Friday, 05 June 2009

MMA-KO I would like to introduce myself. I am Devina with MMA-KO and we would like to thank you for coming to MMA-KO 

DS: Oh, your welcome 

MMA-KO Dan you are one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. With a awesome record of 86 Wins and 15 Losses, you are the only man in UFC history to hold the triple crown and you are in the UFC Hall Of Fame!!! How did you originally get into MMA to become the legend you are today? 

DS: Well let me make a few corrections on that, my record is well over 100 matches, Full Contact Fighter, Sherdog, none of those websites even existed & when they did after the UFC was formulated, all they ever did is record was just the UFC matches. I was a professional athlete as of the 92 Olympics & I first started doing professional wrestling which is my real armature credentials & I was quickly going to Japan, after that doing that doing shoot fighter & shoot wrestling which is like a pre cursor to mix martial arts in the United States, so a number of matching in Japan, & then with the UFC that was just one company, but there was a lot of states that did not sanction events so I did a lot of other matches that were just never recorded in any of these various websites & even a couple of  websites have a couple of things wrong, I’m just in the process  of starting to go through year by year & look at the various number of matches that I have just send corrections to some of these websites. So there is only 2 people that might have more matches than me & that’s Travis Fulton & Shannon Decanarich, but if you look at there records, there is no comparison. I started a career at 37 years of age when most would have retired & that’s when  I started it, would record was 7 title belts, I own 18, & I’m probably one of very few heavy weights that can claim life time chemical fitness, & at 60 years of age I can still terrorize young bucks.    

MMA-KO Being at your age and still being able to compete at a high level what type of training do you do to stay in great shape? 

DS: Well you might actually life, to see how much or how little I actually do train, because I really don’t train that much. I’ve been doing this type of competition since 94, before that as of 92 it was Japan, but since 94 in mixed martial arts or no holds barred venture, I’ve only ever held 2 training ever, one for 32 days & one for 35 days & that’s it, the rest of the times I just had to show up. So for UFC number 5 I actually did a training camp & for Ultimate Ultimate I did a training camp, the rest of the time I’ve never held a training camp, I just do what  I normally do & practice & stuff like that & did not do anything special. It works but it all depends on the strength that everyone brings to the ring, I know what my strengths are when I go against people that are more grappling orientated or people who are more striker orientated. 

MMA-KO: If you had your choice to fight anyone in the sport today who would that be? 

DS: Honestly I never did hop into it as an aspect as who did I want to fight, even now I don’t consider myself a fighter I’m a competitor, it’s a whole different mindset, I do not have to create any kind of animosity towards an opposite. To me I’m shaking hands before hand, I’m shake it after, no hard feeling for what’s about to happen, but I’ve never had any rule violations either. You give me the rules I’m pretty good at adapting to them or I can modify things to where it’s not going against the rules but I’m real close. Most times when I go against the young bucks I have to drop the hammer just a little bit faster on them, where as if I was going against someone who is a little older, I’ll take it easy on the old farts. Just to let them know that ya, I’m capable of doing anything I want when I want, don’t rile me up too much. 

MMA-KO When do think you will stop competing in MMA? 

DS: Probably with in the next 2, 2 ½ years tops, I’ve already done everything I’ve needed to do & I would probably continue to do it but I have other business. I’m already formulating what kind of departure note I want to leave out on, is a magical number of matches, no I’m well over a hundred matches, is it a magical number of belts, no I already destroyed the recorded there. What I’m looking at is getting with a company or a couple of different companies & I would like to basically refer to it as no regrets, I don’t have that many losses, I’d like to call out these people for one more chance to dance in the cage & simply call it the No Regrets, Kiss My Ass Tour. 

MMA-KO What was your most exciting win of your career? 

DS: Winning the Ultimate Ultimate, it’s the smallest belt that I own, but it’s the hardest earned one because out of a 2 hour pay per view I was in side of the octagon cage for just over an hour my self between my 3 different opponents, so I represented just over 50 percent of a pay per view, that was a different time of no holds barred where you only had to abide by 2 basic rules, do not bite you're opponent, do not poke them in the eyes. It was the first time they had even imposed time limits, but the time limits were still quit loose, they did not want to eclipse the actual pay per view time, and that was first time they even aloud gloves, so it was a whole different era, it was just starting to metamorph in to mix martial arts that it is today. 

MMA-KO How did the nickname the” BEAST” come about? 

DS: It was given to me by Jim Brown, legendary football player for the Cleveland Browns, he one of the commentators, & he said I’m kind of like Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, nicest guy on the outside, but he says boy can you ever turn it on, & he even asked me, how’d you that, & I almost got giddy having someone like Jim Brown ask me something like that, because I use to watch Jim Brown when I was a kid, & he didn’t just run around people he use to run over people, he had such incredible yardage running records, & retired at such a young age, had he played just a few more years he would have put those records so high no one would have ever touched. If you can get your ring name from someone of that magnitude  to me that means something. 

MMA-KO You beat Forrest Griffin early in his career, What do you think of what he has accomplished now? And what do you think his chances are vs. Rampage Jackson July 5 for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship? 

DS: Oh I think he’s chances are very good, I’ll put it like this I’m glad I faced him early in his career. He has a great deal of git & fortitude. A lot of people get hit once or twice & they go into that fight mode, they don’t want to engage at that moment in time, & I think they’re just going to wake up the competitive spirit in him, he just a big grin on his face, almost like he’s enjoying it, almost like it puts him in the next gear up. 

MMA-KO What do you think of the MMA industry today compared to the 90’s when you were you were competing in the UFC? 

DS: There’s really almost no comparison, the audience that follows it now as opposed to then, it was viewed upon by legislators & athletics commissions, they were trying to get rid of this, it was looked down upon, Barbara Walters her self did a story about it, her closing comments were “The decline of civilization as we know it”, well that might be an outsider who doesn’t know anything about it perspective. Competition is as old as the people who walk this planet, even now when I saw this, I thought this is quit the product & if it could survive it will become one of the most popular products ever. I had a meeting at one point in time with Art Door, he was the creator of the tough man contest he lives up there in Bay City Michigan, & he was on FX station at that time, this was before Pride company ever existed, & at my meeting with Art I said “Art, let me put just one no holds barred match in side the same ring as your touch man competition, & watch the audience just go nuts watching this new product know as no hold barred” but things were going a little too good for him at the time & he declined it, only a few years later & want to get into it but it was too late because now you’ve already got a product out there on Spike television. Had he hopped on there at the time people would be saying UFC who? He would have been years ahead of them with television exposure. 

MMA KO: What was your most powerful moment ever in a fight? 

DS: I’ve never been asked that question, let’s put it this way, powerful it may not be, but knowing I could have taken someone’s life, I had a match with Old Edger Zurlof, our very first encounter, I had him all balled up against the fence & I’m raining down with my knee on his forehead, I had cut him up so bad blood was flowing off his forehead, it had filled both his eye sockets to where he couldn’t see, I could have rained down with knees & he wouldn’t have seen them coming in, I stopped 3 times in the course of the match & looked up at the referee & like why is this match continuing. This man could not protect him self, I’m doing what ever I want when ever I want, & there’s was one point in time where he turned he’s sideways to let the blood run down the corner of his eye, exposing his temple, & the plate of the temple is the thinnest part of the skull, I weight 250, 265lbs & it came to my mind, drop the knee now, but I couldn’t do that, cuz I’m a competitor, but I knew that I might have killed him with one impact, but I couldn’t do that, so that was a choice I made in a match. The only person I’ve actually abused in a match was Tank Abbot, more because he deserves it. 

MM-KO: Tell us one thing about yourself that your fans wouldn’t suspect? 

DS: Part of my way of relaxation is I go out & do yard work, I’ve planted over 2,000 hedges around my property, I have professional hedge clippers, I have a fruit orchard, I have 20 some odd trees, a grape harbor, I actually put in a garden, sweet corn, pumpkins, when my family was younger it was a way to teach them that what you put in you get out. 

MMA-KO: Anything you like to say in closing 

DS: If you want to know anything more about “The Beast” go to DanSevern.com, you’ll see all the different things I do in the name of education, in the name of competition, & what I’ll be doing here as I close my MMA career, other aspects will open up. 

MMA-KO: On behalf of MMA KO, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview it was a honor 

DS: Well Devina you are more welcome, maybe we’ll do a wrap up in a couple of years.

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