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Interview w/UFC Rising Star Yves Edwards (part 2)
Reported By: Chris Colderley - 06.27.2003 02:00 AM
By Chris Colderley
The Texas Gunslinger, Yves Edwards, talks with Boxing Insider.
In part two of this interview with Chris Colderley, Yves discusses his training, the development of the Texas fight scene, including his own “Third Column” team, and gives a new spin to marketing his image.
BoxingInsider.com: I was reading through your bio and I noticed your background in MMA is a little bit different from a lot of people. Could you briefly explain that?
Yves Edwards: Are you talking about my Kung-Fu experience?
BoxingInsider.com: Yes, you also trained in Ninjitsu, I believe?
Yves Edwards: Yes I did. I trained in Kung-Fu because growing up that’s all I used to see. Growing up I watched a lot of Kung-Fu movies. You know the bad ones with dubbing and the guys with the long white beards. I watched a lot of those, and I thought for a long time that was real, so I trained in that until I was exposed to some grappling, which was at a Ninjitsu school. I went in there when I was about 16 years old, and I wrestled around with a 14 year old and I couldn’t dominate him. I couldn’t really do anything to him – I got choked out actually. That turned me on to grappling so I started training with those guys. There weren’t the greatest, but they did have stuff that Steve Jennum and Scott Morris did [in the UFC]. They introduced me to a new way of fighting and as soon as I did it once, I was in love with it.
Photo: TXMMA.com
BoxingInsider.com: How much of your traditional background do you still use? How much have you kept?
Yves Edwards: I use absolutely none of it! I don’t use any Kung-Fu in fights. I should one of these days - bust out a crane stance or horse riding stance or something . . . It was good for that time-frame in my life, but it’s not effective at all for what I am trying to do right now.
BoxingInsider.com: You are part of the Third Column team, could you tell us a little bit about the team?
Yves Edwards: Well we have quite a few young guys. Right now, I would be the one with the most experience and the most exposure. There are some really good guys, like Carlo Credeur. He’s seven and one. Actually, his only loss was his first fight when he was 16 years old. He’s 21 now. He took some time off after he lost the decision, and now he hasn’t been past the first round.
Who else is there? Timothy Credeur, who actually started out with Millennia Ju-Jitsu, he’ training with us. He’s working on his stand-up game; his ju-jitsu is phenomenal.
Then we have Rocky Long. He’s a young guy who has been training with me for three years. He’s just a hard worker – a workhorse. He’s in the gym everyday and he’s working all through his fights.
We have Lane Yarabrogh. He’s a really nice guy from the country. He goes out and throws down.
We have big JB, one of our heavyweights. He’s a 250 pounder and undefeated. He has fought guys that are like 320, 360.
We have some really tough guys. Jonathon Ivey just walked in and started training with us. He wants to make a true run at it so he’s changing his regiment some.
BoxingInsider.com: In Texas, I know, there has been a lot of frustration about the state of MMA. Could you explain the situation and how the sport is developing in the state?
Yves Edwards: The sport doesn’t seem to be developing here at all. The rules just suck! They force you to fight with open hands and they won’t allow you to tape your wrists. Somebody is going to break their wrist and suffer a serious hand injury before long.
The boxing commission, out here, they don’t seem to understand the game and they don’t seem to want to have an interest in understanding the game. They want to get paid so that we can promote our shows. That’s pretty much it.
They could care less if we get hurt; they could care less if we have shows at all. But if we do have shows, they want to get paid. It’s very frustrating because there are a lot of guys who want to fight, but they [the commission] don’t understand that opened hand is not mixed martial arts. It’s pretty slow; it sucks and the commission doesn’t really care.
BoxingInsider.com: Having said that, how difficult is it for Texas fighters to move into other venues?
Yves Edwards: It all depends on what part of Texas you are in. I drove through Texas once – it took something like 12 hours. Down here, where we are, Louisiana is not too far away. Louisiana allows mixed martial arts. Up in El Paso and Amarillo, I think New Mexico and Colorado aren’t too far away. It’s not too bad if you can get out of state.
It is frustrating in a way. A lot of people start off fighting in front of their hometown, their family and that’s what motivates them to fight. Many guys from here have to go 200 miles away just to get a fight, and a lot of families aren’t going to follow them and support them. That’s hard for the guys coming up.
BoxingInsider.com: One thing a lot of people have noticed lately is that you have taken a different approach to marketing yourself by wearing the cowboy hat and calling yourself the Texas gunslinger. What has inspired this new approach to marketing?
Yves Edwards: Actually, I wasn’t thinking of it as marketing at all. I just see myself – I’ve been holding back. Guys saw me in the gym when I lost to Serra, and said, “Man, that was a great fight, but you didn’t do what you do when you are in here.”
I understand [now]. I didn’t really understand them at first. Then I felt it after I fought Uno, and I refused to let that happen again. Now I go out there and I am going to throw some punches. Someone is going to try and take me down and that is not going to happen. They said I’m a Texas gunslinger. I am going to go out and sling them. It’s not looking at it as a marketing idea at all. It’s just the way that I fight and that is what I am going to do: I am going to come out and I am going to let them go.
As far as wearing the cowboy hat, I figured that might be a good idea. More so than the cowboy hat though, as far as marketing goes, I don’t think Resistol is going to sponsor any fighters. But, Crispy Cream might, so I had to get some donuts at the weigh-in. I might make that a trademark item.
BoxingInsider.com: You broke up a lot of people with that!
BoxingInsider.com: When do you think fans can expect to see you next?
Photo: TXMMA.com
Yves Edwards: Hopefully, I will be back in November. Usually, you fight every other show and I would seriously hope to be fighting for the number one contender spot or the title.
BoxingInsider.com: There are no definite plans yet?
Yves Edwards: No, nothing yet.
BoxingInsider.com: Yves, thank you very much. Again, congratulations. I hope health and happiness for you and everyone else.
Yves Edwards: Thank you. I appreciate it.
ThewoodlandsMMA.com - For Information on Yves Edwards and the Third Column Team.
Chris Colderley is a freelance writer and a boxinginsider.com contibutor.
Chris can be reached at colderley@hotmail.com
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