In 1990 when I moved form LA to Arroyo Grande, I was getting busier working the ER making money and winding down my fighting career I still did like to train very hard and liked to try and find the toughest guys around to train and spar with, and in the process got kind of a reputation. That reputation rubbed some of the local wanna-be tough guy martial artists the wrong way.
One of these martial artists actually had a school, and had the “nerve” to call me and let me know he did not appreciate the name I was giving to martial arts. He told me he had a traditional martial arts school, that taught a very street effective art. He told me that my sport fighting gave traditional martial arts a bad name, and that his style would beat me in a real street fight. I suggested that we conduct a friendly test on whose style was better. I offered to come to his gym and we could “spar” with no rules, simulating a street fight, and see who style was really better. We agreed on time, So that Friday at 6 PM I jumped into my black Chevy pick up truck, I brought my dad so he could watch, and I drove to his gym in San Luis Obispo California.
When I got to his gym I realized it was a very nicely decorated Dojo with a Japanese theme. I walked into his office where we had a semi cordial introduction. We were definitely sizing each other up. He then proceeded to explain to me how his back has been acting up, so he could not participate in our “sparring match”, however one of his top students would fill in for him. I said that that was fine with me, however I was a little surprised that the student I was to “spar” with had a mohawk, I thought to myself who has a mohawk?” Obviously this instructor had gotten cold feet, so he decided to send his top gun in to show me why his style was so much better than mine. The instructor started to go over the rules for our “match”, however I reminded him that this was supposed to simulate a street fight, so we didn’t need the rules.
Well after 15 or 20 minutes of “sparring”, that instructor’s Mohawk’ed student, was now my student. Chuck Liddell was a huge part of The Pit from that day until now (over 20 years later), and the Pit, his life, my life, MMA, and the UFC were either directly, or indirectly affected by that “sparring match” in San Luis Obispo California…