On Saturday, 11/16/2024, at 11:00 am, NESF member Dr. Maurice Disley conducted a free seminar on hip mobility at the gym. As I said beforehand, if you want to be injured more frequently, wish your guard was less effective, and/or don’t want better kicks, then this seminar was not for you. For me, the results were extraordinary.
The sole time I felt as dramatic an improvement in my body was coming out of bicep reattachment surgery a couple of years ago, and that was from whatever painkillers the anesthesiologist gave me. The drug effects were gone the next day. It’s been two days since the seminar, and my hips feel even more radically better than immediately after, both walking around and sleeping at night. I am enjoying so much more freedom of movement laterally that walking feels a little unmoored. And this is after one set of prehab exercises. I have the highest hopes for what I can do after several months three times a week, or whatever schedule is determined to work best.
As Dr. Mo explained, the hip is a dynamic joint with many degrees of movement, and requires a nice balance of stability and mobility to keep your range and strength at its peak when performing sports like jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts. Saturday’s workshop used several exercises to create “space” in the back of the hip for better movement with either rotation or flexing the hip. This allows you to improve your kick height, increase kicking power, as well as improve your guard retention, all without relying on using your hands to place them in certain positions. These movements can be improved upon and trained over time to keep you in the gym and thriving.
For those of you who didn’t make it, below are the four exercises covered. Obviously, a short video doesn’t do the material justice, but it at least gives you some idea as to the subject matter.
SL Bridge 2 sets of 15 reps each leg
Wall Referenced Kickstand Deadlift 2 sets of 8 reps each leg
Side bridge series 2 sets of 8 reps each side
Copenhagen Planks 2 sets of 20 seconds each side
Neglecting these movements creates patterns that place stress on specific areas that can lead to injury if left unaddressed. Injuries heal and pain can improve, but the absence of pain is not the presence of function. If you’re not addressing all of your deficits, then you’re never going to be physically prepared for the demands of your goals. The body is always moving towards the path of least resistance and it will play to its strengths. That means if you don’t ever address the problem areas, then you never get to utilize them efficiently again.
Dr. Mo is running a Combat Athlete evaluation special for $99 (regular cost is $250). There are only three slots left. The evaluation includes: •Injury history analysis •Total body movement analysis •ROM, Mobility, Nerve, Strength and Functional Movement Assessment •Complete report of findings and explanations •Customized performance strength program for you to work on that specifically addresses your issue • Sport-specific warmup and cool-down routine •Custom step-by-step progression that helps you kick and roll without any limitations or pain.
To secure one of the few remaining spots, email Dr. Mo at elevationptp@gmail.com
Lee Jun-fan was born on 27 November 1940, in San Francisco, and died known to the world as Bruce Lee, on 20 July 1973 in Hong Kong. When he started martial arts, it was a collection of countless strictly organized and controlled contradictory sets of beliefs and practices, each of which believed itself to be clearly superior to the others. It was a field in which everyone was certain they were better than average.
Lee left a legacy that truth in unarmed combat lay outside of fixed systems. He showed the world a contest with fighters in fingered gloves, using strikes, kicks, takedowns, and tapping out to submissions on the ground. That was in 1973; didn’t happen in the UFC until 1997.
In short, Bruce Lee left a world where mixed martial arts made sense.
When MMA came along, it was a new process for the refining of technique, one as simple as wheels on luggage. If you want to figure out what works in a fight, then fight. If a technique doesn’t work for you, you’ll know, because you will get hit in the face. The name Bruce Lee gave to his approach – Jeet Kune Do, or The Way of the Intercepting Fist – captures that reality.
And if there was no Bruce Lee, you wouldn’t be reading this. I was 13 years old, the youngest kid in class, about 110 pounds, and spending the summer with pops in the mountainous Kingdom of Lesotho, Africa. I watched Enter the Dragon at the Holiday Inn Maseru, and since that moment, I have not wanted to do anything else for a living.
Pops got me into training with two South Korean 6th-degree black belts, Mogg Yoon and Tae Hyun Park, who were teaching the nation’s Police Mounted Unit, on the grounds of the national prison. Then I went back to ma in Cambridge, USA, and walked into the Suk Chung Institute of Tae Kwon Do in Harvard Square. The first thing I saw was a pic of Mr. Chung and Bruce Lee arm in arm. I did TKD and wrestled in high school. My college dropped wrestling the year I started so I did martial arts only, and bought into a studio when I graduated in 1982. I did that full-time for a little over a decade. Then one night, we all got together at a condo to watch UFC 1 on PPV for $14.95.
I started learning everything I could about the new sport with a guy at the gym named Dave Roy. We put everything we figured out in a notebook. In 1996 Dave set up an AOL site called The Art of NHB Fighting, with a Technique of the Week in it, drawn from the notebook. Eventually, hundreds of people every week were checking out the AOL site, so we decided to turn our fighter’s notebook into The Fighter’s Notebook, and self-publish it.
We decided to set up a website to market the book, so I grabbed a few urls. I was upset that Disney beat me to NHB.com by a few weeks, and passed on MMA.com for $200. We partnered with FightingTalk.com, a news page, and the owner suggested we call our site The Underground. Sounded OK to me, so we self-published the Notebook and went live at mixedmartialarts.com in August of 1998.
I am sad that Bruce Lee never got to see his vision become a sport. He would have loved it, as his brother Robert explained: “Spirit-wise, he would support it 1,000 percent. It’s what he came up with.” Brothers can of course be biased. But UFC president Dana White called Lee, “The Father of Mixed Martial Arts.”
“We needed Bruce Lee, when he came at that time, to help martial arts grow the way that it did… He was the father of mixed martial arts.”
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS IN MARTIAL ARTS?
This blog is part of an ongoing series on what’s real in martial arts. Historically, there were four main ways to “prove” an art had validity in a self-defense context: •Argumentation: “This art strikes all the major pressure points one after the other, so it is far too dangerous for mere sport.” •Demonstration: Students attack and master flails around, while students fall to the ground dramatically. Master then breaks ice, boards, blocks, etc. •Anecdote: “Graduation from the karate college in Korea included driving your fingers into a bull and pulling out its heart.” •Appeal to Authority: “Navy SEALs have used this, for thousands of years!” Under this approach to establishing efficacy, all styles ended up being better than average.
Then, in the mid-90s, MMA rose to prominence, and experts from countless different appropaches actually fought, and in so doing, across time, learned what parts of their method work, and which are useless or worse. But MMA is not the sole means to determine the effectiveness of a given martial art.
Cellphone and security cams are everywhere, which has opened a window on thousands of cases of martial arts being attempted on the street. These can be roughly divided into several main categories: •Mutual Combat; •Dojo Storm; •Bouncer; •Informal fights; •Style vs. Style; and, •Self-Defense.
In the self-defense example below, a female judoka some call “Rwanda Rousey”, is being accosted by an unfortunately inebriated man.
JUDO ON THE STREET
A previous video, no longer available, shows the initial interaction between the two. It seems heated, but also potentially playful to some degree. Suddenly, without telegraphing her intentions, the female judoka uses fluid technique to drop the man directly onto his face. This is in effect hitting him not with a fist, but with the planet. The man is immediately rendered unconscious. The woman helps the man to a sitting position, and even tries to help him stand, unsuccessfully.
TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN
This is a textbook example of using judo for self-defense. The concept of off-balancing (kuzushi) is so central to the art that founder Dr. Jigoro Kano said kuzushi is judo, and without it, your judo is not judo. The woman first off-balanced her assailant by driving him backward with an attempted Ouchi-gari.
When he overcompensates and drives forward, she employs another central aspect of the art – using an opponent’s weight against him. She executes ippon seoi nage, and the man topples over her, until he is hit in the face with the Earth, and goes unconscious.
HOW TO DO DROP SEOI NAGE
Below, Coach Travis Stevens demonstrates Drop Seoi Nage. He is an Olympic silver medalist in judo, a black belt in jiu-jitsu under John Danaher and Renzo Gracie (the fastest promotion in BJJ history, at 18 months), and a force of nature.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
There are truly compelling arguments to be made for why judo works on the street. But the same can be said too for ludicrous approaches. Villari Kenpo and Aikido experts, for example. will argue efficacy for hours. The reality is not in talk and words – if you practice a martial art, and can see evidence of it working, either from experts testing their art against trained, active resistance, or from real self-defense moments, or both, then you are in all likelihood on the right path to developing legitimate self-defense skills.
On the other hand, if your art has no adepts willing to test it, and there are no verifiable instances of it actually working (public video, not anecdote), then in all likelihood it is worthless from a self-defense perspective. There are countless benefits to the practice of martial arts, and a lack of self-defense can be irrelevant to your goals, so this is not a call to change. It is however a call for reality.
And lastly, if you practice judo, you are in amazing hands. Anyone in Western Massachusetts with an interest in judo is encouraged to check out Kuma Judo in Florence, Mass.
The old means to establish a martial art’s effectiveness were: •Argumentation: “This art combines hard and soft styles, so it’s the best, I’m 100% sure.” •Anecdote: “O’Sensei once dodged bullets fired by experts at 25 meters, twice. He was a wizard.” •Appeal to Authority: “Bruce Lee taught this to Navy SEALs!” •Demonstration: “Grab my wrist. No, the other one.”
Then MMA came along, testing experts from various disciplines against each other; a large, verifiable body of knowledge of what works emerged (along with a vast body of knowledge of what fails). However, there is today another means to know what works for self-defense. Cellphone and security cams are everywhere, which has opened a window onto thousands of cases of martial arts working and failing on the street. These can be roughly divided into several main categories: •Mutual Combat; •Dojo Storm; •Bouncer; •Informal; •Style vs. Style; •Self-Defense.
The final one, self-defense, is the proportional use of force to protect against an unprovoked attack that objectively threatens imminent injury or worse. A remarkable example occurred in 2022, at the Brunswick Street Mall in Brisbane, Australia.
Pro welterweight MMA fighter Viktor Lyall was minding his own business , when he reportedly saw two punks – Josh Townsend and Jessee Swain – stomping a man in an alley. The fighter promptly broke it up. Then the two attackers relentlessly followed and harassed Lyall, spurred on by a Swain’s partner, Tia-rose Shaw. Her father is a bodybuilder, as you will hear.
How Did Martial Arts Work?
The altercation is a seminar in using distance management – not getting close enough to get hit, while momentarily stepping into the pocket to hit back first. It’s also a seminar in situational awareness, never letting the second assailant get in position to sucker punch, something the punk was desperately trying to do. Further, Lyall was simultaneously making sure his own companion was close and safe. And it is a seminar in staying cool and controlling temper, in the face of extreme and prolonged harassment that included being spit on.
“Not all heroes wear capes,” wrote Lyall’s friend, BKFC star Bec Rodriguez, who originally posted the video.
“I never laid hands on either of those males, nor needed to until the events of that video transpired and I needed to defend myself,” Lyall told The Chronicle. “I was merely involving myself to extricate another party. That’s when I got involved, and that’s the only reason I got involved.
“You can see quite clearly from the video that I don’t want to hurt anyone, otherwise I would have, and I’m walking away getting followed.”
The pair remind of the jackals referenced in Christopher Walken’s Lion Speech. However, Lyall requests that there be no further steps taken against the two unfortunates. He hopes that their enshrinement in the global @$$hole Hall of Fame was sufficient.
“As they’re identifiable, I hope people can also respect the privacy of the aggressors and not ruin their livelihoods or whatever they do,” wrote the fighter. “Although the two males were together beating someone brutally, it was stopped. That video going viral is probably (hopefully) enough punishment for them. Please don’t harass. Ultimately, to me, it was just a bit of a tiff. They got plowed on. It happens. It’s good nobody got hurt.”
Historically, the effectiveness of any given martial art was “proven” via argumentation, demonstration, and anecdote. Argumentation is for example “legs are stronger than arms, so Taekwondo, which emphasizes kicks, is obviously better.” Demonstration is waving hands around on stage dramatically, while entirely complaint students fall to the ground and don’t move. And anecdote is “sifu fought ten armed skinheads, crushing all easily, his abs are so defined.” Then, in 1993, UFC 1 debuted a concept as simple as wheels on luggage – to find out what approach works best, have exponents of various arts fight each other.
Over time, the parts of each martial art that work against a trained opponent came into view. Today, martial artists have readily available the best of jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, muay Thai, judo, kickboxing, sambo, sanda, taekwondo, and karate. Call all that martial arts in the arena.
However, the rise of cell phone video and security camera footage has opened up a second means to determine the efficacy of any particular martial art or technique. Call that martial arts on the street. These incidents can be roughly categorized as: •Self-Defense: The proportional use of force to protect against an unprovoked attack that objectively threatens imminent injury or worse. •Mutual Combat: Legal in only a few states in the US, this is when two people decide to fight each other outside of any organized sporting context. There are typically some rules, either explicit or implicit, that include no weapons, and can extend all the way to punching only, with no kicking or wrestling. •Dojo Storm: These typically involve a skeptic or rival, who wants to test his or her own skills vs. a coach or fighter at a gym. •Bouncer: Part of the job involves dealing with aggressive behavior or non-compliance with statutory or establishment rules. •Informal Fight; Participants engage in contests held, often loosely, under boxing, wrestling, MMA, etc rules, outside of any recognized sporting organization. Location can range from the gym to the backyard to the beach. •Style vs. Style: MMA was born from these, and although the practice has largely died out, they can cast clear light on reality.
This author has broken down over 1,000 incidents caught on video of martial arts being used on the street, as defined above. In the case below, the martial art being showcased is boxing. When it went viral in 2015, the video was presented as an Irish professional boxer on vacation attacked by over a dozen Turkish shopkeepers. The truth is a little more complicated, but the basic facts are straightforward.
THE BACKGROUND
The hero of the story is a Kuwait-born and raised, Irish citizen of Muslim faith, named Mohammed Fadel Dobbous. He was on vacation in the Aksaray neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, when he went to a shop, and approached a shaky refrigerator to remove a bottle of water. When he opened it, perhaps a little roughly, a number of bottles of water fell out to the ground. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the shopkeeper became enraged, and tried to assault Dobbous with a stick.
The Irishman fought back, with success. In response, other shopkeepers came to the defense of their fellow small-business owner. Then the tourist took his glasses off, put them on top of his head, and took out multiple attackers. When they realized things were not going their way, the shopkeepers called for more help. The crowd of attackers swelled.
The tourist sought temporary refuge in his hotel, but then went once more into the fray. The crowd by then was armed with clubs and wooden chairs. The tourist retreated to his hotel more than once, gathered his strength, and waded again into the swarming shopkeepers a final time.
Eventually, the shopkeepers retreated. You can see why:
THE AFTERMATH
Senol Palan, 32, owner of the shop with a tippy refrigerated case, offered an implausible explanation. Palan said the tourist wanted to buy alcohol and when he was told there was none there, he left and returned with a friend, opened the case roughly, and caused the bottles of water to fly out. We all saw what happened next.
“The man was so strong. He was toppling anyone he punched,” said Palan. “Then nearby shopkeepers rushed in to help. It was like he was made of stone. He was not punching like a human.”
Another shopkeeper, who is seen on video being one-shot dropped and then stumbling off, asked reporters for 10,000 Turkish Lira (around US$600) to replace the nine teeth he lost. When asked if he lost all nine teeth from just one punch, the man replied, “Brother, did you not see the man, he is like Mike Tyson.” Palan himself lost two teeth.
Dobbous was interviewed shortly after the incident, and offered his perspective. Wearing a sling, he reported he suffered a broken hand, dislocated shoulder, and a knife wound to the back, plus lost his phone, watch, and gold chain. Other reports cite a fractured skull.
“I wasn’t drunk, I don’t drink,” he said. “I went to get a bottle of water. When I opened the door they fell all over me. I said I was sorry – accidents happen. But I was shocked at what happened next. … They should fight like men. You don’t have to come at me with weapons. Come at me with your hands. I didn’t come looking for a fight. I am a Muslim, like yourself. My hand [is injured] and my shoulder is dislocated from when someone hit me in the back.
“All this for water?”
Dabbous was acquitted in court, with the judge ruling that he acted in self-defense. Palan, was convicted of “deliberate injury” and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, later reduced to 26 months. Two other suspects received fines only, as their attacks did not result in injury.
The shopkeepers in the area are predominantly Kurds, rather than Turks. Relations between Kurds and Turks are not typically warm and fuzzy. Support on social media in Turkey for the Kuwaiti-Irish tourist was widespread.
“Should we write a novel titled ‘The Irish tourist?’” quipped noted Turkish novelist Ahmet Ümit. A woman named Bakteri Plaa, proposed marriage. A game called Irlandalı Boksör [Irish Boxer] was developed in Turkey. In it, a character looking like Dobbous stands next to a refrigerator full of water bottles, and then beats up angry shopkeepers wielding clubs and chairs, among other objects.
THE LESSONS
Watching MMA fights is compelling, but the greater meaning is learning what’s real – which martial arts techniques work against a capable attack, and which fail. Likewise, the application of martial arts on the street can be compelling video content, but the greater meaning is learning which techniques and methods actually work, on the street.
Dobbous was widely reported to be a professional boxer, but the reality is he just trains in the sweet science. The tourist speculates he won the fight, “because he is fit.” That of course parallels one of the great truisms in combat sports, explained succinctly by Karl Gotch: “Conditioning is your best hold.” That’s one of the vital lessons imparted here.
Across the globe, hopelessly out-of-shape martial arts teachers delight in fleecing the credulous, offering to teach “deadly” techniques without the requisite conditioning. For example, in far too many aproaches to Kenpo, it often appears that the two primary teacher requirements are being overweight and holding a 10th degree black belt. If you are not in decent shape, do not expect your skills to work.
Mr. Dobbous’ amazing performance also reflects having naturally heavy hands. As any striking coach will tell you, much of great knockout power is innate. Anyone can increase their punching power dramatically, but some people are born with heavy hands. Dobbous absolutely was. That’s another important lesson – some vital skills in self-defense are innate.
It should also be noted that the tourist received a lot of injuries, could have been killed, and might well have been better off if he just ran into his hotel and stayed there. Watching and appreciating video of martial arts on the street shouldn’t extended to thoughtlessly glorifying it.
The two martial arts with the highest demonstrated level of success on the street are jiu-jitsu and boxing. For a one-on-one altercation, jiu-jitsu has demonstrably proven to be the best, and all the more so because the level of damage can readily range from a hug to face-smashing. However, the efficacy of jiu-jitsu against multiple attackers is much more limited. This is obvious, but more importantly, is borne out by the record of jiu-jitsu being used on the street. Boxing, on the other hand, has a tremendous record via security cam and smartphone video of working very well against multiple attackers.
On the subject of lessons, no generalities should be drawn from this single incident about the nation where it took place. Turkey is most deservedly a beloved destination for over 40 million tourists worldwide each year. The beauty of the nation and the kindness of its people are known and cherished by all who visit.
And lastly, the next time you are in a store, wherever you are, and remove a bottle of water from the refrigerator, take care that they don’t drop to the ground. No good will come of it.
Steven Seagal is a musician, philanthropist, environmentalist, animal rights activist, producer, writer, reserve deputy sheriff, 7th-Dan in Aikido, Father of the Front Kick, father to sons Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, and somewhat boyishly handsome action film star, with, admittedly, an odd gait. Among his elite UFC fighter brethren from Brazil, he is said to be known as “Fritão”.
Hearing this may come as a terrible shock, but some say that O’Sensei Seagal is also a creep, and worse. As fight coordinator and former PRIDE commentator Stephen Quadros related, “I had heard all the horror stories about how he would hurt actors and stunt performers, dislocated shoulders, kick guys in the nuts to see if they were wearing cups, etc. I had heard about Gene LeBell.” The Gene LeBell story – “Skidmarked For Death” – is legendary, and has been retold for a generation. But is it true?
In 1991, the now-deceased LeBell was working as a stunt coordinator on the award-winning Aikido documentary Out for Justice. From there, stories diverge. It’s alleged that at some point, Seagal claimed he was immune to chokes due to his extensive martial arts training. According to this telling, when the then 58-year-old LeBell heard about the claim, he gave Fritão the opportunity to test his choke immunity.
As the story goes, LeBell set the choke up, Seagal said “Go”, and promptly went unconscious. And then went #1 and #2, in his trousers. Ever since, either because of a rumored legal gag order (see below Masato Toys action figure for confirmation), or because in the stunt business what happens on the set stays on the set, LeBell has never definitively confirmed or denied the story.
However, the story has been repeated as fact countless times, privately and publicly, by the likes of Joe Rogan (watch here), Ronda Rousey (watch here), and just about everyone else in the space.
‘Judo’ Gene LeBell Speaks
Over a decade ago, MMA journalist Ariel Helwani asked LeBell to confirm or deny the alleged Steven Seagal evacuating episode.
“Did you in fact choke out Sensei Seagal, and is it true that he did in the process soil himself?” asked Helwani.
LeBell replied with a significant degree of ambiguity.
“Well, if a guy soils himself, you can’t criticize him. Because if he just had a nice big dinner an hour before, you might have a tendency to do that,” said LeBell. “Steven Seagal is a very outstanding martial artist. I’ve got nothing against Steven. … Personally, myself, I don’t think he’s taught these mixed martial artists how to win a match. … He’s done a lot for martial arts. But I know where he’s insulted Randy Couture. Well, Randy Couture if he ever got mad would have him for lunch. … And that isn’t to put down Steven, but ‘closed mouth don’t catch any foot.'”
Helwani pressed on.
“So, did that happen?” Helwani again asked. LeBell again spoke elliptically.
“You can’t be braggadocious if you’ve done something,” he cautioned. “Everybody has their individual things that have happened. I personally don’t think you should put down, as many people do with Steven, because he’s trying to do his best.”
The journalist tried one final time.
“So does that mean, Gene, that you will not confirm this actually took place?” he asked.
“Well, if 30 people are watching, let them talk about it,” replied LeBell. “You interview a boxer or a wrestler and it’s ‘I, I, I’ and ‘me, me, me.’ What do I know? Gene LeBell knows Gene LeBell. And if I tell ya the stories … everybody that tells you a story is the hero of their own story.”
To date, this conversation is the closest LeBell ever came publicly to saying the story was true, and it’s not close.
Steven Seagal Speaks
Seagal has repeatedly and very pointedly denied the legend. He was beyond adamant during an interview with Helwani that took place not long after the exchange above with LeBell.
“Gene LeBell is a pathological liar,” said a clearly upset Seagal. “My children are the most sacred thing in my life. I swear on my children that we never ever had a fight at all. If someone doesn’t believe me , you can ask the stunt coordinator Conrad Palmisano. Conrad Palmisano is a Vietnam veteran. He’s a man of honor. He would never lie to anybody. You can ask him. There was never a fight. If LeBell said there was a fight, then he’s a pathological, scumbag liar.”
This is not a He Said She Said, it’s more a He Denied, He Declined to Deny. So what actually happened?
So is The Seagal Dookie Drawers Story True?
While it’s a compelling narrative, no one who was there has ever confirmed it. Stuntman, martial artist, and celebrity bodyguard (including for Seagal) Ron Balicki said emphatically and at length that he knew from witnesses that it did not happen.
“Another stuntman by the name of Steve Lambert was also an eyewitness to Gene’s and Steven’s brief interaction,” said Balicki.
Recently, the aforementioned famed stuntman Steven Lambert – a direct eyewitness – explained at length what actually happened, during an appearance on the Striking Samurai podcast.
“There was two bodyguards which were Steven Seagal’s, there was Steven Seagal, there was Gene LeBell, there was Lincoln Simonds who is stunt guy, and myself,” said Lambert. “There was six people there. … Nobody else was there, nobody else experienced it, nobody else saw. … Seagal didn’t piss in his pants, he didn’t go into convulsions.
“But there was a confrontation, it was a difficult physical confrontation … I happened to open the door and I saw Seagal and LeBell, and the two bodyguards talking in front of LeBell’s trailer. We were probably a good 30, 35 feet away and I said, ‘Hey Lincoln, LeBell’s talking to Seagal, let’s go see if we can join in,’ you know just innocently. So I jump down and I start walking over and Lincoln is about ten feet back of me, jumps down, and we start walking over we get there and they’re just having a simple conversation in front of each other.
“It’s Seagal and the two bodyguards are on each side of them … and they’re talking about moves and introducing themselves, being casual and entertaining and everything’s light. They start talking about different techniques, and they’re talking about a chokehold, and Seagal starts the conversation. He goes I see the way you do your choke holds, and he was disagreeing on the way that LeBell would do it, and LeBell said, ‘Well let me explain to you how I do it.’
“When you work with somebody, a master, a black belt, you know even somebody that is a white belt … it’s an automatic, known-fact rule, that you go slow. You’re having a conversation, you’re teaching, you’re showing, you’re expressing your movement, and that’s just what LeBell was doing, in slow motion.
“He walks around Seagal and he’s in back of him, facing his back, and Seagal’s kind of looking over. We see the two bodyguards looking, and Lincoln and I are kind of we’re in back of one side. and back of LeBell, watching, very innocent. LeBell starts to put his hands around [Seagal] and very slow, just as I’m moving right, and the minute his hands go around Seagal’s neck, before he even touched them, grazed them, Seagal just side steps full blast, and forearms down right in [LeBell’s] crotch.
“That’s crazy. I mean like if I told you if I spread my legs and I said hit me in a crotch with your forearm as hard as you can, that’s what Seagal did. And LeBell jumped up like three feet in the air, and I see LeBell’s face and it’s literally three feet in the air.
“The moment [LeBell’s] toes touched the ground, he just sidestepped and spun his hand around the front of Seagal’s neck, and took his leg and put it in back of Seagal’s feet and just threw his arm back and threw his leg forward, LeBell that is, and Seagal went flying about four feet high and landed right on his butt and back hard. Ouch. The bodyguards looked at LeBell, and I looked at Seagal, and I looked at Lincoln, and everything is in slow motion, and Lincoln’s mouth was open, and my mouth was open.
“I was shocked because that was full blast until then. The bodyguards they looked at Seagal, they looked at LeBell, and I’m watching this happen – a matter of a split second – and I’m thinking ‘Oh my God here comes a huge fight.’ Because I’m thinking the bodyguards are looking at LeBell, and the bodyguards look back at Seagal, and I look back at Seagal, and Seagal shakes his head like a no. The minute Seagal did that with his head, the bodyguards stood down, because they were like almost in reaction mode, confrontation reaction mode. Like I said, this happened in a matter of moments.
“The minute LeBell felt everything was easing up, he stuck out his hand and said, ‘But if I did that let me show you what you could do,’ and helped him up. I was scared that something else was going to go on, so I ran to get the stunt coordinator Conrad Palmisano. He was busy with sending camera, so I’m back at him, and he had producers, directors, the DP, everybody listening to him. So I’m in back, and I’m waiting for the right moment, because you can’t just barge in – you don’t want people to know, you don’t want to make a big thing out of this right? So I go in back of him waiting for the right moment and I kind of leaned to his ear and I said, ‘Conrad, there’s a confrontation with Seagal and LeBell at base camp, you better get over here and break it up.’
“Well he didn’t understand what I was saying, so he ignored me, and I’m just looking and he’s continuing with his camera work. So I walk away kind of hesitant, five, ten feet away, and all of a sudden he pops up and he realizes what’s going on, and he runs over there and he yells to LeBell before he even gets over there. He’s like 40 feet away – ‘LeBell, get back to your trailer.’ LeBell looks at him and goes right back to his trailer and that was the end of that. That’s what happened.
“Now who told, who got it out, who spread it out, I know I didn’t. I know Lincoln didn’t, at least I believe Lincoln. I don’t know if the bodyguards did it. I don’t know if Seagal did it, leaked it out. I don’t know if Gene LeBell leaked it out. Gene LeBell, I love him; you see how close Gene LeBell and I are in the movie? But Gene LeBell is a showman, right? I don’t think he would tell a lie.
“I think that lie, that rumor. that part of it pissing in his pants, and going convulsions, I think it was spread by somebody else, somebody who was writing the story, you know, somebody to somebody to somebody. But I believe LeBell would never say what was said to the magazines, and all that, if I had to guess. Also, let me say I feel horrible for Steven Seagal – he deserved it, what he got, because he started it. But the after-occurrence all these years later was brutal.
“I’ve seen Gene LeBell many times, he’s read my story; he says that’s exactly what happened. If you put Gene LeBell and I together on an interview, and I look at him and I say, ‘Gene isn’t that exactly what happened?’ He’ll tell you that’s exactly what happened. … We’ve discussed this already, I’ve teased him, he tells me that he didn’t say that, somebody else said that. He can’t figure out [who] but he’ll play with you if you interview him. He’ll play with you because Gene is a showman.
“It’s [Seagal’s] fault. I feel bad for him. It’s brutal because it’s carried on this long. But if he would have admitted it in a playful way with respect, at the beginning, or in the middle, or even now, it would go away. A couple of people have called me and asked, ‘What do you think would happen if we got them together?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m sure Gene would come.’
“Seagal’s got to get off his high horse, and the trick is is to make it funny, make it funny when they meet, because I’m sure LeBell would make it funny – ‘Come here Steven, you know your ball shot made me fly in the sky, how’d you like me putting you on your back?’ ‘You know LeBell, you’re one of the few that has ever put me on my back, I congratulate you for that.’ It could be humorous and it would all go away – that’d be great if that played out.
“I’ve suggested that to a few interviewers that have called me up privately and Seagal refuses to do that. So I think our interview is basically the only one with one of the witnesses that’s going to be out there. You did interviews with Palmisano and Balicki and Seagal, where you were telling the story, but it sounded like they wanted to like bad mouth Gene LeBell, and kind of turn it into that.
“The only thing I will say on this video is that Seagal did not pee in his pants, and he did not go into convulsions. That’s all I’m here to say, because Conrad Palmisano asked me, a friend of mine, and that’s all I’m gonna say. My name is Steve Lambert. I’m here to say that in the Seagal-LeBell confrontation, Seagal did not piss in his pants or go into convulsions. End the story.”
“I can’t reiterate this more – anybody who says otherwise about this story are liars. It’s that simple because they weren’t there, the producers. the directors, whoever, only the six were there, nobody else saw.”
So, finally, from an eyewitness, comes what’s apparently the truth – Seagal did not dump in his drawers, but did got dumped on his back (sounds like by Osoto Gari). Lambert’s delivery is compelling, but clinching the argument, the story could not have come from Seagal’s direction, as it contradicts O’Sensei’s version, and makes him look like a fool. So the truth is cool, but not as cool as the myth. That’s the way it always is.
Gene LeBell passed away on August 9, 2022, a legend in the grappling world. Steven Seagal has lived in Russia since 2016, when he was granted Russian citizenship by his friend President Vladimir Putin.
