Is Bas Rutten Knightly?

[Thorsteinn]

Is Bas Rutten Knightly?

His reputation is of a gregarious, hard fighting, hard hitting fighter that has situational mercy in the ring, friendliness outside the ring, joy in others success, and willing to punish malfeasance when he finds it (see below).

[Sir William]

Ahhh, good ole Pancrase.  Pre-cursor to the UFC; they didn't allow closed fist strikes to the head, which struck me as odd back when I first watched- but I understand it was their way of making it more palateable.  To the question- is Bas Rutten knightly?  I think everyone has the ability to be so, but are they?

I've always seen him as a samurai type- honor, justice are things that matter to him.  In the clip shown above, he's giving commentary on a fight between him and Jason Delucia (who I first saw fight in his debut at UFC 2, got stuck in an iron armbar from Royce Gracie that everyone thought had popped but was just badly bent) - and it looks like the ref might have it in for Bas.  Of course, this was pre-instant replay so maybe the ref just mis-called.  In any event, Bas decided to end the contest rather than draw it out for 'ring experience'.  One could argue that it was hardly knightly to draw it out knowing as he did what the outcome would be.

Delucia is not an unskilled fighter- his record may not be stellar, but he's fought serious competition and won more than he lost; but he was outclassed in this instance and his opponent knew it.  So I guess the question is- would it have been more knightly to give the other fighter some positive reinforcement by 'allowing him to last' a length of time, or just put him out of his misery early?

[scott2978]

I would think that the knightly thing to do would be to beat your enemy soundly and fairly, and then be humble and gracious to him after. After all, how would you prefer to be treated by someone who obviously outclasses you? It would be unseemly to deprive him of his well deserved victory by not fighting back, and it would be disingenuous to not fight back as well as you can. In this case, the virtues that seem to float to the top are to always do your best, and treat others how you would prefer to be treated. It does the lesser skilled man little good to let him struggle in futile humiliation.

Scott

[Sir James (Fiat Lux)]

Bas Rutten is a favorite of mine! I've seen quite a few fights where he's outclassed his opponents, especially ones where someone swapped at the last moment, but in any sort of professional sport there's a big difference between time spent training and time spent in competition.

From what I've seen in some of his other fights, Bas had actually taken to some light coaching while allowing his opponent to get used to the environment. Fighting in a competition setting takes time and experience to get used to - you have champion-level combatants with a total active fight time of 2-4 hours over the course of an entire career. That experience is invaluable, even if you're mopping the proverbial floor. If you know you've got what it takes to win - especially to the point where competition is little more for you than a sparring match - then in some ways the kinder thing to do is to let that experience develop.

[Joshua Santana]

Very interesting.  Honestly from what I have seen, I would say Bas is more samurai then knight lol.  But his ethics certainly shine along with his colleagues.  Interesting post.