| Duke Roufus Interview: Part Three |
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| Written by Dom Velando | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 04 July 2009 00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On when to fight "Everyone wants...to run to the fight, like, 'I gotta fight. I gotta fight...' Get good at
"Fighting's fighting...If you like fighting, that's awesome. That's cool, too. I have guys who come in and they wanna fight right away. I can't stop them. I gotta help them; but if you really have realistic goals to be good at this, I say: take your time."
"I have some students who have only fought once or twice, and that's as far as they're gonna go..I respect that guy more than the guy who's the poser. Who's like, 'Yeah, I'm an MMA fighter' and you keep doing it just to say you're a fighter. I like the guy who says, 'I'm gonna try it, I'm gonna do my best and do it right and [then] one was enough for me.' I have three or four buddies who did that, and I got all the respect in the world [for them]."
On ranking in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu "What I hate about other martial arts: the black belt is no longer sacred. In jiu-jitsu, what I love about it: the black belt is sacred. Not everyone deserves to wear brown belts and black belts in jiu-jitsu...it's the way it is. It's real."
"That's the kind of program that I want for our kickboxing program. I wanna know when a guy's belted that, as they say, 'the belt wears tight'. That's the one thing I really learned in getting to know the Brazilian culture [and] jiu-jitsu culture is the reality of these belts and I love that."
"That's the thing with me...In this marine core, everyone carries a rifle...someone walks into the club and says, 'I wanna spar that dude. He's a black belt.' If he can't hang, then he can't wear the belt. I hate to say it."
"That's what I respect so much about jiu-jitsu. I'm getting to the point where I can tell the difference of guys ranks...Unfortunately, I'm not anywhere near that level yet, but at least-- it's like with wine; I can't make wine yet, but I know what a good one tastes like and I can tell when I watch good guys at jiu-jitsu, I can see the level. It's a good thing."
"We have a Muay Thai focus tonight at our fight class; you know how we're gonna spar tonight? You know how we always spar? Our fighters don't do straight stand-up sparring. We always spar with takedowns. It goes to the ground."
"I...know guys-- I don't want to say the gym-- they go to the gym Monday/Wednesday-- it's stand-up sparring day; Tuesday/Thursday: it's grappling day. That doesn't work...One day you gotta really work Muay Thai; still end with MMA. Every day you should do MMA in sparring."
"Our whole cirriculum is modified for MMA. The muay thai we do is MMA. Our boxing we do is MMA-based. Fedor's a puncher; Arlovski's a boxer. How's that boxing workin' for him?"
"When I was gonna fight my MMA fight a few years ago...the guy I was gonna mimic was Machida."
"If you're a good counter-fighter, it's hard to get taken down. That's the thing; to be [an] aggressive striker, you get taken down easier."
"The other thing...is relaxation. When you learn to strike relaxed, you're long."
"[The opponent] is coming into my punch. Collision. [Machida] uses their power against them."
"If you watch my last fight, I was either really close, or really far. If you watch when I fight, I'm not next to a big dude. I'm not gonna stand close enough-- everyone's like, 'Oh, you're so slick'. It's very easy to be slick when you're by second base. I could hit the baseball a lot easier if you throw the ball from second base, right? Well, when you move to the pitcher's mound, the ball comes faster. That's my whole philosophy on defense...if I learn to stay out when I'm hitting, I'm harder to hit."
On incorporating techniques from different styles into MMA "You can't put a name on it anymore. That's what I was saying; you do those disciplines, but it's still MMA."
"[Anthony Pettis and I] were working on kind of a really wild kick. It's a tae kwan do move, or it can be out of the movie Ong Bak...you hand stand and then round kick someone in the head. He almost did that to dude the other night. He body shot him-- boom, bang! Kicked him upside the neck. We're always having fun with the strikes, but you start putting a name on it-- do I want him to stand there like Joe Bangkok? No, I want him to get in there and just win fights."
"[The WEC] wants guys who can fight anywhere. WEC's really promoting pure MMA. That's the cool thing about it...They don't care where it goes, they just want 'em to fight."
"To me personally as a boxing fan, and even muay thai, even though I fought in heavyweight K-1, I love K-1 Max...the lighter weights I've always been more intrigued by. I wish I could have been a little guy 'cause that's where the real fighting happens, if you ask me."
"A lot of heavyweights, they quit and die. That's why heavyweights don't get brain damage 'cause they give up and quit before-- the guys in boxing that kill each other are the little guys. They are in good enough shape to beat each other to death. Think about it."
"We're kind of working with Dave [Sixel] and those guys. We're starting 'cage pankration' and it's gonna be something you can do with two fights or under in regular MMA, so it's for beginners. You're gonna wear the sparring gloves, then you're gonna wear the sparring shin [pads] and no head-strikes."
"We even changed the grappling rules on our shows, too. We're gonna call it 'combat grappling'. No points. The ref picks a winner or [one wins by] submission. So the guy who's most agressive-- 'cause we want to make it fan-friendly."
This interview took place before Wisconsin Cage Fighting: "Battle at the Bleachers" on June 20 which featured the first 'combat grappling' match between Scott Huston and Justin Hutter.
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Comments (8)
Kaz
said:
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In this, part three of an interview with kickboxing champion and world-class trainer Duke Roufus, he speaks on his training philosophies, what it means to be a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, counter-fighting strategies and more...
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... Nice job on the story/interview! Props to Duke & Dom.......Awesome interview! Well desearved recognition for a great coach! |
Vandy Grift
said:
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... Great interview. I'm proud that we have such a great coach and a great amba*sador for MMA and the martial arts in Milwaukee. Everytime I see a fighter out of the Rofus Academy on a big show, or see Duke appear or get mentioned on TV, I take alot of local pride in it. Even though I've never even been to the Rufus Academy or met any of the Rufus'. |
projectdeathpunch
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... 'combat grappling' interesting..... thats why BJJ tournys have never interested me... i think a guy shouldnt be able to win based off of points for stalling in a decent position.... if this forces the opponents to press their advantages then you really get to learn who the better fighters are. and the fighters themselves will be tested in a better way. its learnig to push your opponent- and more importantly yourself- rather than learning to 'play the game' and take advantage of the rules... its like the difference in fighters that go for the finish and the ones who are 'decision winners' i love the concept! cant wait to see these brought to more shows! |
Ryan "MF'n" Williams
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... The only problem with that type of judging criteria is that it's not definitive. The only pure way to test Jiu Jitsu is no time limits, no points which is what Helio always advocated. Someone getting points and stalling is part of the game, learn how to stop them from doing it, if he can impose his will on you then you are losing. The same thing can happen in a judged match and if the Judge values positional domination more than an active guard you are back to square one. Either way it's cool to have a different look at what Jiu Jitsu is/can be and a opportunity to compete under a different set of rules. |
Jose Rodriguez
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Jiu-Jitsu This was a great interview on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I have been doing Brazalian Jiu-Jitsu since 1998 and a blue belt is more sacred to me then any black belt in any style. The fact is that most martial arts believe in the "take your dough program", than actually creating great students. Mr. Matamoros has created such students, most of these are either BJJ champions or MMA champions and you can tell by the guard game where there style came from. I would hope that one day the same concept will be applied to striking. A style of striking that has impressed me allot is Kyukoshin or the so called Oyama karate which takes a long time to get a black belt, and you don't see that style in Milwaukee. |
HEY PALUKA
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... I AM ABSOLUTE MUAY THAI !! LEARN THE THAI WORD FEEMUR >>> THIS MEANS TECHNICAN AS IN SUPER SMOOTH STYLE AND EXCELLENT MOVES.. THE CONTARARY IS HACKER >>> HILL BILLY FIGHTER SOME ONE FROM THE PROVENCES IS CALLED AMPUR . LOOKING AT TODAYS FIGHTERS MAKES ME THINK RAM BA M16 IS A GREAT FEEMUR COMPAIRED TO WHAT I SEE NOW .. IS EVERY ON WATCHING GKFROMMTA ON UTUBE THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF ROUNDS OF CLASSIC OLD SCHOOL MUAY THAI TO WATCH AND LEARN FROM THE LEGENDS OF THAI FIGHTING OF THE PAST!!. WHEN WATCHING THE OLD FIGHTERS OF 1980 COMPAIR THERE STYLE AND INTENSITY TO THAT OF TODAYS FIGHTERS AND YOU WILL NOTICE THE DIFFERANCE IN STRATGEY AND MIDSET .. TODAYS FIGHTERS DONT FIGHT THE FIRST 2 ROUNDS AND PLAY FOR THE NEXT 3 ROUNDS ..THE INTENSITY IS GONE .. |
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