Kenpachi Zaraki
12-01-2008, 06:35 PM
Source: MMAJunkie.com
In his 13 years in mixed martial arts, UFC, PRIDE and Shooto veteran Enson Inoue (11-8) has earned a reputation as a hard-fighting, hard-living warrior who refused to submit to anyone — or anything.
But less than two weeks removed from a near-month-long stay in a Japanese prison, Inoue told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) his life has been forever changed.
“I’m this tough dude that doesn’t tap, but I’m also human, too,” Inoue said. “I had insecurities in prison. I had hard times. I had to overcome it a lot.”
Inoue’s stay stemmed from an October arrest by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for marijuana possession. The 41-year-old said the sudden nature of the incident was jarring.
“The hardest thing about it is that it was out of the blue,” Inoue said. “I was just sitting in a parking lot, and they just came. They wanted to do a routine search of the car, and all this [expletive] came out. I was like, ‘Whoah.’
“I had all these appointments that I had to just miss. I went to jail, they took all of my phones. I couldn’t contact anyone.”
While Inoue is unable to discuss the complete details surround the still-pending case, the Japanese native said further investigations by the police yielded no additional evidence.
“The next day [the police] went down to my gym,” Inoue said. “They went down to my house. They had search warrants. They searched everything. Nothing came out, of course. Just the stuff in the car.”
Out on bail since Nov. 14, Inoue was in Las Vegas to teach a seminar at John Lewis’ J-Sect Academy. Inoue said he spent the 26 days of incarceration working on positive improvements in his physical condition.
“I lost 25 pounds in there doing push-ups, sit-ups, whatever,” Inoue said. “I’d fold up my sweats and put them full of magazines and do curls. I was just working out in there. There’s no junk food. So it was good.”
Japan has far-stricter laws regarding marijuana possession and use than the U.S. After the arrest, Inoue found himself in a tiny cell with three questionable characters for roommates.
“I had one Yakuza guy in my room,” Inoue said. “I had a guy that sold fake notes, bank notes. And then I had a guy who had sexual harassment on a 22-year-old kid. So I had a whole range of people.
“I was laying in the room one night, and told the guys, ‘You know what? Our room is the [expletive] worst room.’ They said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘You’ve got a guy that was holding drugs, a guy who was fondling a chick, a guy that sells fake bank notes, and you’ve got an underworld figure. This is the worst room.’”
Despite the circumstances, Inoue did his best to remain physically active.
“At 8:00 p.m. we could lay our futons out,” Inoue said. “We woke up at 6:30 a.m. At 7:00 a.m. we had to put all of that stuff away. So we’re sitting in the room with nothing. So I would put all of my roommates in the middle, and I would run circles around them. I would run 400 laps in the morning, 400 laps in the evening. Every 25 laps I would do 50 push-ups, then run the opposite way and do 50 push-us. I would do almost 800 push-ups a day.”
Inoue said the entire ordeal forced him to slow down and develop a different perspective on life.
“When you’re comparing the inside to the outside, inside there’s nothing to look forward to,” Inoue said. “But once you close out the outside and admit in your heart that it’s gone — and that you’re inside — there’s a lot of stuff to look forward to. Food all of a sudden started tasting good. When I compared it to the outside food, it didn’t taste good. But once I’m inside, and I’m comparing it to the inside, there’s nothing to compare with this. It actually got bearable.
“It made me appreciate a lot of things. When I was inside, I was looking outside and I was thinking. I appreciated the rain. We had a little exercise room, and when I went there the sun would beat down. A lot of times you walk out in the sun and you’re like, ‘Whoah.’ And I’m looking at the sun trying to get it on my face. When it’s raining I’m standing in the rain like, ‘Wow, rain.’
“So I realized that there are so many simple things in life that I overlooked. It’s a weird thing to say, but I think it was good for me. It changed my whole personality. It changed my whole view on things. And I’m much happier.”
Inoue, perhaps most well-known for a 1998 submission win over MMA legend Randy Couture, also had historic battles with Frank Shamrock, Mark Kerr, Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Before the arrest, Inoue had already started working on a book to detail his stored career.
While Inoue details his in-ring history in the book, he also believes this experience will add depth to an autobiography that was already full of valuable life lessons.
“[The book] will give a lot of insights on what fighters go through in their head,” Inoue said. “Some people think Enson, ‘Yamato Damashii’ — the unbreakable spirit, but it will show a lot of human in me.
“I kept a diary of the prison. I think a lot of things in my life are like a movie, and there’s a lot of things that I overcame or went through that a lot of people might actually learn from just by reading the book.”
With a new outlook on life, Inoue now hopes for a return to active fighting. Unfortunately, Inoue believes his recent trouble may put an end to his comeback plans.
“The only thing that’s kind of bumming me is that I was preparing to get back in the ring,” Inoue said. “The only thing with that is in Japan there is a grace period. If you do something wrong, no one is going to want you to get back in the ring right away because you’re going to show that you don’t even regret what you did. I don’t think I could fight for a year there.”
Inoue said he reached out to Affliction as a possible venue for his return, but the organization did not appear interested in his services. While he hasn’t fought in over four years, Inoue is confident he could entertain today’s MMA fans.
“I’m not aiming for no belt,” Enoue said. “I’m not saying I am be the best fighter in the world. I know I’m not. But I know I can give a show as good as any other fighter right now. I’ll throw down with anyone.”
It is Inoue’s legendary heart and courage that he feels is missing from today’s mixed martial artists.
“I know I’ve got good fights in me,” Inoue said. “I’ve seen the fights that are happening now. It’s turning into a sport. There’s so many sports. There’s baseball, there’s basketball. And the reason why mixed martial arts is so exciting is because it’s something that no matter if you’re a baseball player, or you’re a basketball player, this is something that you can come and watch. They don’t consider it a sport.
“These days, a lot of the fighters are fighting it as just a sport. They’re fighting just to win. How can you fight just to win? The objective is to knock your opponent out, to hurt your opponent — choke him out, break his arm, break his leg. It’s not just a sport. If you want to do a sport, do jiu-jitsu.”
While Inoue’s warrior spirit has certainly remained strong, the MMA pioneer used his time in prison to change many other aspects of his life. Inoues said a new commitment to God, coupled with a desire to right his sometimes-immoral lifestyle, has changed him for good.
“It was a bad experience, but it turned very good,” Inoue said. “If I had to rewind this life, I think this is what I needed.
“My life was like a leaf that falls into the river and flows down the river. That’s what my life was. I was flowing with the river. No guidance. I was headed for bad things. So it was good. It set me right. It got me thinking on a whole different perspective.”
I got a DB Error while posting hence the blank
In his 13 years in mixed martial arts, UFC, PRIDE and Shooto veteran Enson Inoue (11-8) has earned a reputation as a hard-fighting, hard-living warrior who refused to submit to anyone — or anything.
But less than two weeks removed from a near-month-long stay in a Japanese prison, Inoue told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) his life has been forever changed.
“I’m this tough dude that doesn’t tap, but I’m also human, too,” Inoue said. “I had insecurities in prison. I had hard times. I had to overcome it a lot.”
Inoue’s stay stemmed from an October arrest by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for marijuana possession. The 41-year-old said the sudden nature of the incident was jarring.
“The hardest thing about it is that it was out of the blue,” Inoue said. “I was just sitting in a parking lot, and they just came. They wanted to do a routine search of the car, and all this [expletive] came out. I was like, ‘Whoah.’
“I had all these appointments that I had to just miss. I went to jail, they took all of my phones. I couldn’t contact anyone.”
While Inoue is unable to discuss the complete details surround the still-pending case, the Japanese native said further investigations by the police yielded no additional evidence.
“The next day [the police] went down to my gym,” Inoue said. “They went down to my house. They had search warrants. They searched everything. Nothing came out, of course. Just the stuff in the car.”
Out on bail since Nov. 14, Inoue was in Las Vegas to teach a seminar at John Lewis’ J-Sect Academy. Inoue said he spent the 26 days of incarceration working on positive improvements in his physical condition.
“I lost 25 pounds in there doing push-ups, sit-ups, whatever,” Inoue said. “I’d fold up my sweats and put them full of magazines and do curls. I was just working out in there. There’s no junk food. So it was good.”
Japan has far-stricter laws regarding marijuana possession and use than the U.S. After the arrest, Inoue found himself in a tiny cell with three questionable characters for roommates.
“I had one Yakuza guy in my room,” Inoue said. “I had a guy that sold fake notes, bank notes. And then I had a guy who had sexual harassment on a 22-year-old kid. So I had a whole range of people.
“I was laying in the room one night, and told the guys, ‘You know what? Our room is the [expletive] worst room.’ They said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘You’ve got a guy that was holding drugs, a guy who was fondling a chick, a guy that sells fake bank notes, and you’ve got an underworld figure. This is the worst room.’”
Despite the circumstances, Inoue did his best to remain physically active.
“At 8:00 p.m. we could lay our futons out,” Inoue said. “We woke up at 6:30 a.m. At 7:00 a.m. we had to put all of that stuff away. So we’re sitting in the room with nothing. So I would put all of my roommates in the middle, and I would run circles around them. I would run 400 laps in the morning, 400 laps in the evening. Every 25 laps I would do 50 push-ups, then run the opposite way and do 50 push-us. I would do almost 800 push-ups a day.”
Inoue said the entire ordeal forced him to slow down and develop a different perspective on life.
“When you’re comparing the inside to the outside, inside there’s nothing to look forward to,” Inoue said. “But once you close out the outside and admit in your heart that it’s gone — and that you’re inside — there’s a lot of stuff to look forward to. Food all of a sudden started tasting good. When I compared it to the outside food, it didn’t taste good. But once I’m inside, and I’m comparing it to the inside, there’s nothing to compare with this. It actually got bearable.
“It made me appreciate a lot of things. When I was inside, I was looking outside and I was thinking. I appreciated the rain. We had a little exercise room, and when I went there the sun would beat down. A lot of times you walk out in the sun and you’re like, ‘Whoah.’ And I’m looking at the sun trying to get it on my face. When it’s raining I’m standing in the rain like, ‘Wow, rain.’
“So I realized that there are so many simple things in life that I overlooked. It’s a weird thing to say, but I think it was good for me. It changed my whole personality. It changed my whole view on things. And I’m much happier.”
Inoue, perhaps most well-known for a 1998 submission win over MMA legend Randy Couture, also had historic battles with Frank Shamrock, Mark Kerr, Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Before the arrest, Inoue had already started working on a book to detail his stored career.
While Inoue details his in-ring history in the book, he also believes this experience will add depth to an autobiography that was already full of valuable life lessons.
“[The book] will give a lot of insights on what fighters go through in their head,” Inoue said. “Some people think Enson, ‘Yamato Damashii’ — the unbreakable spirit, but it will show a lot of human in me.
“I kept a diary of the prison. I think a lot of things in my life are like a movie, and there’s a lot of things that I overcame or went through that a lot of people might actually learn from just by reading the book.”
With a new outlook on life, Inoue now hopes for a return to active fighting. Unfortunately, Inoue believes his recent trouble may put an end to his comeback plans.
“The only thing that’s kind of bumming me is that I was preparing to get back in the ring,” Inoue said. “The only thing with that is in Japan there is a grace period. If you do something wrong, no one is going to want you to get back in the ring right away because you’re going to show that you don’t even regret what you did. I don’t think I could fight for a year there.”
Inoue said he reached out to Affliction as a possible venue for his return, but the organization did not appear interested in his services. While he hasn’t fought in over four years, Inoue is confident he could entertain today’s MMA fans.
“I’m not aiming for no belt,” Enoue said. “I’m not saying I am be the best fighter in the world. I know I’m not. But I know I can give a show as good as any other fighter right now. I’ll throw down with anyone.”
It is Inoue’s legendary heart and courage that he feels is missing from today’s mixed martial artists.
“I know I’ve got good fights in me,” Inoue said. “I’ve seen the fights that are happening now. It’s turning into a sport. There’s so many sports. There’s baseball, there’s basketball. And the reason why mixed martial arts is so exciting is because it’s something that no matter if you’re a baseball player, or you’re a basketball player, this is something that you can come and watch. They don’t consider it a sport.
“These days, a lot of the fighters are fighting it as just a sport. They’re fighting just to win. How can you fight just to win? The objective is to knock your opponent out, to hurt your opponent — choke him out, break his arm, break his leg. It’s not just a sport. If you want to do a sport, do jiu-jitsu.”
While Inoue’s warrior spirit has certainly remained strong, the MMA pioneer used his time in prison to change many other aspects of his life. Inoues said a new commitment to God, coupled with a desire to right his sometimes-immoral lifestyle, has changed him for good.
“It was a bad experience, but it turned very good,” Inoue said. “If I had to rewind this life, I think this is what I needed.
“My life was like a leaf that falls into the river and flows down the river. That’s what my life was. I was flowing with the river. No guidance. I was headed for bad things. So it was good. It set me right. It got me thinking on a whole different perspective.”
I got a DB Error while posting hence the blank