HOOKnSHOOT 20th anniversary
Jeff Osborne: “I’m not bitter or anything like that. I’m proud to say that keeping women’s MMA alive is always going to be my greatest accomplishment.”
This weekend Jeff Osborne’s HOOKnSHOOT will celebrate its 20th anniversary, and will honor three new HOOKnSHOOT Hall of Famers.
Iron Bear Gary Myers showed the world that Indiana MMA was legit! He was the first Indiana guy to appear on PPV for UFC competitor EXTREME FIGHTING in 1995. A short time later he would headline the very first HOOKnSHOOT event in Boonville, Indiana. In reality… Gary was the first HOOKnSHOOT Heavyweight Champ!
John Renken needs no introduction to HOOKnSHOOT fans. The Reverend and former Army Ranger has fought around the planet and was a HOOKnSHOOT Champion! His feuds with Scott Elzsworth Henze were both controversial and legendary and held the record for the largest coliseum crowd from 2004 to 2009.
Although you may know him as the ref Sean Brockmole was one of the founding father’s of HnS. Brockmole, through 2010 held the record the most fights officiated and is considered one of the top 5 referees in the United States. Before taking this position, Sean also fought in HnS and other promotions.
All three men will receive Hall of Fame Championship Belts for their years of involvement in the MMA community.
Osbrone has done over 100 shows, and the list of vets includes Dave Menne, Yves Edward, Aaron Riley, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Chris Lytle, Ian Freeman, and Jorge Rivera, Frank Mir, and countless others.
MMAFighting‘s Shaun Al-Shatti did an extended piece on the anniversary. it began when Osborne, then a 25 year old pro wrestling promoter, watched a tape of Royce Gracie winning the UFC, and decided to put on an event in Boonville, Indiana. Osborne is also the central figure in sustaining women’s MMA, losing money in the process, with no regrets. History of course showed he was right.
“Way back, I put in a ReMix tape from Japan,” he said. “It was a couple of women’s fights and I left the room. I come back an hour later and my daughter and wife were watching the tape. was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They were captivated by the women’s fighting more than the men’s. Megumi Yabushita was very small. She didn’t end up winning the ReMix tournament, but she was being put against bigger women, and the perseverance of the female fighters, they were intrigued by it.
“So I put the word out and literally got probably every female fighter there was inside of North America, and the two Canadian fighters fought each other. That was all there was back then. Fast-forward two years later and I do another show, and half of those women actually blossomed into great, great things. But seeing my daughter and wife look at the women fight, it was different than men. They fought for themselves, they didn’t fight for ego. The woman weren’t afraid to lay it on the line and take a risk, whereas the men would be afraid to lose and look bad.”
“My partner was not sold. He didn’t want to do this one. We were coming off of a sold-out show, that’s where Lil Nog fought the month before, and God, there was so many people there. We had already decided to do the women’s show and I kept thinking, ‘Well, this isn’t going to go well.’ And it ended up doing okay. I mean, I lost a ton of money on it. I had intended on just making history versus making money, and it paid off. It’s definitely stood the test of time, and it’s sad that people don’t know the backstory of how a lot of these women fought for nothing to just get somewhere.
“There was just a different feel for those tournaments. The 2002 show, I think, was very special. That’ll always go down as the greatest night of my MMA life, was being able to pull off that women’s show. And then the 2004 women’s show, Erica Montoya versus Megumi Fujii on top, God, that thing was just so full. Tara LaRosa, Molly Helsel. I can’t even remember who all was on that show, but there were three or four standout fights that just stole the show.
“Then I remember the 2005 tournament, I just wanted to see if I was crazy enough to do it again. So I put together an eight-woman tournament and Julie Kedzie ended up winning an eight-woman, one-night tournament there. I think I just did single matches in 2006, and then 2007 came along and that was when I was backed by Bodog. God, that’s a night I can vividly see in my mind. It’s just an ocean of people. We ran out of seats. We had a crane cam for production. The women, they were all just gorgeous and articulate and all just the most diverse group.”
“I’m not bitter or anything like that. I’m proud to say that keeping women’s MMA alive is always going to be my greatest accomplishment. Everyone else just wanted to use them for a sideshow to sell tickets, not giving a damn about any of them.
“There was always some idiot male fighter or somebody being negative, talking down women’s MMA. When Ronda was in her main event, her first main event, there were guys trashing it, saying, ‘Well, she shouldn’t be in the main event’ — you should be so freakin’ lucky to be on the same show as her and get that many people watching you. Because if she wasn’t on that show, you’re looking at a buyrate of next to nothing, and she just got hundreds of thousands more people looking at you. Now it’s up to you to be not-so-average and break out.”
“I’ve survived the game and I’ve never stopped. I’ve never even stopped training. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. I haven’t fought or done anything like that, any urges to fight or anything like that, but just that MMA has been a part of my life for the full time. I’ve never strayed away or gotten away from it. And my passion for women’s MMA, being around long enough to see it get to where it needs to be. It’s going to go even further the more weight divisions they put in there. But my legacy of never quitting, never stopping, and believing in women’s MMA when no one else did.”