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Tell us how you became a wrestler.
I've always been interested in professional wrestling since I was a child. My first memory of professional wrestling was Big John Studd and Andre the Giant having a body slam challenge. It opened my eyes up in that world of mixed martial arts. Ever since, I dreamed of competing. I was an athlete in school and was very good at it. Always got the best position in the sport, always got coverage in the newspapers and magazines. When I finished doing team sports, I started
Jiu-Jitsu and won a couple of national titles.
Who did you train with?
I started to train with Allan Goes, and I'm a black belt. So, I completed and graduated the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu system, won some titles there, and stepped into the shoot fighting career.
Did this shoot fighting opportunity come through Allan Goes?
Through him and actually my brother Sean McCully who got my first gig
in Japan at Daido Jyuku.
How did Sean Start off?
He was always doing karate and stuff since we were young. Very good wrestler in high school and got recruited for collage, but we were both kind of a troubled youth. He opened up a boxing and kick boxing gym and competed a lot in kick boxing. Then, the Ultimate Fighting and the World Combat Championship came around, and they were looking for fighters. Sean fought against Eric Paulson who was a seasoned shoot fighter at that time. He beat him up, made him all bloody
but unfortunately lost the fight in the very end. What he had shown was a fighting spirit, what Mr. Inoki always talks about. I was out to prove something, our family name. When he lost that night, it really crushed me. I was determined to get into this sport and prove that the McCully family is strong and that we have a good name and the ability to beat the best fighters out there. I've proven some of that, but a lot of it, I left in the gym. Best fighters know my name and are scared of me. It's just the matter of getting my time and chance to get into the No Holds Bar arena to prove that.
Japanese fans know about your family's Costa Mesa dojo, LA BOXING GYM.
It's been there since 1992, and it's the brain child. First of its kind, cardio, box, aerobics. And once Sean fought in the Mixed Martial Art fights, we started to incorporate Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. It really became one of the first mixed martial art gyms. It's been successful, but we had differences and we split ways. He now works for ZERO-ONE, Hashimoto's (former NJPW wrestler) company.
Have you wrestled professionally?
I've wrestled everywhere. I helped to find a league called UPW which works tightly with Zero-One now, and I gave that up. I also had a contract from WWE, but they didn't want me to work in Japan, in which I started my shoot fighting career (Rings, Puncrase, UFO, BomBaYe), so I had to turn them down. Then, I went to ECW where the rejects of wrestling gathered, who didn't conform with Vince or Eric. So, when Vince bought ECW, I was out of job. Only option I had was to get my license to sell insurance or to train in the gym and to hope for another opportunity. I got an offer from Zero-One, but at the time, Hashimoto said some bad things about Mr. Inoki, so that made me reject their offer. I was going to wrestle in the main event and tag up with Mark Kurr, but I stayed with Mr. Inoki. Nobody can talk bad about Mr. Inoki, I wouldn't accept that.
That's why you came here to INOKI DOJO.
Yes, after rejecting their offer, Mr. Inoki told me to help to open this dojo. We've been here for less than a year and already have some great success. We brought Bas Rutten, Joanie Laurer, Wallid
Ismail, and all the young fighters here. Soon, Ken Shamrock may be coming. Mark Coleman and Kevin Randelman have also showed great interest in becoming a part of the dojo. That's all happening within a year. I feel responsible for what is going on. We're doing a great job here and deserve some credit and deserve some respect. I think NJPW as a whole is scared of this dojo. If we succeed, then their old and easy style of pro wrestling
in which they don't have any spirit any more will die. They're just going out to the ring and going through the motions. They know it, and that's fine. I say, let them die, but don't push us away because we are the future. They need to accept us. They got MAKAI and all that gimmick, sending Mr. Hoshino out here to pull out some fine fighters from this dojo... Guess what Mr. Hoshino, we're not below you! If anything, we are above you! We are already what you want to be, we just didn't get the opportunity yet. I was there in September with Joanie Laurer. And Chono picked out Joanie, a girl to fight instead of me, the leader of the dojo, and made a big promotion. That's great and novelette, but if he was the "man" from the NJPW, why doesn't he fight the "man" from INOKI DOJO. He didn't even try to fight Rutten or Wallid. He took on the girl! It's going get him into a magazine and make him popular; that's fine, but where's his fighting spirit? Let's see who he is as a man. He's not a true warrior if he doesn't give a chance to the challengers.
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