Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6fm2JCrlMo
The jogan Experience what is the state of Japanese MMA now it was gigantic for a while when sakuraba was Big when you were huge when Pride was filling 990,000 seat Arenas huge it was like nothing else yeah it's like I I experienced 60,000 at Rogers in in Canada when George St Pierre fought Jake Shields I couldn't imagine 30 more thousand people there but but you were there for that yeah oh yeah it was awesome I mean if that was a 10 and before I may actually came out when they only had panas and that was a one it's had like a four right now what happened it's Yakuza involvement I mean the thing that people don't realize is in Japan everything is yaku's involvement every big company every big promotion Sho Char to say they they never get yaku Yakuza involvement but they're they're they're backed by sumiyoshi which is the second largest group in Japan you know so everyone has Yakuza connections any big Coca-Cola company Johnson and Johnson any company has Yakuza connections why wow but it's not public so say if Coca-Cola goes over there and they open up a plant in Japan they must go through the Yakuza they'll have bad connections yes definitely how do they negotiate that well it's it's it's really easy it's it's it's a um it's a Turf thing it's a if you know somebody it's it's it's a percentage you pay it's it's it's a pretty given thing it's almost like like taxes wow yeah pink taxes it's accepted across accepted it's accepted that's why it's it's funny how when it became public everyone it got really bad because it's it's a weird thing it's accepted but it's frowned upon it's something that they know they need to be a part of in society but they don't want to make it public because the Yakuza has does have a bad name that was the only place where I've ever been where they asked me to cover up my tattoos yeah yeah that was weird that's why I don't have I try to keep them out from my sleeve so it comes up from there but after that I stop because I don't want to walk around and you know be kicked out of places you know I just got denied to go in a hotel like last week when I was in Japan really yeah because of my tattoos with the neck is that what it is yeah they saw the neck they s the neck so if I wear a hoodie it covers it up so it helps but yeah I got uh I got kicked out of a gym they made me go put
a long sleeve shirt on yeah the gyms even big gyms like Gold's Gym won't let you in that's crazy yeah what does it represent to Japanese it represents the underworld gangsters and you know they you got to figure when you have a g a gang there's two or three top men those men are awesome people and then you got the rest of the hundreds and thousands that are punks and that's ones that you see so basically a gangster someone with tattoos which equals Yakuza would mean trouble and they would if you go into a sports gym and you're working out next to a guy and you know you're you're working out and say you take his weights by accident cuz he's in the middle of a set and if you're doing it to someone that's a normal person he'll just say hey I was using those weights oh sorry okay well it might be different for the Yakuza and people would rather not work out in the area if there's a Yakuza guy working out there so it's a bad rap I mean it's just justifiable though I can understand that the UFC when they went in and bought Pride it's kind of a crazy story but they paid $65 million they bought pride and they thought you know hey we're going to run Pride as well as the UFC like the same way they did with Strike Force when they bought Strike Force they kept Strike Force going for years they thought they were going to do that but while it turned out all their contracts were illegal they really didn't have anybody under contract they spent $65 million and all they really got was a video library and then while they had offices in Japan and they were hiring these people and paying for them they were starting up dream they were starting up their own organization organizing everything and yeah and then you know the UFC it took years before they could come back and and do a UFC there they took it took a long time I heard Dan was getting like some like underworld threats and you know was he yeah that's what I heard I S I sent Dana email on that because if anything I have a lot of pull in that side and I told him that if you have any problems with that I can help you what would he have to do come to you and then you go to them I got really respected in that world so um I could I if I don't know the person directly I have guys that know him so if he had any type of problem I still it still stands still
today if Dana has any type of Underworld problems there if he calls me I'll take care of it for him it's interesting that there's such an underworld presence in Japan because it seems so safe when you're there everything is so people are so polite and you don't see violence you don't see like you see drunk people walk into the street no one hurts them every everyone's fine the girls walk down dark lanes and it's okay yeah it's a strange sort of you know contrast well yeah it's it's almost like you just have bad areas like in Shinjuku they have over 300 yagua offices there rongi only has three wow yeah so you got these their districts that they're accumulated in they have offices they have offices yeah the mafia doesn't have office yeah see that's the thing you know like like for me I guess I grew up in America so for me the mafia just scares me way more I mean I I have this image that you screw at the mafia you better change your name you better move and you better hide who your family is and you better get the hell out of just disappear but when you get in trouble with the Yakuza um I've been in trouble with them before and it's it's it's like you can kind of pretty much deal with them the way you want to deal with them you know it depends on how much you're willing to sacrifice yeah and for me what was your issue with them um there was one with with kid um when when I this guy this yaku guy wanted to open up a gym and I agreed to open up a gym with him called pure bread Tokyo killerby and I just told him that the only thing you have to do is you have to hire two of my Fighters so they can make a living through fighting and I want to help them out I want no money you can use my name of my gym but you have to hire my two fighters they hired kid and they hired Ryan Bull and those was the two fighters and everything was good and what happened was kid started um I guess from the influence of his father he started being the Loyalty issue on him was getting was wavering where he wasn't telling me stuff he was hiding stuff he was lying to me and then I put that Yakuza in charge of him that ran the gym so I told him I called him and said what what's going on man you got to take care of it he go I'll take care of it I'll take care of he's told me that and it got to a point he didn't take care of it
so I called him and I was pissed already by now and I called him and said you know what call me he avoided my calls for three days so three three three weeks and I'm sitting there this guy's running from me I'm thinking this is ridiculous so I okay this guy's running for me I'm not going to look for him I'm going to he's going to pop up these guys that try to run they pop up all the time you know so I'm sitting there watching the Uno kid fight and kid wins the fight and this guy's in the ring jumping and hugging him and think mother the [ __ ] this guy's hiding from me he's on national TV hugging me saying hey andon I'm here so like this is it so I called my students I to find out where the Afterparty is but went out to the after party and I was literally going to walk in there grab that guy by the hair and pull him out of the party but my students felt it was going to be a problem it was going to make too much commotion cops are going to be called so they decided to get him in they brought him up and brought him to the park and pretty much beat him for like 20 minutes which is something you shouldn't do in Japan because in the Yakuza World they work by face they work by being tough being scary to collect money and stuff and if you got all they got a black ey and bruises on their faces kind of goes against the fact that they're tough people you know so I beat them up pretty bad and um I did but see the thing is I I never did pick on anyone I never did do anything without a reason and I I believe that I would die for my beliefs tomorrow and I believe that I was right and this guy really deserved that [ __ ] so if they didn't like it if the C top guys didn't like it then they can they know where to find me and so what happened was it was going on for 20 minutes and when I went down I let people some people some my friends know and they were all worried so they made calls and we had two other Yakuza guys come down to the scene to to try and stop me to kind of getting me between not stop me physically but to to to ask for forgiveness for this guy and they're kind of like Bowing in the middle of me and the guy and I'm getting around and just just giving him wax at a time and when he if he were to fall from a hit I'd grab and stand him right back up oh [ __ ] yeah so it's kind of getting Brut
he was all bloody and then um these guys were kind of my friends too so they they weren't going to get involved but they're trying to stop me from going too far mhm and when we there's this old lady you know how you have the old ladies in the neighborhood that don't give a [ __ ] who you are she this lady comes on starts screaming at us you're making too much noise and one of the J gets on the lady and I say no no hey man don't do that man let's go so we moved over to the next part and as we're moving over to the next part like three freaking monkeys this guy guys higher up find out what's happening and come out and they're walking up like these you know like the movies like they're walking through I it was funny because I call them monkeys because that they're walking through bushes I saw them walking through the trees and they came out I like oh [ __ ] these are the guys these are like the hotthead guys and they came up to me and they're screaming in Japanese to me oh you we're going to hurt you now because you hurt our brother and then some of my guys came and held him back and I was like okay wait a minute um if it's going to happen it's got to happen now so I told my guys let them go I said let him go I said I just want to say one thing to you guys and they they they came up and they're all they you know they got this stance and they're all mad at me and look him and I'm looking at I say I got one thing to do if I got one thing to say if I say that you don't like it we can have it out I said I'm ready to die tonight and then this guy goes okay and I so I tell him okay if someone [ __ ] you over I said you wanted to punish him wouldn't that be fair he goes yes but look what you did to him look at him look at he's all bloody he's standing here all bloody you know and and I said well you know what let's put it this way let's ask you one question if to kill him with my hands how how fast you think I could do it he said probably 5 minutes within 5 minutes I said hell within 2 minutes I killed that [ __ ] and he goes yeah but what you what does that mean and I said well I been hitting him for 20 minutes I said I said dude this is this is like 10% of what I could do and I said don't you agree if you what you if you had somebody [ __ ] you over and you decide to just do 10% out of respect to the people
behind him wouldn't you think that's fair and that guy just changed straight up boom stopped and he said you're right man thank you wow that doesn't fly in America that's that's interesting an interesting code that they they don't go to the they believe in the Underworld side is there's two sides of the fence there's the legal side and the illegal side the illegitimate side and you are never ever if you're on the illegitimate side or you have a legitimate problem you are never ever allowed to go to the other side to get help you're you're you if you're going to stay you're going to get other guys to help you on this side and retaliate that's fine but if you ever go to authorities then you lose face and you never can ever work in that world again so wow so you have to deal with things on your own you when it's a problem like that yeah you pretty much if if you if you're someone from the outside and you're like a regular businessman and these guys come and bother you the best thing to do is to go with authorities because of the the police are just waiting to grab the yakas so it's like a ro it's like Kryptonite to the yakas if you go say you're going to the police still back off but if I I live my life in that side pretty much you know I mean a lot of my friends are part of those groups and a lot of my beliefs run really deep with their beliefs you know they I mean see the thing is is you when you hear about the Yakuza they get a bad rap because you talk about child pornography drugs you know extortion um what is that when they when they steal money from people you know but the thing that that they don't see that's that's all the things in the media but the things that they don't see which I feel is a is really unfortunate is the the honor and the Loyalty they have for each other and that's where me and them click really well you know I mean they will die for anyone in their group tomorrow they'll go to jail for 10 years for their boss tomorrow if they have to I mean you don't see that type of loyalty around nowadays you know non americ and I love you know that I I dig that loyalty you know and they and that's I think that's why they respect me so much is I will die for my values I'll die for my people that are close to
me it's just such a unbelievably fascinating culture how different Japan is and so many ways it's like a big there's big gaps in it yeah yeah it's crazy it's it's really really really fascinating stuff it's just that all these different cultures evolve independently the the Japanese culture evolved independently from the American culture independently from the European culture and it's so different yeah it is I think all the places are different man it's hard to really move into a a a a different country and and run yourself in the way that you learned in another country because it's you know say when When in Rome what what do you think about the state of uh Japanese MMA right now because it's kind of in a transitionary period if one at one point time it was gigantic and you say Yakuza involvement is why people corporate sponsors backed out and they lost a lot of viewership but man it was just not that long ago that they were selling out these gigantic places what what's going on right now well right now um like I said it's at the number four right now there's people that are real hesitant there's not many sponsor that want to put money into it um on the flip side the big things that's happening is Gangster events where they allow gangsters to fight in the ring and yeah it's crazy dude it's like I attend all those I'm like a guest in most of them they pay me to just to be there and to judge sometimes to make a speech in the ring maybe in the beginning cuz I'm so respected in that world that to have me there a lot of these gangsters ton down you know when they want to Riot they don't Riot you know I mean you go to the event and it's not unusual to see a picture of two stick figures fighting and has a big x on it so don't fight don't fight it's like isn't that given you never see any signs up and the UFC is saying please don't fight in the audience it's like it's already given that's not something you should do right but yeah so it that's a big thing right now but it's good because the gangster events actually they they they have headbuts they have elbow St breing you can foot stom you can KN are growing you can do whatever pretty much no bar they have two on one they have two on two really it's crazy dude how often do they have
these fights they have them about once a month man there's one somewhere [ __ ] yeah and it's it's like these guys it's become it's a good Trend because it's become where these guys just came off the streets thinking they're tough gessing on in one minute from these guys actually spending time in the gym now and being off the street so it's actually a good movement um lot of there's about three or four gang already now this actually made their Pro debut in deep so these guys are actually going to run gangs and and start selling drugs and you know doing illegal activity they're now training and having a future in fighting which is awesome as far as the legitimate side of MMA I I see it I can see it picking up again and it's all due to the UFC um so the UFC's g a couple of events there now yeah the last one they did when I went to that it was it's huge man that's so big I mean as much as the Japanese fans were kind of losing hope in Japanese MMA because a lot of Productions were folding um when when we went to when I went to the UFC uh I felt that that energy again when I was fighting in Pride that energy that they had in the audience and especially when Rampage came out with the pride music yeah it it gave me goosebumps because when he came out to that I looked around the arena and I was like damn this is just like of Pride this is a this is a pride and I I it's the first time since that big incident with the Yakuza vom Pride that I've actually seen that again it it it was surreal to me actually and I was like Dam this is going to this is going to be the the the ticket back is the UFC coming to Japan if the UFC did an ultimate fighter in Japan and Japanese version of it would you be interested in coaching oh yeah oh definitely yeah I would love to that would be perfect you you would be you would really be perfect for something like that yeah I would love that you know [Music] [Applause]