Ray "Bradda" Cooper just came back from fighting in the Shooto R.E.A.D. 2000 event in Tokyo, Japan, where he faced Jutaro Nakao, the man who put Pat Miletich to sleep with a triangle at Super Brawl XI almost a year ago. Bradda is the second American to avenge Miletich's loss, the first being Dave Menne. Bradda had a Shooto ranking of 6th and Nakao was 3rd ranked going into this fight. This win was a huge step for this Christian warrior, proving that he can not only fight the best in the world, but he can beat the best in the world. I caught up with Bradda on January 20, 2000, a few days after Rage In The Cage, where fellow Jesus Is Lord team member, Kai Kamaka became the Hawaii State Rage In The Cage Super Light Heavyweight Champion and rising star, Falaniko Vitale, became the World Rage In The Cage Champion. I asked him about his fight with Nakao, team member Ronald Jhun's fight on the same card, what it was like for a local boy from Hawaii to travel to Japan and compete in a Shooto event and where he and the Jesus Is Lord team are heading for the future.

FCF: You just fought at the Shooto R.E.A.D. 2000 event in Japan against Jutaro Nakao. Tell us about your fight.
Ray "Bradda" Cooper: Well, it was a good fight. I didn't fight him the way that I wanted to fight him. I had some concerns about my physical body that I had to deal with during the fight, so I fought him less active than I wanted to. I wanted to push the fight more. [Bradda did not want to make any excuses for his performance and did not want to print what happened.]

FCF: At one point, didn't you drop him in the fight?
RC: From the tape that I saw, I don't know if I hit him clean or if I just pushed him down.

FCF: How did the three rounds go?
RC: Basically I took him down and just stayed in his guard and worked the body and the head. I think it was the second round that I got out of a triangle and then I got the half guard and eventually mounted him for about two seconds. I got in a couple of strikes onto his face, then he got me back into his guard. And every round he tried a triangle. He got me close about three times. And I escaped it pretty good.

FCF: Was it an up and down fight or did you basically take him down and punch him on the ground?
RC: Yeah, that's basically how it started every round. We stood up for a little while, maybe five to ten seconds then we went to the ground and that was it.

FCF: What did you think of the five minute rounds?
RC: I like it. It was pretty good. I think it was good for me. You can really fight hard for the fifteen minutes.

FCF: Did you do any kind of special training for this fight?
RC: Yeah, I tried to get some time in rolling with Baret Yoshida, and it helped a lot. Thanks to Baret and thank God.

FCF: Ronald Jhun also fought on that card. Can you tell us about his fight?
RC: From what I saw on the video, it was a pretty close fight. Every time [Yuki] Sasaki passed his guard, he tried hard and got him back in his guard. Ronald dropped him in the second round, I think, with a straight left, or a jab, or hook. Ronald did real good. We just got to work on our defenses against the triangle and armbars.

FCF: So he fought the majority of the fight mostly from his back?
RC: Yeah, mostly on his back.

FCF: Was it because Sasaki defended the takedown?
RC: I think Sasaki was doing the takedowns.

FCF: You have been to Japan once before, what is it like to travel to Japan and fight?
RC: It's hard. I just had to keep my mind straight and do a lot of praying. [laughs] This time was way better than the first time. I was way more relaxed and way more confident. It helped to have more support. My wife provided a lot of support.

FCF: How was Shooto treating you guys from the airport to the arena?
RC: Shooto treated us real well. They tried to get everything that we asked for. We were real happy with the services they provided.

FCF: Did the flight affect you at all?
RC: No, not really. I was just excited to be there. It wasn't really a distraction. The same thing with the Japanese fighters. They have to come down here and fight [in Hawaii], so they have to adjust too. I just try not to think of the jet lag or whatever it is.

FCF: What about the language barrier? Was there someone who spoke English taking you guys around?
RC: There was Daiki [Bradda or myself have no idea how to spell his name], the ring announcer, was showing us around. About two days before the fight, we did some walking around and had to point at pictures to tell them what we wanted. I would like to learn some Japanese.

FCF: You were at Rage In The Cage, what did you think of Kai [Kamaka] and Niko [Viatale]'s performance?
RC: It was a good performance. They did a lot of stuff that we worked on. I think Kai is getting better with his submissions and is being calmer in there. And Niko is just a tough individual, just an athletic individual. They did real good. I'm happy with what I saw.

FCF: What's up next for you?
RC: I'm just going to wait until someone offers me something. I don't want to push for something real big yet. It depends on what they offer me and who I'm going to fight next. I just want to kick back for a little while and see what's going on. It seems like [Hayato] Sakurai and Pele [Landi] were pretty close to being matched up. I heard that Sakurai and [Tetsugi] Kato are going to fight in March. I am hearing rumors that I may fight the winner of that. But I don't know if I want to fight the winner of that, maybe fight the number one ranked guy first, then fight for the championship.

FCF: Any specific reason why you want to hold off fighting those guys? Just to gain more experience?
RC: Yeah, I want to gain more experience. I feel that there is more experience for me to get inside the ring. I felt really good for this fight though. I was real calm, just one little thing slowed me down for this fight.

FCF: Are you going to fight in Super Brawl anymore or do you want to just fight in Japan?
RC: I am not sure right now. I think that I want to fight in Japan more. But if the offer is right to fight in Super Brawl, then I might take it. I'm just playing it by ear now.

FCF: Why would you rather fight in Japan?
RC: I don't know. The atmosphere feels good. You can think and you don't have to worry about pushing the fight more. You don't have to worry about the crowd getting all "nuts" with you. In Japan, the crowd knows what you're doing, they know what they're looking at and they're seeing, all the technique and stuff like that.

FCF: How many fights have you had so far?
RC: Seven, I think.

FCF: You fought in that four-man tournament [in Super Brawl] and the rest were single fights?
RC: Yeah.

FCF: And you only have one loss right?
RC: Yeah, to Suda. I think his first name was Masunari.

FCF: What can we expect from the guys at Jesus Is Lord?
RC: Hopefully, you can expect more technique and all around fighters, instead of one-dimensional fighters. We're trying to get as much experience as we can get. I hope no one holds us back from that.

FCF: It seems like the team is growing?
RC: We try to keep the team's numbers down, so we can concentrate on the individual. Like this Rage In The Cage, we entered, at the most, only two guys, so we can train those guys hard. And the next Super Brawl on February 8th, we only have one guy entering, so we can concentrate on just him. We try to keep the team small, but plenty of guys want to come train with us. In the past, we had too many fighters entering and we couldn't concentrate on all those guys at one time training. So we just decided not to enter so many guys.

FCF: Is there anything else you wanted to add?
RC: Thank God for the victory.

FCF: Well, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it.
RC: Thank you.