A Quote by Terry Funk
Boxing was not as big as wrestling in Japan, but people knew Leon Spinks.
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Growing up, I was a big boxing and wrestling fan. I love people like the Undertaker and Prince Naseem: they knew how to make a big entrance!
I haven't been hit since Leon Spinks hit me in '92.
I know him as Terry. Hulk Hogan has probably done more for wrestling than anybody has. He got Hollywood involved in wrestling. Hogan was a big guy, but that big ol' guy could move, and he knew how to get those people going. He had it all. He got pro wrestling to a whole new level.
While wrestling in college as a junior it came to a point where wrestling just wasn't enough for me anymore. I love wrestling, but I felt like I was missing something, and so the striking part about MMA, the boxing and kickboxing, was what got me really interested in MMA. I saw it on TV and I just knew that I wanted to do it.
I liked wrestling a lot better than boxing. I remember thinking at that time that wrestling was a pure demonstration of strength, which I was interested in, while boxing was just hitting somebody or getting hit, which didn't appeal to me. But a demonstration of strength was okay, so I chose wrestling.
My brother, who created the UFC, had a vision. He knew that people wanted to see who was the best fighter. People have curiosity, what style was the best? Boxing, wrestling, Gracie jiujitsu? It was a quest to find out.
I was just lucky to be there ahead of the curve to be the driving force behind bringing this amazing style of wrestling from Japan that combined Lucha Libre, American professional wrestling, Canadian professional wrestling and Japanese wrestling all into one beautiful mix that fans worldwide absolutely can't get enough of.
The generally big places in the world, the big countries for pro wrestling or lucha libre are Mexico, U.S.A., Japan, and U.K. And now WWE is in all countries and it's different.
Wrestling has its own culture. Every culture - Japan, Samoan, Indian, Korean - has wrestling, and wrestling is a worldwide mix.
Every day as a kid, I went to the boxing gym. I knew boxing before I knew anything else. And I was once told if you show your child how to do something and you constantly push them, then eventually they'll become masters. They'll become a master of their craft. So that's probably what happened with me and the sport of boxing.
Wrestling can be anything... There's some forms of wrestling that I'm not too big a fan of, but I'm not going to say it's not wrestling because it is wrestling.
I used to bodyguard for Muhammad Ali, Leon Spinks, Sugar Ray Leonard. I used to bodyguard a lot of diamond merchants; I would travel with a suitcase full of diamonds and take them from point A to point B. My reputation grew because I was a professional. I did my job, and I was courteous - a no-nonsense guy.
I knew I wanted to shoot in Japan early on. Years ago, we did a Japan segment in "The Community Project," and at the time I felt it was one of the better Japan segments ever captured.
My dad is the reason I actually started watching wrestling. My dad was never big into sports; we were all big into sports as kids, and he'd go to our Little League games or whatever and not really know what was going on, because he didn't know about sports, but he knew about wrestling.
I paid too much attention to boxing. I wanted to try professional boxing. That's why I didn't focus on wrestling and jiu-jitsu, and it hurt me.
After intensive body building for eight years, I went to the U.S. for training. There, I learnt the art of wrestling. Later, I went to Japan and joined a wrestling group.
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