Parting of the Blood
Red Sea:
The Splitting of the Jesus is Lord Team
by Michael Onzuka
The Jesus is Lord team made
waves from the beginning they started fighting and started their
quest of spreading the word of Jesus Christ while spreading their
opponent's faces across the squared circle. The JIL team made
people talk in the beginning mainly because people questioned
their mixture of religion with fighting. As MMA evolved to the
public as a legitimate sport, people could make the connection
of the Jesus is Lord team to a competitor like Evander Holyfield,
a fighter who is strongly religious. Another reason people were
talking was that the Jesus is Lord fighters, mainly Ray "Bradda"
Cooper and Ron "The Machine Gun" Jhun, were exciting
to watch with their hard hitting, straight punching, and initial
ground and pound style. The team quickly added submissions to
their arsenal and improved their standing skills to keep up with
the top fighters in MMA. Ray Cooper gained immediate notoriety
with the Shooto organization ranking as high as number one in
the welterweight class. Ron Jhun has been spreading the wealth
fighting in Super Brawl, Warrior's Quest, IFC, Shooto, and recently
in the WFA gaining an impressive record. Like many teams, the
Jesus is Lord team have had some internal problems which caused
the team to split. Ray Cooper, who is the founder and leader
of the Jesus is Lord team continues to lead the team, while Ron
Jhun and has left. I caught up with Ron after his win at Warrior's
Quest on December 1, 2001 to talk about his fight, the controversial
WFA fight, and the break up of the JIL team.
FCF: First, what did you
think about your opponent Shannon Ritch knowing that he's had
about 80 fights?
Ron Jhun: I knew he was going to be tough. In the fight game
nowadays, you can't under estimate anybody. I was thinking that
Shannon was a credible fighter. He fought just recently Frank
Shamrock. He stepped in the ring with Sakuraba so he's fought
some named fighters and did his best. I took it in the way that
he's been around the block so just another stepping stone.
FCF: Did you think he was
going to come out throwing those high kicks like he did?
RJ: Yeah. I kind of knew he was going to do something crazy
like kicks and flying back kicks and all of that stuff. I kind
of had the feeling that he wanted to get it over with. Either
he's going to catch me or I'm going to catch him so he seemed
like he just wanted to go all out.
FCF: Once you got him to
the ground, did you feel that you took him out of the fight?
RJ: Yeah, it was just a matter of time. I could hear him breathing
kind of hard on the ground so I just didn't want to rush the
punches before he goes for a leg lock or something. I just wanted
to hold my position and hit the body and hit the head and move
every time. It was kind of practicing what I did back at the
gym and I just didn't want to go all out and explode. I wanted
to take my time and work some of the stuff that I have been working
on.
FCF: You are starting to
get notoriety around the west coast now as one of the top guns.
Even after the WFA incident (note: Jhun lost to Jermaine Andre
in a questionable early referee stoppage), do you feel that you
are one or two steps away from the UFC?
RJ: Most definitely. If not at the top, I feel I should be one
of the guys in the mix right now. The fight with Jermaine [Andre],
I thought it would have been a tougher fight, but I guess I let
the referee get involved. The way I looked at it, I don't think
Mario Yamasaki knew too much about me and I guess he seen Jermaine
so I guess on his part he felt that I couldn't have handled the
punishment he would have dished out, but I felt I was dominating
the fight the whole three minutes, up until 3:11 and he had five
seconds that he turned the fight. Mario said he made a bad call,
but there are certain ways of winning a fight, there's submission,
TKO, KO, the judges, and the ref so on that case I let the ref
be the judge of that. It's something I learned from and hopefully
I can get a rematch of that fight. We appealed it. So far things
might be looking good on a rematch with Jermaine probably at
WFA, but I feel that he wouldn't want a rematch.
FCF: Are you appealing for
a no contest or just a rematch?
RJ: Hopefully, we can get a no contest and get a rematch and
hopefully fight for a title or something of that sort. [Note:
after this interview, a Jhun/Andre rematch is in the works].
I don't think it really hurt my chances of getting in to the
UFC or the bigger shows. I just felt that it was a bad call
and the referees have a tough job, just as us who are getting
in the ring and fighting and he apparently made that call on
a judgment call. I still give him respect for his job and what
he has to do in the ring.
FCF: Do you feel that recently
referees have been stopping the fights prematurely whereas, maybe
even two to three years ago the fights would have went a little
longer allowing the fighters to recover and turn the fight?
RJ: From my understanding, they sanctioned it [MMA] in Nevada
and the Nevada boxing commission was on hand so he felt he had
to be on top of the situation as far as stopping the fight or
maybe letting the fight go on a little further and these guys
[the commission] may reconsider about passing the law and stopping
NHB, but then again, there were three fights before mine that
was on the ground and these guys with big gashes on the side
of their eye. That gave me the idea that he probably had the
jitters already because of the fact that those three fights was
the ones he was refereeing, but yes they do stop it a lot quicker
now. On the part of the fighters, they have to work out and
fight out of different situations like if someone is in a dominant
position, they have to work out quicker instead of relaxing and
letting the guy wear themselves down.
FCF: Do you think that generally
it's a bad thing that the referees are stopping the fights quicker
or do you think that to protect the fighters' safety, they are
stopping the fights at the right time?
RJ: It's hard to say. It's really a judgment call. I would
say that if you get hit, I would say, more than three punches
square in the head, unanswered, and you are in a defensive position
where you cannot defend anymore punches, I feel the fighter didn't
do his job as far as defending himself, but if the fighter is
on the bottom and he's bobbing and weaving, moving and scrambling,
and the guy is punching and missing, the ref should let the fight
go on and they should do more talking to the fighters just to
make sure that the fighters are aware of what is going on and
bring it up in the press conference and say that if I say, "Bottom
man, are you clear," or "Can you respond?" and
the bottom man doesn't respond in that certain time period and
he asks him twice and he doesn't give an answer back, I feel
that the fighter could be unconscious or out of the fight already
so I would say stop it. Larry Landless told me if you can't
tap out say something verbally and if he asks me if I can continue
from the bottom and I'm getting hit and I don't say anything,
he's going to stop it. We should keep that in mind that they
[the promoters] should bring more of that up, especially the
referee. I mean Mario Yamasaki, in my fight, I didn't even know
there was a ref in the ring. He was nowhere. I had Jermaine
down and I was hitting him in the body and in the head and he
stopped the fight and said that there was not enough action and
that was the first bad call he made. I'm just going to let that
fight go. What happened happened and like I said, I let the
referee be the judge of the fight and from that experience in
a bad position, I just might just try to get out quicker instead
of letting him do his thing and wear himself down.
FCF: Let's move on to something
that is a little more harder subject to talk about. I recently
heard that you recently had a falling out with Ray "Bradda"
Cooper and the Jesus is Lord team. What is the status of the
team and what basically happened?
RJ: We're still as one. We're still a family. I guess we were
fighting for the same reason, to glorify God, but I guess we
were headed in different directions. I feel that I was getting
more in to the sport, into the business side, and my sister-in-law
[Monica Cooper, Ray's wife] them was getting in to the spiritual
side. I feel no one was wrong. They just had their vision and
we had our vision and we just wasn't on the same eye level, but
I guess things happen for a reason. I guess for the better,
but I feel this [the separation] is temporary and maybe we all
can learn from this and grow as adults.
FCF: Can you elaborate on
the part where you said that you were more in to the sport aspect
and they were more in to the spiritual aspect?
RJ: It's hard to say. From my perspective, I look as the fighting
as a ministering tool. I enjoy going out and traveling and meeting
different people, traveling to different states and I guess on
my side, I lead by example on how I carry myself, so I would
say that I would be a minister of example. On the other side,
Monica [and some of the others] are more ministering with the
word of God which is everything is from the Bible. In the group,
she was the strong spiritual backbone of our team and ministry
and I took it more to the physical side. I wanted to define myself
and be a testimony in the physical realm and I went ahead and
trained like a champion would train. I did more of that and
she relied more on God and the spiritual side, for God's strength.
I don't know how this came about, but it was a matter that was
built up over time.
FCF: Did you feel that the
way she was thinking was hindering the amount of training you
felt that you needed to do?
RJ: Yeah, they felt that I put the sport first, instead of God.
Maybe, I looked at it differently and I feel that Evander Holyfield
is a perfect example. He loves God, but when it comes to training,
he trains his hardest to be the best fighter in the world, but
yet he can still go in the right and glorify God because of his
work. I felt that's what I was trying to do, be the best athlete
in the world, but still give God the praise because if it wasn't
for him, I wouldn't be in this sport that I enjoy so much and
sharing it with the rest of the people around the world. I never
thought I would be traveling, me and my family, so that in itself,
is a blessing so I just felt that I'm going to keep doing what
I'm doing.
FCF: In your opinion, how
did Monica's vision of the team differ from yours?
RJ: I would say that they had a pattern of how they were doing
things and I felt that I stepped out of those boundaries and
did things on my own understanding instead of by their guidelines
and Monica and Bradda was the head of our team because Bradda
started this so I would say that I stepped out of bounds as far
as leadership. I was taking things in to my own hands and she
felt things would come to us. God would bring things to us,
but I felt that we got to go out and do things and I wanted to
get the exposure and maybe at the time, I felt that I wasn't
as experienced as I needed. Bradda was well gifted. I told
him that God gifted him with a lot of talent and I was unfortunately
one of those people that had to work on my talent so it was like
we were two sides of a coin. I felt that I really needed to
go out and make a name for myself and get exposure, but he already
made exposure right from the beginning so it was kind of hard
for me to go over his head and do stuff like that [e.g. book
his own fights], but we are still are family. That's still going
to be my brother. That's still going to be my sister. I still
love them dearly.
FCF: What's the status of
the training. I know you guys have a gym in Waipahu. Who is
training with whom?
RJ: We started renting the place out on Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Saturdays. So we got HAMMA, the Hawaii Association for Mixed
Martial Arts is training there on those days and Monday, Wednesday,
and Fridays are still the Jesus is Lord guys and Bob-O [Ostovich]
still has his garage down in Ma'ili so the guys from the west
coast is in the garage temporarily. So until we determine what
we are going to do with the gym and we find another place, right
now things are kind of unsolved on this side.
FCF: So is it you and Kai
Kamaka and they have Ray Cooper and Bozo Palling?
RJ: Me and Kai are basically handling the Tuesdays and Thursdays
and Ray, Bozo, and Bob-O them are taking care of the Jesus is
Lord team.
FCF: I know it's hard to
talk about it.
RJ: I mean, coming in tonight was an odd feeling because we are
not united as one you know? We just have to see what the Lord
reveals to us. Maybe I can learn from what I wasn't doing now
that we are on our own and maybe I can get closer to God and
maybe they can learn something too. I'm looking at it as a learning
experience right now.
FCF: I guess one good thing
is you can't go too far because you all are family. Family is
family forever, whether you like it or not [laughs].
RJ: That's the real lynching part. We are always going to see
them on holidays and because of the kids [Ray and Ron both have
large families]. This is the longest I've never seen my nephews
and it hurts me not to see them. I know God's got his hand on
the situation. Only time will tell.
FCF: Good luck and hopefully
everything works out well for everyone.
RJ: Thanks Mike. God Bless.
FCF's Mike Onzuka was the
only one granted an interview by Monica Cooper, Ray's wife who
is part of the leadership team that runs the Jesus is Lord team,
regarding the subject of the breakup. Monica and Ray are busy
putting together their own event called LineBred, which is a
boxing type of event which the Coopers hope to use to stir up
interest in physical fitness of the general public in Hawaii
and allow your average Joe to start competing in an amateur event.
LineBred will have fighters with 16 oz. gloves take part in
a toughman type of event, but there will be one takedown allowed
per round to avoid having their competitors go through the red
tape of becoming an amateur boxer. Fighters who are interested
can contact Ray and Monica at linebredllc@aol.com.
According to Monica, Ray
is looking to further his career by fighting the best opponents
with the best records in order to reach his goal of obtaining
a Shooto title or a fight in the UFC. He does not want to pick
his fights, but he wants to compete with the best, no matter
the amount of money or the venue. Monica also stated that if
Ray gets offered a fight in the UFC, he wants to be a primary
choice, not a replacement fighter or due to the dropping of names.
Cooper is in a rebuilding phase of his career to put past his
recent losses, make some adjustments, and use the added experience
to propel his career further.
Summary of the two sides
of the breakup:
Ray and Monica Cooper felt that exposure and opportunities to
fight in large event such as the UFC will come if the Jesus is
Lord team continues to fight worthy opponents. They feel that
the journeyman approach of earning their way in to the UFC instead
of fighting certain opponents and padding their records in order
to gain entry in to the biggest event in the US is the honorable
way to not only earn a spot in the UFC, but the best way to stay
successful in the octagon. As stated above, but summarized here,
Ron Jhun feels that he needs to take it upon himself to fight
in different events in order to get his name out to the general
public. The added exposure will turn the heads of the matchmakers
and promoters to keep an eye on Ron and his progress in MMA and
eventually lead to an opportunity to fight in the UFC. This
difference of opinion, along with other minor things, have resulted
in the breakup. Both do not rule out getting back together,
in fact, I sensed that both do want to mend things, especially
since they are literally family. This is a very touchy situation
because of the family ties that I appreciate both the Coopers
and Ron Jhun for talking to me to help clarify this situation
for the MMA public. |