Time was definitely of the essence in this mini interview; Eddie was in Newcastle for the UFC 80 Rapid Fire event and managed to slot in a four hour seminar at Phoenix MMA AcademyTime was definitely of the essence in this mini interview; Eddie was in Newcastle for the UFC 80 Rapid Fire event and managed to slot in a four hour seminar at Phoenix MMA Academy, arranged in a whirlwind by Steve Paynter of Combat Base North East. Top marks to Steve for his hard work and ensuring a massive turn out for the rubber guard maestro.
Carl: We’ve just finished the seminar, great turn out by the way. What are your thoughts on the seminar and the guys you met today?
Eddie: It was awesome, really awesome, probably my best seminar ever, the guys were great some talented guys adding to their arsenal and a bunch of open minds, I had a lot of fun, it was awesome.
CF: What did you cover on the seminar?
EB: I covered butterfly guard, rubber guard and half guard, basically my complete bottom game; didn’t have time to cover everything, but the guys took in around sixty per cent of what I do on the bottom, would have liked more time but you can’t have everything.
CF: Any new techniques shown today, anything you’ve been developing lately?
EB: It’s always developing, always new stuff, my seminars from a year ago are a little different than what they are now; my moves are always evolving and changing, when I teach my students my moves, I always teach them my counters as well and now I have to come up with counters to the counters and it slowly changes, evolves twists and turns you know, it’s never gonna stay the same.
CF: So the students are always keeping you busy on your toes trying to catch out Eddie Bravo? Making you go back to the drawing board to come up with new attacks and counters?
EB: Always man, every night is a battle.
CF: You’re known for your crazy names for the moves; do you make them up, do your students make them up?
EB: Sometimes my students come up with the names, more often it’s just myself depending on how stoned I am; a lot sound weird and goofy, but nothing’s as goofy as gogoplata, that seems to stick and people say that without flinching, you know mission control or chill dog, like in my school guys say it all the time it’s just a name, first it sounds crazy but then you get used to it when it’s said so much. You then realise how important it is to name every position, it makes it easier to learn and evolve, every position ends a name and a lot of the moves didn’t have any names.
When I put together my last two books there were a lot of moves that didn’t have any names and there were about fifteen twenty moves without names and I’m on the phone to my publisher and they’re asking me for names for the moves and I had about five minutes to come up with about fifteen names for these moves, that why a lot sound stupid.
CF: How long are you in the UK for?
EB: Just here for the UFC to cover the event and then back to LA in the morning; I used to have about three jobs for the UFC a while back, I was the only score card and I was in the ear of Joe Rogan, you know dropping tit bits of info that I spot, a little quicker than Joe does now and then, if Joe completely misses something I jump on it, but he doesn’t really need me to be honest. I was also in Mike’s ear as well, I drop a couple of things in Mike’s ear and I direct the grappling replays, you know, because the producers and directors don’t really know a lot about jiu jitsu. You know some one sets up a triangle from the mount, before they used to show the replay of the guy in the triangle tapping, but I get them to rewind the highlight and tell them where to start the replays to show the set ups in action, which is why I was brought in. Now they’ve stopped me from the score card the commission didn’t like the score card thing and they wanted the UFC to cut that out, so they did. They cut me out right before the Hammill/Bisping fight, so that was a good move, as I would have given it to Hammill, so it was a good move on their part to cut me out before that fight.
CF: Your new DVD is out on sale now; is there anything new in these DVD’s or can it be used in conjunction with your written books, maybe check a move out in real time on the DVD, see things on the DVD they might not see in the books?
EB: Oh for sure yes, everything in the book you can find in the DVD’s, plus lots more, music videos…….
CF: (butts in) Any Easter eggs?
EB: No Easter eggs everything is out in the open nothing to hide on the DVD’s, all the techniques in the books and ten times more.
CF: How do you know Steve, the driver?
EB: Through the internet, he knew I was coming here to Newcastle and asked me if I was interested in doing a seminar before the event and we did it, it was perfect.
CF: Well Eddie, we’re here at the Hilton; thanks for your time and I’ll see you down the arena tonight.
EB: Carl, my pleasure man, thanks for interview.
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