John Bradshaw Layfield recently appeared on Dutch Mantell’s “Story Time” podcast/YouTube show.
John Bradshaw Layfield talking about his Brawl for All match against Marc Mero in 1998:
‘I’ll tell you this about Mero. Shamrock told me, ‘Don’t try to stand up with him.’ I trained in the Lions Den for that in Dallas and Guy Mezger, who’s a four time kickboxing World Champion trained me. He said, ‘Don’t stand up with him. Your ego is going to tell you that you can stand up to him because you’re so much bigger. That guy is a world class boxer. He was Golden Gloves New York champion.’ Before the match, either Shamrock or Guy, I can’t remember who it was that told me, ‘Okay, your ego, you’re gonna stand up with him. Promise me you don’t get knocked out. It’s when you realize that he’s gonna hit you from angles that you don’t see, start taking him down.’ So sure enough I stood up with him and he hit me with six or seven punches. I saw everyone of them coming and I couldn’t stop one of them and I thought, you know what, I gotta start taking this man down because if this is up on our feet, he’s going to end up knocking me out.”
On referee Jack Doan asking JBL if he was okay after the knockdown and then JBL that he’s okay and to get back out there:
“I told Jack before the fight, ‘If I ever go down’, I said, ‘If I can get up, don’t stop it.’ I told him that. I didn’t want to go on my feet wobbly. If Bart could knock me out, which he certainly could, and probably would have done it again if we’d have fought, well not probably, he would have done it again if we fought again. He hit beyond what I could take. I had no problem with that. I wanted to go out unconscious and that’s how, you know, fighters should go out, not that I was a fighter. I certainly showed that I probably wasn’t a fighter but that (Jack telling him he could continue) was probably because of the instructions I gave Jack before the match.”
JBL talking about Butterbean:
“They asked us, and this is how stupid I was or how we all were. They asked us, ‘Would you fight Butterbean or Tank after you fight Bart’, the winner would fight Butterbean or Tank. I remember thinking, ‘Man, if I can beat Bart, I’ll kill Butterbean.’ Butterbean had 100 pro fights. I just didn’t realize the difference between this big tough guy and a professional fighter, a big tough professional fighter. Shamrock and I snuck over and watched Butterbean warm up before that Bart fight and he’s hitting those pads so hard and so fast. I looked at Kenny and I said, ‘Bart’s in trouble, isn’t he’, and he goes,’Bart’s in a lot of trouble.’ I talked to Butterbean afterwards. He’s the nicest guy in the world and he said, ‘Look, I had 100 pro fights. He was never going to touch me. It’s not a fair fight’. We didn’t know the difference. We’re just dumb guys thinking, ‘Hey, we’re big tough guys. We can match up with a guy like Butterbean.’ I’m so glad Bart knocked me out instead of Butterbean. I might not have woken up yet.”
On Butterbean offering to throw the fight against Bart Gunn:
“Apparently Butterbean called and said, ‘Hey, what do you want me to do?’ and they go, ‘What do you mean?’ Butterbean offered to throw the fight. He thought it was a work, and they said, ‘No, it’s legit’, and he goes, ‘Guys, he has no chance against me. I’m a pro fighter. Not that Bart’s not tough and all that. He is all of that. I’m a professional trained fighter with 100 fights’ and they said, ‘No we think you and Bart will be okay.’ So yeah, from my understanding, Butterbean offered.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantel with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
