After The Dust Settles: Nakmeezy Clears The Air

When you publish an interview where someone is called bipolar and eyes around the world will see that interview, you can bet your bottom dollar 3 things are going to happen: 1) someone is going to laugh 2) someone's going to be pissed off and 3) someone is going to contact you! That's exactly what happened.

New York Muay Thai fighter Nakmeezy hit me up for an exclusive interview in which he wasted no time letting me know that he was ready to tell his side of the story and that the bipolar remark made by Baguazhang teacher Novell "Blacktaoist" Bell was an insult. He was ready to offer a retort on not one, not two, but all of the Blacktaoist's points he made in an exclusive 18 Chambers interview. Notes in hand, he was ready to rock.

I had just gone a couple of rounds with some spicy salsa and wanted to make sure ...ahem...  that 'bout' was over before beginning the interview with Nakmeezy. I didn't want any interruptions. Phone charged, check! PC, check! Tablet, check! Writing pad, check! Had to make sure everything was ready for this interview. The plan? To keep the format simple, he'll do most of the talking while I take notes, and interject a question here and there. The exact format used for the Blacktaoist's interview. Weighing in at a hefty 3 1/2 pages of notes, one-liners, and eyebrow raising statements it was apparent he had a lot on his mind. Touching on the fight that never took place, pseudo-gangsterism, and other things he equates with the Blacktaoist, I knew I was in for a ride.  

As we got started, Nakmeezy informed me that he had drafted some notes based on things mentioned in the Blacktaoist interview that he felt weren't necessarily true. The indirect shot heard around the world that started everything, was made by Nakmeezy about the Blacktaoist's 'Urban Bagua' which Nakmeezy admits may have been a mistake. On the topic of whether he's a fighter or just a perpetrator, he makes it crystal clear that he is without a doubt a fighter -- a real fighter, with sanctioned fights under his belt. He assured me that his heart doesn't pump Kool-Aide when it comes to fighting someone like the Blacktaoist would have people to believe. Yet he does admit to there being a problem pertaining to the Blacktaoist; "he plays a psuedo-gangster." He backs up his statement by pointing out that one of Blacktaoist's students contacted him and advised him that, "...[it's] gonna happen either way, street or ring" in regards to the fight. To this he told me he doesn't respond to passive threats like that. He points out that he doesn't use middlemen, he "goes right to the source" to sort things out, but the Blacktaoist attempts to establish himself like he's some sort of [mafia] Don or something.

He shared with me that the Blacktaoist felt that he was setup because of a previous blog entry I wrote ("Nakmeezy & Lyte Burly Give NY Kung Fu Fighters A Reality Check").

editor's note: the aforementioned blog entry was written based on a video released by Nakmeezy and Lyte Burly without the knowledge of Nakmeezy, Lyte Burly or Blacktaoist. Written from a point of neutrality, the blog serves as a narration of an ongoing story between these gentlemen.

He went on to tell me that the Blacktaoist stated, "You dudes think I'm pussy....just want to show you what bagua is" but "eluded to taking it to the streets." It's this eluding to street violence that seems to kill any desire to have any dealings with the Blacktaoist for Nakmeezy.

editor's note: during the interview Nakmeezy mentioned and read from text message correspondences between him and one of Blacktaoist's students. Initially, I wasn't going to include the contents of the text messages because there was no way to verify the messages; but since they seem to play such an important part in his side of the story, I included them in the order they were received. Although I was forwarded the messages I have to issue a disclaimer here. I can't deny nor confirm the accuracy of the text messages since they didn't have time, date, or sender stamps so I am only posting what I received on my phone:   

"Talking to Novell talking him outta the street aspect and keeping it in the ring my dude. He's with keeping it standup with Sanda throws. Trying to figure out that weight, he wants to do exhibition. We will work out the $$$. Promoted right we will talk about a percentage as well
Good sh*t! I'm with the sanda rules. Lyte is saying he only wants to do boxing rules. I'll see if he will do Sanda Rules as well.
Yo Novell said cancel for today. He has something to take care of. He has an open invite for you at Central Park (100st) whenever you would like to spar tho. Hit me back and let me know if you're good with that.
Cool." 

Nakmeezy shared the text message to drive home the point that he didn't initiate talk about weight, money or Sanda rules issues. Quite the opposite from the Blacktaoist's take on events, Nakmeezy said his "only concern was no submission." He states that he never mentioned Sanda rules because he's not a Sanda fighter but was willing to fight with Sanda's ruleset including the use of boxing gloves,  "14oz gloves, Sanda rules, no catch weight or the fight was dead in the water." 

He further explained how the two had plans to meet up and spar earlier but that meeting was cancelled on the Blacktaoist's side as seen in the text exchange above. Some light was shed on his reservations about his opponent wearing MMA gloves. Anyone who's seen the Blacktaoist videos can see his is a towering figure with a good size to him and according to Nakmeezy has approximately 50 pounds or so on him, so there was no way he wanted to fight him without boxing gloves. As mentioned in his interview, the Blacktaoist wanted to use MMA gloves so he could properly use his art which is brought into question by Nakmeezy when he referred to the Blacktaoist and his students using boxing gloves in their videos during sparring and training sessions. Nakmeezy expressed his willingness to participate in the exhibition match despite some significant disadvantages -- "fighting with his rules, at his venue, with his judges etc." 

As the interview's focus shifted from the exhibition match (or lack thereof) to some ...ahem... eyebrow raising statements, I couldn't help but think, if they weren't going to fight before, some of these statements might change all of that. Undoubtedly, a few things the Blacktaoist said in his interview most likely left a bad taste in Nakmeezy's mouth, one of which was that he has nothing going for himself and he's still doing the same ol' stuff he was doing years ago. Nakmeezy took that bull by the horns and wrestled it to the ground suggesting that things are the other way around. He said he has no financial stake in martial arts unlike the Blacktaoist. Which means he doesn't have to worry about selling DVDs, doing seminars, teaching classes, etc., to make money. So by right the Blacktaoist with all his projects and hustling shouldn't be in the same place he was years ago, but he is. He says the Blacktaoist is still doing the same thing and in regards to his projects and accomplishments he states, "all he's doing is small things." "He's still training in Central Park with no school" and mentioning he still has to host MUSU at other people's schools due to his lack of owning one.

He then focused his sights on one of the Blacktaoist's largest accomplishments to date, being a part of Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted, a video game that uses his likeness and events from his past in the game. Some view it as a major accomplishment but Nakmeezy defines it as one of a couple of shameful moments in the Blacktaoist's history. He feels that he was willingly exploited as a "typical hood n*gga that knows how to kick and punch." 

The character based off of the Blacktaoist is described by Nakmeezy as a drug dealer that uses his Baguazhang to defend his drug turf. Something he feels is exploitation at its finest. The character's backstory is based off of events in the Blacktaoist's past, in which he was homeless, and sold drugs. Nakmeezy showed no mercy and stuck to his guns when he said, "[that's] not something you put in a video game." "Don't sell your soul to Corporate America" are some words of wisdom he offered up for the Blacktaoist, stating that he was "type cast as a baffoon" starting in 2008 with BET's 'Iron Ring' pointing out the executives of these projects "pay for their son's college with his coonery." Nakmeezy refers to him as the "Flavor Flav of the martial arts world" who needs "managers to polish him up" and an education because he points out that "he can't even speak proper English." At this point a little laughter broke out as he asked me what "and wha-na" meant; poking fun at the Blacktaoist's pronunciation of 'what not'. 

His description of the Blacktaoist was one of asperity but he insisted that he wasn't the only one who shared similar views of him being considered a clown in the martial arts world; inviting me to Google 'Blacktaoist Iron Ring', and search for 'Blacktaoist' on bullshido.com to see proof. Just when I thought a significant amount of steam was blown off, he started questioning the Blacktaoist's fight record and prowess as a coach. He gave me a brief overview of his own fights stating that he fought Maoshan in 2009 and his last recent fight which was a sanctioned bout was in 2010. Then he posed a question I couldn’t give an answer to, “where’s the Blacktaoist’s last fight?” “Never saw him enter any fight tournaments.” “I judge Muay Thai, fight and train fighters. I got fights he has no fights.” He said he could easily change this by entering himself into someone's fight competition, but he won't put himself out there like that.

Changing gears, he called attention to his technical work on the pads, "Blacktaoist looked like he didn't know how to punch & kick when Peter Storm (UCL manager, promoter and fighter) held the pads."  In regards to the Blacktaoist as a coach, Nakmeezy said, "he sucks as a coach and sucks as a pad holder" which he affirms has a definite impact on his students. "His students are a reflection of him as a coach." Which may be why he feels the Blacktaoist's students "look like garbage...all they have is street bravado."

To clarify his points Nakmeezy took some time to give a breakdown on the short comings of the Blacktaoist as a coach. Breaking his student's spirits while they're training, and lack of fundamentals were the two major points he mentioned as problems plaguing the Blacktaoist's training style. He says that yelling at them in a nonconstructive way when they make a mistake, breaks their spirits and yields negative effects, which is a sign of a poor coach. "You're supposed to build them up, not tear them down". He went on to explain it's because of the lack of fundamentals that the Blacktaoist's students lose at his tournament and why his student got kicked in the face when he was demonstrating Yin Baguazhang kicking techniques in a video he posted about the fight cancellation. 

To my surprise Nakmeezy stated that he had no problem with MUSU. He told me a little known fact is that he actually named MUSU. At a time when he and the Blacktaoist were cool, he blurted out the name Man Up Stand Up to name the competition idea the Blacktaoist was running by him. He also shared that he "loves the idea of MUSU" but they seem to have a few kinks that need to worked out. "[They] have a bias towards other fighters, and change rules on a whim." Going a bit more in depth, he discussed a couple of matches where the 10 second rule wasn't followed (depending on who's in a potential winning or losing situation). One such moment he pointed out was his match with Maoshan. According to Nakmeezy's recollection,  when the fight hit the floor he was told to stand up only after about 4 seconds. 

editor's note: rules are set for a 10 second count if the fight hits the floor. After 10 seconds the ref stands the fighters up to resume the match. 

In regards to competing MUSU Nakmeezy offered these sobering words, "it's kind of beneath us." Mentioning that he has fought in WKA, IKF competitions to name a few, and Lyte Burly trained Young Burly to fight in Golden Gloves and so participating in MUSU as the tournament stands now, is like a downgrade because it's not they'd be going from sanctioned fights to a non-sanctioned tournament.

The question was posed to him, if he had any thoughts on the comment that he lacked self confidence. He stated, "I do have a lot of confidence in myself and my game." Stating that he does it [martial arts] "in a real place." He went on to say "I don't live in a bubble, he lives in a kung fu bubble where he's the "tallest midget, and smartest retard." Catching me off guard with the midget comment some chuckles were exchanged, then he went on to clarify the statement. He explained that the Blacktaoist and his crew, "they only test themselves with their rules, their judges, and their venue" but they don't venture outside of that 'bubble' into other fighting competitions to test their skills, naming other competitions located in New York where they could venture out to test their skills.

In his final words, Nakmeezy summed things up by saying that he most likely wouldn't have made the 'Reality Check' video had he not heard his name being constantly mentioned in MUSU videos where the commentator is heard yelling out "...Nakmeezy's watching this fight..." I asked if he thinks there will ever be a Nakmeezy vs Blacktaoist bout and he said, "I don't think there will be." He adds to that statement by saying, "I'm not going to be his stepping stone to prove Bagua works."

The underlying problem seemed to be more than being the Blacktaoist's stepping stone though. Nakmeezy addressed it by saying, "the Blacktaoist straddles the line between being a hood thug and martial artists and you can't be both." "He's a walking stereotype" which Nakmeezy feels he does for "pseudo-street cred" pointing out "he's 43 still have gold fronts in his mouth" and can't talk without cussing and using derogatory terms.

Ending on a high note Nakmeezy agrees with the Blacktaoist in that at the end of the day "it is about brotherhood." But, "we have to do better" in regards to the Blacktaoist's behavior.  Nakmeezy summed things up as to who he is, "I'm not a gangster. I'm a family man, a father, a son..." and with that he acknowledges the fact that there is no room in his plans for street nonsense, only positive moves.

Then he leaves us with a little cliff hanger, he says, "I'll never say I won't fight on MUSU..."

To be continued?

18 Chambers