MMA has the Homer it deserves, and his name is Tim Bissell. He tells the crazy stories that get to the original heart of mixed martial arts. He explained How Face The Pain became the sound of the UFC and what it’s like Working Undercover for the UFC.
It in latest, Bissell penned 4,500 words on MMA’s greatest meme, the Just Bleed Guy. Skip the brief excerpt below and read the whole thing HERE on Bloody Elbow.
It happened at UFC 15 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on October 17, 1997. Mark ‘The Smashing Machine’ Kerr was about to fight Gregg ‘The Ranger’ Stott, who had developed his own defense system, Ranger Internation Performance or RIP,made up of Freestyle wrestling, boxing, Jujutsu, and Wing Chun Kung-Fu,
“We’re here at UFC 15 to show that R.I.P. rules and all others rest in peace,” explained Stott.
Before Kerr crushed Stott in 17 seconds, the camera panned the crowd and landed on this guy.
James Ladner has an interesting story.
He’s a Southerner, who holds a Bachelors of Science from the University of Southern Mississippi, and later went on to earn an MBA. Now in his 40s, he has his own accounting office. However, that does not tell his entire story.
It all really started with cockfighting, he explains. Louisiana didn’t ban cockfighting 2008, and as much younger man, Ladner was a devotee of the spectacle and the practice behind it.
I just liked the betting atmosphere,” he said.”It’s kind of like what you would see in the movies of old, where people are just throwing in money and saying, ‘I want to bet on this!’ It’s just manic.
Ladner says he started backyard brawls in his hometown in the mid-90s.
I would say, ‘I’m going to put up $10,000 and we’re going to fight to the last man. Whoever is the last person who can continue to fight will win the money.’ I would promote, I would fight, I would pay the money,” he said. “It wouldn’t matter to me, I just really liked it. I was pretty flamboyant and outgoing back then, so people would be drawn to me. … Maybe we’d fight a couple of birds beforehand, or whatever combination, just trying to get people to come together that appreciated that kind of blood sport.
He watched UFC 1 via videotape, and when UFC 15 landed in his neck of the woods, attendance was a natural. Ladner wanted to show that he and his friends were really into MMA, in hopes that the UFC would come back, so three amigos had a large letter painted on their body, and were arranged so as not to spell F-U-C. Ladner went all in, with UFC on his forehead and “Just Bleed” on his torso, a play on NIke’s Just Do it campaign.
Some number of beers later, the camera caught Ladner in full bellow.
UFC 15 had a number of new rules including a prohibition on groin strikes, headbutts, and hair pulling. As the sport evolved, Ladner’s interest waned. Thus he had no idea that his antics had gone viral until he landed in prison in 2006.
Basically, at the time, I liked taking ecstasy, explains Ladner. And I would go to Dallas and go party. And I would leave here and people would say, ‘Hey pick me up some weed, pick me up some cocaine or whatever.’
Ladner says he was pulled over in Texas with 30 ecstacy pulls and was sentenced to ten years in prison, after he refused to name the friends the pills had been for.
He was incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Institution in Florida along with media baron Conrad Black and in a secure wing, serial killer James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. A young guard approached and asked, Are you James Ladner?
The guard told Ladner he was the biggest celebrity in the entire prison. Ladner was bewildered until the guard said two words – Just Bleed. Only later was he able to view the clip on a computer and get a sense that he was now the “Just Bleed” guy to the entire hardcore MMA fanbase.
Ladner describes prison as a positive experience and time for personal growth. He no longer condones cockfighting and runs a successful local business.
As we age, we kind of lose that, I guess – the need for that kind of violence,” he said. “It doesn’t turn you on… you just kind of mellow.
