Quadros Interview

Its been a busy month for me. I was in LA training with not one of my teachers but all three of them. Robert Chu (Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun), Eddy Millis (Shark Tank NHB/Grappling) and Mark Wiley (Integrated Eskrima). But I didn’t forget about writing for MAI either. I have been writing on training at the ‘Shark Tank’ with Eddy Millis, which you will read about soon. That was a hard week! I also have more conversations for you with my Mentor and teacher Robert Chu, knife fighting with Guro Wiley, plus lots of top interviews with the likes of Professor Joe Moreira (BJJ) the super nice WWF and now NHB/Kickboxing star Sean O’Haire, Eddy Millis top K-1 / NHB coach on training the new sensation Mighty Mo who is now K-1 USA Champ. This guy has some knock out punch! To add to that I am just finishing an interview with Eddie Bravo (BJJ) the man with the rubber guard, who I met at Quantum Gym before my trip.

But to kick it all off I thought I would start with the world’s best known martial arts fight broadcast commentator. He has become as important to the fight game as the fighters turning up to fight! He is the one the only Stephen Quadros!

Martial Arts Illustrated: Was that a good intro, do think I am as good as you?

Stephen Quadros: Hahahaha….You…you’re… good. (Robert De Niro voice)

MAI: I tried. (I laugh) Stephen, have you ever been to the UK?

SQ: Yes, when I was on my honeymoon with my ex-wife in1992. Hahahaha…I look forward to coming back to England again soon! There are some great fighters in the UK.

MAI: The martial arts world knows you from your exploits as a broadcast commentator (Pride, K-1, Too Hot To Handle, etc.). But you have a background in the martial arts. Please delve into that.

SQ: First off, I am not a fighter; I’m a martial artist. But the irony is that I actually learned how to fight long before I trained in martial arts. But learning that way was not exactly a pleasant experience. And now, after a number of years of training and reflection, I believe that all people have the natural ability to defend themselves, even if they’ve never studied martial arts. It’s our instinct to survive. When I was a teenager there was a time when I thought I was pretty tough though. That is quite funny because looking back, I was always the smallest guy in school plus I was skinny! But in my little mind I thought I could beat any man in the world! Hahaha, I actually believed that. Having had those impulses really didn’t make me that special because most young males on this planet are naturally jacked up with testosterone, which makes them aggressive both mentally and physically. I was no different. This is the way of nature plus I came from a certain gene pool. My grandfather was a professional boxer and my father boxed in the Navy. I grew up watching boxing practically from the time I was a baby. As a kid, I used to think that I liked to fight because fighting looked and felt so damn cool. I guess my big highlight was when I fought the same guy 3 times in 2 days. He was a lot bigger than I was so the first time he beat me silly with ground and pound. The second time I won with a groin kick and the third time I was more frightened than any other time in my life. He had me cornered against the lockers with the whole school behind him screaming “Fight, fight, fight…” I REALLY didn’t want to fight him again. I was completely scared. He had murder in his eyes as he moved in to attack me. So I just started throwing kick after kick as fast as I could. I had these big shoes on and hit him in the shins, knees and groin at least ten times. He went down hard. I was even more frightened after I beat him because I thought I was going to go to jail for assault! Hahahaha … whatever. I felt guilty that I had hurt him so badly that last time we fought. While a friend of mine and I were helping him limp to his next class, he and I decided to squash our rivalry for good. Then I lost a few fights and that made me decide fighting wasn’t for me because my motivation wasn’t there. I won a few fights after that but it wasn’t “fun” anymore. It was now getting too serious. But the duality existed in me that I still loved watching professional fighting. I just didn’t want to fight anymore myself. When I got into high school I was in a gang. You kind of had to be in one back then for protection. After a few years I figured out that the gang deal was not for me. It suddenly dawned on me that it would only lead to oblivion, so I got out. I wanted to stand on my own and not have to depend on anyone else. But in the back of my mind I was paranoid, even insecure; what would I do if I got into a fight now that my gang was not around? I became interested in martial arts. Back then people in society had this fantasy notion about someone being transformed into a superman just because they studied a little bit of Karate or whatever, like “After only one lesson you can beat up any ten guys.” At first I could not afford to take lessons. I already knew a few basics of street fighting but I had realized in the back of my mind that I was limited. So when I was out of high school and went to Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California I took a Tae Kwon Do class with a man named Soonho Song. That experience kind of changed my life. Besides playing drums, this was something that really awakened me inside. I felt I belonged. Master Song, who also was a 4th degree black belt in Judo, soon opened his own studio and I followed him there. I was so enthused about this great new outlet for all my aggression that I considered giving up playing drums in rock and roll bands to pursue a career as a professional fighter. But the drums, and common sense, prevailed so I made martial arts my second priority. Nonetheless I was still training 4-5 hours per day and constantly reading about as many fighting systems as I could find. Then just when I was starting to get good at TKD, I moved down to Los Angeles to join a rock group. In LA I briefly studied Shotokan with Shihan Takayuki Kubota and then Wing Tsun with Sifu Konrad Wallkes from Germany. I learned a great deal from these experiences, especially the one with Soonho Song. Sabumnim Song taught me how, and that it was OK, to control my anger. But my quest was not complete; I really wanted to kickbox. So I went down to the Jet Center, met Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and liked his approach. I joined soon afterwards. I stayed there for five years under Pete “Sugarfoot” Cunningham, who is an amazing coach. After that I would just get together with other martial artists and train in other things like wrestling, submissions and combinations of everything. I went down and trained once with Rorion Gracie, who I found to be a very effective teacher. When I started training and coaching fighters in MMA, I would send them to train with Gokor Chivichyan, Gene LeBell, the Machados and of course Bas Rutten (who was at Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club at that time). When they would come back we would analyze their new repertoire and change or discard the excess. The good thing about this is that I would then learn from my students. It gave them a chance to learn how to teach.

On a side note: as a martial artist one very nice thing about working as a commentator with organizations like Pride and K-1, events that feature the world’s greatest fighters, is that it alleviates all pressure or pretence knowing that every single one of them can kick my ass! There are no doubts and therefore nothing to prove. Everyone is relaxed in that environment. It’s kind of nice not having that kind of monkey on my back, that of need to prove to someone that I am tough. There are plenty of people in this world who can defeat me physically and to be honest, I really don’t care anymore. Many times, nowadays, I don’t just inhabit the physical realm anyway. I wish I could quote some great philosopher to drive home my point. But instead I’ll quote Sylvester Stallone from the film Rambo when he uttered the phrase “I always believed the mind was the best weapon.” That is where I am at these days. One thing I found out long ago in my journey as a martial artist is, there are other things in life that are a little bit more important than worrying if you can beat everyone up or not.

MAI: You have become an internationally known authority on the subject of MMA (mixed martial arts). Give us a breakdown on how that came about.

SQ: It was a combination of a number of things. There was my own continually evolving awareness of martial arts and it’s progression, which existed in a parallel universe with my enjoyment and support of martial arts competition. And there was my output as an actor, martial arts teacher, journalist, author and broadcaster. While I was training at the Jet Center somewhere around late 1992, early 1993, Johnny Romero, one of the top amateur fighters there used to lend me kickboxing tapes. Among them was a video titled “Gracie Jiu Jitsu In Action”. I asked him what it was and he said ‘some street fighting-type stuff”. He seemed to think it was no big deal. So I took that tape home and watched it and it freaked me out. I started calling all my kickboxing buddies on the phone and telling them about it. Most of them were sceptical and thought I had lost my mind. So I invited several of the best fighters that I knew over to my house and we watched the GJJIA tape. Then we started to argue about it and the typical jiu jitsu versus kickboxing routine. Every one of them said that it would be easy to knock a grappler out with an uppercut or stay standing by just moving around. So I went in the other room and got a pair of boxing gloves and my mouthpiece and moved all the furniture in the living room out of the way. My wife was looking on from the kitchen with a worried expression. I told one of them to put on the gloves to hit me with an uppercut before I was able to get him into a clinch. I also told him to stop me from clinching him. He couldn’t do either. I just cross arm blocked and dove in every time. Then I reminded him that I was no big time grappler, which was an understatement, and if it were a Gracie he would be on the floor and tapping out very quickly. We continued to argue until they finally left. They were in that “Our style is the best” mode. But over the next few days every one of them called me on the phone and told me that we had to learn how to deal with the ground stuff.

Then came the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I had a friend of mine from New York who had boxed come over to watch that first pay per view broadcast with me. He kept telling me that I was sick if I liked this. I just laughed at him. He actually laughed too. Back then it hadn’t yet evolved into “mixed martial arts” yet. It was still “style versus style”. At the time I was starting to work as an actor, guest starring on TV shows and co-starring in low budget films. And I was the editor of The Kickboxing Ring Report. The publisher, Russell Shawney, was just awesome to work with because he trusted my vision. I immediately started writing about this new martial arts phenomenon, which at that time was referred to as “no holds barred”. Soon I was devoting a large portion of the pages of KRR to this sometimes-controversial hybrid fighting competition. I also started ranking MMA fighters back in the 1990’s in the pages of KRR and on our website. Soon I was communication directly Wow Promotions, who were the company behind the UFC. Then I was a judge for UFC 8. Back then the word was that the UFC was grooming me to work as a commentator for them. I was eager to move into that but I had not been approached or given an offer to work in that capacity. K-1 stepped up and I worked as color commentator for the April 1998 K-1 Kings show at Yokohama arena in Japan. The main event was the 4th meeting between Ernesto Hoost against Peter Aerts. Andy hug and Ray Sefo were also on that card. I then did the first K-1 USA show in August of the same year. Former UFC commentator Bruce Beck did the play by play. Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Roy Jones Jr. did color commentary. I served as the roving reporter. Then the K-1 USA program stalled for a couple of years. In the meantime I was approached by the PRIDE organization and, viola, I was seated at ringside in January 2000 doing the play by play for the PRIDE Grand Prix, with Bas Rutten and Ken Shamrock as color commentators.

2000 was a very good year because Warner Bros also hired me. To be fight technical advisor on “Exit Wounds” which starred Steven Seagal and rapper DMX. I worked on the film, which filmed in Toronto, Canada, for three months, training DMX and advising the director, Andrzej Bartkowiak. So, I was commentating for PRIDE and a few other shows and working on a $30 million movie at the same time. Life was sweet!

Simultaneously to all that, I had been asked by the editor of Black Belt magazine, Robert Young, who I had become friends with when we were both judges at UFC 8, to come on board with Black Belt as a columnist/contributing editor. I gladly accepted. So in 1998 my first column came out in Black Belt. I named my column “Fightsport”. Actually I wanted to change the name of the Kickboxing Ring Report back in late 1996 to Fightsport, but we stuck with the original name. After three years with Black Belt the publisher asked me if I wanted my own magazine, concentrating on only fight competitions. He told me that they would name it “Fightsport With Stephen Quadros”, it would be a quarterly (come out every three months) and it wouldn’t interfere with my acting and hosting/commentary jobs. Hahahaha …how could I refuse? So “Fightsport With Stephen Quadros” debuted in February of 2002 and quickly became a success. DMX had gotten the bigwigs at Warner Bros. to bring me back again for the follow up to Exit Wounds. So I was hired in April of 2002 as fight technical advisor on “Cradle 2 The Grave”. Only this time I was able to sneak into the film as an actor and Andrzej, who was directing again, wanted me to bring in 3 UFC fighters. He and I decided on Randy Couture, Toto Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. I also co-ordinated the fight between Chuck and Tito. Because I was so busy flying to Japan, Holland (Too Hot To Handle) to host and commentate on shows and working on a big movie, I knew something had to give. So I waited till the first year of Fightsport With Stephen Quadros was completed and the magazine was well on it’s way and then I stepped down as editor, effective January 1, 2003. Unfortunately the magazine was discontinued one year later, so those first four issues are now collector’s items! Hahahahaha…

My tenure with PRIDE ended in July 2003 when the US producer of the show, Michael Braverman, left the show. Bas and I had worked with Braverman for 3 years and had a great time. Often when there is a regime change in business and even government, the new ‘boss’ will bring in his own people. And that is what happened, the new producer brought in his own commentator. I had a wonderful time working with PRIDE and still feel that it is a great organization.

I currently am doing color commentary for World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Scott Adams, the president of WEC is great to work for. I also just co-hosted a wild new MMA show called “Venom”, with 4-time NBA basketball champion and host of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period”, John Salley. And I was host and play-by-play commentator for APEX Championship Fighting in Montreal, Canada. This year I have guest starred on two shows for CBS, “CSI: Miami” and “Without A Trace” and one for USA, “Karen Sisco”.

I did all the fight choreography and was 2nd unit director on “Pit Fighter” (20th Century Fox), which stars Dominiquie Vandenberg (Gangs Of New York, Mortal Kombat), Steven Bauer (Traffic, Scarface) and Stephen Graham (Gangs Of New York, Snatch). Pit Fighter will be released in the US on June 5, 2005. I look forward to seeing how people react to this one!

There are a zillion stories that I have about when I was “working” in Japan, Holland, Kuwait, Thailand, etc., the behind the scenes at some of the greatest fight shows in the world, being on testosterone driven movie sets and about the trials and tribulations of being a martial arts instructor. But I guess we will save those juicy tidings for part two, eh? Hahahaha …

MAI: Come on Stephen, you better share at least one story with us for now.

SQ: OK, OK, OK….here are a few tidbits. Bas Rutten and I always had this crazy, yet funny chemistry between us. I had known him for a long time before we worked together as commentators. He used to corner one of my fighters, Giovanni Lemm, when I had to commentate on the same local show. One time we co-cornered Gio. Bas and I always thought the same sick or silly things were funny. When I interviewed him for my magazine (Fightsport With Stephen Quadros) a few years ago I asked him about our whack sense of humor and he told me his wife told him that people did not laugh at him because they thought he was funny, they laughed because they were afraid of him. And of course he and I busted up big time when he told me this. We also thought the best thing in the world was annoying or distracting each other (and others) in ridiculous ways, like when he bought one of those little laser light beams and we took in on the plane and were shining it all over the place, on people’s books while they read, on the world map on the wall, on the movie screen…! So, as you can imagine, working in Japan, sometimes things even got further haywire. Like the times we were on ESPN Japan doing recaps and breakdowns for old PRIDE shows. So we’re there in a hotel room with all the camera and light guys and I do the intro like “Hi I’m Stephen Quadros, I am The Fight Professor…blah, blah, blah and this fight is blah blah, blah. Bas what do you think?” and he would start speaking into the camera. Well while he was talking I had my Japanese cell phone off to the side and I’d hit redial, making a call directly to his Japanese cell phone. So it would start buzzing in his pocket while he is trying to concentrate on what he was saying and he would get this big smile on his face, which to them probably seemed like no reason. I’m sure those crew guys thought we were a pair of looney tunes. Hahahahaha… And we did some REALLY funny stuff at Narita Airport. If you ever interview Bas, ask him to really get into the details of all this goofiness.

But our escapades in Holland were WAY more insane. Like the times we would go into the studio and do all the commentary on the Dutch Cage Fights and M-1’s for two 12-16 hour days. Understand that we had just called the action on a live Too Hot To Handle show the night before so when we went into the Nikko Sports studio the next morning we were a little bit toasty. So there we were bright and early drinking Red Bulls and taking an herbal wakeup called “Stack II” (Ephedra Sinica and Guarana). Bas was getting a headache immediately from being under this evil fluorescent light. It was brutal at the time but looking back it was funny as hell. The sound engineer Leo was very cool. He had his back to us so naturally we got into mischief, like when there would be an interview of a fighter whose language we didn’t understand, Bas and I would either do some fake translation or whisper to Leo “I can see you” in our best slasher movie style impression. Then there was this one fighter who had, shall we say, a rather “unorthodox style”. I looked at Bas while the guy was being introduced, knowing that he could barely contain his laughter. So we are commentating on this thinking “What is THIS GUY doing in there?” We figured surely that he would get knocked out very quickly. But he ended up brutally KOing THE OTHER GUY, who had looked like such a total badass before the fight! Bas and I completely lost it when that happened and started laughing uncontrollably. We had to pull away from the microphones for, like, at least 30 seconds. We were actually crying we were laughing so hard. I finally (barely) got it together and continued calling the action but it took Bas a few moments longer to regain himself. So those are some of the printable things that I can tell you about. Hahahahaha…

Steve Quadros	Steve Quadros + Bas Rutten	Steve Quadros (Pitfighter)

Steve Quadros being the gentleman

MAI: Great. Now I feel better. Tell me, you’re the man with the insiders view who would you rate as the best or should I say your favorite in MMA and also K1 right now and why?

SQ: On this date, November 30, 2004, I feel Fedor Emelianenko is the best fighter in MMA. I’m not saying he’s unbeatable but he is going to be EXTREMELY hard to beat. He’s too complete, to focused. Sometimes fighters defeat themselves by thinking that being a big party animal is more important than being disciplined and winning. Fedor just doesn’t have that problem at all. Igor Vovchanchyn used to have the nickname “Ice Cold” but I think that name fits Emelianenko even better than it did Igor. Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira was the top dog before Fedor popped on the scene and he’s a close number two currently. His submission skill is legendary and his ability to take punishment is unreal. I believe that Wanderlei Silva is the greatest fighter at 205 pounds. His aggression is frightening. People will say at a distance that they can see holes in his game but once an opponent gets inside the ring against him, they invariably fail. I believe that Wanderlei is the most consistent fighter in the game and he is also my pick for the best finisher too. Randy “The Natural” Couture is the only fighter in the business who could give Silva a serious challenge. Couture has the best gamesmanship and has been able to impose his style on all the best fighters in the UFC at 205.

MAI: I would agree 100%.

SQ:In K-1 competition Holland has ruled with an iron grip. 8 of the first 10 final tournaments have been won by Dutch fighters. And the first ever K-1 champ, Yugoslavian Branimar “Branco” Cikatic was trained in Holland. Peter Aerts won the grand prix 3 times and now, Remy Bonjasky is the latest Dutchman to exert his championship style. But it is their fellow countryman Ernesto “Mr. Perfect” Hoost who is the winningest K-1 champion of all time: 4 time grand prix champion and 1993 K-2 champion. Hoost is an amazing specimen in that he started his professional kickboxing career as a middleweight yet moved all the way up to take on monsters like Aerts, Bob Sapp and Jerome LeBanner. His ring generalship is unparalleled but it is his low kick and left hook that sends many opponents home early. The exciting thing is that there is a new guy on the K1 circuit named Mighty Mo, who hails for America. I believe Mo is going to be a major problem for all the top K-1 fighters.MAI: Yes, I’ve been in the Shark Tank training this week. Eddy’s been putting Mo though his paces for his next fight. Now, with Mo you need a gum shield in when holding the focus mitts as your teeth may just rattle out with the punching power he has! (Laughing)

MAI: So what’s next for “The Fight Professor”?

SQ: Oh man, I was hoping that you’d ask a question that I could give a short answer to. Hee hee… 2005 is going to be a great year. I will be commentating again for WEC, APEX and Venom. And I am in negotiations to host and do play-by-play with another fight group, which will reportedly have 6-12 shows next year! I will be the host of a weekly MMA related radio show called "MMA Fight Night With Stephen Quadros", which will start to air in early 2005. It will be a weekly 60 minute call-in show with interviews from the biggest names in the sport today that will be broadcast live worldwide at www.ProKarateWeekly.com every Wednesday night from 9 to 10 pm EST. Additionally, I will be working as an actor and fight choreographer for at least two feature films. The director of Pit Fighter, Jesse Johnson, assures me that once people see that film that I will be getting LOTS of work. I hope so. I will also be hosting a giant martial arts festival at a major film studio here in Los Angeles at the end of July. I am putting the finishing touches on a script that will be a film vehicle for me as an actor, with LOTS of action. I may end up directing that one as well. I have one producer already interested. And it’s not too far fetched to believe that eventually I will be head of a very powerful fight organization! So fasten you seat belts ladies and gentlemen, The Fight Professor is just getting warmed up! Hey, I want to come to England to host and call some fight action there! Hahahaha… And one more thing, Martial Arts Illustrated ROCKS!

MAI: Thanks for your great insights!

SQ: My pleasure Alan! Thanks for having me!

Visit Mr. Quadros on the worldwide web at: http://StephenQuadros.com

Alan Orr is a disciple of Robert Chu Sifu and the European representative of the Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun system.

He is also the UK representative for Guro Mark Wiley in the Filipino martial arts and Sensei Eddy Millis of Shark Tank in NHB/Grappling.

Web: www.alanorr.com

For further information Tel: 07958 908 196 or email: info@alanorr.co.uk

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