UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten on Self-Defense, Savage Fight Stories, Breathing Techniques, and More

Bas Rutten recounts his journey from a bullied, eczema- and asthma-ridden Dutch kid inspired by Bruce Lee into a feared fighter in Japan's Pancrase and Pride organizations. He explains Pancrase's unusual rules, his transformation through Catholicism and daily rosary, and his sobriety. The back half is a practical clinic on street self-defense, de-escalation as a bouncer, and his O2 Trainer inspiratory muscle device, which he argues fixes the way 95% of people breathe wrong. Tim, preparing for a high-altitude trip, gets a step-by-step protocol for using it.

• Rutten put a marker 'R' for 'relax' on his hand and told his corner to shout 'relax' during his first Pancrase fight because he feared he couldn't survive a 30-minute round against a much heavier opponent.
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• Pancrase's rope-escape rule meant Rutten's official 14 submissions are really about 51, because opponents could touch the rope to escape a finished submission, which is why the small org produced eight UFC champions.
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• Pride Fighting Championships declined his repeated advice to expand into America; he later learned it was tied to Yakuza money laundering, and after Tokyo TV pulled out the company was sold to the UFC.
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• Rutten describes becoming a devout Catholic who prays the rosary daily and credits reading the Bible with instantly ending his alcoholism after a lifetime of drinking.
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• He recounts the Sweden 'Spy Bar' brawl where bouncers gouged his eyes, he knocked out and hospitalized several, was jailed in a mountain prison, and faced 6-9 months before charges were dropped.
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• Core O2 Trainer claim: lungs have no muscles of their own and only open via chest expansion driven by the diaphragm; training the roughly 11 pounds of breathing muscles stops 'blood stealing' (gassing).
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• Rutten states humans breathe correctly only until about age 5.5 (when school starts), and that after age 29 thoracic flexibility decreases, effectively shrinking the lungs.
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• At age 12 Rutten sneaked into Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon' in France, which set him on the martial arts path to stop being bullied.
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• As a lonely child he hand-raised a wild jackdaw bird that would fly to school and find his classroom to land on him.
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• Before fighting he trained four years as a culinary chef and also worked as a model, quitting cooking after a confrontation with his boss over a bowl of butter.
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• Pancrase scouts partly wanted him because he could stand still and jump over the ring ropes, which they found impressive.
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• He punked his commentary partner Mauro Ranallo by setting up a fake feud with the feared Mirko Cro Cop, and once pretended to taste a fighter's urine sample (it was green tea) on the 'BS Tour.'
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• Mirko Cro Cop crushed Bob Sapp's eye orbit with a punch in a Pride fight; Rutten had advised Sapp to attack the body and knees rather than the load-bearing thighs.
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• Rutten recounts how his instructor Alex Gong was shot and killed chasing a car thief, illustrating his point that you never know who you are dealing with in a street fight.
  01:11:11
• He motion-captured the fights in Grand Theft Auto IV and pioneered hitting real focus mitts during mocap for realism, plus voiced the in-game show 'Men's Room with Bas and Jeremy.'
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• Comedian Joey Diaz connected Rutten with breathing expert Dr. Belisa Vranich, who measured his chest expansion at nearly two inches versus a normal eighth of an inch (breathing IQ of 182 vs. a great score of 100).
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• Over two years Rutten cut the same O2 Trainer setting from 3 minutes 45 seconds to 55 seconds for 30 reps, about a 75% improvement.
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