WHile on the web researching on Gene Lebell I ran across this story of how he choked Steven Segal unconcious while on the set of a movie (Lebell works as a stuntman and stuntman cordinator).

I was skeptical at first, but while bouncing from one web site to another about Judo Gene I would read this same story over and over.

How it all went down varies from the different sources. What all the sources agree on is that Gene choked Segal unconcious, and Segal deficated himself. It hit the fan after that (no pun intended) and a gag order was placed on Gene prohibiting him from speaking about this to the media.

Unfortunately for Segal others that were there have talked, and it was dubbed the worst kept secret in Hollywood.

How it came to Gene choking out Segal? Here are some of the stories...

Segal was extremely rough on the stunt men during the filming of the movie, and Gene paid him a visit to let him know his thought on this (Gene is a rough character). Judo Gene ended up choking Segal out. Segal let one fly while he was out.

Another is that people on the set started bugging Segal that Gene would beat him a real fight. Segal fluffed off Gene's skills and Gene offered to show him. Gene put on a choke on Segal, and Segal was choked out. Not all that bad, but when he went out he let off a load.

Apparently it started off just Gene showing Segal a choke and Segal was going to show the people on the set how he would get out of it, but Segal went for Gene's eyes and the rest is history.

Any of you guys heard any of this? I have found articles written about this dating back to 1991 (around the time it happened). The article did not mention Segal's name, but brought up the story. It was an article about Gene's induction into the blackbelt hall of fame.

Segal gives the appearance of a phony with respect to just about everything. I hope this story is true.

Nice story, just goesto show anyone can be choked out!

There's something to that effect (Gene choking out Segal) on e-budo, in fact I first saw it about three or four months ago. I think it's in the judo section of e-budo.

The story is so widespresd I think that if it were not true Segal would have made some public statement that it was BS.

Absolutely! I think Segal is trying to not bring it up at all costs. By not addressing it hopefully it just goes away. But word is out and has been for a long time.

Wonder if Gene ever came across Van Dame in his days? That could be a good scrap.

BTW I like some of Segal's movies and I am far from a Segal hater. I have no doubt he trained in Aikido (his martial art) extensively and knows his trade. But he does come across as a bit of an up tight person with a big ego. I am getting this from interviews with other actors and stories being told. So this hopefully humbled him a little. I know getting choked out to the point I plump a hot one in my pants would humble me a great deal.

Look for Segal to call for a rematch soon (Gene is in his 70's).

Gene has years of great stories. Did you hear about when the Gracies challenged him? There was a time when they challenged everyone as they were trying to make a name for themselves. They wanted Gene to fight Royce or Rickson or someone like that 50 years younger. Gene replied that he was retired, but he countered with a challenge to fight Helio since he was closer to his age and was the teacher of all the others. Of course the Gracie's declined.

He also choked out a boxer. He wa saying judokas cna chop planks in half but can't win a fight against nobody.

Idiot

Dragon, on Mar 5 2004, 04:32 PM, said:

wait a minute... gene never said judoka chop planks in half, that was the promoter of the boxer involved in the fight.
what no one has mentioned is that gene lebell, was also a boxer for some time and had trained with sugar ray robinson.

I meant the boxing guy! Do you think I'd suggest that a judoka would say judo's rubbish and judoka are phoneys, then choke out some boxer with a judo shime?

Gene's fight with the boxer is in the articles archives. He did try boxing, but was not in it that long, grappling was his true passion. But at the same gym that he trained in grappling, they had alot of famous boxers. Sugar Ray was one of them.

I remember the Gracies challenging him. What a joke, he was in his 60's! It was after the first UFC, and they were trying to get attention to the UFC. It was Royce who was going to fight him, Royce was 27!

So Gene said he would take on Helio. He stated the Gracie would see how it feels to be challenged in a magazine. THey got the point.

I bet if Gene was younger he would have gladly fought Royce! And the winner would have been...

Yep I have heard the story from Gokor Gene's Top student and one of the stories is a little closer to the truth.

According to Gokor this took place on the set of "Out for Justice" where Segal was using a Brooklin accent and did a stick fight w/Dan Inasanto-who also tels thsi story. Well Segal was being a dick to the stuntmen, but that is his normal behavior according to them. Well he is talking about how bad he is and the stuntment say "Yeah, well we got this old guy back here who could choke you out!" and Segal stated that nobody coulod get close to him to choke him out he also had never heard of Judo Gene LeBell before that encounter. Well Gene came over and said that he could choke him out and and Segal said that he couldn't so Gene grabbed him real quick and started to choke him. Segal tapped and said that that wasn't fair he was talking and wasn't ready for Gene. So Uncle Gene waited for Sega to get "ready" and when he said that he was Gene grabbed him and started to choke him out and Segal coudln't do nothing w/the old guy. Well Gene was pissed off because Segal was being very rough for no reason on the stunt guys when doing the fight scenes w/them and was upset becuase Segal said he wasn't ready and woul;dn't admit that Gene hooked him so as Uncle Gene would oput it "there is 2 ways to choke a person out, one way the ygo out nice and wake up ok, the other is they go out quick and they piss and crap on themselves" Gene did the latter! Then he drug Segal over to a closet and put hi in there uncouncious. When he came to everybody was cracking up and he went and changed his clothes and fired Gene and his guys. Gene has not worked on another Segal Movie since.

Also, When the Gracie's challenged Gene he stated that he would fight Helio and Helio stated that he would fight Gene, but Gene would have to lose 50lbs becuase he outweighed him by 100lbs and Helio was 80 at that time. Gene said he made the challenge back to them so they could see what it was like and it was dropped. Gene trains with the Gracie's cousins the Machado Brothers a couple of times a week. Gene mainley trains w/Jean Jacque Machado.

I think that it is funney that they challenged Gene because they already knew him! Gokor was already traing w/those guys before the UFC. In fact Gokor wanted to fight in the first UFC's but Rorion Gracie said that they wanted to use Royce because of his size and once he won then everybody would want to grapple and they would all bennifit, bu tthen Rorion didn't live up to his promise. Personnaly i think Gokor would walk right through Royce, but that is just my opinon.

I don't know much about Gokor. What are his credentials in terms of MA style, grade, and competitions wins?

i've heard this story quite often. it's been brought up on the UG quite alot. i remember awhile back that someone posted a thread to Gene himself asking about the incident. Gene doesn't normally post on the UG but someone close to him (i think she's related to him somehow, i know she works for him) confirmed the story about seagal being abusive to the stuntman and lebell choking him out causing seagal to mess himself.

Look who's back!!!

Where have you been man? I had a post a while back about Pride's GP you might have liked to respond to. No one else did :( !

i've been around...... hasn't been a whole lot lately to strike my intrest in replying though.

i'll look for the thread. do you remember the title??

This is Gokor's bio from his web site at: www.gokor.com

Gokor's Bio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Gokor's friends and students wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a brief history of our instructor, Gokor Chivichyan, and the genesis of the Hayastan Grappling System.

This is the story of our instructor and friend, Gokor Chivichyan. This is the story of a champion.

From the rubble of World War II there arose a legend about a great Armenian fighter who fought on the streets of Middle East countries. After his death sometime in 1946 his sons and widow, with thousands of other Armenian refugees, moved back to Armenia in the former Soviet Union.

Two decades later this fighter's grandson was born and another legend was created.


[ Gokor 15 years old ]
The youngest of three brothers, Gokor Chivichyan was born May 10th 1963. Gokor was a very aggressive child, beating up all the older kids on the street he lived on. After seeing the boy fighting in the streets of Yerevan, a student at the Dinamo Studio invited the five-year-old Gokor to train at his school. Right from Gokor's first day at the school, the head-wrestling instructor knew he had great athlete in the making.

After only one year of wrestling, Gokor began his training in Sambo. He trained a minimum of 4 - 5 hours a day with larger and more advanced students, often besting them in class.

In 1971 Gokor competed in his first tournament and won his first Armenian Junior National Sambo Championship. He won all of his matches quickly and with ease.

At the age of nine, Gokor fought in his second Junior National Sambo Championship, taking first place in the 10 - 12 year old division. He won the Gold Medal and qualified to go to Russia to fight in the '72 Soviet Junior National Sambo Championships.

1973 was a big year for Gokor, beginning his training in Judo; he would go onto win Armenian Junior National Championship and then compete at the Russian Junior National Judo Championships. It was in Russia at these games that Gokor would experience his first loss. Making it to the finals, Gokor would go home with a Silver Medal after losing by referee's decision to the three times Soviet National Champion. This loss haunted Gokor and drove him to train even harder, promising himself that he would never lose another competition in his life.

1974 brought Gokor back to Russia to fight in the Soviet Junior Judo and Sambo National Championships. Fulfilling his promise to himself, Gokor took Gold Medals in both competitions.

From 1974 through 1979 Gokor continued to compete and win competitions in both Judo and Sambo not only in the Soviet Union, but Europe and at the world games.

In 1980 Gokor qualified for the Soviet Olympic Judo team, but was passed over for an older more experienced athlete, who went to win the gold. Gokor although greatly disappointed by not being able to compete in the Olympics.

One year later Gokor and his family would find themselves moving to America. (Los Angeles).

Gokor didn't give up on his dream of competing for Olympic gold. He was rewarded for his perseverance by meeting and training with the Legendary "Judo" Gene LeBell. Gene began teaching Gokor techniques he had never encountered before, and quickly Gokor added these techniques to his training.

These were tough times for the seventeen-year-old Gokor who was training, learning English, working and trying to learn as much as he could about American Culture.

Starting in 1982 Gokor began competing in Judo Tournaments again, and Professional No-Holds-Barred fights. Some fights were for money others just for the experience and excitement.

His professional fighting and hunger for competition took Gokor to many new places like France, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and England to name but a few. While competing in numerous no holds barred fights Gokor started training in Boxing and Muay Thai to improve his already formidable standing fighting skills.

Gokor's dream was to train hard and become a U.S. citizen so he could compete in 1984 Olympics for the U.S. Judo team, but was unable to become a citizen soon enough. Traveling back and forth between America and Russia, Gokor qualified for the Soviet team but again, did not get to compete in the Olympics because of the Soviet boycott.

In 1987 Gokor competed for the Judo International World Cup in Spain. After 8 wins, Gokor made it to the finals against a strong competitor from France. Three minutes into the match, Gokor won by full point (ippon).

Gokor met some very strong fighters from Brazil that trained in Jiu-Jitsu. They were so impressed by Gokor's skills they invited him to train with them. To this day they are still good friends exchanging techniques and visiting each other's schools.

The United States Judo Federation helped Gokor acquire his US Citizenship in November 1987 to qualify for the US Olympic Team in 1988. Unfortunately, as a late citizen, Gokor did not have enough time to acquire the necessary points to compete in the Olympics.

By 1989 Gokor had won 4 Professional World NHB Championship Titles and was ready for a completely new challenge, Marriage! Proving to be a worthy challenge, Gokor chose to retire undefeated as a professional fighter and instead dedicated himself to his wife Narine and raising his first child, Arthur, who was born on May 16th 1990.

But fighting was in Gokor's blood, and the long awaited Hayastan Grappling Academy opened in Hollywood California in 1991. With his long history of winning championship titles and his unique fighting system, Gokor found his new school and instant success with hundreds of ambitious students.

The Hayastan Grappling Academy has drawn students from around the world to train there, establishing a reputation in the fight community as THE place to train for No Holds Barred Fighting.

Right from the beginning Gokor's students have gone forward to become champion s in Judo and NHB competitions, including extreme fighting, Pancrase and even in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Gokor receives many invitations to fight in these competitions but prefers his role as teacher to the champions.

With all this going on in his life, Gokor still found time to compete in and wind the US Judo Nationals in 1994.

The only thing that could possibly eclipse his student's successes happened on July 17th 1996 with the birth of Gokor's second son, Garry.

In January 1997 Gokor received a call to come out of retirement to fight another Professional No-Holds-Barred World Championship.

His opponent was the 1996 N.H.B. World Champion from Japan. Mr. Maeda's record was over 200 wins and no defeats.

For Gokor, this wasn't viewed as a challenge, but more like another opportunity to display the devastating effectiveness of Gene LeBell and Gokor's style of mixed martial art fighting.

The match took place in mid 1997 broadcast around the world via pay-per-view and before a tremendous crowd in Alabama. Gokor fought Mr. Maeda and beat him in 51 seconds to the cheers of his friends, family and students.

Gokor shocked many of the spectators with his speed, strength and technique.

This was also the year Gokor was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame and awarded with the prestigious "1997 Judo Instructor of the Year".

Gokor's school and his role as it's founder has been written about for cover feature articles in Kung Fu Magazine, Black Belt, Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling, Karate, Germany's Budo Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and newspapers around the world.

Living out another dream Gokor has appeared as an actor and stunt man in feature films like Blood Sport II, Streets of Rage, Personal Vendetta and also on televisions shows like JAG, It's On Your Good and many Armenian and American sports and news programs.

But nothing can compare with training his sun and watching him win as the 5 time Judo Junior National Champion and winning the Junior Judo Olympics in 2000. With this kind of success, Arthur is moving onto grappling and no holds barred training.

Gokor currently trains professional fighters and amateur students in judo, sambo and no-holds-barred fighting.

Many NHB world champions today, come and train at the Hayastan studio, to exchange knowledge with Gokor.

He has affiliate schools across North America, in Europe and his homeland of Armenia.

Gokor does seminars around the world and has been training the LAPD self-defense instructors since 1996. He has received city commendations for his services to the Los Angeles community and was recently given a commendation for teaching the LAPD. Gokor has also taught for FBI, numerous SWAT teams and Interpol in Europe.

At 38 years old, Gokor is looking forward to competing again maybe for fun, maybe for money. But his dream is that Gene LeBell & Gokor's Grappling World branch out across the world and that their students can go on to become as successful as Gokor has or even more so.

Gokor has competed in over 400 NHB, judo, and sambo fights, and has never lost as a professional fighter. Though hugely successful in the fighting world, Gokor is humble, honest and friendly to everyone he encounters. His respect for all mankind is something that you will see the first second you meet him. It is this extraordinary attitude, which makes him a true champion and not only a champion in fighting, but also a champion in life.

For more information about Gokor or to book him for a seminar, please call the Hayastan Academy at 323 660-5202 or visit us at 5123 Sunset Blvd. Suite 214, Los Angeles (Hollywood) Ca 90027. If you are interested in any of his other video tapes, books or merchandise you may order from his website WWW.GOKOR.COM

I got a lot of questiions about Gokor's MMA fights. First off are they officially recognized? I only ask as I have read about numerous fighters before with claims of unsubstanciated fight records.

Also what more can you tell me about the 4 MMA world titles he held? WHo did he fight, where, when and under what rules.

Another question, did he get called out by the Gracies like his mentor Judo Gene Lebell did?

i've never found any "official" records recognizing gokor's MMA titles or acheivements. however if most of them were in russia that isn't surprising.

i don't believe he was ever challenged by the gracies..... i could be wrong.

He should have stepped up to the plate in place of his 60 some year old Mentor. I am surprised he didn't.

i actually don't think he was training under lebell at the time.

Really? This would be 1993 or 1994. When the UFC just started. It was in the blackbelt magazines etc.

Yes Gokor was traiing w/Gene LeBell then and No he was NEVER challenged by the Gracie's!! They all rolled together before and have trained w/one another since before the UFC's, think about it how many grapplers were there back then? Even in LA grappling was not looked at as a great form of self defence as it is now.

I think that most of the Gracie's did not challenge Gokor because they did not want to get beat when they were just getting publicity. Gokor's Judo is World Class, he trains Muay Thai by a Thai Champ and has very good striking skills, his groundwork is SICK he is just as smooth as the Gracie's but he also has a bazillion leg locks that he can hit from anywhere. I think that the most interesting match would be between Rickson & Gracie-that one could go either way. Plus Gokor has all of Gene's Dark Side of the Moon of grappling.

Also, Gokor and nobody for that matter has to step up or speak for Gene LeBell!!! Gene is more then a man and wouldn't hesitate to mix it up! I have been told of other stories by Gokor involving people talking trash about Gene and or Gokor and getting a Attitude Adjustment at the school.

A couple things buddy,

I realize Gene is all man, and I am not saying he is anything less. But he was in his 60's and well past his fighting prime. He was not going to be beating any of the Young Gracies.

And yes he did hesitate, and instead stated he would fight only Helio.

Gokor could have easily stepped up to the plate and took the challenge. I am sure if he did you would be comending him for doing so right now. I sense you would be happy with what he does either way.

BTW why did the Gracies issue this challenge to a Judo Gene in the first place if they were friends (or atleast friendly with each other)? It seems like a pure publicity stunt and a real dirty thing to do. I am glad Gene issued a challenge to Helio in return to let them know how it feels (in his return challenge he stated that was his point to let them know how it feels to be publicaly challenged like that).

Hey Buddy,

I think that the reason that the Gracie's challenged Gene was that they were probably in an interview w/someone who knew Gene and asked if they would fight him and said yes and it blew up from there.

As for my being happy w/whatever Gokor does is probably right Gokor is such a great martial artist and a good person also. I am so happy to hav ehad the opportunities to train w/him and can not wait to do so again!

In regaurds to them challenging Gene and Gokor's response I will ask my friends who train w/Gokor regualry and i will get you an answer from him soon, I would also like to know. Truth be known I think that Gokor probably wanted to issue a challenge but Gene asked him to let him handle it first, but that is just pure speculation on my part!

I would like to know about John Blummings challenge to the Gracie's and to which ones that refused to fight his big fighter Chris Doleman-Who would walk through a few inthe family as well!