Issue 005
July 2005
AN INTERVIEW WITH “BADASS” TV’s GUY MEZGER BY DAN “THE WOLFMAN” THEODORE
FIGHTERS ONLY: First off, the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community and you got a big scare when it was first reported that you had to pull out of the Tito Ortiz rubber match because of stroke-like symptoms. What happened and are you all right now?
GUY MEZGER: Actually, I had two strokes. I was fortunate it happened in my frontal lobe. I was very fortunate. Ken Shamrock’s wife had enough woman’s intuition to know that I should be checked out, even though I didn’t have severe symptoms. I spent two days in hospital. They released me and I went for my five mile run thinking I would still fight. I got checked again and they found I had had a stroke. It’s a weird blessing in disguise; it was a good time to go out. As far as my health I’m OK and they [the doctors] say I could fight if I choose to.
FO: How old are you now?
GM: 37.
FO: You fought in the early Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), won a4-man tournament, been King of Pancrase (KOP) and been successful in Pride. With your long career and this medical scare, do you feel you have accomplished enough to retire from fighting?
GM: No. I don’t feel like you ever feel you’ve done enough. However, I am satisfied. I think I go out with respect. I don’t know if it is ever enough, but I’ve done enough to be satisfied.
FO: After years of hard training and fighting, has it taken a toll on your body?
GM: I’m fairly fortunate — I heal like Wolverine from X-Men! I’ve been a pro-athlete for 17 years with over 140 fights. There have been lots of broken bones, ligaments and torn muscles but now my body isn’t healing as well as it used to, so it isn’t worth it financially. It’s time to think about other people. The fight business is a selfish business. If you want to take care of your family, get a real job. I’ve had a blessed career and I needed a break. I’ve been doing kickboxing, Pancrase, MMA and even a couple of judo and sambo tournaments. For years, especially in Pancrase, I fought too often.
FO: Do you have any regrets about your fighting career or are there any fights you would have liked to get?
GM: I was robbed in the Arona and Sakuraba fights. They had an agenda to beat me since I was KOP and a UFC guy. As long as you know some of the Japanese have an agenda you’re all right, but some of these young guys don’t. That’s why I always went for the knockout!
FO: Is there any reason you rarely threw rear kicks but often threw accurate lead kicks?
GM: Because I’m left-legged even though I am right-handed. The front leg for MMA is faster, and you are able to get it down faster to
be able to defend the takedowns. I was taken down very, very seldom in my career.
FO: Who are the top guys in your gym and how many students do you have?
GM: We’ve got 170 students in Dallas, 35 kids at other locations, and we’ve just opened in Forney in April with about 30 students but it’s growing rapidly. Alex Andrade and Tra Telligman are the top dogs. We’ve got Chris Bowles who’s something like 6-1 and Hiro Kozono with 7-3 that are both very good welterweights. Eric Shimbary is going to make his debut. Travis Lutter is around a lot too but he also has his own thing going. We have a boxing, a kickboxing and an MMA team as well as 3 Golden Gloves champions!
FO: Is it difficult teaching karate to kids and the masses and also teaching MMA or grappling to the more serious students and fighters? Are parents ever concerned or turned off by fighting photos and sweaty guys?
GM: We make sure the guys conduct themselves appropriately. We make martial artists, not just fighters. I prefer being called an athlete to just being called a fighter — which has bad connotations. We train them as martial artists and fighters, like 1960s bad ass martial artists with respect. It’s not K-mart karate and bowing to six flags; that’s not discipline. It’s about making wiser decisions, doing more push-ups and getting better grades. That’s discipline. Ninety per cent of guys with black belts are a joke. I make sales by sending people to check out someone else. If there are eight- or nine-year-old black belts, they know it’s a joke. When I first started in the UFC I was concerned because I was teaching in an affluent area. People were supportive, though, and loved it. When people know you are sophisticated and intelligent, that’s the key. Not beer, sex and peeing on each other! We are intense individuals but not everyone can appreciate that.
FO: Is closed-fist MMA now legal and regulated in Texas? Are there rules like in Shooto or UFC?
GM: It’s sanctioned and has rules like Shooto. Most of it was Steve Armstong; he helped me get started and did a lot to get MMA regulated. It took a while but it was his perseverance.
FO: Tell us about the concept of the ‘Badass’ TV show you’re filming and how it came about?
GM: We get knuckleheads that think they are bad asses and better than everyone else. You know, the guys that watch NFL and insult everyone saying they could do better. Even in our sport everyone says they would beat Mike Tyson. Sure, the top guys would beat him, but the guys that just dabble in MMA think they would too. Mike Tyson would kill them. He fractures people’s heads.
We put the contestants through a series of contests, but they are fun things. We have them meet each other and then have them sing karaoke in gay bars, do gags, make them dance, etc. We then have them do a physical fitness challenge to see who’s in shape and most are not, especially the guys swelled up on steroids. Travis Lutter was big into BMX, so we told them they would try BMX since it is a challenging work out, but then we put them on kids’ bikes.
The winner of these challenges gets a bye while the losers fight each other. Then the winner and the bye fight each other. The winner of that gets to challenge one of the Badass fighters. If he survives a 5-minute round he wins $5,000. If he somehow beats the Badass fighter he gets $25,000. They can chicken out and drink a glass of milk. It’s a funny show; one guy just disappeared! We had one show where it was all martial arts guys but we told two of them to keep it a secret. It was funny because they all sucked so badly!
FO: How many episodes have been filmed already and how many do you plan on filming?
GM: We plan on 13 episodes and have six done. We are in the process of being bought by a show runner and will probably be picked up by Viacom. I hope that it gets placed on MTV.
FO: How is this being financed? Financing a show before it’s picked up has got to be expensive?
GM: We put together a production company and got investors. We did the first show out of pocket; we showed that to investors and we got $2 million in a couple of months!
FO: Who’s involved on the show?
GM: I’m the host because I am knowledgeable and I’ve got a big mouth. I’ve got a gift for the gab and I know the business. We’ve
got a hostess that’s pretty, nice and smart. Ken Shamrock, Bas Rutten, Travis Lutter, Pete Spratt, Alex Andrade and Derek Panza are all
on it!
FO: How many guys have made it and decided to actually fight a Badass pro fighter, and which pros have fought?
GM: Pete Spratt and Travis Lutter have fought once. Alex Andrade has fought three times. I don’t know why they pick him — he’s
the biggest Badass there is. Two guys talked smack but ended up drinking milk.
FO: There’s been recent controversy on ‘The Underground Forum’ on MMA.tv saying that a contestant was on his way to a lay and pray draw against Alex Andrade until a questionable stand-up by Ken Shamrock. Then the fight was supposedly ended when Andrade did a questionable soccer-like kick.
GM: We asked Alex to take it a little easy to drag out the fight because they were all going too quickly. We told the guy there had to be action or there would be stand-ups. The guy was a nice guy but Alex was playing with him. The guy blew up and was gassed, but then he made the mistake of landing a good shot on Alex. Alex hit him with two good shots, the guy fell forward and reached for a leg, and Alex pulled his leg out. This became known as the infamous soccer kick. The guy was a nice guy so you wanted to see him win, but he was not in Alex’s league. We wanted the fight to go three minutes but then he punched Alex good. Alex KO’d him, like, five seconds later. We are starting to get better contenders, which we want to make it more interesting. We are regulated so we can’t throw a fight, but we hope someone can last. He was really a nice guy; we don’t
take anything away from him. Maybe in a year or two he will be a better fighter!
FO: You’re no stranger to TV, doing some background work on ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ and also representing Texas on ‘America’s Sexiest Bachelor’. What was Sexiest Bachelor like and have you ever sparred with Chuck Norris?
GM: I’ve never trained with Chuck but I like him. The show was OK. It was flattering but cheesy. You knew who they were going to pick right away. I wanted an MMA guy to represent and show something else besides knuckle dragging.
FO: Are you single or married?
GM: I’m married, and just had another son who is three months old. I am happily married to an incredible woman.
FO: Any comments for fans or website information?
GM: Stay tuned fans. ‘Badass’ is ‘American Gladiators’ meets NASCAR. It’s fun and funny. It’s more entertaining than ‘The Contender’ or ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. These are real Tank Abbot, off-the-bar-stool type guys. Go to badassfighters.com, lionsdendallas.com or Guymezger.com.
