‘Guys like that get people killed’ - Rutten slams DUST for ‘dumbest’ techniques
MMA legend Bas Rutten isn’t amused by the self-defense system of DUST commander Dale Brown.
Over the last few months, Detroit Urban Survival Techniques (D.U.S.T) Commander Dale Brown has been getting a lot of attention through his self-defense system. While most observers aren’t fans of these said tactics, Brown did find himself a fan in UFC middleweight Joaquin Buckley, who actually tapped him as a cornerman at UFC Vegas 48 in February.
Brown recently responded to his critics, saying they’ll never “take on gangs” or “leave the safety of their training facility” to “go defeat bikers to protect some lady.” While he did give credit to the preparation that professional fighters go through, he also defended his “unique” training program that would help people “survive” a “street situation.”
For old school fighters like Bas Rutten – who was more about the fighting than the sport aspect – Brown’s teachings can be problematic. In a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, he explained why.
“The not real guy? With the black hair and ‘stache, that guy? Very funny... Guys like that get people killed,” Rutten said of Brown. “Because they give them a false sense of security. “That’s why I don’t teach self-defense in my classes.”
Rutten went on to give specific scenarios on how Brown’s ways could be questionable.
“I always give this example: imagine I teach somebody a knife defense. Knives are really dangerous to defend, almost worse than a gun,” he explained. “A gun, you’re close by, you grab the barrel, and then you know what to do, how to go with it, all that stuff.
“It’s actually easier to defend than a knife that can cut on both sides, a switchblade because they can stab, they can come from above, they can come from all angles. So imagine I just teach a knife defense and then a friend of a person I taught it to is getting in trouble.
“Someone pulls a knife and he goes, ‘Hey, step back, I got it. They just taught me this in class.’ And then he gets stabbed to death. That’s a problem.”
Brown also teaches various gun defense techniques, some of them even involving disarming an attacker from behind. Rutten pointed out how these tactics are flawed.
“When the guy is sitting behind and I’m grabbing the gun, it’s the dumbest thing,” he said. “If there is no space behind you, you can never go for the gun because the only thing that I have to do is pull it out and now they’re gonna shoot you in your head.
“If somebody stands in front of me and there’s like a table in between, I’m not gonna grab the gun, because if I grab the gun, the only thing he needs to do is pull back, and there’s a table. Now if there’s no table, I can go with him, so as soon as he pulls I simply go with him.
“I keep the grip and I make sure that the barrel doesn’t aim at me or somebody I love. But if he pulls out, I simply go with him. I’m not gonna hold still so he can pull out. I just go with him. All these little things you have to know.”
With the likelihood of such techniques going sideways during an actual situation, Rutten ultimately advised Brown to “watch out” and be careful with what he teaches.
“Listen, there’s some things that he does, but he has no follow-ups,” he said. “All the things that I said with the gun defense, holding his hand in the same position, these are all wrong things to teach. So he has to really watch out.
“And you’ve seen those parodies. You’ve seen these guys try to do what he does and then it goes wrong and suddenly they’re in heaven, and that’s really how it is. That’s really how it is.”
Rutten may not be a believer of Brown’s ways, but Buckley claims to be sold on them. The 27-year-old fighter even challenged his peers to have their very own DUST training experience.