Interview with Enson Inoue-Part Three
March 8, 2002
By Brett Herman
Brett Herman: Did you choose to fight those big heavyweights, or was that Pride?
Enson Inoue: I wanted to fight Heavyweights, they threw the fighters at me and I excitedly accepted, I didn't turn them away. I saw Igor, and I wanted to try and stand with Igor. Heath just beat Erickson and they threw him at me, I said hey that's cool. I asked for Kerr because at the time I thought that he was the best fighter in the world, and I wanted to see how it felt to try and be with someone like that.
Brett Herman: Will you hang out and party with us in Los Angeles the next time you're here, and also let us take you to all our favorite junk food spots too-BBQ, Roscoes Chicken and Waffles, Krispy Kremes?
Enson Inoue: Oh I'd love too - I might fly out just for that! I'd like to hang out, after this fight and everything has cooled down, relaxed a little I'd like to travel and relax a little, maybe L.A.'s a good place to be.
Brett Herman: Maybe get a few more tattoos?
Enson Inoue: (Laughs) You know I have an artist here in Japan, he owns my body.
Brett Herman: Anything new on the horizon in that department?
Enson Inoue: Yes, I have a big Group here in Japan, it's called The Yamatodamashii Ichizoku, it's a Yamatodamashii Family. We're one of the strongest groups in Japan right now, It's one of the strongest Groups. We have a mark that I'm coming out with on my new shirts, and that's my next tattoo. I think it's going to be after this Pride because the training won't allow me to take off for a tattoo rgith now.
Brett Herman: Where is it going?
Enson Inoue: It's probably going right under my chest towards my arm pit, kind of on my ribcage, above my obliques.
Brett Herman: Cool man!
Enson Inoue: Yeah, I am really looking forward to that one.
Brett Herman: How is your boy with the bad ear you were pounding on in the NHB: Rights of Passage documentary doing?
Enson Inoue: He's right here, he answered the phone in fact!
Brett Herman: How is his ear doing, and are all your fighters that tough?
Enson Inoue: He is good, he has a gash on his eye right now that required four stithces. We just butterflied it, his name is John Calvo. Yeah this guy has sparred with me, with Mark Kerr, with the Shoushi Nishida, and he came back on his own, you know?
He knew I needed a sparring partner, he knew that I was coming out for one more fight and he came back on his own. I don't know many people that come back after sparring with me. He came with me to Thailand, so he's out for a couple of days because of that gash, and we did some sparring for a couple of days in Thailand, I caught him with a punch and his eye opened up so he's out for a couple days.
Brett Herman: Are you a big pro-wrestling fan?
Enson Inoue: My wife is, she's a big WWF fan, she'll hear like 4 tunes in a song and she'll know what fighter is coming out. Like, oh that's the Rock! Because she watches it, I watch it and it's interesting.
Brett Herman: I recently ran into the 7 ft. tall, 500 pound Big Show from the WWF, I was wondering if you ever fought that guy MMA style, how would you approach it?
Enson Inoue: There are 2 guys like that here in Japan, an Indian guy and a Brazilian guy who fought in the Tokyo Dome last week. I don't know how you'd approach fighting soemone like that, maybe a lot of leg kicks and body shots I guess. Just hope to get him on the ground because then he's going to be your size, because if he lies down, he's not going to be 500 pounds.
Brett Herman: What about Japanese death matches with thumbtacks and barbed wire?
Enson Inoue: Oh those! I am not man enough for that. I have watched those, they're crazy! I don't really care for New Japan because they try to mix fighting with pro-wrestling, I kind of don't agree with that. But I like the WWF and in Japan we have what they call Michinoku, where they fly around and jump around. Even those guys who do the thumbtack things, it's totally off the fighting thing, it's a whole different thing. I just wouldn't be able to pro-wrestle because I couldn't have thumbtacks going
into my skin just knowing that they're going in there. I mean if Nogueria were to just slam thumbtacks into my back that's cool because I don't know it's coming, but these guys know it's coming, and WWF, there's no way I can put on a show like they can, they're just total professionals.
Brett Herman: Do you enjoy the internet?
Enson Inoue: I am getting crazy on the internet, I look at your page a lot, www.sherdog.com.
Brett Herman: About your Group Enson, what constitutes a group, who's in your crew, how do you guys roll, can you even tell us any of this?
Enson Inoue: It's called Yamatodomashii Ichizoku, and Ichizoku means family. It's a wide range of people you know, anywhere from the underworld, to gan members, to doctors, to students at the gym. The reason we call it that is because it's a family. If someone's in your family, you'd probably die for them, right? I got at least hundreds of guys out here to die for me, and that constitutes a family.
Brett Herman: I take it you're the head of the family?
Enson Inoue: Yeah, the heart of the family.
Brett Herman: How long have you had that status?
Enson Inoue: It slowly started three years ago, and it's up and kicking right now. It's going to get stronger in the next three years.
Mark Kerr has had a taste of it, he's personally seen some of it happen, he's seen my Family come in one day. Some of the Pride fighters have seen it, I know Gary Goodridge has.
But, Mark Kerr has first hand, he was freaking out! (Laughs) It just so happened that what we were doing was right across from his room, he happened to open the door, and he freaked out. But you can talk to Mark Kerr about that, that was at the Hilton, the Shinjuku Hilton.
But it's not just a bad thing you know, it's a good thing too. Its just people that I really take care of and they take care of me too.
Brett Herman: Do you take care of their families?
Enson Inoue: Yeah.
Brett Herman: What would have happened to Guy Mezger if he wouldn't have spoken to you before he got on the Mic at Pride to challenge you after Egan's fight?
Enson Inoue: It would have really got ugly because I didn't know he was put up to the whole thing. It was a stunt you know, it was not peaceful, I was in retirement, to call someone out of retirement after beating my brother. Apparently what he told me was he was going to use very bad words, because he thought that I was into the whole scheme, that's what Pride told him.
So, that would have really got ugly, I am not a pro-wrestler, I am not like Rock where he comes up and stares you down, and he raises one eyebrow and looks around. I would have just attacked him right there in the middle of the arena, they would have had one extra special match.
Guy had the class, he made a comment to me when I went into the ring to check on Egan like it's not personal right, kind of like he thought i really knew. I looked at him and I said what are you talking about? I thought he meant the fight and I thought, how can a fight be personal? From just the look on my face, he said, Enson doesn't know about it, that's when he told me, I have to call you out. I said, what do you mean call me out? He said, I have to challenge you, I don't want to do it, but I have to
do it. If you look at the tape you can see me pull him to the corner and tell him, if you don't want to do it then don't fucking do it. He had the class to come to our locker room and tell Egan and me that he's not like that and he was put up to it.
A lot of the Pride rats running around tried to tell him to cover it up. Guy and I are friends and that's good because it shows that the fighters stick together and the promoters can't fuck the fighters. The whole thing didn't turn ugly because Guy handled it professionally, and I really appreciated it.
Brett Herman: Any criticism towards Pride for the way they handle things sometimes?
Enson Inoue: There are some things they do that as a MMA fighter I don't agree with, but I understand as promoters they sometimes have to do that.
For instance, the Japanese fighter that starts with a T(akada), he fights a lot of different rules, sometimes which maybe belong in another type of ring.
However, when I had problems, Pride was behind me the whole time, which I couldn't say for Shooto.
Brett Herman: Did they strip you of your title Enson?
Enson Inoue: Well that's a complicated situation because I stood up for myself against a reporter, and as far as the law is concerned I went a little far. Shooto was more concerned about saving their name than saving me.
Three years prior to that I stood up, sacrificed my raquetball compan, and saved Shooto from going out of business. I love Shooto, it's a good association, bbut there are some rotten eggs in there. I could point out four guys right now, that if they were gone, shooto would be a much better association. There were five, but one is gone now.
Brett Herman: How good is Mach Sakurai?
Enson Inoue: He's a well gifted athlete, good standing, good ground, the only problem he has is training hard sometimes. He has a lot of instinct, he goes for the finish too, so he's a real exciting fighter.Who does he fight?
Brett Herman: Matt Hughes, okay yeah. I think he will be a little too technical for Matt Hughes, especially on the ground. They just signed Couture vs. Barnett for the main event today, are you still going to come out for that show Enson?
Enson Inoue: Yeah, I'll be out there, take a trip out there. I still have to withdraw money I left in the casinos over the past ten years, huh? Maybe I'll do it in March. (laughs)
Brett Herman: Speaking of the UFC, how did it feel to tap the hometown boy in UFC 13?
Enson Inoue: Oh, you mean Alger, it felt good. Especially when I felt the pop of his elbow in my crotch. It was a big pop, it was probably the biggest pop I've ever heard before. It wasn't one of those little tendons ripping or stretching, it was one big pop.
The crowd, the hometown probably helped pump me up because they started chanting USA! USA! which was really dumb because I am from Hawaii,and if they've been alive for the last several years they'd know that Hawaii is the 50th state. I'm from Oahu, I have a Big Island boy with me right now, Cabbage is in the back seat.
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凱因斯說過:
"什麼事情老是有人說長期來看 好 那麼長期來看 我們都死了"
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