Bas Rutten vs. Dracula

This is a bit old (only a year, but I swear it seems like a lot longer), but a story for no good reason, other than to showcase the sort of people who are drawn to Combat Sports and as a teaser for Meredith's piece on seminars.

Maybe it's not Dracula. I dunno.

Bas ran a seminar at this year's ComiCon. Gareb Shamus, the owner of Wizard also owns the International Fight League, one of the many challengers to UFC hegemony. They had the ring in the center of the convention with a number of the fighters there for autographs, pictures and seminars.

Seminars?

Yup, seminars.

I learned about this a half hour before the con started. I grabbed some gear and tossed it in the trunk before taking off. First up was Tompkins, trainer to many top MMA guys, then Pat Milletich was going to teach grappling and finally El Guapo himself was going to show some MMA beatdown skillz.

The first thing I did when I got in was to run over to the IFL booth. Unfortuantely, the seminars were limited to 30 and they were all filled. Fortunately, they were running some on Sunday, taught by Big Mo Smith, Renzo Gracie and Matt Lindland. I thought about it for a minute, called one of my instructors* and signed up for all three. Seven and a half hours of seminars was going to kill me. But, hey, how many guys can say that Maurice Smith punched them in the face?

OK, lots, but seriously. He's that good.

I wandered the con, on one hand glad that there were dozens of 50% off graphic novel places, seemingly having taken over the wrestling tape and manga pirates. Giving it some more thought, I figured maybe something was wrong...maybe I shouldn't have signed up for all those seminars. They're in a comic book convention for Chrissakes. They're going to have to make it enjoyable for nerds who haven't seen their feet in years. Oh, man.

So, I stopped by Milletich's seminar. Showing a fairly basic takedown. At least most of the people in there looked pretty serious.

Left, hopped into a boring School event and hopped back out, realized Bas was teaching next door and thought I'd sit in the doorway until they kicked me out. I missed the warmup, but given that it was Bas, I figured it would be as brutal as could be. I talked to a guy the next day who confirmed that it was indeed painful and he had years of training.

They were practicing the liver punch. Fifteen minutes ago, the majority of the people in the room didn't know how to make a fist. Now, they were doing the liver punch.

I love you, El Guapo.

A couple media-types came into the room and poked around, one of which was the vampire-looking guy above. He was followed by a cameraman.

By this time, Bas was showing how to work out of the clinch. Clinch, throw a knee ("knee means 'knee cap.' You never hear me tell people, 'upper leg him!'), spin to disorient your opponent, knee, spin, etc. He admonished the crowd to be very careful as it would only take a little bit of a toss to send your opponent flying.

Vampire-guy watched for a few minutes and asked one of the IFL reps whether he could interview Bas. Given the go-ahead, walked on the mat (with his shoes!) and walked up to Bas.

"Can you show me."

"Show you what?"

"Show me the drill."

Bas dropped into a fighting stance, clinched an imaginary opponent and started explaining the drill.

"No, do it to me."

Bas raised an eyebrow, but I imagine quickly realized he's been in stranger situations in his life and clinched the vamp. He threw a knee, said, "and how I turn you" and...suddenly Dracula was halfway across the room, trying to get back onto his hands and knees. Bas looked very apologetic and reached down to pick up the guy's hat. "As you can see, it's a very powerful move."

Bas apologized, clearly not having intended to hurt the guy or even toss him across the room. The host merely said, "thank you" and got the hell out of there.

I couldn't get my camera out and on in time to get the actual drill, but this shot is of the aftermath, while vampire is trying to conceal his fear.

Bas just kind of shook it off and went back to the seminar.

I don't know where that guy was from or what show he was shooting for, but I really hope that they use that footage. If vampires have any sense of humor at all, it'll be on the show. Absolutely priceless.

I love you, El Guapo.

* The conversation went surprisingly closely to:

"Hey man, I'm here at the ComiCon..."

"..."

"[Explanation of what was going on] I think I'm going to do all three. If you don't hear from me again, tell everyone I love them."

[Laughter]. Jerk. "Bring something back, M--. We gotta spread some new thoughts around."

Thus, I signed my death warrant.