– Is it straight? – Oh, now, yeah! – Can you fix this part? – Okay, got it.
– Okay right. – What's up? I'm Jesse from KARATEbyJesse.com,
aka The Karate Nerd, and today I am joined by the one and only Sensei Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. Thank you so much Sensei for joining us today.
– Thank you sir, my pleasure. – So, what many people
might not know is that you were actually the commentator
of the very first UFC fightl.
– Yes Could you take us there,
bring us behind the scenes and tell us what actually went
on in the early beginnings of the UFC. – What happened is Rorion
Gracie, the father, calls me up and he says, "Bill, we would
like you to commentate at "our first, you know,
fighting championships." – Yeah. – And I went, "Whoa, well, yeah
I could do that, no problem. "I don't think it's gonna go well, "because the martial artists are not in, "they like the kickboxing part of it, "but they didn't like
the grappling part of it, "and so sure, I'll do that, "'cause you're paying me a lot of money." – Okay, yeah.
– So, I go and I show
up, I'm with Jim Brown, the American Football
player, and Kathy Long, who was also a lady kickboxer. – Yeah. – So, we're sittin' there,
we're going over it, now, there's no pre runs
or anything, we're just, I get there on Friday and the
thing happens on Saturday. So they have the meeting
and there are no rules, the two rules were: you
can't stick your fingers in a guys' eye and you
can't kick him in the groin. – Right. – That's the two rules. I went, okay. – Interesting.
– Yup yup. And, the participants
could not wear hand wraps. – No. – Could not wear leg wraps,
and just like it was.
They had to wear a mouthpiece 'cause– – Okay. – It protects the teeth. – Groin cup? – Yeah.
– Okay. – And when the fights happened,
I'd have a guy sitting beside me, from the Gracie
Jiu-jitsu, telling me what to say about the Gracie's. – Oh right. – So it's to push the Gracie's. So basically I'm thinking oh, something doesn't sound right here. Seems to me like it's a
two hour advertisement for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, which
is what it turned out to be. I mean, Royce did a fantastic
job, don't get me wrong, He didn't punch anybody,
– No. – He didn't kick anybody,
– No. – He just got 'em down,
took 'em down with a double every time was a double leg
takedown, and he choked 'em out.
– No one barged, choked all of 'em out. And the first time I said, "Okay," and I think it was Royce's second
match against Ken Shamrock. – Yeah. – They're fighting and
Ken Shamrock jumped in for a double leg takedown.
– Yeah. – And Royce reaches under his
belt and grabs his own belt. – Right.
– And chokes Ken Shamrock out. – Okay.
– Ken Shamrock chokes. – Yeah, yeah.
– Taps out. They get up, "You can't do
that, you can't do that!" and finding out was Ken
Shamrock accused him, which is rightfully so,
– Yeah.
– That you can't reach
under, grab the belt, – Okay.
– And choke me out with your own belt.
– Yeah. – Well yes you can because, as we know in martial arts training,
– Yeah. – Our uniform is also a weapon. – Right, so that was allowed
according to the rules? – Yeah, Ken Shamrock wasn't
for it, he was upset. – Right.
– But he lost. – Right. – And then, you know, then
Royce just went through their belts, choking everybody out. – Right.
– Behind him, choke out. – Yeah. – But just, you know, choking out. – Exactly. So are you saying they kind
of organized this thing? I don't want to say it's
a conspiracy theory but– – No it wasn't, it just– – Was it like a marketing stunt, almost? – I guess you could say that.
– For the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu system? – Oh sure.
– Yeah. – 'Cause they pick the fighters. – Oh really? – Rorion Gracie picked the fighters. – So they probably picked
fighters that would look good against Brazilian.
– Of course they would. – Because you've got the
stand-up, the hands are here. – Right.
– How easy now is it for you to drop down into your double leg takedown?
– Double, yeah. – 'Cause they've never seen it before. – They had never seen
that takedown before. – They're stand-up fighters.
– Exactly. – So they have no idea
how to even react to it.
The boxer didn't even throw a punch. (Jesse laughs) The boxer never threw a punch. – They're just shooting
for the double leg. – (mumbles) Took him down and that was it. And what I don't understand too is that they had a big sumo wrestler.
– Oh yeah, right. – Excuse me. (Jesse laughs) What's the job of a sumo wrestler? To push you out of a
circle about this size. – Right.
– I push you out, I win. He doesn't know how to strike. – No.
– He doesn't know how to kick. – No.
– He doesn't know how to choke or arm bar, he just
pushed you out of a ring. It's a closed ring, you
can't get out of there. – Right.
– So what are you gonna do, push him against a wall until
he suffocates or something? (Jesse laughs) And I'm sure that's what he
wanted to do, get him down, lay on top of him.
– Yeah, yeah.
– So what happens is this
kid from the Netherlands. – Yeah.
– Just nails him. He comes in (mumbles) the
guy drops down to his knees. – Yeah.
– And the guy from the Netherlands, I can't
remember his name, just nails him right in the face with a roundhouse kick. – Right.
– And a tooth goes flying over my head.
– Oh! – I went (mumbles) then he steps down and the kid's still sitting there. Punches him right in the mouth. Now, the kid from the
Netherlands broke his foot, – Really?
– And then broke his hand on the kid's face.
– Oh! – But they stopped the match.
– Yeah.
– Now, I don't know why
because he wasn't hurt, bleeding a little bit, but he wasn't hurt. The guy was 350 or should
be 400 and something pounds. Hell, this guy is like a log! (Jesse chuckles) So he wasn't hurt, he said,
"Why are you stopping the fight? "Why are you stopping?" Only because he knocked a tooth out.
But he was okay.
– Yeah. – So there's another conspiracy. – Right.
– Because now you're saying, just a minute.
– Right. – If this guy can hit this
guy with his best shot, two best shots, and nothing
happened, what happened? How's Royce gonna take him down? – Oh!
– Royce is gonna get dropped down for the double leg.
– Yeah. – Or he just fans out on his back. (choking noises) Now he, Royce is on his
stomach flattened out, this guy is going.
– Yeah. (choking noises) – So they wanted him out?
– Sure. – Yeah. – And then one of the guys
who was a really good boxer, really good puncher, asked
him not to use the smoke because he had asthma.
– Okay. – So they used the smoke anyway. We're coming out there, 'bout
halfway through the match (heaving noises) – Oh, so like smoke machines?
– Sure.
They go, now hold on just a minute. (Jesse laughs) What the hell's going on here? (stutters) So there's eight guys, which
means there's seven fights. – Yeah.
– Right. Four, two, then one right?
– Right. – And you go, okay what
the heck's going on here? But I never thought it would
be as popular as it was. – No?
– No, I never did. – How come? – Because the first time
I saw it I didn't like it. – No?
– The first time I saw it I said, "What, that's bull!" Because, number one,
Royce never threw a kick. He threw one kick to keep
the guy away from him. Never threw a punch, just
standing there like this. Drops down, and Gracie was
the only one, the only one that was allowed to wear a uniform. The other guys couldn't
even wrap their hands, but he was allowed to go in the uniform.
– So when they couldn't wrap
their hands, they can barely punch full contact?
– Exactly. And you got guys that, because you're, "Oh I want to wrap my knees." "No you can't wrap your knees." But Royce is allowed to
wear all that stuff, yes. So, you go, hold on, what,
I don't understand this. And I think the reason
I wasn't invited back, one of the reasons because
there are several– – Oh, so you were not invited back? – No.
I asked too many questions. (Jesse laughs) I said: "Why don't you have
a regular wrestler there?" A wrestler that knows
how to defend against– – Oh, there was no wrestler? – Nope. There was six strikers, strikers, Royce and the sumo wrestler. – So it sounds to me like
it was basically set up for a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. – Yeah, I mean don't get me wrong, they all had their chance to win.
– Sure. – But Royce knows how to defend that. But this is 1993. – And they didn't know how to defend that. – They didn't know how to
defend against a takedown. Even though you say, "Well I've
practiced," no you haven't. Not against a guy that knows
how to do the takedown. – Yeah, exactly. – So, Royce was the reason,
the first one he won, the second one he won,
the third one where they changed the rules a little
bit because the time, it was taking too long.
– Ah, I see. – And on the third one he
had the Grand Championship Master between Ken Shamrock and
Royce, rematch it might say. Shamrock shot him with a
punch right here, split him wide open, but it didn't do anything, all it did was cut him and so
they finally called it a draw because it was … – But that's how Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu became so famous! Because it looked so effective. – Well, they keep saying most
fights end up on the ground. – Yeah, I hear that all the time.
– Well all fights start standing up. – That's true. – All fights start standing,
so if I stand up and I'm from me to her, she's gotta
come close to me before she can do anything,
before she can punch me, before she can kick me, before
she can do a takedown, right? – Exactly. – That gives me the chance to counter. Well, they're not used to that because if I'm standing right here
and I do this, you've got to put your hands up and I drop
ready for the double leg.
That's what they do and the
stand-up fighters, naive, that they are, they
say, "Well when he stops "then I'll just punch him in the mouth." No you won't, because I'll do this first. You put your hands up
and then I'll drop down. – Yeah, exactly. Well it worked very well
because now Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one of the world's largest,
most popular martial arts. – But what did they have to do? They had to learn to strike. Because remember, we learned
how to defend against it. – Exactly. – So they had to learn how
to strike to get in there. – Especially against a wrestler who knows the double leg takedown,
who knows the defense. – In wrestling the double leg is the first takedown you're taught. It's also the first takedown
you learn to defend. – Imagine if a wrestler had
been invited to the first UFC.
– Imagine that, imagine. – And if that wrestler knew
a little bit of striking so he could do ground
and pound, for example. – Imagine that. – Maybe the whole martial arts
world would look different. – Imagine that. (Jesse laughs) – Wow. – They're in the process now of even trying to get rid of
wrestling in the Olympics. – Oh is that so?
– Yeah. It was the very first one, it was in the very first Olympics
back in somebody AD.
So think about this. If they want to get rid of
wrestling, then how many people will not be using wrestling techniques but the Gracie's still will. – Exactly. So you could say they have
something of an unfair advantage. – Well, no, they know what they're doing. They know how to work the
chokes, they know how to work the arm bars, they know how
to work, most of them now have learnt the striking aspect of it. – Yeah, exactly.
– The speed aspect of it. – And they manage to combine that. – And they don't mind you
taking them down because now even though you're on top
I'm in the on guard position to where I've got my legs wrapped
around you and pretty soon you get frustrated, you
reach, I get the arm. You reach, I get the neck. (background shouting) (Jesse chuckles) So what happens is UFC now. – Exactly. So what do you think,
looking at the first UFC to all the way, looking
at the evolution of it, comparing that to today. – Oh it's 100% different. – It is?
– Sure. Because the rules have changed.
Now there are rules, before
there were none, remember? Now, it's a funny thing,
that if I'm on the ground I can kick you in the face
but you can't kick me at all. – Exactly. (chuckles) – You can't punch me in
the back of the head. Why? – One might argue that those rules favor a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. – Shame on you Jesse!
(Jesse laughs) You shouldn't talk like
that, but again it's the, and I hate to use the term
sport of it, you know. I mean, it's like two
gladiators out there fighting. Except this time, hopefully,
the loser doesn't die. – Exactly, yeah. – I don't like to watch it because I hate that term ground and pound. Think about it, ground and
pound, what does that say to you? You get a guy on the ground, you beat him until he says: "I quit." Well, that doesn't even
happen out on the street.
There's gonna be somebody
who's gonna pull you off. I don't know, just me,
I like to kick people. (laughter) – All right, thank you so much Sensei. – Thank you. – For sharing that amazing….
