411 MMA Interviews: Marvin Eastman
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 12.17.2009
The "Beastman" speaks with 411mania for an exclusive interview to talk about his MMA career, his upcoming fights, and fighting Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Marvin "The Beastman" Eastman (MMA Record: 16-12) has fought all around the world and his resume of fighter he's faced boasts a who's who of the MMA world. Eastman fought and defeated former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, early in the career of both fighters. Eastman having fought for the UFC and KOTC has faced former champions such as Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. Eastman's fight with Belfort at UFC 43 is most remembered for Eastman's brutal TKO loss and what was one of the sickest cuts ever witnessed in an MMA fight.
Most recently, Eastman faced Ricardo Arona, who had returned to MMA after a 2 year plus sabbatical, at Bitetti Combat MMA 4. Eastman's also been recently fighting in the Canadian MMA promotion, Maximum Fighting Championship, throughout 2009. During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Eastman took a break from his training to speak with 411mania:
Jeffrey Harris: How is training going right now?
Marvin Eastman: It's been going good. The last couple of months just kind of been a little stink up in our gym, our manager/trainer is opening up a business, so you know I haven't been able to get the type of training that I needed to be really aggressive or effective like I needed to. So I kind of thought a little bit . . . but we got it worked out and we got a new guy in here that's real hungry and that's a couple weeks to stay on top of the game so I can go back to beating people up standing up again just using all my tools and not being a one man gun, you know.
JH: And who is the new person?
ME: Basically my head trainer/manager is Skip Kelp, former welterweight boxer . . . but we got a new guy in named Jose Gonzalez and sometimes you get some new blood in man and they come with the fire that you need. Sometimes they can be in it and they got so many projects and things that they can't give the full attention to the people that they need to do, and I'm putting 100% in. If the person that's training you can't give you a 100%, the only person that suffers is the person that's supposed to be getting trained. So, I had a fight against Arona where I should've just banged him out, standing up. And they had all the modified rules up there in Brazil, basically set up for them, and I'm not mad. It's their style. No elbows and no slams. You get put in a triangle, no slamming, no nothing. It was kind of an anti-Quinton rule. So it was a little bit more straightforward for a jujitsu guy, not really a striker, but I ended up winning the second round, almost getting him out of there, then in the first round he won. The third round he kind of elbowed me so he ended up winning the fight. I'm not mad, that's just the way it is, but I think a lot of things could've been taken care of had I had the right training for the fight to prepare for it, and we would actually get it done . . . so we got in some new blood and I got a renewed sense of jam(?) again.
JH: You've fought for many prolific MMA organizations including the UFC. Where you will be fighting in the coming months?
ME: I'm fighting in Maximum Fighting Championship, I think it's 23 or 24, in Canada again on HDNet and I don't remember the opponent's name, but I don't discount anybody. It'd be stupid to just go and say, "Oh I'm going to destroy and kill . . . !" Let the bolsters and the braggers talk about that. My objective is now to knock everybody out . . . I'm tired of getting decisions because one judge's eyes closed and one person you know whatever, all I want to do is go in there and if you win decisively and win convincingly, you cut the guy up and you beat him up badly, you knock him out, and then you get the win 100%. And you don't have to worry about that. That's money out of my pocket. A loss costs me money so it's always better when I go in and finish up on a good note. But yeah, it's Canada. And then I fight again in California in January. So I'm going December next week, then January. We keeping busy. We're staying really busy.
JH: So are you fighting middleweight or light heavyweight now?
ME: Nah, no more middleweight. Middleweight was an experiment gone bad. I had two wins and two losses. It's just, for me, I normally walk around at about 220 (lbs.). I'm 5'9" and I'm not a person a to carry around a lot of body fat or stuff like that. So for me to drop down to 185, I had to it over a month, and I just lost a lot of mass. So what I would end up doing is making the guy whose a natural 185 pounder, I'm ****ing 30 pounds to get there, losing all this mass. You get down there, you're just weak and dead and tired. So we tried it, it wasn't for me. I just carry too much muscle mass, so I stick with 205, I can fight my weight with no problem. I have to cut weight, I make 205 easy and go out there and let the Tasmanian Devil go. That's the way I should -- I abandoned my Muay Thai, abandoned a lot of things in my training that made me a dangerous fighter, but like I said if they only recognize that I only do one thing it's called one dimensional and it's very easy to beat a person like that. Now I can fight at my weight and don't have to worry about nothing. I can just go 100% hard.
JH: You've fought Quinton "Rampage" Jackson twice in your career. You both fought each other early in your MMA careers. And then you fought again later down the line. What do you think of Quinton Jackson?
ME: Quinton is my partner man. We started off, he had a couple fights on me. I had never fought MMA when I first started. He's a good dude. Sometimes, they what they got to do. This thing is about business. It's about making money, and a fighter's got to do what they got to do to make money because they're the ones in there taking the blows and stuff like that. The establishments, and I'm not sticking anything in particular, but they have a job too and they're job is to make as much money as they possibly can. But guess what? Somebody gave me a really great analogy of the way this sport is . . . it's like pimps and prostitutes. The establishment is the pimp. And the prostitute is the workers. And once you're used up and you're no good to them anymore, guess what? They replace you and they get somebody else. A smart prostitute, you know what he does? He collects all the money he can so when they're done doing their work, then they can go out in the sun and say they have some money left back home because the pimp's always going to have some money. And as bad as it sounds, that's the way I look at the business. Their the pimps and all that stuff with the prostitutes. They want to make as much money too. I would think that you have to do what's best for you. Whatever benefits because at the end of the day, we're the one that has to worry about whether you got benefits or whether if you can put a full sentence together. So I think it's smart for the fighters to get as much money as they possibly can and try to invest . . . Tito. Tito is a perfect guy, he's a business man. Chuck is a business man. Those guys have money. They have something to come back to. The smart guy, if he can sit out for 2 years and don't need nobody, it's because he's got money put up. Those are smart guys. And how many of those individuals . . . how many Georges St. Pierre's are there in the business? Sponsored by Gatorade . . . and you think about it, UFC -- I know if they ain't a billion dollar business, they're damn near close. And I'm not talking about them, they're supposed to make all the money they possibly can. But eventually you want to get to the point where every penny that you get, you save and you put. That's why I have a regular job. I make six figures at my job, but guess what? I make six figures fighting too, and when it's all done, guess what? I got benefits and I got retirement and I got all that kind of stuff. But if you don't make a million dollars or 2 million dollars fighting, you better have something to come back to. So that guy [Jackson], he's smart. He's smart as hell. He's doing what he's got to do. The movies, all that. He's looking out for himself because ultimately it's about number one and that's what he did. And I got all the respect for him for doing that.
JH: All that said about Quinton Jackson, having fought each other twice and being 1-1, if the opportunity ever came up down the line to fight him again and have the rubber match, would you fight him again?
ME: Oh of course. When that fight happened, the last fight happened, we wrapped and we talked and he said, "Hey man. Do your thing and we can have a trilogy jumping off." I didn't know -- I didn't decide to go to 185. It was my manager that persuaded me to do it, and I did it. And it worked a little bit, and then it didn't work. If I could do it again, I wouldn't have did it. My objective is to go back in and get back on the winstreak and get me some more wins in and go out on top. And of course, if the dude comes back and I get the opportunity again, then most definitely, I would love to settle the score. And that's my buddy. It ain't personal, it's business. He's supposed to try to knock my teeth out, and guess what? I'm trying to knock his teeth out and do the same thing. But after it's all said and done, we can go sit down and eat and get something to drink. And I can get a soda because I don't drink alcohol. But hell yeah, most definitely, that's my partner. He got to do what he's got to do to make his business, but shoot yeah, I'd love to fight him again. Of course. I always want to fight the best.
JH: In your fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 43, you received one of the nastiest cuts I think I've ever seen. How were you after that cut, and how long did that take for you to heal?
ME: I'm a mutant man, you know what I'm saying. It healed up. All they did was stitch up and stuff like that. I've done radio and interviews and stuff like that before. Vitor won fair and square. Some guys, "Oh, this and that." Why don't you just give it up? That's one thing I love about Mike Tyson. The dude if he wins a fight, he wins. If he loses, yeah I lost, and that's way it is. And there's some fights that I've had that are straight robbery that you straight ripped me off, you took me. My last fight I got robbed. Jason Lambert, on TV, got robbed. Rich Franklin, got robbed. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, straight up they stole the fight from me. And I don't want to say it, people confirm it. Against Vitor, I lost fair and square. The one thing about it is, I was in a long-term relationship and got some disturbing news that no guy wants to hear when you're in a long-term relationship and went into the fight like a zombie. I shouldn't have been fighting in the first place. But that's not Vitor's responsibility just like Travis Lutter. I shouldn't have been fighting. I got a concussion training with Tito at my gym. On the same card, he was supposed to fight Guy Metzger, and I went training and we were doing 5 minutes just takedowns. I kept taking him down, taking him down, all what he do was he jumped guard. He jumped guard and kneed me in the face and . . . he hit me in the forehead and I got knocked out. Well, a week later, I go into the fight and he threw a punch and doesn't even look like it hit me. Well hell, it don't take nothing when you got a concussion. So, I lost. I lost that fair and square against Vitor Belfort. Mentally, I was just a zombie. I shouldn't have been fighting, but that's not his responsibility, that's my responsibility. I lost. I lost 100%. He kneed me in the face, I was like OK, that's it? I shouldn't have been fighting. That's a terrible way to be remembered, but I'm a warrior. I'm a soldier. I ain't going to make no excuses like, "Oh this and that . . ." No I lost fair and square 100%. But it healed up. People can't even tell that I even got cut. Most people look at me, "Did you get plastic surgery?" Nah, I didn't get nothing. I just healed up and luckily in my family I got pretty good genetics and that's one thing my family, my mother's side, they got great skin. Their skin is real elastic and they don't wrinkle. So I was fortunate to get that genetic, you know?
The infamous cut Eastman received from his fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 43.
JH: Is it in your mind at all to fight again in the UFC at some point in the near future seeing as to how UFC keeps adding more shows and PPV's and bringing guys back after a while like Phil Baroni and Dennis Hallman?
ME: Yeah. You know what, prime example, I lost to Quinton -- I had a three fight deal. I lost to Quinton. I beat Terry Martin, and then I lost to McFedries. Now I'll give you a prime example. The first punch that he threw went right through my eye and it tore my retina. I had total black, 100%. And after that fight, I had $3,000 worth of reconstructive surgery on my eye because his finger went in my eye. I didn't even get a chance to get off on that. I was going to renegotiate my contract after winning that fight, I lost it, and re-sign me. But I didn't get on TV and say, "Hey man, I lost the fight because I couldn't see out of my eye." I just said, OK I lost. Do I think Drew McFedries finger went in my eye on purpose? No, he just threw the punch. That's what he did. I know there were some guys before that were throwing their punch with their fingers out. It tore my retina. I lost. Of course I want to go -- UFC is the biggest stage in the world. I would love to finish up my career in the UFC. I'm probably only going to do it a year or so more and that's it. But of course, I would love to. And that's why I'm doing my thing out here so I can finish up. Just for some reason it's been terrible in the UFC, everywhere else, I have a fight that I go man if that fight was on TV and people had seen this fight, oh my God. If they had seen this fight, if they'd seen that fight, and unfortunately for me it hasn't worked out like that. So they do bring people back of course, but I'm not going to base my life on finishing up in the UFC. Of course I would love to finish up, but to do that to be on the top stage, you got to prove that's where you belong. So with me, that's what I need to do. I need to sleep a couple guys and make a run and do what I need to do to finish up there.
JH: What do you like to do in your off-time when you're not fighting?
ME: Yeah. I build cars. I race cars. I got a 04-Cobra, super-charged, with the vistachrome paint that changes colors and the seats that change colors. I got a 67-Viper with a 2000LS fuel-injected. And I got a turbo-charged 84-Mustang SVO and I got about $30,000 in it. So my thing is, I drag race. I race cars on the site. That's my thing, so that's how I stay busy on the side. I'm building and working on cars.
JH: Any sponsors or people you would like to thank or give a shout out to?
ME: I would like to say what's up Quinton because you're doing your thing. Go ahead and dig Mr. T. That's great, I'm glad that he's doing his thing. All the guys that are coming up in MMA now, learn how to pay your taxes and save your money because it's not always going to be there. Get everything you can get. I'd like to thank all the guys in my gym, John Lewis, Skip Kelp, all the guys that train here and my new trainer, Jose Gonzales. And my long time trainer, the baddest Muay Thai trainer in the world, Master Chan. He's the baddest, man.
JH: Thanks for taking the time to speak with in-between training in everything and looking forward to your upcoming fights.
ME: Ah, you're a bro. Thank you very much, man. God bless you.
JH: Happy holidays.
ME: You too, brother.
Eastman lost his last fight to Dwayne Lewis at MFC 23 and will hopefully be fighting again next month. Remember to check back here Saturday night for our ongoing LIVE PBP coverage for Strikeforce: Evolution and WEC 45. You can bookmark 411mania to your favorite places so you aren't scrambling to find the website on December 19, or make 411mania your homepage. Also:
His fight with Franklin didn't look much like a robbery to me. If Rich had any kind of grip on his arm in that armbar, it was a legit stoppage...unless he wanted to have his arm broken.
Posted By: Guest#4699 (Guest) on December 17, 2009 at 12:30 AM
I believe he means Skip Kelp Jeffrey. He also used to train Wand's boxing, though I'm not sure if he still does.
Posted By: Mullin (Guest) on December 17, 2009 at 01:10 AM
that is a weird looking eyebrow...OOOOH MY GOD!!!
Posted By: Guest#9043 (Guest) on December 17, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Great work, I love these interviews.
Posted By: Jace (Guest) on December 19, 2009 at 09:19 AM
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