Some translated bits of
Warrior Talk #22.
This was released on February 10th.
Marinho was more or less acting as a co-host.
It started with a bit of a discussion about boxing; Ngannou, Joshua, Fury, Usyk etc. Mike appears to be the most invested in boxing out of all the table guests and somewhat defended Joshua's recent performances.
Ivan Hippolyte
- Bruce Lee used to be his idol.
- Became interested in Kickboxing after a friend gave him a lowkick as a kid lol.
- Started out at Vos Gym, because that's where his friend trained.
- Had his first fight in January of 1983, after a year of training.
- At first they trained without shinguard, because there was no money for it.
- When he had his first fight it was with shinguards and he liked not having to hold back when kicking.
- Remy, Hippolyte and Marinho all come from the same rough neighbourhood (Bijlmer) and Hippo was known on the streets as a tough guy.
- Is very happy with the career he's had as a fighter.
- Was the K-3 champion at 75kg (When K-1 was trying out different weightclasses in the early 90s).
- Was just too big to compete in K-1 Max.
- When asked if he would have liked to do anything differently, he said he wished he was active during a later era for financial reasons.
- Aside from that he's happy with his career.
- When he first took over a gym he was still active as a fighter.
- He noticed he became less interested in competing himself and retired from fighting.
- One of the first big fighters he helped develop was Mohamed "Mootje" Khamal.
- Feels like being a trainer is a good way for fighters to extend their career.
- Trains Kickboxers in the Netherlands and helps MMA fighters with their striking abroad.
- Has had part in getting several fighters into the UFC.
- Doesn't like to compare everything to the past and says "We live in the here and now".
- Has also worked with Wisse, Khbabez, Beztati and CroCop.
Mike Passenier
- Defends Glory's GP draw and Rico's pick.
- Says "the rankings are the rankings" regardless of how correct or incorrect they may be.
- Was happy to see Hoost at the draw, because the Dutch don't really honor their legends.
- When he was a lot younger and still training himself Hippolyte gave a seminar at his gym.
- Says he's in a bit of an off-season since their gym's last fight was in Glory in December and the next one will be K-1 in March.
- After Jamal's suspension ended they went into negotiations with Glory and ultimately Glory chose not to put Jamal in the tournament.
- Feels Glory should decide what's best for them, but also mentions the consumer decides with their wallets: If tickets aren't selling like expected, adjustments should be made.
- Says ideally Jamal should have fought in December.
- Emphasizes that he isn't Jamal's manager, just his trainer.
- Says Cookie's rise was fast since not too long ago he was fighting last-minute fights for peanuts at wonky events.
- Acknowledges their approach going into Cookie's fight with Rico wasn't the best.
- Has trained with Badr again a bit recently, but Badr doesn't really have the time anymore to train consistently.
- Feels Badr owes his fans a farewell fight, or multiple ones, and names Morocco, France and The Netherlands as potential locations.
- Implies Uku got lucky, because Badr made a mistake.
- Says this draw was the best system, because the current heavyweight division isn't big enough lol.
- Says it's a very Dutch thing to find things to complain about.
Ernesto Hoost
- Appreciates being part of the game again after not having been invited by Glory for a while.
- Says he's learned a lot from Hippolyte.
- Was 13-14 when he saw Kickboxing on TV for the first time.
- Had to wait for a gym to open in his hometown Hoorn, before he could take classes.
- His first fight was against Wim Scharrenberg in 1983. He won that fight by KO in R2.
- Remembered that fight better than it was when he saw it back on video.
- His first K-1 fight was the Grand Prix in 1993.
- He was used to injuries after single fights and wondered how he would handle a tournament.
- Got more and more injured with every fight and just wasn't sharp enough for Cikatic in the finals, where he lost by KO.
- He won the K-2 at 85kg in 1993, which was his first tournament victory.
- Won his first K-1 GP in 1997.
- Says 1999 is his best K-1 championship, because he came back from the KO against Filho.
- Says he was approached for a comeback at Breaking Down.
- Remy told Hoost not to do it.
- There was a bit of discussion about it. Hippolyte said only the fighters themselves can make that decision and Mike was kind of defending it.
- At some point they were having a bit of fun and said maybe Hoost can fight Kakuda. Mike then brought up Kakuda has been banned from reffing. Not sure if that's true, but it would explain why we haven't seen him in the sport after his K-1 FEG days.
- Hoost said he wouldn't do it if he felt like he couldn't.
- Says his toughest fights were against Rick Roufus, Mike Bernardo.
- Used to have trouble with people who haven't fought giving heavy criticism.
Overall I liked this episode, but it was a bit messier than usual and at times it felt like Mike was sitting there like a Glory shill and I found it hard to agree with a lot of what he was saying.
Also Marinho was getting somewhat dominated in one on one discussions with Mike, because he tends to take a long time to find the right words to make a point.
