Potent — a new documentary about MMA co-produced by Bas Rutten — is now available for purchase at PotentTheMovie.com. Peep the trailer below; though the film’s angle seems to be that MMA is an arduous though ultimately rewarding way to make a living, it could probably use some gritty Smashing Machine-style pathos to appeal to a broader audience. Or, at the very least, a few crowd-pleasing kicks to the groin…

Bas Rutten had been away from fighting for over seven years when he stepped back into the cage with Ruben “Warpath” Villareal on 7/22/2006 at WFA – King of the Streets. Always a great kicker, Bas took over two minutes before he finally unloaded his tree trunk of a leg. Before that, he methodically circles Warpath and lands an array of well-placed and jarring shots to his victim’s face make-up. Bas could have flown in and crushed Warpath with brute strength, but instead used a lumberjack technique: keep chopping away at the base and eventually the tree will fall. Warpath tries to limp his way back into contention but Bas isn’t having it. The last kick sends the chubby giant to his knees where he’s in so much pain he can barely tap out. And we’d all like to thank Kevin James for showing up.

Courtesy of ProElite.com. Holy crap, this fight is only five days away!

Since Bas Rutten is the former coach of the IFL’s L.A. Anacondas team, Kimbo Slice’s trainer, and a personal hero of CagePotato, you’ll be seeing a lot of him on this site, and it would behoove you to get acquainted with his work. A good place to start is this video of Rutten taking on Frank Shamrock in a 1996 Pancrase match. For those of you who grew up on the UFC, the Pancrase rules might throw you off — wikipedia has a decent overview here.

The fight was so theatrical that some have accused it of being a work. Check out Rutten and Shamrock toppling out of the ring at 5:00-5:06; Shamrock’s backward somersault at 7:14-7:18; the exchange at 9:02-9:18 that I won’t even try to explain; and Bas’s celebratory “Rutten Jump” beginning at 11:50, after the fight was stopped due to a cut near Shamrock’s eye.

EliteXC held a conference call yesterday to discuss their upcoming “Renegade” event, with live events president Gary Shaw and fighters Kimbo Slice, KJ Noons and Jake Shields in attendance. (The audio is here; dig that funky hold music.)

Obviously, the call belonged to Kimbo. Give this guy a few years and he’ll be operating on Tyson-esque levels of verbal entertainment/insanity. Some of his highlights:

[On training with Bas Rutten]: “Every aspect of my training has improved. My whole life has improved. I don’t even smoke any more. I haven’t had sex in four months. I haven’t had a cocktail in five, six months. So I’m pretty pure and backed up, and I’m ready to fight. My focus is on point. I’m accurate. I know how to use my power. My wind is outstanding. I’m ready for anything coming my way. My groundwork is superb. I’m an all?around fighter. I’m no longer one?dimensional. I’m not going to stand there and bang. Working with Bas, that’s like, man, he’s like the Jimmy Johnson, the John Madden of [MMA].”