GENE LEBELL FEATURING JUDO VS BOXING FIRST TELEVISED MMA EVENT 1963

[@william-uc2oy]

He’s straight up telling the truth. I went to the Olympic many times as a child with my dad. Boxing and wrestling were his thing at the time. Gene was always there keeping order. His mom ran the joint. At the time I was 7 when this fight took place. Gene is a bonafide real American badass. Even in his later years he’d fight if he wished.

[@tyrusmfrechs7025]

We know he’s telling the truth, obviously. You, sure, whatever you say.

[@gbody2617]

Sure, just like your comment about you banging Marilyn Manrone and her giving you a waterfall is true? Uh huh...sure!

[@Docinaplane]

Lebell was a true Ronin. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

[@TheLochs]

I was a member of Genes grappling club. I have this whole fight on VHS tape from the 90's.

[@closetcleaner]

Brass knuckles... Few if any would agree for a fight like that. Brave man.

[@DeanNatheos-eq3hl]

I took his class in Hollywood for a year he was excellent his neck cranks were top of the line.

[@USLethal]

The match stipulations that Milo gave Gene after talking all that shit was flat out hilarious

[@professorl.hilton.]

Trained with Gene back in the day say late 60s ,, he did not know the word FEAR!!

[@david-pb4bi]

Wasn’t the only word he didn’t understand, try the word truth.

[@jackreacher4488]

​@@david-pb4biWhat, you a Seagal fan?

[@david-pb4bi]

@@jackreacher4488 Pathetic try, I have no time for fake martial artists like Bruce Lee etc

[@jackreacher4488]

@@david-pb4bi What exactly makes Gene and Bruce fake martial artists? What is your experience?

[@david-pb4bi]

@@jackreacher4488 Fifty years martial arts plus six world powerlifting championships. What have you got? If it’s some pathetic reply to try and save face not interested.

[@emptycanvas79]

Gene, hopefully this new generation can be inspired. Thank you

[@bentoncushing8693]

Pioneer,,,,deserving unrecieved accolades...amazing man...

[@ADAM_COLLECTS]

the Labell family ran the pro wrestling out of LA for years until Vince McMahon went national with the WWF… so if anyone would know how to tell a story about fighting, it’s gonna be a pro wrestler and Judo Gene was DEEP in the business. He was a legit judo man, no question.

[@dalegribble60]

"IT'S STRETCHIN' TIME!" ~Judo Gene

[@saxon1177]

"And everybody knows I didn't do it on purpose." LMAO! Yeah, Right, Ok.

[@lagoonrd4173]

Dan Henderson swears also….. sorry bisbing 😂

[@NoName-zm1ks]

Well, the dude was in the way, so there’s that!

[@NoName-zm1ks]

There’s gotta be some fans alive today that were at that historic fight, wonder what they have to say.

[@paulbroderick4217]

What an amazing guy!!

[@ShaneMoore-w2k]

Judo Gene was the real deal.

[@fletchkeilman2205]

Beautiful. Definitely subbed!

[@onelmstreet8839]

Was a good one. Good stuff reminded me on ricksons valtudo

[@seanmeehan-js5kh]

A true tough guy! 👍😊

[@adam28171]

The legend. I wish I got my lazy butt off to USA to train with this hero of mine when he was alive.

[@pauloricardoc.oliveiraoliv4613]

Mestre Gene mostrando que o gi sempre.eateve por ai. Obrigado Mestre.

[@mangoMango-ck3et]

What a Legend,,,first MMA Fighter...R.I.P.Gene.

[@stevezy4772]

He wasn't the first.

[@MurryRothbeard]

Awesome story that I did not know.

[@david-pb4bi]

Was training in martial arts gym next to boxing gym. It was all good natured, one of top martial artists challenging a decent boxer to fight. The martial artist got slaughtered in about half minute, wasn’t even close.

[@1badz239]

Did you ever see the fight between Don The Dragon Wilson and Boxer Art Jimmerson?

[@david-pb4bi]

@@1badz239 I looked it up but had already seen that fight. You can’t compare Don the Dragon with Gene Lebell, get real.

[@1badz239]

@@david-pb4bi you're right. Gene in MMA not striking only would destroy Don in a fight. Once Gene gets a hold of him, that's it.

[@chrisroth9181]

Boxing is underated ..its very violent and dangerous...i trained boxing for 5 years and competed 19 times i started Muy Thai and i was destroying Muy thai fighters and had a couple wrestlers try to take me down i was able to stop them with a well timed sprawl...back on our feet we go and they had no answer for my punches.......Great Example Holy Holmes a boxer vs Ronda Rousey Judo......i was surprised Holy won easily

[@gbody2617]

​@@chrisroth9181- Let's you and I have an MMA match. Send contact and I'll send contract.

[@donaldduke2233]

What a giant among men !

[@NoWayAsWay71]

LEGEND‼️‼️

[@SuperKillbill1234]

ha ha...loved the line, your the most sadistic bass i know...

[@alexbaker2615]

Judo Gene was aka the toughest man alive! RIP ❤️

[@phillipmarlowe0525]

If Parker was great why didn’t he fight the guy??? Never saw Parker actually fight. LeBell was arrested, charged with, and tried for the July 1976 murder of private investigator Robert Duke Hall. He was acquitted of the murder charge but convicted as an accessory for driving the convicted murderer, pornographer Jack Ginsburgs, to and from the murder scene. LeBell's conviction for being an accessory was later overturned by the California Courts of Appeal.[28] LeBell and Ginsburgs were former friends and business partners of Hall. Inside Hall's residence police discovered hours of wire-tapped recordings, some of which led to the resignation of the Beverly Hills police department chief of police. Other recordings discovered had ties to the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon.

[@johnreidy2804]

I had no idea. Thanks for the info

[@ericte2400]

Yea I agree why didn't Parker fight the guy??!! Parker claims he fought in Hawaii, and was a boxwe. Probably cause h ewouls lose all his famous students if he got beat, Parker seemed more like a businessman than a fighter, like most martial arts teachers later became.

[@LifesNotHereToSatisfyYou]

Because no one wants to see a real boxer lose at the time they live in

[@valdivia1234567]

@@ericte2400 Maybe he knew the boxer's mgmt team would tell him that they wouldn't agree to letting him do kicks, just like they told Lebell. So for him, it would end up being a boxing match. Just speculation on my part of course.

[@als4179]

Is that not a movie , it's fantastic.

[@ericcampbell4526]

Amazing

[@samsnephew3209]

The reason my cousins loved Judo.

[@dougfredricks2017]

Growing up and remembering Andre vs Chuck Wepner and Inoki vs Ali the questions always were there if a Wrestler could beat a Boxer etc, abounded

[@minutemartialarts3152]

Amazing how dirty a fighter the boxer was. Showed he was really afraid

[@tabrisss818]

YEAH MAN I CAN BEAT ANY BOXER THEY AINT NOTHING TO ME

[@billiswillis8293]

6:05 I didn't know he was born in OCTOER. Ruce Lee was born in Novemer, right?

[@SpiritSoaring13]

Talk about eating lightning and crapping thunder. Damn Gene could have snatched Savage's soul if not for being such a nice fella, truth.

[@bebop4874]

I just want to hear more about him making Steven Seagull 💩 himself

[@CKevni]

Was this fight before anoki vs ali?

[@tgshort7638]

Great story even better cause its true

[@silverfox8801]

Love Gene but nothing is gonna punch a belt in half!!

[@valdivia1234567]

Exactly, that made no sense lol.

[@Gieszkanne]

This made me doubt if he even had brass knuckles. Probably also bade up by Gene.

[@americanrights1531]

I met this man at scrapyard kickboxing in Orlando with a couple of the students they were awesome he’s really not as famous as he should be because he is an American let’s just say fighter he was completely focused and mental through and through hard to describe his focus

[@BURGAWMMA]

I would love to be able to see the complete footage I don't think it exists

[@DrSSC243]

Insane.

[@StrifeFraser]

I love hearing these old stories Happy Christmas everyone.

[@davecozzi9721]

Say what you want about Judo Gene, but he knew judo and contributed a lot to the sport. I saw him as a gateway to todays mixed martial arts. Like him or not, you can still glean some great information from his teachings.

[@troycarpenter3675]

He was the man

[@LifesNotHereToSatisfyYou]

The reason why grappling beats striking a lot it because grappling is like grabbing and knowing what to do with that grab u can’t just grab and expect to win by strength there’s more factor in it and every 1inch of grabbing and movement matters where as striking is like tapping except each tap is devastating so u have to block or dodge but if ur able to grab it instead ur able to stop the taps and prevent damage and control it and tame it that’s why in most striking sport ur not allowed to grab for too long and Muay Thai grabs are upper body no one is wraping there leg to the Muay Thai guy leg it would be a judo takedown and u get a warning for it probably so even in Muay Thai ur not allowed to grab to a point cause then it would just be a grappling match goes to show that u can turn a striking match to a grappling match easier then a grappling match to a striking match u would need to learn how to get up and sweep and keep distance and grip breaking

[@mccglastron1972]

You can clearly see in the close up Savage was not wearing brass knuckles... AND I'm not a Judo guy but I have done some BJJ... I can conceive of no way a belt would "break in half"... at least not that wouldn't kill you, lol. Some serious embellishment here, lol.

[@donelmore2540]

I looked, but couldn’t tell because he was wearing gloves.

[@mccglastron1972]

@@donelmore2540 - Exactly. It would be impossible to put gloves on over brass knuckles... and they aren't on outside the gloves either... it's not true, lol.

[@johnsambo9379]

@mccglastron1972 That's not true. Guys would put stuff under their gloves all the time in old time boxing. Including brass knuckles. You can read about it.

[@kardeskalap2165]

@@mccglastron1972 using such gloves, you can totally fit a brass knuckles into it.

[@donelmore2540]

@@johnsambo9379 I think I remember hearing some boxer, back in the day, who was accused of having a horse shoe inside his glove.

[@RobMeblind-t2w]

Gene LaBell. Great and quthentic.

[@americanrights1531]

Rest in peace warrior

[@miked1365]

Toughest fighter in or out of the ring. Nobody wanted to fight him.

[@3AdamAnt]

Thought that was Keith Richards in the thumbnail…:)

[@bytor754]

Gene Labelle... el legendario de verde OSS.

[@mr.joedirt8583]

Lol. I hope nobody is taking Gene seriously when it comes to the brass knuckles. There were no brass knuckles involved.

[@AlienAI51]

🙏🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙏

[@deltonlomatai2309]

Gene has been schooling guys for years. Don't mess the professor.

[@fuddrucker74]

My uncle was on set the day that Gene choked out steven segal and made him shit hisself. He said it stunk.

[@mmh7980]

Is it just me or did anyone see Keith Richards in the video thumbnail?

[@Godshonestruth]

If he didnt step on his befallen opponent it would have been a 10/10 story.

[@kubikiribasara3499]

......He shouldn't have worn a lethal weapon, to the fight. Pfft, brass knuckles.

[@jpereira6439]

well, the guy was wearing brass knuckles. I believe a little stepping-on was in order.

[@Highlander1432]

Fuck that boxer. He's lucky Gene didn't snap his arm in half for the brass knuckle bs

[@Gieszkanne]

@@jpereira6439 Yes he was wearing brass knuckles and punched his belt in half.😂

[@chriswinrow1483]

RIP LEGEND YNWA

[@3Pillers]

👍

[@stevederderian2152]

Did this guy choke out Steven Seagal and made him shit his pants 😂

[@maxb5957]

Max was here

[@leonpse]

He does look much bigger than the boxer.

[@saurabhm383]

Made an old has been boxer 30 lbs lighter than him wear a Judo gi and calls it a Judo win over Boxing 😂

[@MrBollocks10]

Covid?

[@SavageCamacho]

You wanna see a real fight. Put these guys in the ring & let them fight with no rules.

[@gbody2617]

They're both gone genius! Lay off the tequila and tone down with the burritos too.

[@ahwhite2022]

Dude was a bad ass, no doubt. But he's also a story teller and Hollywood tends to draw story tellers. Story teller is my nice way to say "bullshit artist."

[@superlyger]

He was known to be one of the biggest liars. Even within his own profession.

[@christoph.d.w]

Gene allegedly choked out Sensei St. Seagull one day. I swear no one else could have done that!

[@stormrider9831]

The word in the jiu-jitsu community at the time that Gene was a sure enough bad ass but not personally respected because he liked to hurt people, including his students. I never had any personal experience with him and I did not want any.

[@poindextertunes]

i mean he started the story with someone calling him a “sadistic bastard” so i dont doubt it 😂

[@bertt1055]

This is not mma. They did not cross train. It is just a meeting of styles.

[@biohazard_613]

You are both right and wrong at the same time. By the definitions that we use today, these fights would be defined as a meeting of styles or interdisciplinary or whatever term that you prefer. Definitely not MMA. At that time, the term mixed martial arts was used for matches of this type. I saw it used on fight posters all over Southern California in the 70s & 80s. Remember, they were mixing different martial arts in one fight. Most of the fights I saw that they called mixed martial arts were karate vs boxing but there were many wrestling vs boxing and wrestling vs karate. Also, at that time (more in the 80s than the 70s) there were other fights going on in the underground that were much closer to, but still not quite, what we now call MMA . These fights were commonly labeled as no holds barred.

[@bertt1055]

@@biohazard_613 thanks for the reply. I just wish these videos would stop being click baity because based on current definition of the term “mma”, this isn’t it at all. They could label it more accurately instead of conflating it with a term that means something else. Just a simple Judo vs Boxing would have been a great title that draws eyeballs and clicks. Calling it mma is simply inaccurate because the combatants did not train mma style by today’s definition.

[@biohazard_613]

@@bertt1055 I agree with the click bait part. While my old ass understands why they used the term the way they did, I agree that the judo vs boxing would have been better. Also, I may have misspoke when I said that is what they called mixed fighting style fights at that time. I missed the 1963 part. I’m old but not that damn old and I don’t have a clue what they would have called an event like this in the 60s. When it comes to combat sports, I can only tell you what I know and I only know from the mid 70s to now.

[@biohazard_613]

@@bertt1055 I just thought of something seconds after I hit send. Keep in mind that the first few UFCs don’t qualify under the current definition either but everyone still considers that MMA.

[@bertt1055]

@@biohazard_613 It’s interesting to even hear about the 70s because that era (60s to 70s) was sort of the precursor to the current state of martial arts. The pioneers then really did something great. And yes noted on that point about UFC being labelled MMA. Strangely not to me and my fellow martial artists though. We just saw the UFC in the early days as a brutal exchange between styles because the combatants themselves strictly adhered to their own style, like early K1. It was only after people like Bas and Fedor started cross-training that made it MMA (to me at least). By the way, I really appreciate you sharing. Wish more people who knew about the early days would share more.

[@kenh.5903]

Everything I've seen of judo Gene LaBelle tells me he's a huge braggart. I've seen this fight. It's nothing to be impressed by that's for sure.

[@k9m42]

With all the cheating Milo did the boxer had know chance.

[@dagaffer2269]

So Ed Parker was a coward. He put Gene forward instead of fighting himself and proving his bullshido kenpo karate.

[@Katzenhase]

The guy is a liar. He lied for all those years that he choked out Seagal. Now we all know that he lied about it. Shame on him.

[@dwaynestankowski6916]

How Do you know it was a lie

[@candonesaucedo839]

Because viking interviewed Steve lambert who was there

[@dwaynestankowski6916]

@@candonesaucedo839 OK. Thanks for the info. I like Steven .

[@BRUCEJJ66]

"The guy is a liar ..." . Are you talking about LeBell or Seagal? Seagal has said "I'm a fighter! I've been fighting for 30 years!", but there's zero evidence of him ever fighting anyone. At least with LeBell there's real, verifiable evidence (like this film) that he actually was a legitimately tough fighter.

[@BRUCEJJ66]

Someone saying they were there, giving you their version of what did or didn't happen isn't actually evidence that they were actually there or that their story is true, you realize that, right?@@candonesaucedo839

[@greybushMEproductions]

Sure Gene...we believe all that bs...brass knuckles...LOL. It would have been the opposite if it were boxing rules. How can a boxer be expected to wrestle with a wrestler? The notion is absurd. Plus, Milo was already old and washed up by this time so who cares about this crap. It means nothing.

[@Gieszkanne]

And punched his belt in half with the brass knuckles. 😂

[@greybushMEproductions]

yah, that's one of my power moves, the belt breaker. I can do it bare fisted though so take that Gene Lebell. What a dunce.@@Gieszkanne