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Ring of Fire Promoter and Manager Sven Bean

MMA News Written by Arnold "The Sushiboy" Lim

Wednesday, 05 May 2004

Sven Bean is the Manager of MMA and K-1 stars Duane Ludwig and Pete Spratt among others as well as the promoter of the Ring of Fire show out of Denver Colorado. He was gracious enough to spend some time with “The Sushiboy” and had much to say about Duane Ludwig, Pete Spratt, Pat Smith, Ludwig's upcoming bout with BJ Penn and more...

Photo courtesy of Sven Bean and Paul Erickson txmma.com

MMARR: Duane didn’t do to well against Parr, What happened to Duane Ludwig against John Wayne Parr?

SB: he cut too much weight too fast, he was out there by himself in Japan, I didn’t get to Japan until actually an hour before the fight started because I had a death in the family.

MMARR: I am sorry to hear that.

SB: It is alright, our other coach that was going out there got delayed because of weather and had to spend the night in San Francisco and didn’t get there until three hours after the weigh in. and Duane was cutting over 18 pounds to get to the weight, he went in a little heavy, because …he went in a lot heavy because he went in with a hurt ankle so he couldn’t run leading up to the fight he couldn’t run at all and that is how he keeps his weight down by running. He couldn’t run at all and he came in heavy, turned out to be a big deal because we have a pretty good system for cutting weight, but since he was there by himself, his support team wasn’t there he was trying to cut the weight he panicked a little bit he did it the wrong way and he was very weak, he just cut too much weight too fast, Parr didn’t ever hurt him, he never hurt him, all the knockdowns were flash knockdowns, Duane would go down and pop right back up and look over at us kind like “What the hell” not out at all, not hurt at all, and then the weight was such a big difference they made us wear ten ounce gloves and he wore 8.

MMARR: Are you allowed to do that and have different size gloves?

SB: K-1 can do whatever they want. And also everyone wore 8 ounce Reyes…

MMARR: What is 8 ounce Reyes?

SB: Reyes is a type of glove, it is a Mexican glove and they are made with horse hair so they are known as one of the hardest hitting gloves out there, even specifically for boxing and the lightweights because, the lightweights don’t have a whole lot of punching power with the little flyweights and straw weights, they want to gives them as much power as possible. The these gloves are very tiny. And they gave us these ten ounce gloves that were not Reyes, they were some kind of promotional glove I had never seen them before. I put the Reyes next to the gloves that they wanted us to use, they looked like my 16 ounce trainers that I used to spar with. There was like a 2 and a half difference in size. Combine all that stuff together, against fighting John wayne Parr with who even fighting on an even level is going to be a tough fight and you are in a no win situation. But people put a lot more in the losses here in North America then they do in Japan.

MMARR: I was told that John Wayne Parr at one point was training together with Duane Ludwig.

SB: Yeah years ago.

MMARR: How did that pan out? Were they friends at all?

SB: They were living together basically, in a dorm situation with the roufus brothers and John Wayne Parr and Angela, now Angela Parr, because of that training camp they hooked up. Anyway it was just a month and a half in the summer time so nothing big.

MMARR: But they knew each other pretty well I guess then.

SB: Oh yeah, we have been following Parr’s career, we know each other, we see each other all the time at different fights.

MMARR: What were the weight limits for the max fight?

SB: 154lbs, 70 kilo’s

MMARR: You got Pete Spratt taking a couple of losses here. He has been having a little bit of a difficult time here. What is next for Pete?

SB: He just fought a month ago in a kickboxing fight and beat an undefeated fighter, I got him in the super league, and I am also negotiating for a fight in Sturgis, possibly with the IFC but it will probably be just a stand up fight. It might be kind of cool, it is going to be a cage, they are going to have MMA gloves on but it is going to be under Mui Thai rules.

MMARR: Very Cool

SB: Yeah that would be pretty neat and he tried out for the boxing reality show and the producer called him personally and told him how impressed he was they really like the whole.. that he is an ultimate fighter, and he was never a pro boxer and they are totally into it so if that happens that is actually what he is going to do for three months because that is how much time it will take.

MMARR: Can you tell us a little more about that boxing reality show? Is that the one with Sylvester Stallone?

SB: Yeah the one with Stallone, he tried out in Dallas, Sylvester Stallone’s brother Frank Stallone, pulled out his personal video camera to record it, got on the phone and called Sylvester Stallone and said you gotta see this guy, The producer of the Phone called Pete personally and that is the same producer that does all the reality shows. Mark…

MMARR: What are his thoughts on MMA right now is he still interested in persuing that at all?

SB: totally but he is just going to take a slow process getting back, I am going to probably bring him out here, to fight on Ring of Fire, but it looks like it will be a kickboxing match as well.

MMARR: Was it difficult on him mentally to lose those two fights?

SB: You would have to ask him that.

MMARR: Pete was out here in Montreal when he was supposed to fight Georges St Pierre the first time. Was he more mentally prepared that first day then he was the second time?

SB: Oh Yeah…totally. He had a lot of stuff going on and you always hear that from people but the reality of it is we are humans and if our mental state isn’t there then you are not going to perform.

MMARR: I think the second time out I believe it was the American thanksgiving, I am not one hundred percent sure about that…

SB: You are correct, both of us we were away from the family and stuff…

MMARR: who else do you manage as well?

SB: Jay Jack, Amanda Buckner, couple of big K-1 fighters, I have got negotiations with Aaron Brink right now, I will probably pick him up.

MMARR: Jay Jack will be headlining an event here pretty quick can you tell us a little bit about that?

SB: yeah he is going o fight John Cronk who is a KOTC fighter and he is a shoot boxing world champion which is, like San Shou what Cung Le does. He is also a kick boxing champion, tough guy he has got a lot of fights. Probably has a 100 fights under all his styles. It is kind of a bad Blood fight, the guys done necessarily like each other, John was kind of the bad boy around here for a long time and jay came up and everybody started you know…”looking at jay and saying wow there is something there” and so John kind of took it as a challenge to his status as the top guy at that weight in this area.

MMARR: How about Amanda Buckner, she is dating Mr. Jack correct?

SB: Correct

MMARR: Does she have anything on the go in the near future?

SB: Yeah she was supposed to fight and she got an injury and we were offered Amanda Buckner vs. Jennifer Howe, which would be a rematch and on the same card, Jay Jack vs. Jeremy Horn, so it would have been boyfriend girlfriend vs. Boyfriend Girlfriend I talked with Monte (Cox) about it yesterday and the guy didn’t have the money to pull that off, I mean it sounded good on paper and everyone had no problems doing it but the guy just didn’t have the money to pull it off it was a small show so…It is tough to get fights for fighters and the females it is twice as hard….

MMARR: how did you get into managing and how did you get into the sport?

SB: How I got into the sport was as a fighter, training with all the guys…it is in my blood and I would much rather be a fighter then a manager and a promoter but I am old. I had another successful business at the time and two little children and my wife told me she didn’t want me fighting so I just got out of it but I still continue to train….

MMARR: Were you geared more towards standup or were you a grappler?

SB: Standup, I fought bare knuckle knockdown style karate, and I am a kickboxer.

MMARR: So how many fights do you have? What is your record?

SB: I don’t want to get into that. It is just something in my past, let us put it that way. I could have been…I know ….It was just an opportunity that went by and I really wanted it so it is kind of a hard issue for me. I wanted to do it but circumstances wouldn’t you , so when you got something you really want to do in life, like telling Dale ernhardt jr sorry you just cant race now go get behind a desk. So anyways the way I stayed close to the fight game and the fights was I kept training and I was working with some gusy and we would go to different shows and I would just look around to different events and go ”if I was doing it I would do this” or if this was my show I would do that. And people got tired of hearing me say that and they said then why don’t you do it and I did. And I started promoting and I started working with Duane and Pete and a few other guys, the main thing is I never really wanted to be a manager, if I like a guy I just want to make sure they get what is coming to them, fighters don’t need to deal with the business end of it.

MMARR: Their job is to fight.

SB: yeah, before I really switched over to doing the fight game full time, my other business and Duane would work for me at that, and he was like, he knew I knew how to do business deals and I was working with billion dollar corporations like GE capital and you know,…I can negotiate with King of the Cage I guess…. Laughs

MMARR: We talked about you having a successful business what type of business did you have?

SB: I did project management doing modular corporate office moves like 300 people or more. I guess when I get looking at some of my shows, it is just another project. Just a another project that has got deadlines and I have got everything just like I was doing in my other business.

MMARR: I think at UFC 45 there was some talk about getting Pat Smith coming to fight. Do you still manage Pat Smith?

SB: No I don’t manage Pat.

MMARR: Not anymore?

SB: Not anymore.

MMARR: is that an issue you mind getting into?

SB: I don’t mind getting into it.

MMARR: You picked up pat Smith obviously people hadn’t heard from him for a long time, it was the news for a little bit. What happened?

SB: When I first started working with Pat it was at the suggestion of my coach. Clarence Thatch, out of respect to him I said I would do it, even though I was a little hesitant, just because Pat Smith doesn’t have the best reputation. So I did it, but when I was working with him he failed to mention….his goals were like get me back into the UFC, so I said well I could do that. Let’s do it. Then he failed to mention that he was on suspension from the Nevada State Athletic commission. And I didn’t find that out untill I had already gotten an offer from the UFC. So we get this offer and are like great Pat you are back and they call us and we are like he is suspended indefinitely. So I had to go through jump through the hoops and talk to Nevada commission and find out what needed to be done and the list was long. There was like 30 items that needed to be done, every test imaginable. Every medical test imaginable, drug screening, not just blood tests but drug screening everything and we did it all. We did it all and everything was submitted and turned in and it was about ten days out from the UFC, and the UFC called and said well you know what, we are pulling the plug on the fight. And I didn’t understand why, and they said it just isn’t going to happen Nevada is dragging their feet, and they are not going to pass him. So I said well we have ten days left you don’t know that. And they basically said yeah we do know that, they are not going to pass him. And then I asked him why what happened there and again he didn’t tell me any of this before but he had gotten into a verbal altercation with the Nevada State Commission 5 years earlier when they didn’t sanction Ultimate Fighting. And it was over a boxing match and basically told the whole commission to “Fuck Off”…not basically...he did. He flipped everybody off and said that is OK, I don’t need to box, I will just go fight Ultimate fighting anyway and fuck you guys. Well that was 5 years ago and it is all the same people so now when his name comes across the board to get sanctioned by Nevada, obviously people remembered that very well so he made some enemies they made him jump through hoops, and I hear, I spoke with Marc Ratner, two weeks ago at K-1 that they are still trying to and that he has got some new people working with them and I guess they are close and maybe he will get his license back I think Pat’s Window of opportunity is very small.

MMARR: True

SB: So at that point it was like so what else can we do? What else can we do? And I had got an offer from King of the Cage to fight Paul Buentello which we accepted and then that was fine but then I was talking to my coach saying I got Pat a fight, it is a big title fight, how is his training going? He is like I haven’t seen him he is not training here. And then he had a big falling out with my coach and it just was like, this just isn’t working because the guys that I manage, like Duane and Pete and everyone else I have a personal relationship with them. And it just wasn’t there and it just didn’t work out on everybodies part I don’t think he was all that necessarily happy with me and I don’t know it was kind of Mutual.

MMARR: there was a little bit of controversy in that fight. What did you think of that fight and how do you think that fight would go around the second time.

SB: I think Duane Ludwig won that fight under the way the rules stated. We won under those rules. If the rules were different he wouldn’t have won that fight, we accept that. We have offered the rematch, Genki has turned it down.

MMARR: So it was Genki that turned it down?

SB: Yeah well when we were offered the rematch we said no problem, in the UFC. I don’t know so much that Genki turned it down, I think maybe his management did because they were trying to get it done in Japan. I think they kind of new that K-1 MMA was coming and Genki and Bang are both K-1 fighters as well as UFC fighters, they must have had the inside track and said we will just wait this one out so…which is great because it works out for everybody and we definitely want to fight for the UFC still it is not like that at all but we are also not going to turn down money. It is serious money especially for 155er’s are notoriously known for getting underpaid, if you are not a heavyweight, it is tough to get a really, really good payday, and this is a good payday, I mean seriously good payday.

MMARR: So basically holding out for better money down the road is better for everyone kind of deal…

SB: In that fight that particular fight, yeah It was nothing that we did I am just speculating on what the Genki camp did, I am sure that is probably the case.

MMARR: When Duane Ludwig fought at the UCC show that fight was pretty decisive did you expect the fight to go quite like that?

SB: I knew that Duane was going to knock Jens out.

MMARR: You knew it?

SB: I knew it.

MMARR: What was it that…

SB: I knew it because I knew they underestimated him, the camp as a whole did and I also, knew where Duane’s head was at the time, his training was right, his head was right, everything was just perfect, and I just knew how hard he hits at that weight the reach, everything I knew that Jens was going to have a hard time getting Duane down, he has got a good sprawl, Genki did it the right way with the upper body locks and stuff genki and Jens are two completely different fighters and they match up differently then Duane, Duane had the height the reach when we went into that fight, for me it was funny listening to all the crap on the internet because I had the inside track. I just knew, I knew it was going to play out like that I didn’t know it was going to go that quick but I thought it was going to be maybe a round of feeling out and maybe Jens trying to push the issue, then he would eventually get caught, and no disrespect to Jens, I Spoke to Jens in Vegas about this, weeks ago, if they did it now obviously it would be a completely different fight because he would change his game plan. I just think he had the wrong gameplan going in and underestimated Duane and Duane was just at the top of his game, it was his night and no one was going to beat him that night. You saw it, his reaction was just…he was just on. I had a hundred percent confidence that night. And that was it.

MMARR: Do you have any up and comers in the camp or guys that you know are going to be coming up pretty soon and are going to make some noise?

SB: Yeah, Ali Abdelaziz he is a Judo guy, he is going to be the first guy, actually Judo player besides Yoshida, he is going to be the first Judo guy that is going to really really going to make a big statement in MMA.

MMARR: More so then Karo Parisyan?

SB: Oh Yeah,

MMARR: what does he weight?

SB: 170

MMARR: Who has he fought so far?

SB: he is just 3-0 he has fought in all of my events. He is from Egypt he finished 8th or 9th in the Olympics.

MMARR: Sydney Olympics?

SB: I think 96 Olympics

MMARR: Barcelona?

SB: yeah Barcelona He is just a physical specimen, he trains with Mike van Arsdale and all the guys at the Olympic training centre, he has got really good hands for a ground guy, I mean his last fight ended in 17 seconds, he threw 7 left hooks in a row and just destroyed this guy. He does things like, he is so creative he did a summersault guard pass to land in full mount, and he has go such good Judo literally if he puts his hands on you… you go flying through the air, I mean he is really, really good and he is just a freak Genetically.

MMARR: How old is he

SB: 26

MMARR: Who else do you got, anyone else?

SB: Christian Allen,( at 170lbws) he is going to be fighting in Shooto, Christian fights very similar to mark Hominick, same kind of Style same kind of body type, same everything. Actually he was supposed to be fighting Tommy Lee but now Tommy Lee is fighting on the TKo card now Christian is fighting Carvalho….He is fighting him in the Iron heart Crown, and it is for the number one ranked Shoot in North America so he is going to get exposure on that and that show is going to be filmed for Japan and so we are really hoping that I am sure whoever wins that fight is going to get to go to Japan and fight in Shooto. Ali and Christian are my two main guys, I got some heavyweights that I am working on, actually I have a whole team of guys but the two guys that are the closest to really making it to the next level are Ali and Christian and Jay jack, I think Jay Jack should be in the UFC he has got A level skills with his only loss coming to Pete Spratt via Knockout and you know that is just one of those things…if Pete hits you chances are you are going to go down, if he hits you before you take him down.

MMARR: Anything else on the go for Sven Bean?

SB: For me? Trying to take over the world, same as it ever was… nah just plugging away, getting my guys opportunities and trying to build Ring of Fire. My DVD’s ( Ring of Fire Best of 1-3) that is a crazy process, a lot of it is on the UPC code which we are a little bit hung up on now I guess. DVD’s are getting out, I have got a little TV show that I am trying to get together just local on the UPN network, that is a slow process but it is going to happen.

Best of Ring of Fire 1-3 will be available in Best Buy across the nation. Mr. Bean also runs F.Y. productions. (Depending on whether Mr. Bean likes you or not F.Y. stands for either Flaming Yang if he likes you or if he doesn’t like you... (I think you can guess the other one.) Duane Ludwig will be fighting BJ Penn on May 22 the same night as Sven Bean’s Ring of Fire show in Colorado.