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“The biochemists”
By Zach Arnold | May 24, 2006
By Zach Arnold
In recent interviews that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has done with various media outlets (transcript here), Jackson has talked about having to deal with DSE’s “US office,” which is really just an office space in Los Angeles with Turi Altavilla (who used to work for King of the Cage, and is a hard worker) and the two DSE US bosses. Rampage doesn’t mention the two bosses by name (they would be Yukino Kanda and her husband, Hideki Yamamoto, who was the one who applied for a license with the Nevada State Athletic Commission), but eagerly points out that they have no experience in the fight game and are “biochemists.”
For the sake of clarification, Kanda and Yamamoto own Double Helix Intl. Inc., a California-based drug company out of Santa Monica. (
If you click on the Google link, the phone number listed for Double Helix Intl. Inc. is the same one that I remember used in the past to call the DSE US staff.) In the older PRIDE US PPVs, Double Helix Intl. Inc. was listed in the credits when Michael Braverman (of the famous Bloom & Braverman agency in Hollywood) was producing the shows.
One interesting item (something that insiders have known for a long time) is that Kanda & Yamamoto often “act” independent of DSE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara, often cutting their own deals and making decisions (that’s the impression gaijin fighters have received, even though Sherdog articles in the past have talked about Sakakibara’s various visits to Los Angeles to talk over business deal). The question obviously raised is why would they have such power? While Jackson doesn’t touch on it directly, two questions immediately come to mind:
- Who is the ultimate boss in DSE if Kanda & Yamamoto act independently (which is questionable) of Sakakibara in terms of operations?
- How did Kanda & Yamamoto end up knowing the top DSE boss if they were not originally in the fight game in the first place?
There is an interesting audio interview with Rampage and Bryan Alvarez at F4WOnline.com.
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