Erik Paulson speaks out about coaches and fighters who lack morals and character
Published by Zach Arnold on November 1st, 2009 in Current Events

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Last week, Matthew “Fight Nerd” Kaplowitz (t h e f i g h t n e r d . c o m) conducted a sit-down interview with Erik Paulson, elite MMA trainer to the stars. Most interviews, outside of the occasional Dana White or Forrest Griffin interview, are pretty much cooker-cutter in terms of format and questions. However, Matthew’s interview with Paulson was really well-done in terms of details and the different variety of questions asked.

There are a lot of interesting quotes from Paulson during this interview, including his unique defense of Brock Lesnar after railing against coaches and fighters lacking integrity and respect in the MMA business today.

Here’s the interview transcription.

START

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “Now of course I got to ask you first thing first, you know, we all were looking forward to Josh Barnett/Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy. Unfortunately, the fight ddn’t happen. We haven’t heard from Josh in a while. How’s he been doing since this happened?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Uh, he’s great, he’s still been training like he was before. Uh, he’s just not sparring with a bunch of guys, he’s sparring all the time, he’s conditioning, he’s lifting, he’s staying in great shape. Uh, right now basically he’s getting ready, he’s got a pro-wrestling match coming up in Japan. He had a match set up in Sengoku in November and their fight got pushed I believe until probably January now.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “Is there going to be an opportunity for Barnett to take on Fedor at a later time I think maybe in Japan?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Gosh, I wish… I hope to God that that would happen. Um, you know we’ve… I’ve helped him prepare for all of his fights for the last seven years and you know this last fight falling through like that was a big heartache for me and for him obviously but uh… I would like, I mean I think the public would like to see that fight happen, uh we’re just have to find an organization that would actually have that fight happen.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “OK, now, onto something else. You yourself are a practitioner of many different martial arts styles. Could you just run those off real fast because there’s so many I’ve already lost track.”

ERIK PAULSON: “Uh, well boxing, I’ve been boxing for a long time with all these different uh boxing coaches. Thai boxing mixed with Savate so we call it STX. Savate Thai Cross-training, also uh judo, I train with uh judo guys for a long time and Europe and in America and um I was able to go to Japan and actually study Sambo with some of the guys that were doing it, but the Sambo was just pretty much judo and the leg locks from Shooto so… when I trained in Shooto, Yori Nakamura had basically so many submissions I couldn’t see straight. So I was with Yori for I don’t know 12 years, Yori Nakamura, he founded Shooto in America and at the same time I was training with the Gracies and with the Machados. So, uh, I’ve been training with Dan Inosanto for years, Wing Chung, Savate, Filipino Kali Sirakan, Malaysian, Filipino, Indonesian and basically what I did is I tried to just boil it down to a few things that were useful for fighting, striking, takedowns, submission, boxing, strong boxing, good takedowns, wrestling, and submission is next, catch wrestling and jiu-jitsu.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “So where does this thirst for knowledge come for you to want to study all of these different martial arts?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Um, I was intrigued as a little kid, I started watching the Bruce Lee movies and I don’t know, once I started doing it I was like, wow, this is meant to be and so I just kind of was like so intrigued by it. All the different martial arts and um not so much the art form so much any more as opposed to the stuff that I can actually apply in the arena.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “You mentioned you do practice Kali (Sikaran), which is knife-fighting style from the Philippines and one of the principles behind that is that you learn to defend from a weapon first and then you learn how to do hand-to-hand whereas a lot of other styles are hand-to-hand first, then weapons. Now what do you think about transitioning to it, does that work best for you or why do you think that is in the first place?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Uh, Kali, the stick goes 100 miles an hour and so it trains your eye faster, so when you’re following a stick and a knife around, you’re ability to pick things up are a lot faster and the angles of attack are very similar to the angles of attack for striking. In fact, Panantukan which is the Filipino boxing derived from the Filipino knife fighting, the same movements for the boxing was used for the knife fighting.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “So, do you think that having a traditional martial arts background helps you or do you need it to do Mixed Martial Arts?”

ERIK PAULSON: “I think it’s good if you’re going to promote Martial Arts, if you’re going to promote the fighting. A lot of guys go, I’m just a fighter, it’s like well what’s your history? Do you have a history background? Uh, what’s the Bushido code? The Bushido code has been lost a lot in fighting because guys just talk smack, they just get tattoos, they just train hard and you know that’s great for publicity, for TV and for show but in the end what are you passing on? What are you passing on to the youth? What are you passing on to all the other people out there? What’s the message that you’re bringing on? Uh, you have to pass it on, you have to have information, not just being tough and just being a fighter but you have to an art behind you that you’re teaching and passing on, otherwise it just gets completely lost. The respect factor, the discipline, the discipline is showing up on time and being at the gym when you say, being accountable for what you say, the moral code is the way you conduct yourself outside of the gym, and I think that all needs to be uh a lot of emphasis needs to be placed on that especially for coaches and their fighters. You know, don’t talk, be the one talked about. That’s the biggest goal — don’t talk, be the one talked about.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “So do you think that moral code is what’s missing from some fighters today?”

ERIK PAULSON: “100%. 100%. And who is to blame? Their coaches! Their coaches are to blame. Hey, you’re a good fighter, you’re tough, these guys are getting on the Internet and blabbing, just talking, talking, talk but it’s like OK, and they don’t respect elders at all, they don’t respect guys that were in the game before and oh I can beat them up so therefore I don’t have to learn from them. Hey, did Mike Tyson, could he beat up his boxing coach? 100%. Yeah. Guess what? That guy made him a better boxer and he taught him a lot about life. You know, who’s your idol? I want to be like this guy. Yeah, well, you’re a role model, if you’re a role model you better act like a role model and you know don’t flip off the crowd, don’t uh swear in front of everybody, don’t do bad things, don’t get in trouble and then laugh about it, you know, be ashamed of it, if you get in trouble be ashamed and show the public that you’re ashamed, I’m sorry, and apologize.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “Now you’re also doing a lot of work with Brock Lesnar to prepare for some fights, is that right?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Yes I have.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “And what do you think about his last outing where he kind of did some of those did some rude gestures to the crowd and some really out-of-character things at the post-fight press conference, what’s your take on that situation?”

ERIK PAULSON: “My take on that situation number one is that before the fight, Brock never said a word about Frank, Frank was the one talking about Brock and insulting his coaches, which is one of them is me, and his camp and just talking bad about Brock, he’s like hey Brock Lesnar I don’t want to know Frank so I’m not going to say a word but I’ll let my hands do my talking and afterwards I’ll open my mouth. When Brock won, Frank was pretty much out cold, delirious, and Brock had turned his back and as he was turning around Frank stood up in his face and Brock just turned around and went what the heck and all of a sudden Brock kind of shoved him a little bit because it was just so surprised, he was just right there. First of all, they didn’t allow any of the coaches which is one of them was me in the ring after the fight, so by not allowing me in the ring in the cage or Marty in the ring or Greg (Nelson) in the ring we couldn’t put our hands on Brock and go to him and congratulations, you know, hey don’t say it, don’t do it and since day one Brock has been booed from everybody, everybody has booed Brock, so he goes well I guess if I’m going to be the heel I might as well play the heel so as soon as he turned around, Frank was in his face, he shoved him, he goes hey I already beat you up you know it’s time to keep your mouth shut and then all of a sudden everyone goes boo and he goes, boo? Well, boo this, and he gave them the double finger. And was I laughing? I was like, sheesh, you know if we’re in there we could have stopped it and then he went off with the showmanship stuff about you know saying about Coors Light instead of Bud Light because Bud Light won’t pay him and he’s going to jump on his wife later. Uh, some of that’s funny, some of it was like the sponsorship thing was completely unprofessional and the flipping the crowd off was just it was a response to everyone booing him because he’s been booed even at the weigh-in when he walks out, he didn’t get cheered, he got booed, he’s always been booed, I’ve been in his corner since day one, he’s been booed, so he’s just like OK, I’m being booed, guess what, I’m the enemy, here’s the enemy, so you either pay to watch him fight or pay to watch him get his butt kicked but you’ll still pay to watch him and so uh yeah let us in the cage next time and he won’t do that, you know, I think he’s smart enough now after that one time that he’s not going to do that again.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “Now last time we saw you fight it actually almost is the two-year anniversary of the first HDNet Fight. You came out of retirement, won your fight, it’s been two years since then, are we going to see Erik Paulson back in the ring one more time?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Um… maybe, maybe not. Chances are maybe not. Just because uh after that fight I was prepared, I prepared hard for four months for that fight just to cut weight and to uh get ready and then I tried to roll over to four fights after that and they all fell through and I forgot that one of the biggest heartaches for me when I was fighting more than anything was being ready for a fight and having fights offered and then falling through after. And it’s like, you know what, you don’t have a lot of time left in your fight career and you’re going out of retirement to do a fight, you need to fight and um when your fights just keep falling through it’s like I have a real job, I have other things that I do, uh than just fight and you know I’ve been putting all my effort into my fighters and not into myself and also into my students when I do seminars and train other fighters and other camps, uh I probably get a lot more out of that than just training myself to get ready for another fight.”

MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ: “So if you had a serious, concrete offer from a legitimate promoter, would you come back in with that?”

ERIK PAULSON: “Sure, of course I would but I haven’t had something like that and I thought I did and then it all fell through so uh yeah, so in the mean time I’ll just train and get everyone else better and uh be happy doing that.”

END