Written by Brett Atchley
Yves says, like a multitude of other athletes in MMA, that it was those old martial arts movies that motivated him to get involved.
“I’ve always liked the old Hong Kong flicks, and I was a very big comic book fan: you know the superheroes, they were always big in my mind. Anything that will make me physically better than the average person, and teach me to do things that the average person can’t do, I was game for it.”
He has resided primarily in Houston since his teens, Edwards says, he learned some grappling on a trip back home to the Bahamas at the age of seventeen, although “It wasn’t as technical as it should have been, but it was better than not getting anything.”
Yves founded a fighting style called Thug-Jitsu. He began in traditional karate in his youth, moving on to kung- fu before taking up mixed martial arts. This also led him to Muay Thai in order to improve his stand-up.
Yves is a very well-rounded fighter, with a base in boxing, having also trained with Lewis Wood, a top 10 WBA featherweight boxer at the time. This, in addition to his experience in Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, of which he says “I’ve never worn a gi cause I’ve always been competing.”
UFC 49 saw Yves knocked out Josh Thomson by a devastating kick to the head. After the fight, Mike Goldberg announced: "I will say right now, this kick has replaced Pete Williams on Mark Coleman as the greatest knockout due to a kick in UFC history."
Yves is now training with American Top Team in Florida and Phil Cardella’s, Relson Gracie Academy in Austin, Tx, is focused on getting back to the top of the 155 pound division. Yves is a very experienced fighter with some 56 fights to date. Aside from the Josh Thomson bout he has victories over some of the best names in the business. He has wins over James Edson Berto, Hermes Franca, Rich Clementi, Pete Spratt and Aaron Riley.
The first time I ever encountered Yves was at UFC 43 where I was assigned to cover it for a major publication at the time. I was at the at the weigh-in where Yves stepped on the scale with his signature black cowboy hat on and Krispy Kreme original glaze doughnut in the other. He devoured the doughnut with a smile on his face throughout the incident. That left a long lasting impression on me about Yves. He behaved in a manner that was neither arrogant or insolent, it was rather of confidence, comfort and ease.
I was down in Austin recently and had an opportunity to spend some time with Yves at Cardella’s academy.
I asked him about his upcoming fight in the UFC with Cody McKenzie who is a recent replacement for Melvin Guillard. I asked him about what his thoughts were on it.
“You know ya, it was supposed to be Melvin and saw as some show of savage black on black violence (laughs) and yes, I am black but only in public but seriously they put Cody McKenzie in front of me and I think it’s going to be a good fight for me because his name is hot right now because of his popularity on TUF. I look at it like this; I’m the guy that people expect to win but it’s like football in that way, “any given Sunday”, we’re supposed to go out there and beat the guys we’re supposed to beat. With that in mind I’m going out there just, balls to the wall and give it 100% for the fans and especially the troops.”
I then asked Yves if he had seen Cody fight.
“Ya I’ve made it a point to watch all of the TUF series this year, primarily because it’s 155 pounders and the other reason being because I’m not smart enough to set the DVR. (Laughs) So, I made it point to work my schedule so that I could watch it. I’ve seen pretty much every episode. Cody was one of my favorite guys to watch, he seemed like a really cool guy with a pretty good head on his shoulders. He wasn’t on there making a fool of himself or trying to get caught up in the chaos by acting outlandish, he seemed like a really nice guy. So now I get to get paid to punch him in the face, (laughs) we just go from that to this and it’s really no big deal.
I understand that he’s got a pretty good guillotine. I had to go do some research on the “guillotine choke” because it was like I didn’t know what that was. So everybody was telling me I need to stay away from that. (laughs) I think I’m pretty much grasping what it is now. I actually saw him do it and his technique is unique, it must be him being up in Alaska putting the neck squeeze on bears or something. Seriously though that’s where his game is solid and I’m sure that he’s got more to it. I have to be aware of what he’s got going into it. I’m sure he’s a tough guy, he took the fight on short notice, I’m sure he’s conditioned and ready for it and I’m doing what I know to do to bring it to him and put him down. Again, you know he’s coming off a fight so he’s going to be tuned. I’ll go out there and do it with him and come away with “the W”. I think I’ll also have the home field advantage fighting in Texas, so that will help tremendously. The thing I’m really excited about is fighting in front of the troops. I’ve always wanted to do that ever since the first UFC when they did it. I’ve got some friends in the military that fight, Tim Credeur and Luigi Fioravanti have shared some stories about what goes on over there and I can only begin to imagine what they go through. I am honored to fight in front of them and hopefully show my appreciation and give a little back. I’m just so excited more than anything to go out there for 15 minutes and put on a show for them….just really excited about it.”
I asked asked Yves a little about what he does to unwind in Austin.
(Laughs) Well you know these guys I train with keep telling me that they’re going to have to drag me off of 6th Street. I’m becoming the new mascot I guess out there on that place but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. I can’t pass up the unlimited source of drink specials.
Hey though on a side note I just did another interview and Tim (Kennedy) brought up the zombie thing and I just want to say that when the “Zombie Apocalypse” comes, there are three people that I want with me. Luigi Fioravanti, Hector Lombard and Tim Kennedy . So when those guys come and I’ve got those guys with me I’ll be safe. I’m going to nail a couple and I’ll be safe. It’s an inside joke with a few of us but, we get a lot of mileage out of it especially with reporters. They always look at us like we’re crazy….kind of like the way you’re doing. (laughs)
I then pressed on after the jokes at my expense, about what Yves regarded as some of his most memorable experiences.
I don’t know, I’ve had a good time in my career all my experiences are memorable. There was the Bodog fight in Russia. That was probably one of the worst mistakes I made in my life. We were in Russia for two weeks and did nothing but sit around and film video in the cold, literally every day in some eastern block, James Bond bad town. Everything was just depressing and there was like, 3 hours of sunlight. Russians are just not happy people and the other thing was that there were like, two Asians and everybody that was black was either a coat check person or a waiter. So again there were no black people and people would just walk up to me and hand me their coats…man it was horrible but I just thought they were being nice because it was cold but, then they started walking up to me, asking for them back. (Laughs)
Bodog themselves were just very unorganized. They knew what they wanted and that vision was great but they just didn’t have a clue as to how to make it work. I could see what was going on because by that time I had fought in Pride and the UFC, so they ran things pretty tight. They just didn’t have their stuff together and it was just very frustrating. The thing is that they had some great people working for them but they knew zero about MMA. They would shoot all this video, trying to do too much at one time. They had no place to train bro’, I mean the guys weren’t in good shape and we were sitting around in these military compounds out in the cold, rain out by some lake somewhere. It was just not a good experience. I’m not knocking the crew or Bodog’s staff, they just didn’t have any idea what they were getting themselves into.
There was some crazy shit that went on over there also. Kalib Starnes was over there and I don’t know if anyone knows this but he got jacked by the cops over there when they patted him down after stopping him. They took all his money and when they gave it back, he realized he was a couple hundred short. When he asked about it, they got all bowed up about it and were fixing to arrest him and act like he was accusing him of stealing but, they did, so he just basically said he made a mistake and they let him go on his way. It’s strange being in Russia which is like a first third world company where the banks come to you and take from you the fees they say you owe them. I guess that’s the way it works over there that the banks just take from you what they feel like getting from you.
I asked Yves if he thought that there was a saturation factor in MMA with all the shows being held in short and numerous intervals.
No, I don’t think its saturation. The sport needs these big shows like UFC, Bellator and Strikeforce. That’s where all the best guys are of course but it’s kind of like the NFL as I see it. They have all the marquee players. Then under them you have all the colleges that have teams. There are around 100 colleges right now that have MMA teams and then you’ve got the smaller shows in MMA that are exceedingly numerous that the bigger shows draw from. I mean in the NFL you’ve got guys playing that have never even played college ball, just went straight to the NFL. I mean it’s different in that aspect. I didn’t fight my first fight in the UFC, nor did Tim or Shad fight their first fights in Strikeforce or Bellator but in the NFL you got these kids out of high-school out there breaking tackles and catching passes. I mean you just couldn’t do that in MMA.
Yves had an appointment to get to and before his parting he again brought up the “Zombie Apocolypse”.
You know when the “zombies” come; all this Thug-Jitsu is worthless. You cannot leg kick a “zombie”. You need to take him out with a large caliber gun and I hate guns so that’s why I have got a plan and there are two places I will not be when the “zombies” come. I will not be on a skyscraper or a hospital. One, I’m not going to be trapped in a sky scraper and in a hospital, which I hate anyway is where everybody comes because they’re sick. I hate hospitals. The one place I’m going to be is at Tim’s house. He’s got big guns and he’s a pretty fair shot and head shots are all that will stop them. That is the only place I feel safe when the Zombie Apocalypse comes. (Laughing hysterically)
I don’t know anything about any “Zombie Apocalypse” but if it should ever become a concern, I feel that I know what I need to do to survive. I had been a follower of Yves Edwards for a decade and I feel that he has and still is making grand contributions to the sport of MMA. He is typical of the athlete in this industry. He is a man that demonstrates character, integrity and honor. He’s not fearful about letting it loose about being real. By doing that and continuing to be willing to connect with people he keeps the sport and it athletes accessible. I would hope that no matter what happens in the future of MMA, that quality is preserved and protected by those who demonstrate it.
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