Egan Inoue has been somewhat of a legend in Hawaii. He first gained recognition as a two time World racketball champion, which brought a lot of pride to Hawaii. The people of Hawaii love it when one of their own becomes a champion or accomplishes great things because it means that even though we are one of the most distant and isolated places in the world, it proves that people from Hawaii can compete with anyone in the world. After accomplishing the pinnacle in racketball, Inoue set his sites on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Inoue repeated his performance in BJJ, becoming a two time world champion ['96 Blue belt his weight division, '97 Purple Belt Absolute division]. Inoue has also made the transition from gi to no-gi grappling, having impressive performances at the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships. During all this time, Inoue has competed in MMA. Inoue has fought in a number of different organizations in the US and in Japan, even competing in Pride a couple of times. Egan Inoue retires as the Super Brawl champion. He has had some highs and some lows, but after everything is said and done, Egan Inoue has always put 100% into everything he has tried. Inoue announced that his fight against Martijn de Jong would be his retirement match at Super Brawl XXV. I caught up with Egan shortly after his fights to get the background on this fight, why he is retiring and what is in his future.

Full Contact Fighter: I'm standing here with Egan Inoue after an incredible way to end a retirement fight. [KO via kick to the head at 2:33 minutes in round 1] What did you know about your opponent going into the fight?
Egan Inoue: I knew that he won most of his fights on the ground, submission wise, so I knew that his ground game was going to be good, but I wasn't too worried about his ground [work]. I knew he liked to push the fight. He likes to punch. He likes to kick. You know what? I wanted to go out just like it happened tonight. I mean a right cross would have been great or a left hook, but a right rear leg high kick is just as good.

FCF: For this fight you came out a lot more aggressively then you normally do. You usually come out elevated and have to calm yourself down. In this fight you really came right out after him. It seemed like he felt a little bit of your power and it took the fight right out of him.
EI: In the first exchange, I think I hit him in the hand and he kind of fell on his back. I think at that point he realized that he did not want to stay standing. I wanted to stay on the ground because that is where I am best at, but I trained to knock him out and I wanted to knock him out. Sometimes that is not a smart thing to do, let him get back to his feet, but my sparring partners took enough of a beating. My sparring partners took punches and kicks to the head. They took a good beating. Someone had to pay.

FCF: You did throw a couple kicks during the fight. Did you feel at that point that you could land a kick to the head?
EI: I saw the head kick. After he kicked me in the leg, I threw some faints and I saw him dropping his hands and knew that the head kick was right there. I just needed to know that he wasn't going to make too much distance [between us], so I drove the kick deep.

FCF: This was slated as your retirement fight. For those who don't know, it seems like you are on a roll, winning every fight that you have had here. The crowd was getting used to seeing you fight. Before that you had a long period of inactivity and then all of a sudden you come back and seem to make an impact. Why the retirement fight now?
EI: I think that it is always good to go out winning. Not everyone gets to retire winning. I had planned this retirement and it just happened to end the way it did. I got a job. I have been waiting for Merck, a pharmaceutical company, to open up [in Hawaii] for six or seven years. And the opportunity opened up and the timing just happened to be perfect. I have a four and a five year old daughter and believe it or not, daughters make you soft. Honest. They make you soft. That is why I have my sunglasses here [as he reaches on his head and touches his glasses], just in case I wanted to start crying. I never did that in my life, but having daughters makes you soft. [laughs]

FCF: It was definitely a great way to end a retirement fight, but in the ring after the fight you mentioned that something might entice you back in the ring. What was that?
EI: What would get me back into the ring at this point would be a shot at the Shooto title against the number one fighter in the Japan. He just beat another Hawaiian fighter, Ronald Jhun [In a Shooto event in Japan on June 29th]. I have been wanting that fight and have been telling the promoter here to get me that fight. But everyone has been telling me, "okay, fight number10, fight number 4." I don't want to fight number 3 and number 2. I'm 37 [years old] and I need it fast because I don't have much more time.

FCF: How realistic is that? Is that a couple of years down the line because time is not on your side? Do you feel that it could realistically happen in the next year or so?
EI: You know what, the time frame that I have given it is by February. If it doesn't happen by February, than I am really done. I have already started my new job and I will be concentrating 100% on my fighters and Shooto has been dodging me for years. So by February, I don't get a title shot, than that's the way it goes.

FCF: You have always had a stable of fighters, but now you have coined the phrase, "Grappling Unlimited's new breed." Why don't you tell us about these guys? All of a sudden you seem to be pumping out a lot more fighters and the guys are doing great. Why don't you tell us about that?
EI: Our new breed of fighters are just young guys who have been training. They have always helped me and our older fighters train for fights, so they have always been there in the corner. I have been priming them for fights and some of them got stage fright, some of them lost tonight, but one thing that I can always say about my fighters is that they have heart. Everyone of them will never give up. All of them will fight until the end. And our stand up game is getting great. Our ground game is good, literally a new breed. Our guys are tough.

FCF: What is the future of Grappling Unlimited?
EI: Right now, I want to concentrate on my fighters. All this time they have been helping me fight and train. They have been giving everything to me. It is time for me to give back 100%. I am probably going to start an overall fitness program because a lot of people feel that I lift a lot of weights and all of our guys lift weights, but we are not really into weights. We do a lot of different types of workouts. I kind of want to share that with everyone else. It is a hard work, but a lot of fun and gets you in good shape.

FCF: Is this for the general population or fight specific?
EI: We have stuff that is fight specific, but we also have stuff that is for men, women and guys that are fat and out of shape. And they will learn how to fight. It is for real, not this Tae Bo stuff.

FCF: I was going to mention that. Is this going to be Inoue Tae Bo? What is your coin phase or name going to be?
EI: No, not really. But tonight we had that guy named Dragon in the ring. [Note: Dragon is a man over 50 years old that curled and military pressed 45lbs dumbbells easily over 150 times, beating out about six people out of the audience that competed against him one after the other.] It all depends on how hard you want to work, how much do you want to give or lose. That's what it is all about.

FCF: How about some famous last words for the fans?
EI: Famous last words huh? Well, first I want to thank everyone that supported me throughout the years, but I think the way that I would like to leave it is by saying, "if you are going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk." And that's what our gym stands by.

FCF: Thanks and congratulations.
EI: Thanks.