From UFC (Ultimate Fighting Champion) to UFC (Ultimate Faithful Catholic). Bas is a UFC Hall of Famer and Heavyweight World Champion. He is also a renowned Hollywood movie star having co-starred in many movies such as Here Comes The Boom, The Zookeeper and Paul Blart: Mall Cop to name a few. Bas is a 3-time World Champion MMA in Japan, the UFC heavyweight Champion in 2015 and was inducted into the UFC Hall Of Fame without a single loss in his last 22 fights. In addition to his professional martial arts and big screen acting career, Bas also is an actor on the sitcom Kevin Can Wait (CBS) with Kevin James and Leah Remini.
A professional fighter, a professionally trained chef and movie star, Bas is every bit of what they call a "man's man". His childhood was rough where he battled a horrible skin disease (eczema), experienced asthma attacks and was bullied on a daily basis. He watched the movie "Enter the Dragon" and realized that when he would become like “Bruce” he could take care of the bullies. Bas did just that when he KO’d his first bully after training only 4 months. His story is truly one of triumph over many challenges from childhood to adulthood, but the best part of his story is his conversion to the Faith through all his success, trials and tribulations. His conversion story will inspire and touch everyone that hears it. If you think you had it rough, or currently have challenges that feel bigger than you, then don't miss the opportunity to bring Bas to your event and inspire your audience.
Bas is a certified chef in the French cuisine but stopped working as a chef after three years and started training Martial Arts. As a baby he was baptized in the Catholic Church, did his communion but stopped practicing the Faith when his parents stopped going to Church, he was 12 at the time. He had a wild life as a professional fighter, been in many street fights, drugs, booze and was a bouncer for many years. He had a “run in” with a ghost in his house, his entire family has seen this ghost, one time a curtain flew up against the ceiling with the family as witness he knew something needed to be done. Bas would also get attacked in the middle of the night, pressed into his bed not able to breathe. He got so fed up of it that he finally challenged whoever was attacking him at 3am at the place in his house where the most activity was and he never had a problem anymore. Later he talked to a priest friend, who’s a world-renowned exorcist for the Catholic Church, and he told Bas: “Only you Bas”, and had to laugh.
In 2013 he sat in on a conference and heard a talk that blew Bas away and he got pulled back into the Faith. When coming home and telling his wife he wanted to pursue the Faith he said that the next day after he told her he couldn’t find her, this was around noon. When she called him back she replied: “I was going to daily mass” and she started taking RCIA classes, which Bas never asked of her. God works in mysterious ways! September 12th 2015 they married for the third time, this time in the Catholic Church at St Thérèse Church in Alhambra. He feels he has a connection with St Thérèse as well, ask him about it, it’s a nice story.
His first big interview about the Faith was for the website Catholic Gentleman in where he received a lot of response from his fans, as you might understand, many good responses but of course a bunch of bad ones as well, those darn atheists! Bas spends a lot of time on the Faith, he consecrated himself to Mary, gets up early for his prayers, likes to go to daily mass whenever he can and reads about the Faith as well. He says that he has become a better father, husband, friend and citizen and has said that the Faith has done all that for him, his family and friends second that.
Bas has spoken in front of Martial artists about how to run their schools, in front of high school kids before they left to college or work, police officers on how to be safe, at his parish about his journey in life and his “comeback to the Church”. He has been the keynote speaker at OneFC in Singapore (Asia’s biggest MMA organization), talked to Football players on how to stay calm and relaxed during their games. And of course he spoke at his 2015 UFC Hall Of Fame induction. He has also given hundreds of seminars in MMA and self-defense around the world; he trains the Marines, Navy Seals, homeland security, law enforcement and Elite Special Forces.
