Bas Rutten Glad to be Back as Pride Commentator

Nearly five years after he last commentated a Pride FC event, Bas Rutten’s voice will once again grace the promotion’s action, this time as part of a legacy mode included in the upcoming THQ video game UFC Undisputed 3 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“I always enjoy working for video games,” Rutten told MMAWeekly.com. “When you think about it, with (the UFC) buying Pride, this was the smartest thing they could do of course. It is great.”

Rutten will be reteaming with his original Pride commentating partner, Stephen “The Fight Professor” Quadros for the release. According to Rutten, it was like no time had passed since the two had last worked a Pride show together in 2003.

“It was like we never stopped doing it,” said Rutten. “Right away we started joking and messing around. It was a lot of fun. It was a good time.”

The recording process was anything but tedious, according to Rutten, thanks to the way the action was presented to he and Quadros.

“What we did was hours and hours of commentary on what looked like real fights, and later we did names and all that stuff,” said Rutten. “That was the coolest part of the game is we don’t do generic lines. We literally went through every scenario and did lines for that.”

For Rutten, getting the opportunity to expose fans to the Pride experience that may not have been around when it was in its heyday is big thing.

“It’s very important,” he said. “That’s where it all started pretty much. That’s when the fighters started to get really big. Of course the UFC was there, but this was the biggest show on the planet. There were 91,000 people at a show we did commentary for once. It was just crazy at that time.”

Aside from Undisputed 3, Rutten will also be featured in Kevin James’ Here Comes the Boom movie later in the year, as well continue his work on Inside MMA for AXS TV (formerly HDNet).

Combine Rutten’s entertainment prospects with his continued work in the sports merchandise world with his O2 Trainer, and it looks to be yet another fast-paced year for Rutten.

“(There’s) no slowing down,” he said. “It’s one thing after another. I don’t want to slow down. I want to keep things going.”