Influence
LeBell's reputation in combat sports has led to the nicknames "Judo" Gene LeBell, "the Godfather of Grappling" and also "the toughest man alive". He has taught grappling skills to many well-known wrestlers and martial artists, including "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Karo Parisyan, Mando Guerrero, Chuck Norris, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Gokor Chivichyan, Bob Wall, Ed Parker and Manny Gamburyan. He also has a wrestling technique named after him, Daniel Bryan's (wrestler) finishing move, the LeBell Lock (which was later renamed to the NO! lock).
The pink colored Judo Gi became a trademark of LeBell and was a result of a laundry mixup while preparing for a competition in Japan. A pair of red shorts were mixed into the laundry that contained his Gi and turned the uniform a shade of pink. He was set to compete the following day, and being a Saturday evening when he received the now colored uniform, he had to compete in the pink uniform. This set the Japanese crowd livid (it was considered very insulting). LeBell went on to win his division.
LeBell is associated with Gokor Chivichyan's Hayastan MMA Academy where he teaches grappling classes. He also does interviews for magazines, newspapers, and radio as well as judging fights.
Recently, LeBell has been spotted in the corner of former US Olympic judoka and current mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey, often holding a stopwatch.
Read more about this topic: Gene Le Bell
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has “never had a chance, poor devil,” you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone.”
—Margot Asquith (1864–1945)
“If the contemplation, even of inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses, even when the fair form is foreign to us: What must be the effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have, when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our own reflection and industry?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)