![]() Instead of just wanting to see cocks and dogs fight, he now thirsted to watch human beings pitted against each other. While he was an active spectator of animal cruelty, Ladner’s curiosity for violence began to shift. They put these big razors on them and, if they get hit in the head a couple of times, they bleed like you wouldn’t believe. I am really a dog lover and if something happened to my dog, I would be very upset… It’s just a horrific sound – hearing dogs fight. “It was part and parcel of the entertainment here at the time. “I don’t pass judgment on them,” Ladner remarks, regarding those who supplied the animals he watched get torn to shreds. It’s just a horrific sound – hearing dogs fight. “It’s not something I would endorse.” Ladner says this despite professing a fascination for the effort and finance that goes into conditioning an animal to kill. Especially, he says, if they weren’t raised in a culture where such acts were commonplace and bound to a romanticized local identity. And that he understands how grotesque the idea of watching birds and dogs attempt to kill each other is to most people nowadays. Ladner says he no longer supports or patronizes animal fighting. The barbaric practice of forcing dogs to fight has been outlawed in the entire United States since 1976. Just as he was with cockfighting, Ladner was entranced. During one of these blood-fests, instead of roosters entering the gore stained ring, a pair of dogs were brought before the baying crowd. Ladner would bet minimal amounts on fighting birds that came from as far away as Hawaii and Singapore. It’s kind of like what you would see in the movies of old, where people are just throwing in money and saying, ‘I want to bet on this!’ It’s just manic.” In the nineties cockfighting was illegal in Mississippi, but not in Louisiana, which banned the blood sport in 2008. “When my father passed away I started going quite regularly,” he claims. But the charm of his cadence can’t sweeten the ugly tale of how he got to UFC 15. His refined and songful southern accent, paired with a powerful vocabulary, conjures visions of seersucker and cotillions. Even though his philosophical leanings aren’t typical of Dixie, the way he speaks certainly is. I’m probably a lot more liberal and progressive than most people here are,” says Ladner. “I’m not very indicative of the population here. ![]() In the late nineties, when the Ultimate Fighting Championships came crashing into his life, Ladner was settled in Hattiesburg, MS. He later earned an MBA, also at Southern Miss. He attended the University of Southern Mississippi, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelors of Science. Four years later, after the passing of his father, he returned to the south. ![]() After high school, he and his fiancee left Mississippi for the suburbs of Chicago. James Ladner was born in 1971 and raised in Picayune, Mississippi, under an hour’s drive from New Orleans. Either way, we’re all forced to wonder who is this person? Some fans pump their fists in admiration, others roll their eyes. After the true dawning of digital ‘the Just Bleed guy’ was shared thousands of times until he became famous within the MMA community. Ladner’s war dance was seen on pay-per-view, VHS tapes, and promo packages. The 17-second ‘fight’ lasted about as long as it would be remembered. Big John McCarthy waved off the fight and another clash from the UFC’s dark ages was signed into history. They clinched and Kerr threw a knee that toppled his doughy opponent. When the bell rang, Kerr stepped to Stott. ![]() Mid-cry, the camera cut back to the cage. Suddenly, his eyes flashed grossly and a primal scream gurgled forth. The camera zoomed in, as if challenging Ladner to carry on. His face was wild – jaw locked and teeth clenched – his eyes closed so tight they might have dripped blood. ![]() As the camera stood its ground, Ladner continued to contort veins bulged out of his neck and his wrists wrenched in on themselves. And across his sweating brow, three letters: ‘U-F-C’. Painted on his naked chest, the words: ‘JUST BLEED’. But, on this night – and on this cutaway – they found something that was completely unexpected.Ī man mid-clench in a twisted display of awesome machismo. Folks clapping, raising their cups, or giving a thumbs-up would have been just fine. The director was after a typical crowd reaction shot filler before they went back to Buffer. The director then asked the vision-mixer to switch things up to cut to one of the cameras prowling the bleachers. As Buffer ended the segment, with typical flourish, Stott waved to the audience. The UFC’s camera stuck on Stott as Bruce Buffer introduced him to the crowd. ![]()
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