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| MMARR Features | |||||
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| Terry Trebilcock Interview |
| MMA News Written by Arnold "The Sushiboy" Lim | |
| Friday, 28 February 2003 | |
 Terry Trebilcock is a King among Kings. The leader of the world renowned King of the Cage Mixed Martial arts organization has had fighters such as Quinton Rampage Jackson, current UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez, Javier Vazquez, Shonie Carter and many more spend time fighting in his organization at one time or another. He was kind enough to spend a little time out of his busy schedule to talk to us only one day after the biggest event in the history of the King of the Cage, KOTC 21 “Invasion”. In the interview we talk about Javier’s heart, Bobby Hoffman and his friendly competition, the UFC.
TT: Hello Arnold how are you? MMARR: I just watched the King of the Cage yesterday! I am doing pretty good!!! "Laughs" TT: Obviously you know (Bobby) Hoffman! "Laughs" MMARR: Yeah I think I have talked to him before! "Laughs" MMARR: What did you think of the show overall? TT: Ha Ha…Greatest show in the history of MMA, How does that sound? MMARR: Ha Ha…It sounds like you are the promoter that is what it sounds like :) TT: I guess you weren’t there then... MMARR: what did you think of the Javier Vazquez fight? TT: I thought it was a great fight... MMARR: Some people said he won that fight what did you think of the decision overall? TT: I didn’t think it was close. I didn’t think the fight was close in any way, I thought maybe he won the last round, I thought he got totally dominated in the first round. What I saw was, two times he almost got knocked out by Crane standing with head kicks. He was rocked twice, he was in probably eight to ten deep submissions that he had to find a way out of. I didn’t see Javier with one submission or see him hurt Crane with anything. I don’t know what they saw him win the fight on, maybe just being Javier Vazquez. MMARR: It looked like he injured himself pretty bad in the first 10, 15, 20, seconds of the fight, what do you think of Javier’s heart after seeing that fight? TT: Unbelievable, it is something you write a book on. MMARR: I don’t think you see to many people fight through an injury like that… TT: What people don’t even know is that when he had his ACL torn for the first time and he didn’t know he had it completely torn, he had no ACL. He fought his two fights prior to Phillip Perez with no ACL. But he didn’t even know that he didn’t have it. He knew that it locked up on him and he knew that he had problems with it but he didn’t know he didn’t have an ACL. MMARR: What did you think of Bobby Hoffman’s performance coming out of Jail and reclaiming the title that he was originally stripped of? TT: I thought it was a very impressive performance. He went in there and fought some tough guys, some people don’t know how good Sotello actually is, he did knock out Paul Buentello…I thought it was a great performance. You never know how tough a guy is going to be til ask him to fight two times in a night, right out of jail and not really try to duck anybody that was in the line. I think that is pretty impressive. MMARR: Looking back to the show, it seems that this show had the worst luck I have ever seen in terms of injuries in my life. TT: If you only knew… there is even more that haven’t been brought up yet. MMARR: Anything that you can bring up for us then? Ha Ha TT: No not at the present time. MMARR: Even in the fights, Sotello hurt his elbow, Galindo hurt his bicep… TT: Sotello’s shoulder popped out and Galindo tore his Bicep off… MMARR: OFF? TT: Off…. MMARR: Obviously Griffen didn’t make it, Buentello, all these Freak injuries happening, as far as Seth Petruzelli we didn’t really get an announcement what exactly happened to Petruzelli? TT: Seth Petruzelli Broke his ankle. MMARR: How did he hurt his ankle? TT: On a kick on the elbow…as hard as he kicked… he broke his ankle. He broke his ankle somehow. MMARR: This is your Second show in PPV how would you evaluate the performance of the show TT: This is my forth show on PPV I have been on PPV for almost a year now. My first PPV show was last may in Reno, then I followed up with Double Cross in Soboba in August, then I was back in Reno in Nov, then this one here and then I go to Las Vegas after this. MMARR: So how would you evaluate the growth of KOTC since the first show on PPV? TT: Probably the biggest show in the world presently, that can turn a profit show in and show out. MMARR: I actually believe you as far as that goes. Because I know some of the things that go on in some of the other organizations and it is pretty tough , making a living as a Promoter in MMA TT: What that really means is …that running a real business plan and not something that is a hobby of somebody, people actually get tired of funding hobbies after a period of time, It is the biggest show right now probably worldwide. MMARR: You have a lot of your fighters going into the UFC, you have Romie Aram going into the UFC… TT: Romie Aram I didn’t resign. I have seven probably higher profile fighters then Romie Aram at 170, I couldn’t keep them all, I have Vasconselos, I have Ronald Jhun, I have Dennis Hallman who as you know submitted Matt Hughes twice in under a minute, I also have John Alessio at 170. My 170 runs so deep, Benji Radach is going to sign this week I got so many guys at 170 pounds, that It didn’t make any sense for me to give him the money that he demanded. The UFC wanted to get him, I didn’t resign him. Javier Vazquez is under an Exclusive with King of the Cage, I chose to let him fight in Miami (UFC 42) only with my approval could he fight, I chose to let him fight, I was comfortable that they didn’t have anyone there that could beat him. MMARR: I believe this is true you let him fight in Shooto and you were one of the people responsible for getting him his big breakout fight with Rumina Sato, Javier Vazquez is a guy that not too many people know about, but he has world class skill and he is able to compete at the highest level, when you see a fighter go down like that with an injury as a promoter how does that feel for you? TT: I disagree that not too many people know about Javi (Javier Vaquez), I always believe that the real fans know that he is probably the best one hundred and fifty five pounder in the world. He must be looking though eyes of the UFC that you see on TV all the time but if you look at the way the sport really is right now, at 155 pounds a guy that wasn’t ranked tenth in my show (Duane “Bang” Ludwig), just knocked out their best 155 pounder(Jens Pulver). I have the guy (Dennis Hallman) that beat their hundred and seventy pounder (Matt Hughes) twice, in under a minute. At 185 they lost Murilo Bustamante, they don’t really have a hundred and eighty five champion. At 205 I just signed Jeremy Horn who is the only guy to submit Chuck Liddell, the only guy to beat Chuck Liddell, who Tito won’t fight because when they train together it is not even a match between Tito and Chuck. At Heavyweight my former champion Ricco Rodriguez ran the table at the UFC, and I have the only guy that has ever beat Ricco and knocked him cold in Hawaii (Bobby Hoffman), and at the unlimited weight class I have four of the five best in the world, with the exception of Bob Sapp. How do I compare my show to the UFC? I don’t see a comparison. I see them spending a lot of money and doing a lot of things, and I see it as a very good show I am a big fan of the sport, but as the characters and the fighters I feel I have the best fighters in the world and they are proving it every where they go. Whether it is Quinton Jackson beating everybody in Pride, Ricco beating everybody in the UFC, I kinda look at it like that and it is kinda tough to deny that right now, because everything I said is a fact. MMARR: There has been people saying that there is a little bit of a feud between King of the Cage and the UFC, do you see it as a feud or do you see it as friendly competition? TT: I feel it is absolutely friendly competition, I would love to be able to have the kind of money to create any type of Hobby that I wanted, but unfortunately I have to run it like a business because it is a business. I have to do it the way I have to do it, they have to do it the way they want to do it. Competition, I think that competition is good. I think the UFC has opened an awful lot of doors for King of the Cage, I can’t do anything but thank then for it. MMARR: Well that is all the questions I had today, I appreciate your time. TT: No problem, Thanks Arnold, Bye Bye MMARR: See you later. |
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