tito fight cut out was at bw3 watching
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That’s right it was Tito’s fight against The Janitor that was going on when the screen went dark.
Every fight on the main card went the distance. There was supposed to be a rematch between Dave Menne and Pele from Warrior’s War in Kuwait but they replaced Pele with Gil Castillo allegedly because Pele had lost a fight to Jutaero Nakao in Hawiaii and these knuckleheads we boxing guys. They wanted clean records and exclusive rights. None of this carny shit.
Fun times. And Jutaro Nakao fought on the undercard - I fight I don’t believe I have yet seen…
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I swear I caught one or two of his last fights in the company. I remember thinking he was a legit badass (even if he wasn’t).
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To your thread question though (lol) I don’t remember much about the Tapout guys. Just that they wore costumes and attended the big events, you’s see them off to the side in their outfits. Alot of tbe fighters did wear their gear in the cage…
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I do remember rolling my eyes at them before I knew who they were. That was a fun time to be around mma and I wish I would have met or known more about them like you guys
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@MegaPint Tito was one of the first fighters to master the art of being bigger than his opponents.
You could say he was a pioneer that way…
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Was he the first era to cut weight, or have weight classes? He was sponsored by tapout, too, right?
I met the guys who founded it in 1999 or 2000. I was at a local MMA event, which back then nobody was sure if it was legal or not. I guess Tapout had some kind of dispute with whoever ran the show, so they were literally selling T-shirts out of the back of a rental car in the parking lot outside the show. I always kick myself because I should have bought one, but didn’t.
I have more interesting stories about Hardcore fight gear, which predates Tapout by several years.
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Anybody remember “Full Contact Fighter” brand?
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Joel Gold
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They had a magazine too, which to my frustration was never available in Vancouver Canada. As far as I know, this was the only large city that never had it on bookshelves.
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Yes, I think he was. I don’t know if he was the first weight cutter? Definitely one of the first. Pat Miletich was cutting some weigh too, I believe. A few of the smaller wrestlers likely were.
I Knew Joker iRL !!
I Went To Masks Funeral
Partied With Skrape And Punk Ass
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Tower Records seemed to be the only place tha had it around my area.
Yeah, I was aware it was available in other Canadian cities like Toronto, Edmonton etc.
As I said, I searched for it for years and I’m cerrtain Vancouver was the only major city in North America that didn’t get it.
A lot of print stuff was never distributed in Vancouver, I learned. It wasn’t just mma.
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I bought a shirt and some genuinely good board shorts from them at an Extreme Challenge in Davenport. I think it was the show Mark Hughes fought, maybe.
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I ran into the tapout crew in Rancho Cucamonga back in the early 2000’s. A very garishly-dressed fellow (who I now know was Mask) and I struck up a convo about MMA, I don’t even remember how it started. Anywho, Mask said “Hey, check this out, dude, new design!” took me to the trunk of his car, and it was a camo tapout t-shirt. I told him it looked pretty cool, so he said “Keep it. Here’s another!” and tossed me a grey one. We shook hands and I went back to looking for the Sears out there to buy a new ratchet set.
Fast forward a few years and to my surprise, I see them on TV and tell my wife “Hey, I know those guys!”. Mask obviously went on to become “Mask”. He was an incredibly personable, extremely outgoing dude who I was glad to see make it “big”. And actually quite sad when he passed.
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Who is joker? Is he the guy in that documentary that’s addicted to some substance (no judgement)?
Great story. Thanks for sharing that.
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I was one of their first customers, they were running their business out of a van, I knew because they told me over the phone when I asked about their business. Very nice guys and personable, spoke with them every time I made an order. Bought some t-shirts with funky graphics and edgy slogans and some fight shorts.
They didn’t even own the Tapout domain back then, their original website was inyaface dot com. I never bought anything from Tapout dot com as they became too mainstream by that time but I was happy for their success.
It was the first company for NHB gear that I remember ordering off, it was around the same time when Atama and Gameness Gis were popular for BJJ. Then came Full Contact Fighter and Bad Boy which I also bought from, followed by a couple of others before Affliction and a slew of other copycats.
Never bought from Affliction or anything after the original Tapout, FCF and Bad Boy, since they became too trendy. I was too snobbish and laughed at people wearing Affliction gear as MMA noobs lol.
Never met any of the Tapout guys but I was happy for them, RIP Charles “Mask”.