Scott Epstein

About

From a very early age (1st grade through late teens) my friends and I would fight.  Fight each other, kids from other schools, in classes, whatever;  it was our sport. I don’t think we threw punches till sixth grade.  In high school it evolved to weapons which explains the stab wounds on my body.

At the age of 17, I had my very last untrained street fight.  Throwing wild hay-makers and squeezing head locks with all my might was enough to win me the fight, even though a friend kept telling me to throw straight punches the whole time.

“Huh?  Straight punches?”

Off I was to Ray Longo’s gym in Long Island to learn how to throw a straight punch. I learned a little bit of a bunch of things, but never really sparred.  When I would fight on the street, I’d throw a combo like it was a mitt drill and then go back to my mighty head lock. The UFC had emerged around this time and I had discovered the enigma with no muscle mass and a karate outfit that was beating much bigger men: Royce FUCKIN’ Gracie!!

A few months shy of my 22nd birthday in NYC, I finally stepped in to Machados BJJ (now Alliance) on 6th ave and 14th street – the beginning of one of my only passions in life. The gym was ran by Fabio Clement and Babs O. We trained primarily in the GI and I would go twice a week.  I lived in Queens and had no car so getting to the gym wasn’t fun and getting home was worse.

It wasn’t until after a few years of training that I realized I was better at BJJ without the Gi.  Why?  It was the only times I would survive with brown and black belts.  It was the only time I submitted my instructor.  It was only once but it meant the world at the time.

In 1999, my beat up Nissan Stanza that had never seen soap was packed with my junk and a co-pilot who I said nothing to on my 3 day drive to Los Angeles.  I had been promoted to blue belt about a year and a half into training and was told I may be demoted when I got to my new home at Rickson Gracie BJJ.  That never happened, nor was I ever promoted to purple during my 2 years there – probably because I refused to pay for a belt test (insert jewish joke here).  After Rickson had a seminar at his own gym, I decided to stop training there (insert another Jewish joke).

Two blocks from my former home in Hollywood was the Bomb Squad Gym.  At the time, the gym had Muay Thai and western boxing.  My coaches in MT were Chris Reilly and Paulo Tocha, and some black belt named Eddie Bravo was the BJJ coach.  I had no idea that Eddie beat Royler Gracie.  I knew he was a black belt, so I was happy.

Along with Eddie’s black belt came his intelligent approach to teaching and unique style of no gi jiu jitsu. Within a year of training under Eddie, I was competing in no gi tournaments in the advanced divisions as much as I could and would win the majority.  I earned my purple belt/shirt/rank and became Eddie’s Assistant Instructor.  I taught almost every class that Eddie wasn’t able to. With Eddie’s notoriety and teaching style came new students and pro MMA fighters.  I never wanted to fight pro, I just wanted to have an advantage on the street.  But being around the fighters, I slowly became a product of my environment.

“Driving to El Segundo and I didn’t not forget my wallet there.” (second single off of tribe called quests debut album , kill yourself for not knowing)

I got a big grin on my face.  This is not a normal thing.  My wife looks calm but I can tell she is upset due to her mangled finger nails she bit off.

I am standing across from my first amature opponent at a boxing ring at the Raw gym.  He is wearing some flimsy head gear and stands a few inches shorter then me, but looks tough.  The rules are no decision – just TKO, KO or submission.  The rounds are just 3 minutes so a submission is gonna be hard.

I forgot about feeling out the guy and just started swinging ,i saw he was cut under his eye after the first flury so i said fuck jiu jitsu and kept swinging. i didn’t get the win due to the rules it was a draw. after i seen i cut a guy”s face while he wore head gear i was hooked i wanted to fight again right there.

Indiana I’m set to do my first pro fight for a bag of tootsie rolls and a sticky issue of penthouse. Yes i arm bared the guy and the ref pulled me off to restart us ,yes he pulled me off of an arm triangle too . it was turned over to a no contest. I won twice in that fight. although the double knock down at the end was great.  I have since taken on three more opponents and won all three by submission , the last being the fight i had on the Tapout show.

As I’m writing this i am sitting in a condo that I share with chuck liddell some where in las Vegas .I am here because I’m the assistant coach on season 11 of the ultimate fighter .I’m  chucks jiu jitsu instructor and strength coach. Although I love to fight ,well I love to win, my passion has become to teach, not just pros but people of all levels as long as they want to learn. I’m currently teaching at 10thplanetburank (http://www.10thplanetburbank.com/) and  looking to open my own gym with Chuck Liddell on the west side of Los Angeles.