Some translated bits of
Warrior Talk #14.
This was released on October 7th (recorded on the 6th).
The conversation started with Remy asking the guests to make a prediction for Badr's (at that time still upcoming) fight with Uku. Bert Kops said Badr should be able to do it, but you never know. Alain van de Merckt said Badr is still being used, because he sells out venues, but nobody seems to be concerned with his wellbeing. Emiel Sardarean said Badr fell short a couple of times in fights he was dominating and might still be able to win here. Agnes Elling says she has no clue, but is interested in seeing how things played out. Van de Merckt countered the point made that Badr was supposedly dominating all the fights he lost by mentioning that Badr was losing in his second fight with Wrzosek and that he was probably happy the fight was stopped by the riots.
Remy then asked everybody how they felt about influencer fights, taking the KSI vs. Tommy Fury event as an example. Kops didn't really go into the influencer part of it, but said he thought Jake Paul seems pretty serious about it and has done well against his opponents. Remy countered by mentioning Paul handpicks opponents that are past their prime. Sardarean said that's what all upcoming boxers do and doesn't see anything bad in it. Remy says he's not a fan of it, but that it does generate a lot of traffic and attention. Kops added that Tyson (Mike?) was positive about influencer boxing helping the popularity of the sport. Van de Merckt brought up Paul signing with PFL and having doubts about his chances to succeed in MMA. Kops said that Paul has been wrestling since his childhood so he shouldn't be underestimated. Kops went on to say he was happy Paul defeated an out-of-shape looking, joint-smoking Diaz and that he would have liked to earn 20 million fighting Paul lol.
Bert Kops (Wrestler/Trainer of Gegard Mousasi)
- Says he was predisposed to become a wrestler, because his father was one as well.
- His father started a Boxing and Fitness gym in 1985.
- They added Wrestling and Kickboxing classes early on.
- Used to be at events from a very young age.
- When Remy asked him about his craziest experience: Around 2012 Kops' team was in Surinam to compete at an event. There were no weigh-ins or medical checks, but Kops could clearly tell that all their opponents were much heavier than his team. Kops' team ended up winning all their fights. The crowd was pissed, which is when Kops thought it was a good idea to flip them off lol. The crowd was starting to riot and at that moment someone approached Kops and said his fighter Joey Berkenbosch - who just won the main event - was supposed to undergo PED testing right this moment. Kops said they're about to get lynched by the crowd and they wanted to just get out of there so he refused and signed with a fake name/signature. Back at home Kops was informed that his fighter Berkenbosch would receive a six year ban for refusing testing. Kops and his team appealed the decision and it ended up being overturned. However, for punishment of refusing testing Kops himself was put on the world doping list and barred from competition for two years. This is why he couldn't corner and coach fighters for a while, including Mousasi.
- Worked at Casa Rosso (a brothel and erotic theathre) as a bouncer when he was 17 years old. At that time he was the Dutch wrestling champion at 80kg.
- Says at 38 Mousasi is pretty much in the winter of his career, but still wants to achieve 50 victories in the sport.
- Says Mousasi has one more fight on his contract and isn't sure about what's next yet.
- Doesn't think Mousasi had the best preparation for his most recent fight, because he was dealing with a bunch of subsequent injuries that prevented him from training at full capacity.
- Feels Mousasi at one point was the best fighter on the planet, but isn't sure he is able to reach the same level he had in the UFC anymore.
- Says they tried making Mousasi a bit more of a (trash)talker so that he got more exposure. He got a bit of a popularity boost after a Twitter beef with Conor McGregor, but ultimately Mousasi just isn't a trash talker.
- Liked doing a reality show, because it was good promotion for his gym and he likes being on camera lol.
- Remembers taking a picture of Aerts and Remy after they did some sparring and said something along the lines of "two K-1 champions on picture". Remy said he hadn't even fought in K-1 yet. Shortly after the picture was taken Remy went to K-1 and the rest is history. Van de Merckt asked Remy how their sparrings were. Remy said they used to spar 70% on power and 30% on technique and sometimes knockouts happened. Now Remy believes fight preparation shouldn't rely as heavily on sparring anymore.
- Is in talks to possibly do more reality TV.
- When asked by Remy how he communicates with children who train at his gym, he says he always gives them a little speech to behave themselves and not start fighting outside of the gym.
Emiel Sardarean (Standemup social media channel, LFL commentator)
- His father used to be a wrestler in Armenia and is a big fan of Badr and Remy.
- Did Karate and Kickboxing as a child.
- Only started watching MMA in 2018 as a casual, because of the hype surrounding Khabib/McGregor.
- In 2021 realized he wanted to do something different than be a scholar and end up with a 9-5 job.
- Graduated from university, but is more involved with fight sport coverage.
- Does some pieces for Glory, provides commentary for LFL.
- Can't really kickbox anymore due to injuries, but has recently started doing BJJ. Remy adds that he also recently started following BJJ classes at his own gym and that he really enjoys it. They discussed Gi or No-Gi for a while and van de Merckt added he feels starting with a Gi is better.
- Doesn't like to use the term influencer for himself, but technically is one with his successful Standemup channel.
- When van de Merckt asks how to grow his online fanbase, tells him to essentially milk big moments in his career a lot more. Remy adds that he feels fighters should engage with the community when they're off-season as well.
- Feels aside from a bit of ad revenue his Instagram account isn't very interesting (yet) from a financial perspective. It's more about the publicity, reach and doors it can open.
- There is a bit of a discussion about the level of MMA in the Netherlands and Belgium (where van de Merckt is from). Bert feels like the level in Netherlands is growing and that it always has been pretty good in Belgium as well. Van de Merckt adds that the UFC has signed some Belgian fighters. Sardarean says LFL is the biggest MMA promotion in the Netherlands and that they have some connections to the UFC and PFL.
- Says while he his obviously biased, he feels Dutch MMA fighters should try to get into LFL.
- Feels Europe has some pretty strong MMA promotions with the CageWarriors in the UK, KSW in Poland among others.
- Says while it helps to be an interesting personality, sooner or later big promotions will take note of fighters who just keep winning their fights.
- When asked by Remy, says he respects WWE, but isn't a fan because it isn't real fighting. Remy says it's a good show, but purely entertaining. Kops adds he's been to shows both as a special guest and when he was working with people and experienced first-hand that pro-wrestling involves a lot of acrobatics and in that sense their wrestlers are legit athletes. At the same time he acknowledges it just isn't real fighting. Brock Lesnar is brought up as an example of someone who is both a pro-wrestler and legit fighter.
- Is currently only doing commentary for Amateur bouts, but hopes to work his way up to the pros.
- His goal is to be financially stable doing something in the world of fighting. Agnes Elling advizes him to still get his master's degree.
Alain van de Merckt (MMA fighter at LFL)
- Used to get beaten by his older brother as a kid.
- His initial goal was to just get stronger than his brother, but now wants to be the world champion.
- Started out in Savate, but realized once he got successful that there wasn't really any money in it.
- He switched to Kickboxing/MT, but the K-1 hype train was over and he felt Glory wasn't quite as big.
- Felt the most money could be made in either Boxing or MMA and ultimately went with MMA.
- When he realized he had no ground skills, he completely focused on BJJ and actually reached the point where he is more comfortable on the ground than standing.
- Doesn't believe in talent: Says hard work and being smart beats 'talent'.
- Is currently under contract with LFL.
- Is still unbeaten.
- He has one fight left on his contract and hopes to get it extended with a chance for the title.
- Thinks LFL is the best MMA promotion in the BeNeLux in terms of both competition and marketing.
- Says MMA is slowly getting more popular in Belgium.
- Has trained with Khamzat Chimaev.
- Has sparred with Chimaev and says he went in hard.
- Says he doesn't train competitively or spar hard, because he's more focused on learning.
- When asked by Remy how he would rank himself when Chimaev is a 10, he says he feels like he's an 8.
- Doesn't quite believe he could hang with the UFC top 15 yet, but feels he's getting close.
- Says there hasn't been any communication between his team and the UFC yet, but there is contact with the PFL - their Europe branch specifically.
- He was offered a fight at Light Heavyweight, but had to decline because his body is more suited to stay at Middleweight. Apparently they don't really have a Middleweight division.
- Says his management doesn't do his social media.
- Says people know him, but aren't really following him yet.
- His goal is the UFC Middleweight division and feels he could be there within two years.
- Has a fight lined up on October 21st, but his October hadn't signed yet at the time of the interview.
- Says a fighter's true character comes out when they're in trouble.
- Sardarean describes him as a BJJ specialist and a finisher.
- Kops thinks he's a "pain in the ass" for his opponents and is very well-rounded.
- When Remy asks him about any distractions in life, he says he still works part-time as a fitness instructor and is doing community service for something he describes as a "private matter".
- Says he smokes a cigar after he wins a fight.
- Remy says he shouldn't smoke, but he says Michael Jordan "the greatest athlete of all time" did it as well lol.
Dr. Agnes Elling (Sports sociologist)
- Says high level competition is never good, because athletes put their bodies under unreasonable amounts of stress.
- Believes fighting/martial arts can have benefits for practicioners on multiple levels: physical, mental, lifestyle etc.
- Had a bad impression of fighting, specifically harder sports with a tough image like kickboxing until she started to research it.
- Did a broad study on the practice of martial arts/fightsports between 2005-2010.
- Says the study helped to at least somewhat brighten the image of fightsports.
- Says a lot of fightsports lack the organisational structure of more accepted sports like for example Hockey. Remy agrees and adds that for Kickboxing one of the goals is to go from 9 governing bodies to just 1 in the Netherlands (this has been discussed a lot recently).
- Says "Everybody is a world champion, but of what exactly?". Remy says that as long as there are multiple promotions, there will be multiple champions and that this can be confusing for outsiders, but hopes that reducing the number of governing bodies will at least reduce the number of Dutch champions.
- Says one of the goals of the VA (vechtsport authoriteit / fightsport authority) is to divide the sport from its darker influences: There is a general acknowledgement that fightsports are on some levels interwoven with criminal elements, but that the sport is much bigger than those negative elements.
- When Remy asks what the fightsports can do to further improve their image, she says that transparency helps i.e. gyms providing detailed information about their activities, number of members etc.
- In the early 2000s Karate and TaeKwoDo used to be to most popular and 'stable' martial arts/fightsports, but they have been overtaken by Kickboxing, boxing and "MMA". Kickboxing is in the process of becoming more or less a mainstream sport in the Netherlands.
- Says fitness classes with fighting elements in them i.e. Tae Bo have helped increase the popularity of fight sports.
- Fitness is the most popular sport in the Netherlands.
- Says while Kickboxing has become more popular among a wider audience, relatively speaking it's still more popular with younger adults and children of immigrants.
- When asked by Remy why that is, based on her research she believes it's comparable to the dream of becoming a football star; it's an accessible way to become a somebody and make some money. Additionally, when ending up at a good gym/trainer, it can also build character.
- Says she's encountered a bunch of bad gyms and trainers through her research as well - not just in fightsports. When Remy asks van de Merckt about the image of Kickboxing in Belgium, he says it's not as commonly associated with crime as it is in the Netherlands. He also mentions that by comparison Belgium barely has any big events, so it's harder to draw negative attention. After a bit of discussion Remy points out that 20 years ago, big events drew worse crowds than they do now.
- Feels it helps when good role models like Remy open gyms.
- Says training at a gym can help to vent frustrations, but depending on a person's character it can also enhance negative tendencies. Van de Merckt adds that he feels fightsports are the best form of therapy and training helps keep him calm.
- Says fightsports can help children with low self-esteem gain confidence.
The conversation derails a bit - but also gets more interesting - when at the end the topic of self-defense comes up:
- Remy brings up the double standards of how some people think of the application of self-defense: People have told him self-defense is important, but when a person practices martial arts they cannot even use it in the streets to defend themselves and instead should just run away. Remy says he wouldn't run away, because he couldn't trust in his safety the moment he turns his back on someone in an explosive situation. He laughingly adds that he'd be gone the second a weapon gets pulled.
- Sardarean adds that he doesn't believe in running away from fights and feels the Western world is too soft and lacking when it comes to the honor system.
- Van de Merckt asks Remy what he'd do when he's being verbally abused. Remy says he generally tries to solve disputes verbally.
- Elling challenges Sardarean's disposition as bordering on toxic masculinity.
- There's a bit of a discussion and Kops says if someone takes verbal abuse too far he slaps them lol. He adds that he would take people down, but avoids using strikes.
- Remy says he'd avoid using his fists when not being paid for it lol.
- Van de Merckt says he used to be a bouncer himself and has been in situations where he felt he had to attack someone physically.
Slightly different feel to this episode compared to the usual fare, but an interesting conversation nonetheless.
