You have seen Don "The Predator" Frye and Dan "The Beast" Severn accompanied to the ring by a giant of a woman. That gentle giant is "The Specimen" Becky Levi, whose is anything but gentle when she steps into the ring. She is undefeated in NHB events and has even fought in Toughwoman events. When you are a woman of this size, it is not very easy to find opponents willing to step in the ring with you, so she has been forced to stay on the sidelines. Many people recognize her, but don't know anything about here, so I thought that I would give her a call and learn more about her. I caught up with her on April 6, 2000. We discussed her background and how a woman ends up fighting in NHB. I also got more details on purportedly the largest woman's NHB tournament ever, the Remix World Cup 2000.

FCF: First off, a lot of people know who you are, but don't know much else. Why don't you tell us about your background and how you got into NHB?
Becky Levi: I got into NHB working with Don Frye when he first started in the UFC. He was from the same area, basically where I was from, I was in Arizona at the time. And I came in to learn some Judo, because we had a Judo club in Tucson, where I had coached wrestling. I worked with him on some Judo. It was one of those things where he had competed at Judo and I did as well. I always thought that he needed to do something else that was outside the rules of Judo because we always seemed to break the rules throughout the matches. When Dan Severn was involved with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he [Frye] was actually coached by Dan at Arizona State in wrestling. So he [Frye] set up a meeting with Dan at one of the UFCs and that's kind of how we got started. From there, my career got started when Dan met me, he was impressed with my size and once I told him about my athletic background, he thought that he could get me into fighting and/or pro-wrestling. I kind of thought it was a joke because I didn't know women did that sort of thing. So that's how I got started, working with Don Frye and meeting Dan was the stepping stone to my career into actually getting fights because he was the catalyst in approaching people and talking to other promoters throughout the country about myself. I have been an amateur athlete all my life. I was a two-time Olympic alternate in Track and Field. I was an Olympic weight lifter in the first women's world weight lifting championships. I coached high school football and wrestling. I coached track. I was on a track scholarship in college, so I was kind of an all around athlete.

FCF: How did you get into wrestling because at that time, not a lot of women were into wrestling?
BL: Right. Well, basically the guy that I was working with in coaching football…well, none of the stuff did I thought that I would do. I never thought that I would be a fighter. I never thought that I would coach football or wrestling. A guy that coached me in high school made the difference in me becoming an elite athlete instead of just an average athlete. After working with some of the top strength coaches around the country and the world, I asked him if I could work in his program in the strength and conditioning area. I started with football and then got into wrestling because I worked with the kids on their strength and conditioning. What ended up happening was that the kids were making such great gains with their strength and conditioning, with the plyometrics and everything, that I wanted to see how it was affecting them as athletes. So I would go to practice and watch them. And it ended up where I was hanging out at practice and some of the assistants would come late or they had regular jobs and would come at a certain time. Well, it came to a point where the coach said "Becky, do you think you could run this drill" or whatever. So, that's how I got into it. For football, the kids felt comfortable with me because they were working out with me in the weight room and on their conditioning. I'm a pretty quick learner and being a teacher for years, I picked up on it really quickly. That coach that I was involved with was also involved with Judo and he kept trying to get me to come in and do Judo. He said when your track career is over, come on in. I just started watching the kids, then working out with them and learning the skills and did the same thing with Judo after my Track and Field career was over. It just escalated from there. I would go to camps for wresting and do the same thing for football. And then I ended up in a position being a paid coach and it was a challenge for me and I had to work at it, but I enjoyed it. I saw the benefits that the kids were getting from my strength and conditioning training and had so much fun with the kids that it was a natural thing. I just kind of fell into it. Being a woman, the first thing they are going to say is that you never did this, you never played football, you never wrestled, so who are you to think that you can coach people. So I really worked hard on it, going to clinics and stuff. And for Judo, I figured that the wrestling would help the Judo. So that's why I started a Judo career after my Track and Field career.

FCF: You haven't fought in NHB for quite a while. When was your last NHB match and who was it against?
BL: It was about a year and a half ago in Tokyo, in the L-1 Ultimate Challenge. I signed the contract to fight a Japanese fighter, but I get over there and that wasn't the case. Nobody would fight me. I'm there without a fighter and what they decided to do, well, Phyllis Lee brought over some Americans, along with myself, so they decided to put me against Terry Glukomski, I think that was her name, from the Shark Tank in California. She is a 145lbs fighter and I'm over there where I have a manger that's dealing for me, but realistically, that fight should have never occurred. I should have fought a Japanese fighter. I signed a contact to fight a Japanese fighter, maybe my manager did not want to step on anybody's toes and I went over there to compete and I did not want to fight Terry because I did not think it was right. But because I was over there to fight, we did the fight.

FCF: I know that I'm not supposed to ask a woman her height and more importantly her weight, but…
BL: I'm 6'1" about 220-225lbs.

FCF: Is that your normal fighting weight?
BL: No, I try to fight between 205 and 210lbs, but since I have been promoting, it's a little different story. But I'm back training right now, but when your 37 [years old], the weight doesn't come off like it used to. [laughs] So I just have to train harder and longer. Since the year and a half not fighting and working to promote The Danger Zone, something had to take a back seat because there was nobody that wanted to fight me. Nobody would step up to that, so I worked really hard at the fight promotion and my training came in at a far second.

FCF: Why haven't you fought in such a long while? Is it because you are such a large woman and it is hard to match you up?
BL: Yeah. Basically every promoter in the country is looking for an opponent, but nobody has stepped up to the challenge. Steve Nelson [USWF promoter] has been looking, Monte Cox [Extreme Challenge promoter] and Jaime Levine of the WEF is looking. There's a new guy out in Mississippi who is a good friend of mine, Mike Cain with the Continental Free Fighting Alliance is looking, everybody is looking. They get a little bit of a lead and then when they find out about my background, they don't step up. That's basically the problem. Right before I came to Michigan to work with Dan, I was in fight shape for a year. And that's pretty difficult. I got tired of it because nothing was happening. You have to make a decision, I came here [to Michigan]. I went to Japan, where I was in good shape there, but when I didn't have any more fights coming up, I had to turn my energies to something else and that was fight promotion. I also worked with other fighters, guys who train through our training facility here and cornering and working with Dan [Severn]. I just had to focus my attention elsewhere, but it was still in the fight game.

FCF: The last time I have seen you fight was at last year's Toughwoman contest. You got into a war with another large lady, losing a close decision, if memory serves me. How many of those types of matches have you entered?
BL: Lisa Hunt. I entered three [Toughwoman] world championships. I never competed in a Toughwoman ever when I first started in NHB. Dan called me up about a week before and said that there was a World Toughwoman Championships in Michigan and I came up and competed in that. I had never done any kind of boxing training or anything. I lost a split decision in the finals. And I thought "wow" if I go to a boxing gym and learn striking, which was my weakness at the time, I think that will make me a better NHB fighter. So I went to a boxing gym and trained there for about three years. And then I fought in a couple more Toughwoman contests. In the second one, I went up against a very good boxer. She was a U.S. amateur champion. She had a number of bouts under her belt, which for the Toughwoman, is illegal. It's not like you have pro-boxers or the best amateur boxing champs fighting in Toughman contests. And that's why they call it a Toughman or Toughwoman contest. I met her in the finals and I ended up getting knocked out. I got knocked down four times [laughs] and got back up and went after her again. But, I was in great shape there. I think that if I had some serious boxing training at that point, it would have been a different story. But you live and learn. It either makes you a better athlete or you quit. I thought I would try it one more time. [laughs] And I lost a split decision to Lisa Hunt, even though I thought that I won the fight. And I think so did everyone else, but that's one of the things that happens in those types of competitions. If you don't knock somebody out, they can make up their mind as to who they want to go on. The one thing that the Toughwoman did for me was it got me into a boxing gym and got me training in boxing.

FCF: What is your current NHB record?
BL: I'm 5-0.

FCF: Over the years you have accompanied Don "The Predator" Frye and Dan "The Beast" Severn to the ring. You mentioned that you hooked up with Don Frye through Judo. Did you hook up with Dan through that initial meeting?
BL: I met Dan through Don. My fight relationship with Dan was separate from what I was doing with Don. I didn't do any training with Don, as an athlete myself. I ran his workouts for him. He went into pro-wrestling in Japan and I started my career in fighting. I actually fought when he [Frye] was in preparation for the Ultimate Ultimate. He fought on the same card that I did on my first NHB match in Japan. But I never trained with him [Frye], I did my training with Dan.

FCF: You currently live in Michigan, why did you move from sunny Arizona?
BL: Well, I had an opportunity to work with Dan and it came at a time when I was a little frustrated. I was teaching and coaching at a high school and my NHB career was in swing and I just felt that it wasn't a challenge to work with high school kids anymore. I could only give them so much knowledge that I had gained in different types of sports and training and conditioning. I felt that I had broke the barrier of coaching wrestling and football. I was successful at it and it didn't seem like that much of a challenge anymore. And I had an opportunity to do something that I love. I love NHB and so I came here and helped Dan run the training facility. We had spoken about starting a fight promotion and he had a wrestling product company already. I was going to come here and do all of that. It's been almost two years now, and I haven't looked back since. I don't miss teaching because I can still work with people in the fight game. I love this sport.

FCF: Tell us how the Danger Zone came about?
BL: Dan and I talked a lot about putting together a fight promotion that took care of the fighters. We have been involved in a lot of different fight promotions, competing and cornering people. Dan always kept a folder of things that he would have changed or what we would have wanted to do in the development of a fight promotion. We just felt that most of the fight promotions out there weren't fighter friendly, that they didn't cater to the fighter and we saw a lot of mishaps at shows. So, in wanting to improve on that, we thought that we could put together something as good or better than the product that was out there now. And that's kind of what we did. We decided to take care of the fighter because they're the show. They're the ones who fight hard and compete and bring the spectators in and bring them back again to your fight promotion. So we developed The Danger Zone and tried to take care of the fighters and make it so that when the fighters come in, all they had to worry about is the competition, not have to deal with when weigh-ins are, how are we getting here or there, paying for their room or getting to the event. We're a fighter's fight promotion. We're fighters first and promoters second. We try to do the best we can, the only thing that we lack from being, as far as I'm concerned, the number one fight promotion in the country is money. Basically, we take care of the fighters considerably more than a lot of other fight promotions. A lot of people wonder how can we do this? Well, we kind of take it in the shorts! We take care of the fighters and hopefully, it will come back in a return. So, the only thing we're lacking is the sponsorship and backing at this point.

FCF: You recently attended a press conference in Japan for a women's NHB tournament. Please give us more details on this event?
BL: Well, I was contacted on relatively short notice, one week prior to the press conference. They contacted Dan and said that they needed women fighters and Dan told them about me. I had to send my background and pictures. It's basically one of the biggest press conferences and parties prior to an event that I have ever been involved with. I have been to a number of shows, Pride, UFC, that are basically the biggest ones out there and hands down, these people just crushed them. I mean they put $300,000 into the press conference and party for press and the sponsors of the event. It was a phenomenal show and at the time, they had just four fighters there, myself, a gal named Erin, I'm not sure of her last name, she's out of L. A. [Los Angeles], and two Japanese fighters. They are basically looking for the other four fighters. Supposedly, Gerald Gordeau [UFC 1 & Vale Tudo Japan Open Veteran] was there and he is supposed to have some kind of European championship to pull in a fighter from there. They were looking for a Russian and they showed me some pictures of who they were trying to get. I went there to represent myself as a fighter and my country. It was a phenomenal event and it's going to be a great tournament. Rules can change within that time, especially because it's scheduled for December. And at this point, I think it has really short rounds, like three minutes, and only twenty seconds on the ground. I suggested some things and it could change by the time December rolls around. It's an eight-man tournament, no weight classes. So you can fight anybody. One of the girls from Japan, from my understanding, is a national Judo champion, and the other gal is involved in pro-wrestling, which is very athletic in Japan. And she's also pretty stout and was involved in some male-female kickboxing event, where she fought a guy, but she lost. That was what my interpreter had told me, I didn't ask too much about it.

FCF: What's the name of the event?
BL: Remix World Cup 2000.

FCF: The last women's NHB tournament was purportedly a work. Do you know anything about that?
BL: In the L-1, all I am going to say is that I thought that some matches were works [pre-determined fights]. I mean, I'm watching the Svetlanic bend her ankle going against a Japanese pro-wrestler who is less than half her size. And when she goes to put on a rear naked choke, she can't even get her legs in because the girl in so big and the Japanese girl is so small and she falls off and the girl taps. It looked like a work to me. Nobody told me anything about it being a work. But I've been around the game long enough to know that sort of thing. I would assume that there was some worked matches on that card.

FCF: And this tournament coming up is a shoot [real matches]?
BL: That's what I went over there for. I assume it is a shoot. I talked to the guy running the show and he said it was a shoot. If it is anything other than that, then it needs to be told to me and then I'll make the decision from there. It's either pro-wrestling or it's a shoot. You know, there's no in-between. I'm not going over there and risking the money that's involved in that tournament and do a work and lose. No way! [laughs]

FCF: You previously stated that you were not a complete fighter, but now you are. What exactly did you mean by that comment and how did you improve?
BL: Basically, when I first started out, I wasn't a complete fighter because I did not have enough conversion skills from stand up to the ground. There's a smooth transition that you have be able to accomplish to be a complete fighter. You have to be a stand up fighter and once you get in a clinch, you have to be able to handle yourself in that situation. And when it goes to the ground, you have to be able to strike as well as use positioning, which I think wrestling is a big advantage to have, hip positioning, body positioning, and submissions. I feel that all the time that I spent in the boxing gym and all the time I spent wrestling and in Judo, then combining, what I will call "grappling" without the gi, along with submissions, makes you a complete fighter. I don't want to sound cocky because I'm not like that. I may have a confidence about that, but that's because of the years of competition in the different sports that have all come together. I feel that there isn't a female fighter out there that has the skills that I have in one package. I spend a lot of time doing it. People don't understand that. I don't see Jiu-Jitsu people spending three years in a boxing gym. You know what I'm saying. I tried to work on my weaknesses. I think that I'm the best female fighter out there, but on the other hand, once you start thinking you're the best and that you can't be beat on any given day, you're wrong. If you believe that, you need to get out because that day is going to come. On any given day, anybody can lose. There's always somebody out there that can take you out. There's always someone looking to take you out of that number one spot or from being an undefeated fighter. And if you look at the top fighters at different times, Royce Gracie, and then you had Dan Severn come in, and then you had Don Frye and Mark Coleman, then Kerr and the Jiu-Jitsu guys came in. Everybody's lost somewhere along the road trying to be number one in this sport and you're wrong if you think that there is nobody out there that can beat you.

FCF: What is it like being a woman in yet another male dominated sport?
BL: For me it was an easy transition because I went into football and wrestling. When I went into football first, it was a very difficult process. I would go out on the football field with my team and the referee would come up and say "excuse me, could you point me to where the coach is?" And I would say, "you're lookin' at her." And he would say, "no, the coach of the team." And I would say, "I am the coach of the team." And they would look at me and think that I was the athletic trainer or something. And it was a real hard transition, not for the kids, because they knew my background and they knew the things that I had done. But it was for the other schools and the other people involved in the sport. But once I proved myself, I just became part of that and everybody knew that Becky Levi coaches over at such and such high school. And in wrestling it was the same thing. I had already taken care of all that, so when I came into NHB…actions speak louder than words, professionally. If you are with fighters who do a good job and present themselves professionally, it's kind of a run off effect. I was with fighters who worked hard and proved themselves as good fighters. So for me to go into fight promotion was natural, but it's not something that is easy and I had to do a lot of work. I had to have a good rapport with the fighters and the promoters, and managers and I feel that I have that. I feel that I can call any fight promoter and ask if they have any information on so and so or I'm looking for this type of fighter. And they know that they can do that with us. I have never thought of it as a woman looking to move into a man's sport and make a big deal about it. I love what I do and I hope the production of everything speaks for itself. That's my big thing, I'm not trying to be the bra burner or "I am a woman in this sport," so on and so forth. I just love what I do and I let my actions speak louder than words.

FCF: Thanks for the interview and keep us updated on this tournament.
BL: I will, thank you.