Gene LeBell interview part 3: Ali vs. Inoki, Steven Seagal, BJJ vs. catch-wrestling
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- prommanow.com -- In part three (3 of 3) of this in-depth interview with the legendary "Judo" Gene LeBell ProMMAnow.com reporter Dan "The Wolfman" Theodore talks with him about modern day MMA, catch-wrestling vs. jiu-jitsu and his infamous encounter with action star and martial artist Steven Seagal.
Gene LeBell is a classy guy. Even when he defends himself from Steven Seagal's accusation of being a pathological liar he maintains his composure. What a gentleman.
Hearing names like Karl Gotch, Lou Thesz and this Grand Master Judo Gene LeBell my joints start hurting and my lungs start burning, losing blood flow to the brain, neck starts hurting, the pain is just the beginning.. These old Catch As Catch Can grapplers are a wealth of knowledge not for just grappling skills but conditioning techniques.. The old adage you don't hook with a hooker applies here.. Gene LeBell the last of the Old School grapplers.. Pray he lives to be a 110 years old..
We don't call them wrestlers anymore?
@@kallepikku4991 Lebell could Wrestle catch,and also competed in Judo. I'm not for certain but I think he might have had a Sambo guy show him some stuff as well. And on a side note he also trained in boxing. I think the Grappler part was intended to recognize or include his knowledge of more than one Grappling/Wrestling style.
You should've said 120 years since that's the max a human could live. RIP Judo Gene Lebell who died on August 9, 2022 at the age of 89.
@@gqloc5987 What a bummer...Gene LeBell goes Home, Rest in Paradise
Gene LeBell, a gifted, kind, class act and has always been such. There's a lot to be learned from Gene, and only one of them is Judo. Bless you Gene.
Segal WAS good. But good at aikido. There's a reason you don't see people doing Aikido in real fights. It's crap. It relies on having partners who are willing to do a somersault and land flat on their backs just because you gently touch their hand.
Well, I do not like Steven, but it is not about willing or not.It is that your hand will be broken or you go down to the grund.If you do not know what I am talking about than try it once and you will understand.
nah its legit and works.
Seagal can a lot more than only aikido. And he shows and practises harsh techniques. As LeBell says too, Seagal is good. Problem of Seagal isn't lack of skills but his personality. Even though LeBell never choked out Seagal as fairy tale claims, Seagal is still way too arrogant and makes up odd stories.
You have to love uncle Gene. Seagal is this biggest ego maniac of all time.
it turned out it was a lie
@@8512124 says who
By Steven Seagal, of course.
@@OneLoneMan yeah thats what it is
I wish they had more catch wrestling schools throughout the country.
I grew up watching Gene on channel 13 wrestling from Hollywood. Gene would do the locker room interviews. He was the best .
interviewing Chavo Guerrero, Roddy Piper,Moondog Mayne,Superstar Billy Graham. He probably could have whopped them all.He is gone now but he will never be forgotten. RIP Judo Gene Lebell
I had the privilege of training with the great Gene LeBell at Gokor's.
The Gracie's kept gokor from competing in the early UFC because if Royce fought him .. a legit grappler judo sambo and catch wrestling.. Royce wouldn't have looked to good.. just like when the Gracie's took on sakuraba he beat them all .. and was a student of catch wrestling under Karl gotch and Billy Robinson.. the Gracie's made sure Royce was fighting guys that weren't submission wrestler's.. and was fighting boxers with one glove on and kickboxers karate guys.. then sakuraba and genki sudo got to fight royler Gracie and it didn't work out to well he got smashed both times .. because both guys could wrestle and new about submission grappling and had better striking.. royler multiple adcc champion bjj legend .. but MMA isn't bjj and pulling guard didn't work out like it did in his grappling bjj matches especially against genki sudo.. royler kept trying to pull guard and got knocked clean out
@@carson3811 Did you know that Gokor trained with the Gracies in Rorian's famous garage dojo in the late 80's? Gokor knew all that ground grappling already from training in Kosen Judo.
@@davidtice4972 I heard that he had trained with the Gracie's in the 80s .. and after that experience rorion made sure gokor wasn't going to be in the first UFC Vs Royce.. because that was a advertisement for Gracie bjj.. if gokor fought Royce and beat him which could have happened.. then the Gracie's saying there style of grappling is the best.. and everyone should go take up bjj and the Gracie's make alot of money training guys in there style of grappling.. if gokor.. or say sakuraba fought Royce in UFC 1 and beat him that would be bad marketing for Gracie jiu-jitsu.. rorion is smart he wasn't going to let that happen.. and he wanted to get ritch and he did from UFC 1 bjj blew up.. now guys are watching sambo practitioners.. and how they dominant bjj guys and how learning the art of standing tachi waza throwing your opponent and controlling them from top rather than having bad wrestling.. like kron Gracie royler Gracie Royce Gracie.. and seeing guys from mark Kerr smashing Fabio gurgel.. to mark Coleman sakuraba Jon Jones DC Henry triple c.. guys from a wrestling background is a better base for MMA.. than being a Marcelo Garcia can tap out a ex UFC heavyweight champion in bjj.. but in MMA playing xguard.. and being on your butt trying to pull guard.. will get you smashed all fights start on there feet.. go to bjj class you start on your knees most of the time and roll.. where in wrestling sambo judo.. you master how to throw your opponent and put them on there back .. in judo pass there guard and pin them or submit them.. same in sambo you wrestle get good at throwing.. controling your opponent on the ground and there's submissions.. and combat sambo is like judo with striking and submissions.. so if your training that for year's as a kid.. your going to transition into MMA better than.. if you only train bjj and love playing guard are a bjj wizard on the ground.. but then put that person in a cage with a guy who's been competing in combat sambo for as long as they have been doing bjj.. the combat sambo guys going to win.. he's been training striking wrestling and submissions.. but the UFC was a great advertisement for Gracie jiu-jitsu.. but there was better grappler's MMA fighters out there .. just rorion made sure they weren't in UFC 1.. and now wee have seen all these bjj legends going into MMA and getting smashed.. Andre galvo great at bjj .. then met a wrestler Tyrone Woodley.. he couldn't take him down so his bjj had no effect and he got spark out .. kron Gracie Vs cub Swanson if that was bjj only kron wins but it wasn't.. so he had to stand and take a bad beating from a older past his prime cub Swanson.. Marcelo Garcia one of my favourite bjj legends.. tried MMA got smashed by some Asian guy no-one had heard off .. bjj is great fun to train .. I started of with judo didn't train bjj until I was a brown belt in judo.. and I love bjj.. but I put my kids into judo when they were 4 and 5 there now 11 and 13 and kids grab each other when there fighting if you have been training since you were 4 are now 13 two time national champion sponsored athlete.. your not going to get bullied.. a kid trust to bully you .. your going to be able to throw them around like a empty tracksuit and get ontop and not even need to throw a punch just say have you had enough if not I could punch you or snap your arm .. or is that it over .. and once a bully knows he's got no chance has been thrown around like a ragdoll then has a boy on top of them his friends are watching.. he won't want to then start getting punched or his arm snapped.. he's going to say ok I'm done.. and after that other kids or bullies want want to risk getting beat up Infront of there friends that think there tuff.. they will kick on the kid that hasn't been training 3 times aweek and grappling competing for since he was 5 they will be very nice to him in the future and your kid didn't even throw a punch
@@carson3811The Gracie Hunter 🤟🙏
The only thing deadly about Steven Seagal are his cholesterol levels.
If there was a laugh symbol I would put it there lmao.
0000o99p0900
7 7
😂😂😂
Sumo Segal is a force of BELLY.
About Seagull: if brains were measured in Cadillacs, he'd be on roller skates. LOL!
"Doesn't matter what they call it as long as you can do it."
THIS
Gene's awesome! What a man!
Lebell is simply saying the truth. Those that argue in favor of the modern grappling techniques to be solely engendered and associated to BJJ, lack academic and historical integrity. Many these guys are insulting Mr. Lebell. That is inconsequential and illogical since these are incurring into ad hominem fallacies. Just a bunch underhanded weasel phrases. Mr. Lebell is a legend and has seen the evolution of grappling at closer view then most of us. Thence, he holds higher credentials.
True, but Segal has never even BEEN a fighter
That's the truth but he talks too much.
Seagal, one of the best fighters ever!
@@Obergruppenf lol
Gene is a class act. He couldn't say what he wanted to say because of what the lawyers told him but he's a smart man. What I got out of that interview was he made Seagal poopoo his pants and Seagal is so good a woman could beat him.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu looks just like Judo, because it is Basically Just Judo. When Mitsuyo Maeda, a.k.a. "Conde Koma", began teaching Carlos Gracie in Belem do Para, Brazil in 1917, he was teaching Jigoro Kano's Jiu-Jitsu direct from the Kodokan in Japan. The name "Judo" was not popularized until 1925.
Mitsuyo Maeda was a Kodokan Judo instructor whose specialty was ground fighting (newaza). This type of ground-only fighting is often referred to as Kosen Judo, or High School Judo, because it was popularized in Japanese High Schools as a form of interscholastic wrestling. Kosen Judo rules allowed direct transition to newaza, enabling scenarios where one less skilled competitor could drag the other down to the ground (a tactic now known as "pulling-guard" in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu).
There is absolutely no question that the Gracie family demonstrated great skill and marketing acumen by promoting "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the masses. Helio Gracie's loss to Kodokan Judoka Masahiko Kimura was advertised as a "moral victory". More importantly, the Gracies sponsored the original Ultimate Fighting Championships when the world was begging for a professional combat sport with more depth than Boxing and more realism than the WWF. However, there is now a generation of Jiu-Jitsu students who only know half the story. Worse yet, they are often paying enormous prices for the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu name only to learn a subset of Jigoro Kano's original Jiu-Jitsu techniques and teaching methods.
The Judo world has not been without fault too. High ranking judoka often looked down on the new popular MMA world due to Judo's Olympic status. As a result, most Judo schools have been over-emphasizing the throwing techniques within Judo due to pressure from the International Olympic Comittee to increase ratings on TV for the brief moments when Olympic Judo would receive air time. Similarly, there is a generation of Jiu-Jitsu students, and now instructors, who incorrectly think Judo is nothing but a standing sport.
Paul Liu i agree. They didn't inherit the humility of judo. This can be seen in how they lie, how they attacked people, how they dodged challenges, how they rewrote history, how they claimed everything was their own invention, how Royce cheated and disrespected his opponents, how they hand selected their opponents, how they gave themselves special rules, how even now Kron still pretends he knows enough about judo to tell everyone old judoka were doing everything wrong and refuses to shake his opponents' hands.
A lot of BJj guys learn humility, but when you're good enough to never lose and you don't have to be respectful then you become a sore arrogant loser. Whereas in judo you HAVE to bow before and after every match, and refusal to do so can get you even disqualified in competition.
But according to BjJ guys bowing and such are 'cult behaviours'. So someone better call up Japan and tell them their whole culture is just a big cult
@@jimmyalderson1639 That is one reason why even among the Gracies they feuded with each other when it came to recognition and money. They had a lot of unethical practices. Even not long ago, Ralek Gracie was scamming people left, right and centre. If people want to see a cult, then they don't have to look far, than the Gracies themselves. Many BJJ practitioners are aware of this now also.
@@jimmyalderson1639 Absolutely, the Gracies are arrogant, then, and now. I remember when one of the Gracies challenged "Judo" Gene Labell to a duel, a match. BIG MISTAKE ! The problem was, the loser Gracie who made the challenge was 30 years younger than Labell. So, Labell countered with his own disrespectful challenge? He would accept a duel or fight with Gracie, on the condition that he fight the patriarch, himself, Helio Gracie. who, of course, declined to fight La Bell ! It's just an example of how arrogant the whole Brazilian Ju Jitsu movement is. Also, their bashing of Taekwon-Do artists is equally tiresome and arrogant. Taekwon-Do is "weak," we cannot defend ourselves, Taekwon-Do ranks are "easy" to get, so they claim. None of this is true, of course, (at least not at my dojang) and we are sick of these motherfuckers. They can stick their ju-jitsu up their asses, for all we care? R.J. Smith, 6th dan instructor. ps. re Gene Labell, a true, legitimate grappling legend, believe everything you have heard about him !
Actually BJJ has nothing to do with Kozen... Kozen appears after Maeda has already left...
And Maeda says he doesn't teach kodokan judo, but an adapted version based on in his experience of fighting and Cross training, including in a letter he sends to a Japanese man he says he dreamed of returning to Japan to open a gym and teach his jiujitsu style, with boxing punches, savate kicks and the ground game THAT HE SAID he had developed ALREADY IN THE OCIDENTE, that when he arrived in the OCIDENTE he was not good on the ground, but had to perfect to fight stronger opponents...
As Carlos learned only the basics from Maeda, but you must have gotten in touch with your ideas...
Then the Gracie developed their own style of jiujitsu based on these ideas...
There they mixed boxing punches, kicks, elbows and knees from capoeira, and Maeda's newaza adapted by Hélio (compilation based on the technique of greater levers and positional play)...
The rules of not having ippon or pin, only submission, it was also Maeda's
With a proper sleeper hold most everyone goes to sleep. It isn't that big of a deal
Steven Segal @ 9:25
I haven't ever seen Egyptian wall paintings of wrestling, but I have seen Greek vases depicting wrestling in Pankration and you can see them doing the same holds as today.
The kimura was named for Masahiko Kimura, not because the couldn't pronounce it😂😂
Exactly. A man who defeated the great Helio Gracie.
@@michaelfarar4232 I don't remember the Gracie's talking about that fight
@@jonlong5541 i BELIEVE ITS ON RUclips...HELIO GRACIE VS KIMURA...I KNOW RICKSON RORION AND RENZO....
What a classy gentleman mr labelle!!!!
If there is somebody with credibility and wisdom alone being humble graceful it Judo Gene Lebell I have that honor to talk to him and make couple interviews and is alive lesson !!...my respect to him!!
I was fortunate enough to know Uncle Gene since i can remember. My Father, The Great John L, worked with him for Many years. As a Stuntman & under a mask, wrestling as his Hangman, tagteam partner. I miss Both of them.
Came here after hearing bout an account that happened off set between Gene and Seagal. Hearing from Gene himself i'm even more convinced by this mans integrity. Seagal..well not so much.
@nico merker He's 80. He deserves to look however the fuck he wants.
9:17 Idk if you misheard Dan, but he said "you're a legend in your own time" not mind
Legend telling legendary stories about legends!👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼
One of the best in modern times...
I've never had cable in my house but if Rhonda one's up fighting Steven Seagal I will get cable in my house just so I can watch it and I hope you see this Gene I think you're great
4:45 story about bjj getting the Kimura from a double wrist lock is the same story that Legendary catch wrestler Billy Robinson told, Billy said it was taught to him by one of my guys. Like he said it comes a lot from wrestling, Catch brought about professional wrestling and Shoot wrestling.
Also the triangle, look up catch wrestling Figure 4
in the same story he says he came from India to catch...
But before he went to Japan because he already had the old jiujitsu, probably from India he went to China and from China to Japan...
Another thing is that THE DATE THAT THE TWO DON'T MATCH... Kimura came to Brazil at least twice... and the first time when he faced Helio WAS YEARS BEFORE THE STORY THAT TWO TWO COUNT...
Any nonsense that an American says without comparison NONE becomes absolute truth, and things well documented turned into lies...
There are old books making it clear that catches were strange to Japanese and Chinese locks...
The same goes for guard, there are Chinese and Western literature from around the 1920s making it clear that guard was a Japanese creation.
Great Interview!
I love watching Gene lebell
@john ateen Seagal is an actor, nothing more.
And he is good in being cruel when he performs his awful bad Aikido. Because he is hurting other people you think his techniques are good, pretty brain dead IMHO. He has not only noticeable flaws in his techniques he also has always a very bad position towards his "show case partners".
Mark Meyers Who cares if he can fight? I doubt he can outside of a movie set ... your links don't work anyway :D
Mark Meyers My mistake, got your "links" working. But don't see your point. First link discusses Aikido with Steven Seagal as example. Well, he is one of the worst Aikidoka I know about ... so that is pointless. The second movie is about training ... a trainer can be a "good" trainer even if he is not "fit" enough for the actual doing. Hint: watch tennis. Every tennis champion has a trainer who is far to old and far to unfit to compete himself. I'm a martial arts trainer myself ... but I don't compete in a ring. Nevertheless I see the mistakes of my students and can improve their technique.
He's not a bad martial artist skill wise, that would be a bit harsh to say. However he often gives a very arrogant impression when he speaks and he seems to often get in conflicts with people. I'm not saying that's necessarily his fault, it's just an observation. Other than that, I have as a rule to be very careful with judging people I've never met in person. I love martial arts movies and I really like what he did for the genre, bringing Aikido and grappling to the scene. I saw every Steven Seagal movie I could get a hold of in the '90's. Great stuff.
i don't like the Fact that seagal won't fight a 'real fighter" like gene says(and others) seagal loves to beat up on actors and stuntman but won't fight couture or bas rutten,who would annillate him.According to him(seagal) "he still got it" ,claims to be one of the best teachers,but chickens out when confronted by a real adversary,that's what I call a bully.
roger b Seagal is known for calling out actors for doing impersonations or jokes about his fat ass. He actually wanted to fight David Spade who weighs what like 80 pounds on his best day holding a sack of rocks. A child could kill that fucking pipsqueek. He didn't call out Carrot Top though and i think we all know why.
Fair winds Gene! You are missed
RIP Gene!
gene is a class act.
Think about it, and judge the two personalities involved, then make your decision. On one hand, we have Gene, quiet, unassuming man, successful and genuine. Then there's Steven, narcissistic, unscrupulous man, had a couple of hit movies but mainly straight to DVD crap, and obviously a pathological liar, either that or every female assistant he ever had is lying. So right away, it looks bad for Seagal. Then there's the practical. What I mean is, in real life if someone puts it about that he made you literally shit your pants, and it wasn't true, 99% of men would do more than just refute the statement. Unless, you knew in your own mind, that what the guy was saying to be true, and he did in fact get you to shit yourself. In which case, you would be, more than likely, less eager to do something about it, and would probably just try to give as good as you got verbally. Just looking at each persons C.V. is enough to put this to bed. My money was, and still is, on Judo Gene.
"Randy Couture would love to fight Steven Seagal."
Happy birthday Uncle Gene
Did he say he loves Virginia Jiu Jitsu?
Gene your 100% honest and historically truthful its so shamefull that the gracies 1- never admit they learned kimora or foot leg control form catch wrestlers as they pretend they invented it which 100% they didnt 2- gracies never say thanks to the many of us catch wrestlers and kick boxer who destroyed their grandfather sons and grand children in order to teach them now they avoid those comments and hate that the world knows in Brazil they were caught ganging on catch wrestler who beat them all and they almost beat him to death as they showed historically they are very poor losers. Gene gives them credit they never deserved !!!! and why today Catch wrestlers and Kick Boxer rule 99.9%
Who didn't have a couch that remained you of Gene lol
Mr LeBell your such a humble and honorable man. Les
The Kimura was named after whom? One guess only.
Billy Thompson 1st second is gentleman Gene lebell
Great interview mate. If I could interview Gene LeBell I would press him about Hooking and Lou Thesz
Gene LeBell seems to be a somewhat unpredictable guy who has a real
bad memory. He doesn't remember the names of people he has known for
tens of years. He doesn’t even remember things like when he bit the
ear of a training partner until it bled. A lot of stories of people
telling LeBell got ruff when he showed them techniques. Seems like a
guy I would stay away from. Just to keep healthy.
Then there’s the
Steven Seagal incident. There's like 30 stuntmen who claim Seagal
shit his pants when LeBell choked him out. Well, that may very well
be just bitter stuntmen talking shit. Because, in reality, there were
only 4 witnesses. A lot of vengeful people having a go at Seagal who
was known to hurt stuntmen during filming his movies. Steven Lambert
was one of the witnesses, and he writes in his book that the choking
out and shitting in pants part didn't happen. Seagal gets a lot of
hate, and I actually do understand where that comes from. I don't
particularly like the guy, but I hate lies. Especially these kinds of
malicious, hateful lies.
The dude was like 80 years old when this interview was done. I think we can overlook him struggling to remember names at this point.
Did you notice your claim of only 4 witnesses wasn’t made until Bob Wall and Gene himself were dead? Bob Wall collected the evidence of the event and had it all. Aikido Steve said everyone was afraid to fight him. Bob Wall gathered 11 other guys and the 12 of them challenged Ego Steve. He ran from all of them. Obviously I’m going to do a reality check program about this claim.
Kimura is ude garami in judo .. kimura beat Helio with ude garami and the Gracie's then called it kimura
what about UP WRESTLING ?
there is a shortage of GRECO ROMAN wrestling !
furthermore muay thai clinch is very related to greco clinch.
however there is an over supply of floor diver - leg grabbers.
If you ask me could be wrong. I would think Jean would be too young to challenge. Steven
Sakuraba learned catch wrestling from Karl gotch and Billy Robinson.. and he beat all the Gracie's
What are you saying? Without Seagal how would Silva have ever thought of kicking somebody in the face?
jimmy alderson maybe he could watch bas rutten do it instead? I think bas has more proven skills not that Steven didn't have proven skills. The way he kicked the living shit out of his wife shows his skills are proven.
what ya want, he's eighty years old
Wow great history
Steven Seagal is a terrific Akido artist and a bad dude. But he messed with the wrong guy in Judo Gene.
He who knows doesnt talk. He who talks doesnt know.
And he who talks is called 'Steven Seagal'!
RIP Judo Gene LeBelle !
Steven Seagal taught egg foo young at PF Changs lol
Most rational people would agree with gene about Steven Seagal. Paper tiger...
Ip Man certainly did not create Wing Chun. It was around before his birth.
Two badasses in one room.
One's a douche and is still breathing today 2 days later of one's departure.
The part about catch wrestling and BJJ is so true... I love BJJ and I am planning to start learning it, but i really don't like this I-invented-it attitude, which is common in eastern disciplines from which BJJ descends... if you listen to judo players, it looks like Jigoro Kano invented everything, but true is that basically all judo throws are a gi adaptation of throws that wrestlers have been using in the last 5000 years, since there are proofs that in ancient Egypt wrestling already existed!
Holds, locks, joint's manipulations have been used and constantly improved by humans since forever... literally since forever!
Nobody claims to have invented wrestling or boxing and nobody should claim to have invented a damn armbar... as nobody claims to have invented the wheel or discovered the fire...
BJJ is from Judo which is from JuJutsu. Learn the Hx Bro.
i saw a video that claimed and im sure its closer to truth that most sub moves in bjj was from catch wrestling... In bjj they just renamed it and tweeked it a bit and used the gi. Research it
rottamato i've never heard anyone claim Kano invented anything. Perhaps every now and then someone might say something that inplies Kano made something, or improved something, but i've never heard anyone say something like 'Kano invented ogoshi'. I have heard people say that Oda invented the triangle choke, but what they mean is that he found it himself without seeing it done by wrestlers. Not implying that wrestlers stole the triangle fhoke from him.
I have, however, heard MANY BJJ guys claim Helio invented everything. And then when you show them someone before Helio doing it it changes to 'Helio improved it because they used to do it wrong'. That's something i really only see in BJj. I see pretty much all arts make claims of being the best and what not, but as for the 'i invented it' attitude, that seems to me to be a very BJJ type thing that i don't see anywhere else. Sometimes i see wrestlers claim 'because my art is older everyone else stole it from me', but it's not very common
Ashi Garami many of them did, but most of the basics like the cross armbar, triangle choke, straight armlock, guard techniques, they inherited from judo.
Not meanign that judo invented them, but that BJj got them from judo since Maeda was a Kosen Judo specialist. They didn't tweak anything from what they learned. You can see old photos of prebjj judoka doing leg locks, guillotines, omoplatas exactly the same as BjJ guys do today. All they did was change the names, oretend they invented it and if anyone asks questions claim instead that they 'improved it'. They then picked guys to fight that they knew they could beat. 'Lh how do we make judo look bad? Well olympic judoka know nothing about judo but everyone thinks they do so let's fight one of those' 'what about this japanese man' 'no don't wanna fight him because he knows what he's doing' 'dw we can just cheat like we usually do' 'oh ok' - basically the who,e UFC
I always wanted that golden cauliflower pendant when he was at my fights always wanted to ask him about getting one but never had the chance was too busy probably will never get one now
Gene LeBell is a legend among martial artists....Seagal is a legend in his own mind.
Mr Lebell is a stand up guy !!! Top notch the best ever !!!!!
He's gone now.
Gene represents the grappling side of Bruce Lee.
Gene LeBell is a Badd man. This story is very true. You can choose not to believe it and try to rationalize that it couldn't happen. Do you think Seagal would want anybody to know that a "mere marginal" stuntman got the best of him. This would have derailed his career. Oh crap!!!!!
Gene LaBell is a gentleman and the real deal tough guy.
Randy courture will destroy Steven seagal in a match he's retired but he still bring a40pack of woop ass
So basically Ali was fixing all his fights 😂😂😂
This interview SUCKS. Bad sound quality bad interviewer ...fall asleep.
The only way Segal could defeat Gene LeBell is if one the flight over from Moscow Segal ate some bad caviar and thew up on Gene.
How well do you know your Gene trivia?
who is the only man to ever defeat Gene LeBell using Blueberry Pie?
Rowdy piper
Sambo practitioners the Dagestan MMA fighters are taking over with sambo .. wrestling with judo mixed not pulling guard.. look at royler Gracie Roger Gracie Andre galvo kron Gracie Marcelo Garcia.. all great at bjj MMA not so much
The Gracie's investment nothing.. there is kosen judo books from the early 1900s showing kosen judokas ground specialists.. doing xguard spider guard and lots off different sweeps and submissions from the guard.. but the Gracie's learned grappling from a judo blackbelt.. and helio said he invented the guard and leverage 🤨🤔😒😂😂 bullshit and the Gracie's didn't even no what a triangle was until the 80s.. now Americans like Gordon Ryan Garry tonon Nicky Rodriguez Craig Jones.. are beating guys that have been training bjj 20yr longer than them.. it's more like catch wrestling now .. Eddie bravo has his own style and system of bjj .. but he learned grappling from a bjj blackbelt.. so still calls it bjj even tho he dropped the gi and made up his own system the rubber guard but his ego isn't that big that he says it not bjj .. it's bravo lutra Edwardo martial art.. totally different from bjj .. even tho what he's doing is alot different.. than Helio in a gi doing kosen judo.. Eddie could be like the Gracie's and say look my style is better than Helios style.. I submitted his son as a brown belt with half the experience.. and then I dominated him years later .. but he doesn't he stays true two his roots
Lol @ Ron Balicki. If the story was true of Gene chocking out Steven, there certainly would have been witnesses or at the very least a witness. People talk no matter. For this to have been kept a secret for this long is impossible. Ron thanks for sharring.
I heard the story 26 years ago
Wow the more I see interviews with gene the more I like him, class act,as far as segul or seagal the more I see the more I can't stand him 💩
hahaha
I've been around athletes, about fifty percent are full of shit ( they can be guts who lift, boxers, strikers , it doesn't matter) it's weird cause they can be decorated with medals and still feel the need to talk shit, jive, and by diong so wear their insecurity on their sleeves for the world to see
Wikipedia is quite the resource ain't it?
Lebell and his friend murdered a man. Why doesn't everyone talk about that? That's the story that should be told.
Ali still the greatest of all time
Ali The Greatest
No story gains traction quite so quickly, in today’s media frenzy environment, than one that tears down a well respected celebrity. In this instance, there is a fairytale rendition of how the great Gene Lebell choked out Steven Seagal, with rather unpleasant effect. The story is patently false, but this bit of martial arts mythology now seems to have really taken root. Trashing the reputation of a martial artist and movie icon may be a sad part of the entertainment process, but when the story is not correct, and the consequences truly damaging, the situation must be set straight. I can speak to this myth personally as I am close to the people in these circles and I know the eyewitnesses to the exchange that day between Gene and Steven. Know that this is not easy for me to do. My family and I know both Gene and Steven well, so to see this malicious urban legend live on through the years divides people we care about deeply.
There were numerous people present on the day when Gene Lebell met Steven Seagal and allegedly fought. In reality, no fight occurred and there was no contact between Gene and Steven on that movie set. Gene’s role was to work as a Utility Stuntman under the stunt coordinator, Conard Palmisano. Steven also had a bodyguard, Joe Crowley present who was an LAPD officer. As his security specialist and professional law enforcement official, He would have been in serious trouble had he let his boss get choked out, and possibly killed, by a marginal stuntman. The stunt coordinator, Conrad Palmisono was there and witnessed any interactions that occurred between Gene and Steven. Conrad Pamisano was one of the most successful Stunt coordinators working in show business at the time. The legal exposure and professional consequences for Conrad would have been severe had he let a stuntman under his supervision aggressively even touch any star on a movie set. Quite simply, Conrad, as a professional with great responsibility, would never have allowed this situation to occur.
Another stuntman by the name of Steve Lambert was also an eyewitness to Gene’s and Steven’s brief interaction. He also stated that Gene never choked out Steven and that no altercation ever occurred. Again, this is not some street fight, or casual dojo situation. If such an altercation happened on a professional movie set the consequences for the producers, directors and the movie studio would be most severe. A stuntman (Lebell) simply cannot choke out and hurt the lead star of a movie in production on the set. The legal liability and damage to their professional reputations would be unthinkable. Quite simply the set would have been closed down. If the star lost consciousness a doctor’s signed release would be legally required for Steven to go back to work. No such record exists. The bonding company who insures the production for the movie would have sued Lebell for the loss of working days. The financial implications would amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars given the cost of shutting down production even for a couple of days. Again, keep in mind that we are talking about an alleged fight on a professional movie set. The consequences of such an altercation would be enormous. Casual altercations might happen in the gym, but not on the highly regulated and professionally managed stage of a movie production.
In truth, this story is nothing more than WWE type hype in which Gene Lebell is known to indulge going back to his early wrestling days. He is doing the same thing with Ronda Rousey today. Gene Lebell is now saying that she (Ronda) can beat up Bruce Lee; what could be more absurd? What could get more attention? This entirely fabricated story is simply a way of staying in the public eye and making a living at the expense of the reputation of another. There are radio shows like Joe Rogan and others who validate this ludicrous fiction in order to increase their ratings. Ronda Rousey, and some others, are also telling this story during interviews for their own self-promotion. In a recent interview Ronda stated that she knows the story to be true. That is ridiculous; she was 3 years old when this allegedly happened. It seems that this made up altercation is simply part of the sad story of American media and the cult of celebrity. We build up stars with respect and then enjoy a good story, true or not, that tears them down. Clearly that is the case here. This entirely fabricated story has legs because it creates good hype for side-show acts that need attention and boosts ratings for gossip radio talk shows. The facts are quite clear; Gene never choked out Steven. But as the old proverb says, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story”.
+Ron Balicki Respect? I would like to point, mr. Balicki, that Steven himself has thrashed his own reputation too many times throughout his career to be considered a 'respected' celebrity. If a third part of the questionable things that are known about him was true, I would not feel myself inclined to respect him at all. So if people is prone to laugh at him is frankly because he has earned it, not because he is some kind of poor saint victim of the envy.
Your theory sounds reasonable to me and I am not gonna be so disrespectful to say not just because not. I think you are right about how internet fandom likes scabrous stories a bit too much. But I also believe you are crossing a line at insinuating that LeBell and Rousey are liars. Self-promotion is a thing, dishonesty is another. Aside from ambiguous jokes, Gene has never claimed the story is true, he has never proclaimed "hey guys, I choked Stevie Seagal out until he soiled himself", and if he has ever done it, please correct me and pass me the source.
And now: honestly, if he had claimed it, I would believe him before Seagal. Not only because Steve have no credibility for me for obvious and aforementioned reasons, but also because LeBell's fame is not build over his Seagal choke story - he is a well-respected veteran in his job for his own accomplishments (and now we are talking about real respect and not the 'respect' which is gained from doing bad movies and claiming to be the god of martial arts or something) and he would not have any need to tell such bombastic stories if they are not truth just out of self-promotion desires.
Ron Balicki i believe gene .I've heard that steven seagal is someone very arrogant.Didnt he said that he could defeat any martial artist in the industry!!!!
+catherine bégin
Seagal being arrogant or an asshole (as he seems to be) doesn't make this story true,.
Vebinz Of course not, but it overall makes him less credible. Who do you think to be more probable to lie to protect his reputation, a disgraced actor and martial artist who believes himself to be a CIA trained hero and has an absolutely shameful record of legal troubles and a consistently bad public profile, or a legitimate martial arts competitor and trainer who has done deep contributions to the art and is revered as one of the closest things to a bushido follower we have nowadays? Any of them could be lying, yeah, but let's face it, facts speak by themselves.
+Ron Balicki Thanks for sharing buddy! I commend you for that
Steven Seagal isn’t a martial artist !!!
Where is the evidence that LaBell choked out Steven Seagal? Got a video? Gene was famous for telling tall stories and clowning around. This makes him believable? He did not "teach" Bruce Lee anything. Danny Inosanto and Greg Lee. They know exactly what Bruce did and what he didn't do. There is no such story. Reminds me of the other story that Joe Lewis or some Korean martial artists taught Bruce to kick high. Totally ridiculous. Lewis was Bruce's student. And Bruce was doing all the high kicks before coming to US. Look at the Mandarin films. It's amazing how these days people are popping up all over claiming all these facts about Bruce or other people. Stupid.
Their source of information is usually the Internet or some aging guy like Gene LaBell or Chick Norris who have their own agenda. In the case of Bruce Lee, why didn't these people challenge Bruce when he was alive? Why didn't Gene LaBell choke out Bruce when he was around? Yeah, the problem is they couldn't. They could only attack an already dead man. How honorable of them!
As for Steven Seagal, why didn't Gene publically fight Seagal? What was the problem?.
p. s :Norris never respected Lee, he envied him
The read some of Bruce's knows he talks about working out with Gene lebell and Gene lebell said he taught Bruce stuff and Bruce taught him stuff that's how it's supposed to work
Lebell is 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
If there is somebody with credibility and wisdom alone being humble graceful it Judo Gene Lebell I have that honor to talk to him and make couple interviews and is alive lesson !!...my respect to him!!
Ali The Greatest