If this is indeed the way things unfold, De Randamie will likely enter the fight as a substantial underdog. According to beloved  MMA veteran Bas Rutten, however, De Randamie should not be discounted in this potential title fight. On a recent episode of The MMA Hour, the fighter-turned-commentator explained that he was impressed by De Randamie in her title-winning defeat of Holly Holm, and that he believes she stands a good chance against Cyborg.

bjpenndotcom - January 13, 2017

In June of 2016, during the UFC 199 broadcast, the UFC announced that former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar would be returning to the Octagon at UFC 200 in July to fight Mark Hunt, nearly 5 years after his last Octagon appearance. At the time of the announcement six months ago, no one could have guessed that the announcement of Lesnar’s return would result in a controversy that would still continue to this day. Leading up to the scrap, Lesnar was given an exemption from the first 3 months of random USADA drug testing. When USADA was able to test Lesnar, they did so numerous times in the span of just a few weeks. While there had been no reports of failed drug tests, it wasn’t until after Lesnar defeated Hunt that it was announced that Lesnar had failed a pre-fight, and fight night, drug test.

bjpenndotcom - October 7, 2016

Tomorrow night in Manchester, England, MMA veterans Vitor Belfort and Gegard Mousasi will step into the Octagon in the co-main event of UFC 204. Interestingly enough, while this is the first time the pair will step into the cage together, it isn’t the first time they have been booked to fight. Back in 2009, Affliction planned on hosting their third fight card, which was planned to play host to a scrap between Mousasi and Belfort, however the fight card was ultimately cancelled, and the promotion folded.

bjpenndotcom - June 25, 2016

On Inside MMA, Bas Rutten and Josh Barnett decided to have some fun and act out several super fights in hilarious ways.