INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR AYCART OF SOUTHERN KENNELS

When did you get started with the dogs and how? 

Well my friend, it is a long story. Just when I was a kid, like ten, eleven, twelve years old, I already liked dog fights. And with a couple of friends in my town, Guayaquil Ecuador, always we try to see which one was the king there, and we make almost all nights road work on our bikes, with our dogs and see if we can find any fight for them. Of course they were Pointers, German Shepherd, Collies, Boxer, Doberman and including some of them non recognized pure breed, mix; but some of them looked good. I remember I saw a fight for thirty-five minutes between the two best dogs in the town; one was no breed, his mom was picked from one of our beaches in Ecuador and she was in heat with many dogs behind her, the other dog looked like a Hunt bred dog. Anyway, I'm just trying to explain to you how I was a fanatic about dogfighting even when I was a kid. Later on, I don't do anymore dog fights until I was like twenty-one years old. I met an English gentleman, Mr. Stanley Moss; he had two Staffordshire dogs imported from England. They were Baron and Sussy, when I saw those two dogs they represented exactly what I was looking for in a dog for years. They were compact, strong, electric dogs and they are fighting machines. Of course they fought against nothing but street bred mutt dogs of Salinas, Ecuadorian Beach. Immediately when they had pups I bought two of them; one I male I named Killer and the female Bonnie. I match with those little dogs; they beat all kinds of breeds of dogs, German Shepherds, Dobermans, Etc..... I was the number one fighter in my town, hehehehe, that is what I liked, having the best ones. I was very happy, I enjoyed them for a while but then I had a lot of work and I just had them at my parent's house. I walked them sometimes but that was it. As they got older I just walked them once a week. When I was around twenty-seven years old I got in my hands a book written by Mr. Richard Stratton, where I saw a big picture of Going Light Barney. He was supposedly a multiple time winner. He wrote great accounts about him and his battles, that opened up my eyes. I said, WOW! These are official matches. There are some people who practice professional dogfights with rules, weights, etc.... From that point, I was anxious about Pit Bulls. Then I got a subscription to a magazine called The Gazette (ADBA) and imported some Pit Bull conformation show dogs into Ecuador. He was line bred on the great Going Light Barney, then we started competing in Ecuador. In a few months we realized they were nothing, no gameness was there. All of them stopped at fifteen, twenty, or maximum thirty minutes; we were very frustrated. Then in 1985 I was thirty years old, I had moved to Miami Florida with my family for business and started my new life there. Then through the same Gazette, I met a person who had good Eli Jr. dogs bred from Grand Champion Nigerino lines. This friend lived in Sacramento California and I lived in Miami. Anyway, we had a good relationship and we were partnership owners of a good dog named Perry and Aycart's Miss Pacman, then we bred her and he sent me pups. This same friend introduced me to SDJ, that was my big window to the dogs; then I saw many good dogs and bloodlines. For the first time in my life I saw real Champions and Grand Champions like: Havana Boys CH Maggie ROM, Havana Boys GR CH Rodney, half brother to my Mayday, Havana Boys CH budweiser, etc..... Immediately after that, I made contact with the local people through the magazine and started on my direct contacts with a real Pit Bull's world in the USA.

CH PERRY & AYCART'S MS. PACMAN (3XW)

How did Southern Kennels get started and who are the members of Southern Kennels? Also, who helped you in the game? 

After I invested a lot of money on dogs of different bloodlines like heavy Bullyson/Eli Jr., Pure Red Boy, Red Boy/Jocko, Snooty and Jeep. I tried all the more important bloodlines on the market, but I could not get good result. I had many fights but too many losses!?!?!? So I thought if we had one hundred well bred dogs at that time, why we can't get success? I was originally associated with Havana Tito, soon I realized this guy will not go anywhere with dogs. Then I was associated with the Latin Boys, the boss of the two was Latin's Oscar; a lot better than Havana Tito of course. He conditioned good and he loved the sport, but definitely something was wrong there. We bought good dogs and work hard on conditioning steps, but what really make me separate from that Latin Boys was when we made a Grand Champion ourselves, you said how? Hehehehehe, well, we lost five matches, one behind another one, I was very frustrated. Too many good dogs, too much time and money was involved and we couldn't get success, only losses and losses. Oscar was a good boy, but not good enough to win.Then after all this long story of bad experiences, I started to look around. Who consistently won matches? I found the record of The Exterminator Kennels, who had won five out of five matches, that was the opposite of Latin Boys' record, that made me think. Then I started to study who was the boss there, and who is the person who really had to do with the success of the kennel? They were as far as I could tell two partners, Bert and Danny. Danny was the main contributor. They had some kind of disagreement and both of them, after years of working together, parted ways. At that moment I was conditioning my Champion Pretty Girl for her first match and I went to Captain D (Danny) and ask him for his help. He didn't have a partner then so I believed he would help me with my conditioning program.

I had too many well bred dogs, I had almost two hundred at that time, all I needed was a good conditioner; someone serious, professional, and dedicated. That person was the famous Captain D, but it was a big surprise to me when he told me that he had to request authroization from the person who showed him how to condition dogs. That person was Dr. Pepe from a lab. He got that authorization from his boss, but he needed another person to help us. He mentioned Jose to me and we started to work on Pretty Girl, that was a very important experience for me. This Captain D was really a good conditioner, not only for his knowledge on nutrition, working, etc.... but how he was like a military soldier. He never was five minutes late, he never made excuses or said he couldn't go on any particular night to work the dogs. He not only showed me conditioning and proper nutrition, but he also shoed me to take the dogs serious. I always remembered him saying that every day you put a little bit more in the dog, a little more thing, a little more that, at the end of the program that every days "little" will make a BIG difference in the box. That showed to be the truth. He was always there at the right time. He was a very strict teacher, rough and tough at times and with strong character; but that was the way he showed me. I learned what I had to do to be a successful Dogman. Always I will be thankful to Captain D. Everybody has good and bad things about Captain D, I have to recognize like the man he was, a great support to Southern Kennels. That will make the difference in the future. We hope we will have much success with all his lessons. We worked together, Captain D, Jose and me for years, but then the hurricane Andrew destroyed our farm and the human society came to our place. After that I had a terrible legal fight with them for like two years. Even thought I won the legal battle, the Captain D didn't want to condition any other dog in his life. Maybe some day he will return, and if that happens, good competition will come back around the Florida area. He always will be a postitive support to the sport. After that, Jose still worked with me for a while; he was there when I started with Mayday, Dragon Lady, Madonna and Choice, but he left adter a few months. After that I met my good friend Angel. He was a very important key to the future success.

My friend Angel was an expert on nutrition. He showed me what Captain D did not. Remember I said before that he was a rough person. All that he did not mention to me, Angel did. At that moment, with all that valuable information, Mayday and his sisters started to win in fast lane competition. 50% is the dog and 50% is his owner. I can say that because I confirmed it with my own experiences. After that, I was alone for years. I worked my dogs with technical support from my good friend Angel. We later developed a ver close personal friendship. Later I med Pepe from the lab, Captain D's teacher; he was a very good friend to me too, he gave some good advice. During Mayday's fourth match Champion Buddah broke his front right leg; my vet said he would never be conditioned again. Within a few days of working his bones would make him feel a lot of pain. During my last two years in the USA I had the privilege of meeting a good friend, Cuban Missing Link. He really supported Southern Kennels. He said to me that Mayday could be conditioned one more time. I said to him, 'No, that was impossible'. He said that I was crazy if I let him sit there as a 4X winner without trying to make him a Grand Champion. This was already one year after his last contest; he could only walk on three legs. He told me to put him through a pre-keep and if he pulled though we would hook him for his fifth. Missing Link told me in advance that he would make Mayday look two years younger, supposedly nobody would recognize which leg was broken. I laughed and told him he was crazy; nevertheless, we started. The first day, when we took him out at 5:00am, he could not walk right. He was a three legged dog, not doubt about it. But that was only because I never walked him after the injury; later on we realized the leg was perfect. He did great during his workouts. I have to recognize that if it wasn't for my good friend Cuban Missing Link, Mayday would never have won his fifth match. His conditioned program was something new to me. It really put a seal and lock on all of my experience conditioning. Of course, always with the valuable support from my friend Angel who went everywher with our dogs and Razorback's J.C. Today, Southern Kennels is only me, but we still maintain a strong relationship with Angel, Missing Link, and J.C. Even from the middle of the world where I live now. We work together matching dogs and supporting each other in many different ways. It was truly a tremendous experience, Finally I get some merit. It was a lot of work and many bad experiences but that is the price we have to pay for success.

Which was your first dog? 

She was the great Perry and Aycart's Miss Pacman (Eli Jr./Bullyson). She was a great dog, never could a dog can't prove her gameness. She was too intense and rough, we beat the great Senorita dog who later on was a Champion dog and was on the cover of SDJ. Miss Pacman was born on November 30th 1984. Breeder Jeff McManus died when humane association jump into Jim Perry's house. Then, my first two Champion I had like Southern Kennels, when our winning and success time started were: Champion White Head and Champion Pretty Girl. Both bred and raised by us. Both Champion White Head and Champion Pretty Girl were awesome, unbeatable dogs with a lot of mouth, smarts, talent and were hard scratchers. We have here a short, nice history to tell everybody. Just after Captain D, there was a lot of jealousy in the Florida area. They started to say the Captain D was nothing of a conditioner, so many things were said. We knew we had to stop the talk and go into action. After all this talk, we went into the Pit Bull business and we matched three dogs into three different kennels in Florida. We named this convention Southern Kennels Vs. The Rest of Florida Kennels. Of course, that was not the case, but everybody wanted to see our "new name" lose. The big important thing of this convention was that Mr. Oscar, Latin Boys, my old partner, hooked a female called Yury against Pretty Girl. They had a little roll convention where they chose that Yury dog for Pretty Girl. She was rolled against a fifty pound male; she toyed with him for a few minutes, then finished him. She was a rough, intense and so far, game dog. They swore that the Yury dog was going to kill our Pretty Girl or make her jump the pit in thirty minutes. This was because Pretty Boy was famous for producing rough thirty minute curs??? This time however, he was bred into a dead game bitch, Miss Maggie (GR. CH. Buck 7x ROM x Havana Boy's CH Maggie 3x ROM). So these two dogs, White Head and Pretty Girl, are 3/4 Bullyson & 1/4 Patrick.

That was a phenomenal combination. Unfortunately for them, these two dogs were born complete. They took good mouth and intensity from their Bullyson family and all the gameness and smart style from the Mr. Patrick's breeding. I can say that they were almost unbeatable; also we had a great conditioning program. Captain D promised a great convention, there was a lot of expectations in South Florida. I remember there were like forty cars in the farm and at least one hundred and twenty persons there. It was incredible how many people came to that little convention. We had a male out of Champion Rattler & Harringer's Little Dumpling at forty-four pounds, Bubba Son, a male out of Boudreaux' Pretty Boy & Miss Maggie at forty- two pounds, White Head, a female littermate to White Head, Pretty Girl at thirty-five pounds. Bubba won his first match realtively easy under :45 against the Ft. Lauderdale Kennel who brought a good dog, but not good enough to beat Bubba Son. Then the dog who went into White Head, they called him Hard Drive, was an awesome, real hard driving dog with tremendous mouth, good enough to kill dogs in twenty minutes. At this moment White Head was a one time winner already, we beat Hurricane Kennels when they used a two time winner called Butter who was a good dog, but White Head won over that two time winner in under an hour. So these same guys, Hurricane Kennels, choose this Hard Drive dog to beat our White Head. It was a rough, intensive match where the first thirty minutes were even, until White Head started to lead the contest and start to finish that Hard Drive Dog; under the hour mark too, we play money against all of them and they were very surprised. At this moment, we won two out of two dogs, so the logical tell you we have to lose the third one, until the best dog they bring was the female. And they play their life that Yury dog will win against Pretty Girl 1x, so they go ahead and play the last penny they had in their pocket, it was so intense. Two fighting machine little girls met their that night, that contest was so intensive, fast, strong, hard and high speed. Yury was in front until twenty minutes when Pretty girl started to take control of that situation and start to work very hard. Finally, at like thirty-five minutes, after Pretty Girl show to Yury she will stay there all night long if she need it, Yury start to jump the pit. But Pretty Girl bite her stifle and bring her down into the box to continue the match. A few minutes after that we handled the dogs and the great Yury don't make it. Pretty Girl did an impressive scratch to win, because she was in very bad shape, just Yury was a real bad dog. On that day, Southern Kennels won three matches out of three fights in that little convention, the boys has to come back home with their pockets empty after losing all three matches. Champion White Head and Champion Pretty Girl born on March 14th 1989, breeder Havana Tito and Victor Aycart. Champion White Head was sold to Taiwan later on and Champion Pretty girl died with cancer a few years later at Southern Kennels' yard.

What are the qualities you look for in a stud dog and brood bitches? 

For breeding it is very important to research the bloodlines very well before making the breeding. We have to maintain in our mind the fact that the pedigrees, or papers, do not make Champions, but a good, game, winning dog makes his pedigree look great. Anyway, I just wanted to touch on this subject. When we are talking about stud dogs or brood bitches, we are talking about the future and many years invested in food, space, time and money. So we have to make a very, very strict selection before deciding to breed any male or female. This step will push you up or down, so it's da*n important decision. The attributes that I look for in any male or brood bitch are as follows: 

#1- Gameness,

#2- Durability,

#3- Stamina, 

#4- Wrestling Ability,

#5- Intelligence,

#6- Mouth. 

Now, these are the qualities of a great match dog and I believe we have to breed pit winners to produce more winners. No dog can be bred before you game test him very well. As a consequence of any kind of inbreeding, he can lose ability, mouth, air or intelligence. But what we can never lose is his gameness; I don't care how good he is bred, if he is not game he will not jump onto any of my females. Then, on the other hand, maybe you can have a female very inbred, like brother X sister or something like that. If she is cold dog you can try and breed her to high caliber match dog and wait and see what she can produce. I'm able to breed any cold female if she is well inbred dog, but the male has to be a winning match dog. In my personal opinion, if you breed winners you have a better chance to produce winners.

What type of dog do you prefer as far as fighting style? 

As far as I know we have, A.- Hard driving dogs, B.- Face, head and nose, defensive dogs, C.- Some of them with good, natural air. Others, not without going into any more extreme details about a specific style, what I really like is a complete dog. For example, if you have a rough, hard biting dog, intensive and try to eat his opponent in one minute, but he realizes that he is in front of another very good dog with same mouth or better, he has to develop a new style immediately. That is the natural intelligence of the dog, then he will go on face, jaws, nose or whatever he has to do for win. That is a winning dog, and in my opinion what all of us are looking for in a dog, WINNERS! You have a pretty good chance to win in a fast lane competition when you have a complete dog like that. Without trying to advertise Mayday, he is what I am talking about; he is extremely rough and with a terrible hard mouth. But he will change to any style he needs for the win. All we need is those kinds of dogs, the ones that will do whatever they have to do to take control of the situation and win. The first complete dog I had was Southern Kennels' Champion White Head; he was rough, hard puncher, but smart as hell. When he had to go into a defensive mode no one could catch him and when he went inside, he went like a bull and got his goal. I can see in his face, Champion White Head, when I was with him in the pit, in his eyes, and I can feel he knew everything that was happening around him and he knew when he had to switch his style. At that time I said he's so da*n smart, all he needs now is to talk. Then, Grand Champion Mayday, Champion Dragon Lady and Madonna had the same attributes. Champion Choice was the only one that didn't; she was only a hard driving dog with a terrible heavy mouth and dead game, no doubt about that. For that reason, she is no longer with us anymore, Rest In Peace. And finally, include as part of whatever style, had to be gameness. No matter what style your dog is, if he has the firm decision to stay there, trying and trying to the last minute, that will be a great support to win the contest. One more factor, it is not only important what kind of style your dog is, or how good he is, but always remember it is 50% you and 50% your dog. If you bring him in great shape, you already make your part; but sometimes I have to see great dogs, deep game, in very poor shape lose a contests against inferior dogs, but in better shape. So it's not only how good is the dog, but it is very important too, how good a Dogman is his or her owner.

GR CH Mayday, CH Choice & CH Dragon Lady were great dogs, but is there any secret 

about the success of this litter? 

GR CH SOUTHERN KENNEL'S MAYDAY ROM

CH SOUTHERN KENNEL'S DRAGON LADY

Yes, they are great dogs; there is no doubt about it. But the key of the success on this litter was that they came into the right Dogmen, at the right moment and they were the right dogs too.

Sometimes, the people said, "Oh, that guys Southern Kennels were very lucky when they get that great dogs". And I will accept the concept "lucky", if we agree that lucky as a final result, will be a combination of other situations that comes with a lucky's term; like a final of the history. For me, luck is: Capacity + Experience+ Tenacity+ Opportunity= "Lucky". We worked very hard during years and years with a lot of time and money involved in dogs; with many bad experiences, but we were enough game to come back and still scratching until we get it. So, we paid the price of the successful and when I said these great dogs come into my hands at the right moment it's because at that moment I was ready to handle this quality of dogs. Maybe if they come to me five years earlier nothing happen, we will never know. But I'm trying to explain, at that moment when I bought these dogs; I was already with enough experience about Pit Bulls and with a firm determination to make something great and big on my Pit Bull's steps in my life. I was completely decided to put all the energy, time and money to build something special that will put the name of my dogs and our kennel forever in the history of the Pit Bull's world. If I have to say about any secret about the success, priority I have to say great dogs, like they are, and then the firm decision from us to make that dream come true, ROM litter. Now we are working on the next step, that is put our dogs everywhere and breed them with the proper standards and try to produce great dogs like are already in the market, like Grand Champion Lukane and Champion Da Brat. 

GR CH S.T.P.'S LUKANE (5XW) ROM

CH GOING HARD'S DA BRAT

We will still try to push this particular bloodline of dogs until we build a new strain of Bulldogs with Grand Champion Mayday as the main stud dog. We will see in the near future, I promise I will do my best in honor of the truth. I can't finish this particular question without first mentioning the friends who gave to me many different keys, at different times, but all of their knowledge was important support to build the success that made the final result, "Lucky". These friends are the next ones, it's not the importance the order what I mentioned, just that order represents the time when they appear during my Pit Bull's life, they are: Captain D, Razorback (J.C.), Dr. Pepe from a lab (Mr. Joe P.), Angel, and Cuban Missing Link ( This one represents the lock and seal of all my conditioning programs, he is a great conditioner and one of my best friends- Thanks forever Bro!) All of them, in different times and different ways, taught me at the right time when great dogs came into my hands and I want to make public, my gratitude to all of them. Always I consider all of them part of Southern Kennels' succes.

Did you try to match Mayday with any particular dog but you couldn't? 

I know you had a lot of problems matching him after his second match. I always tried to match Mayday into anyone available. After he made Champion, I decided to go into a Champion, or a very will recognized Dogman. I was never picky, I advertised him "Open to the world". If anyone was willing, I was more than happy to travel to their back yard, that was the kind of confidence I had in Mayday. He was an unbeatable dog, period. The only match that was chosen specifically was the one against Mr. Tant, it was nothing personal. Jealous people started to say that Mayday could win against other bloodlines but couldn't beat anything coming from his own renowned game blood. That is why I pushed so hard to go into Mr. Tant. We went to Mr. Tant's backyard in almost impossible conditions and still won.

I know that you traveled a lot when you matched your dogs, what do you think about traveling to a match? 

Traveling to a match is ok if you have two conditions: A.- The Dogman has to know how to do it. He has to arrive at the right time, not too early, not too late. The dog has to be in great shape. B.- The dog you use for traveling has to be the kind of dog that is able to do it well. He has to be able to do it any place, any time and be able to handle the travel stress. He has to be able to handle sleeping in a different place and weather changes. He has to have a strong enough will to adapt to different people and strange circumstances. When you travel you will always lose at least 20% of your chance of winning. You need a good dog in great shape.

Without giving away any secrets,could you give our readers some of your views on conditioning, feeding and handling? 

I will say that conditioning is the "art" of working the dog very hard without over training and good enough to go any amount of time he needs to win, without destroying any of his natural attributes, like strength, power, and natural air they have off of the chain. We can see many times, one dog goes out off the chain and is game tested thirty to forty-five minutes without any problem and then on his real show time, he goes down in just twenty minutes, even run hot or too weak. Overtraining? I will give this basic advice: A.-Good workouts without over training, B.-Good rest when he needs it, C.- The best nutrition you can find for him.

What was the hardest match you ever had? 

That was Dragon Lady 2x against Sassy 2x. We were looking for the best forty-seven pound dog in the country for Dragon Lady's third match. Her first two she won in Puerto Rico, both were under the hour mark. Our friends, Power House Kennels, found us a real good one, Sassy. Dead End Kennels Waldo conditioned Dragon Lady in Puerto Rico; he did a great job with her. The following is what transpired.....We flew into his own backyard, from Puerto Rico all the way to Pennsylvania. We arrived a few days before that contest. We didn't know where the match would take place. Unfortunately, the day of the contest we found out that we had to drive three hours to arrive to the place; that was very bad news. We were very upset with the Power House Kennels; they had not handled the situation properly. We were supposed to be as close as possible to the show. Anyway, we had to drive three house and Dragon Lady didn't want to sit down and rest. She was standing up in her kennel for the whole three hours. At that point, I was very nervous. There was too much going against Dragon Lady: A.- Conditioned in Puerto Rico, B.-Flight to Pennsylvania, C.- Drive three hours to arrive at the match place, D.- Ten minutes after we arrived at that place we were weighing the dogs, next washing then going into the arena. E.- We arrived at their own backyard where the other dog was conditioned, fed and had lived for at least the previous eight weeks. In addition to all of this, Dragon Lady went into another two time winner that was "open to the world" and very well bred. She was heavy Snooty on top and heavy Red Boy/Jocko down from the S.T.P's Champion Toro on bottom. To make this long story short, I will say these two great dogs were even for 1:45, we didn't know who would win at this time. Then, Dragon Lady started to lead the contest by just a little bit, not much, until the two hour mark. Then she started doing a whole lot better than Sassy. At 2:10 Sassy was picked up to save her life. Dragon Lady was working hard on her, but both girls made rocket fast and impressive courtesy scratches. It is very important to say that they went 2:10 with no turns and no out of holds. We were never able to make a handle on either girl. They started and never stopped until they picked up Sassy. This match was what I call a "classic match".

What's the greatest fight you ever witnessed? 

That was Grand Champion Mayday against Tant's Cody. Not only because of how good Cody was, who later showed to be dead game, but because of all the circumstances surrounding the contest. It was almost impossible for Mayday to win this match; the odds were stacked 99% against us. Mr. Tant didn't know that he was going into Mayday. My good friend Angel hooked Mayday into Mr. Tant for us. We respect Mr. Tant like as a good breeder and Dogman, but we had to show that Mayday could handle any Red Boy/Jocko dog as well. So, we went into the main source of the Grand Champion Yellow blood, Mr. Tant. We conditioned Mayday in Florida and flew into South caroline a few days before the contest. That match was hooked at sixty-five pounds. We made a mistake on his last feedand we were at sixty-five and a half pounds, just a half bound over weight, so we had to pay the forfeit. Mr. Tant was ok with that; he still wanted to do it. At sixty-five and a half pound would not make that big a difference; we paid it and started to wash Mayday. Toward the end of the wash, Mr. Tant started to look at Mayday and he started saying, " That is a nice looking dog, he looks just like my Yellow dogs. Is he who I'm thinking he is?" At this point we were getting edgy, then he asked us directly, "Is this dog Champion Mayday?" Well, what could we say, we had to admit it. He was very upset, I couldn't blame him. He said he didn't want to go into his dogs. I told him that yes, Mayday is off of Grand Champion Yellow, but you weren't the breeder. The breeder was Mr. Hollingsworth who paid the stud fee. All you did was collect the money. he is only 50% your bloodline, the other 50% is Hollingsworth's careful blend of Bolio/ Tombstone. Anyways, after he collected our forfeit, he ran out of the place with his dog and left us there with Mayday all wet. We didn't even have a chance to finish washing him, hehehe. We were very frustrated, I told myself that was the last time I will condition Maday! It was extremely difficult finding any dog able to go into him. A few friends like Cuban Missing Link were there in the car and I asked him to just take him back to Miami in his car that same night. Of course, we didn't feed Mayday that night; he was in the car all night long until they arrived home in the morning. At that time, they just gave Mayday a cup of dog food. Everything was gone; we already lost the chance to make the match. That Sunday morning, when i wake up, I was very hyper and disappointed. I decided to call Mr. Tant and have a meeting with him. I wanted to renegotiate the situation and make that match possible. After a two hour conversation, we agreed to the following terms: A.- We will do it Thursday night, B.- Not sixty five pounds, but catch weight, C.- We will play for only $1,000 against Champion Dragon Lady) Champion Dragon Lady was well known as the best forty-seven pounder in the world and Mr. Tant wanted to snatch her from us), D.-I had to take it or leave it, like that, so I took his offer. Immediately I called my friends in Florida and told them what I had decided to do. All of them screamed over the phone that I was crazy!!! All of them told me that Mayday looked terrible. He was completely stressed, skinny and under pit weight. On top of that, I had to put him back on the airplane. My friends refused to send me my dog, but I told them he was MY DOG and that I would take responsibility for him. I spoke to them firmly and they finally sent the dog. Dr. Pepe from the lab was the one who sent Mayday. After he shipped him he called and said Mayday was in terrible shape. he said he was very stressed, tired and unrested, not to mention way under pit weight. All my friends said I was crazy and that all I was going to do was lose a great dog. They said it was impossible for me to win. When Mayday arrived in South Carolina for the second time he was just bones! I started to think that maybe my friends were right. The circumstances were too much, even for the greatest dog of all time. He looked completely destroyed, I have a picture of him that day; he was a completely different Mayday, he was a package of bones. My great friend Angel was the only friend I had left that was willing to help me in my task. He helped me to recover Mayday in only four days. He stayed with me and worked along side me; we had him on IV's. Forget conditioning, forget the keep, all we were trying to do was recover Mayday from all the long hours of travel and malnutrition. Well, we arrived there Thursday night and Mr. Tant brought Cody at seventy-two pounds, he was a horse. That was a smart move, he gave Cody all the rest he needed and very good food. On top of that, he let him gain seven pounds. Now we will have to go into a bigger, stronger and completely rested dog. Things were looking bad. Mayday looked a lot smaller than Cody and was all stressed from the travel back and forth. Release your dogs.... and the party started. As we expected, Cody led the contest early, pushing and punching very hard into Mayday for the first thirty-five minutes. Mayday was just trying to keep that big strong dog out with defense. He held onto the nose, face and throat. A few times Mayday tried to go into the back end, but Cody was too strong and kept him out. Finally Mayday understood that he was infront of a lot stronger dog than him. So, he never tried to go into the back again, he just kept working up front, nose face and throat. After thirty-five to forty-five minutes, Mayday started to show the lead a little bit! Mayday had got a good throat hold on Cody; he held that spot for a few minutes. At the :51 mark, Mayday was on top of Cody and was really working his throat hold. Mr. Tant asked us to scratch to continue; Cody wasn't moving, wasn't breathing or anything. He was like a dead dog. So we said ok, we didn't think there was any way possible Cody could scratch. Boy! Were we surprised when that Cody dog started to scream in the corner like a maniac! We were in front of a dead game dog, Cody worked Mayday over really hard for a few more minutes, then Mayday caught him in the same throat hold again at 1:03! Tant asked us again to scratch Cody to continue and we said, "No! You either pick that dead game dog up or Mayday will finish him right there in the middle of the box!" Mr. Tant made the right decision and both boys made a good, hard courtesy scratch. Mayday was on fire! He was screaming and pulling in the corner and looked like he was ready to party for another hour. We were finally able to calm him down after about fifteen minutes. This was his fifth match and is also the greatest fight I ever witnessed.

GR CH TANT'S YELLOW (6XW) ROM

What is the best fighting dog you ever saw, the games? 

Champion Dragon Lady, the best fighter, smartest and gamest dog I have ever seen.

Which are the best producers of today? 

Well, records speak for themselves. Champion Jeep has the #1 spot on the ROM list, but Grand Champion Yellow and Grand Champion Buck are my favorites. They are right up there on the list. Mayday was a phenomenal show dog, now we have to see if his sons and daughters can measure up to their sire in the next few years. I'm 100% sure they will. The way he is bred, I'm sure he will be one of the best producers of all time. Only time will tell if I'm wrong or not. However, we have very high expectations of the big boy reproducing the qualities that made him Grand Champion.

If you had to start again in the game, which line of dogs would you use?

Yellow/Dolly (Red Boy/Jocko x Bolio/Tombstone). I would love to start with young dogs coming from Grand Champion Mayday; he is producing way beyond even my expectations.

HOLLINGSWORTH'S DOLLY ROM

I believe that Mayday is your favorite dog of all times, am I right? 

Yes, you are right, he is a "once in a lifetime" dog. The best I ever saw and of course my favorite.

VICTOR AYCART WHIT GR CH MAYDAY ROM

CH SCOTSMAN'S MAX.

http://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/modules.php?name=Public&file=printPedigree&dog_id=331673

The first time I ever saw Max was probably in 1983, he was about six months old and he used to sit on the street at the door way of a furniture store on the North side of town. He was never tied up or anything, he just sat there 41 day watching the world go by. At this time I owned a Staffordshire Bull terrier and when I walked past the shop I would look down at Max thinking that he must be one of those mongrel American fighting dogs, the same ones the daft yanks thought could beat our Staffordshire terriers, when of course anyone in their right mind could tell you that the Staffordshire was truly the genuine article. Everyday I walked past him just to see my Staff strain on the lead to get into that dopey looking pup with legs too big for his body and ears too big for his head.  However towards the end of 1983 I never saw Max around anymore and it was maybe another year before I saw him again. I had been making it known around town that I wanted a fight for my Staffordshire terrier and it was not long before the Scotsman and his cousin pulled up outside my door in a beat up builder's van asking if I fancied rolling my dog. I never had a clue what a roll was but I agreed anyway, so the Scotsman and I just walked my dog into a field at the back of the coalmine while the cousin went to fetch his dog. When he got back I recognised him straight away as Max, this was the first time I had ever seen an adult Pit Bull terrier and it blew me away. The look in Max's eyes and the way he moved, man he was like something out of the jungle. There was no roll, only sixty seconds of my dog getting shook. like a duster, none of us knew about breaking sticks so we eventually choked Max off my dog and I ran off in the direction of a vet.  After that I visited the Scotsman every week asking for a Pit Bull pup and lads to learn as much as I could about these incredible dogs, as it turned out he -never knew much more than I did, but when I asked him how he got into the Pit Bull's the Scotsman told me that he knew~ a guy called No Kidding from the Lurcher and Terrier scene around the North of England. This guy was now in about the game dogs so when the Scotsman meets him once again at a terrier show they head straight for the pub where the beer flows and the talk gets talked and before that bar is closed the wee man wanders off determined to get himself a fighting dog. 

Someone had told him about an eighteen-month-old American Pit Bull terrier that was lying on death row at the local dog pound. Apparently the guy at the furniture shop had finally realised that when he bought that puppy from Ed Reid he had taken on a lot more dog than he bargained for. Max was now dragging one of his back legs after having his pelvis pinned and plated back together in an operation caused by his diving out a first floor window to get into a cat on the street. It was this, plus one or two other unfortunate incidents generally concerning anything that walked on four legs that got Max sent to death row.  He would certainly have been destroyed had it not been that in those days there was none of the hysteria surrounding Pit Bull's that we got today and also the woman who was in charge of the place, well she took a real shine to Max she could even get him to sit on command and roll over for a biscuit. Max loved people and if you never knew what he was then you would swear he never had a bad bone in him. So the woman at the pound called a young couple she knew who owned an English Bull terrier and asked if they would be interested in saving the life of a beautiful Pit Bull terrier who sometimes got in trouble, but then isn't that just what we love about those Bull terriers. The couple agreed to take him and so the bold Max escaped from death row and headed for the good life with his new pal the Bull Terrier.  It was about this time that the Scotsman turned up at the dog pound making enquiries about an American Pit Bull and saying that this was just the kind if dog he was looking for. The woman did not like the look of the Scotsman and anyway she said Max had already been rescued. However during the conversation the Scotsman managed somehow to get the name of the people who had taken Max; so he heads home, gets out the phone book and starts to call every person listed under that name asking if they recently rescued an American Pit Bull terrier. Somewhere in the telephone book the Scotsman scored, but the woman on the other end of the phone was in tears as she told him that indeed they had rescued Max from being put down, but by the very next morning he would be back on death row again because Max had been shitting on her sofa all week and he had just killed her Bull terrier. The Scotsman offered to go straight round there and take the dog off her hands without even charging her a penny for his trouble, the woman agrees and the Scotsman was round there faster than a rat up a drain pipe.

Maybe I should make it clear that the Scotsman never did own Max, this is because within five minutes of getting him back home he noticed the dog dragging his back leg as a result of the hip operation and decided that a handicap like this would make Max useless as Pit dog, so he gave him away to his cousin. Only after they had rolled him a couple of times did the Scotsman actually realise just how much he had blown it. Within 4 months Max was 'making his name in the west of Scotland. The Scotsman and his cousin rolled him almost every week into anyone who thought they had a fighting dog and Max just went straight through them all. He was born on the yard of Ed Reid coming out of his Skipper (ROM) dog and the Black Beauty bitch, I doubt if Mr Reid ever so much as rolled a dog. However I do still believe that Skipper produced the best line of pit proven match dogs this country has yet seen and I am amazed that Springview is the only person in all these years to have the courage to even consider this a possibility. I don't think there's any doubt that Ed Reid made a fortune selling puppies, but it's ironic that around the same time his reputation as a serious pit dog breeder was going down the drain, the first generation of Skipper's sons and daughters were making their presence felt against the best pit dogs here in the United Kingdom, which in my experience were the Buzz and Limey dogs. Back in 1985 Max could have landed in any of the top bull dog yards in England (many like him probably did) and the crazy thing is that most of the boys down there would not even have given him kennels space. Reid dogs were by now considered worthless and many of us had already been taken in by pedigrees and promises of bulldog traders in the States, who were quick to recognise the growing market for bulldogs here in Britain. Too many of these characters could not give a shit for a game dog, just so long as they got the dollars (and they got plenty). Soon everyone was importing dogs; each one came guaranteed fast lane. Some of them were even decent pit bulls, but most of them couldn't fight sleep (couldn’t produced one either). And while our best British dog men were searching on the other side of the Atlantic for those elusive fast lane dogs, one of the best of the eighties was already in the hands of a couple of Lurcher men who were greener than every blade of grass in Scotland. No Kidding owned a Reid bred dog called Pistol that was open to match, so he called up the Scotsman asking if he would go at a weight of 50 pounds, the Scotsman agreed and Max was contracted into his first real one. 

The Scotsman never had the first clue 'about conditioning, he had never even heard of a treadmill. So he worked Max the same way as his lurchers, he just walked into the hills, slipped Max of his lead and let him run around chasing rabbits all night while he wandered about in the dark completely out of his mind on pills and drink, plotting the downfall of any dog, any size any where who stood in the way of him and Max. 

Pistol was a good 50 pound dog, and he was as game as they come but No Kidding picked him up in 53 minutes to save him. After defeating Pistol the Scotsman' thought Max was invincible. He also thought that since Max had just beaten a good 50 pound dog then it was fair to assume that Max also must be that pit weight. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing especially since we never discovered Max's true pit weight until after he was retired, but I can tell you that I have seen Max put on the scales and the dog weighed 43 pounds. Maybe another pound on him would have suited me better, but the fact remains that back in those days the Scotsman, his cousin or me could not even guess the pit weight of a dog, if only we could have, then Champion Max would have been matched at his proper weight of 44 to 45 pounds. Max's second match was into a big catch weight dog called Clyde. Some boys from the West of Scotland had come back for Max after he stopped one of their prospects in a roll. When the question of Clyde's weight came up the boys just acted dumb and said they had never weighed him. The Scotsman told them that it didn't matter about weight, just to be there in six weeks with a dog and their money. (This almost sums up our attitude to matching dogs back then). On the day of the match the lads were real confident and when they opened the van it was easy to see why. Clyde was massive, he must have weighed at least 65 pounds and the scales only went up to sixty. The Scotsman just stared at Clyde in silence, while the boys were all bent over laughing at the look on his face. That day Max took the biggest pounding of his life in a match that lasted 3 hrs 56 mins,  Clyde did all he could to kill Max, he completely wiped the floor with him, but Max had this fire in him that just burned and burned and if you could not kill him then you could not beat him. At around 3 hrs 30 mins Max was laying on his back, his eyes were closed as if he was sleeping. His head and chest were badly damaged but Max was locked solid onto Clyde's throat and seemed content just to lay there and let time tick away. It became clear that Clyde was exhausted and slipping into shock. Suddenly Max started making little whining noises that got louder and louder and he just came of the floor and went into Clyde like a bazooka, driving hard into the throat and shaking like crazy. Clyde's backers could not believe their eyes, they picked their dog up, lost a fortune and Clyde never saw the sun rise next morning. Max almost died from his injuries and he never came out of his kennel for weeks, but if you know the Skipper dogs then you will know they take a real good kicking and eventually Max came right again. And so we come to the match between Limeys Smokey and Scotsman's Max. This is the one Hugh Limey referred to when he stated on record that Scotsman Max was nothing but a rank cur, and that statement is the only reason I now find myself writing about a wee dog who has been in the ground for almost ten years. The Limeys had just imported a two time winner called Smokey (for some reason he was also known as The Dentist) and he came with one of those big bad reputations after beating a dog called Champion Sinbad over in America. The Limey's now wanted to make Smokey a Champion before lining him to every bitch they owned. 

They had tried unsuccessfully to get Smokey matched up at 55 pounds. Meanwhile here in Scotland a match could not be found for Max at 50 pounds, so No Kidding finally got around to asking the Scotsman if he would give weight away to match into the Limey's at 55 pounds. The Scotsman decided that since both dogs were going for their championship then Max would be the better one if he won pushing 5 pounds up hill. He still never had the experience to see that Max was only ever a 44 pound dog anyway, and if the Limeys or No Kidding saw it, then they said nothing.  The Scotsman's cousin was starting to enjoy Max's growing reputation so he decided for this championship match he would condition and handle Max himself, a fact that almost cost him the match. When he was put on the scales at the venue Max weighed 57 pounds, which made him 2 pounds over the match weight and a full 13 pounds over his natural pit weight of 44 pounds. The Scotsman paid the forfeit, but when he asked his cousin how Max could be so heavy, the cousin told him he gave Max four eggs and a pint of milk for strength before leaving home that morning.  So here comes Scotsman's Max hog fat, fighting a dog 11 pounds heavier, he is totally unconditioned with four eggs and a pint of milk slapping around in his belly. He is going in against the best outfit in the United Kingdom, who are using a bum fit 55 pound dog who just whipped a champion out in the States. Max destroyed Smokey, he took him apart and he did it easy. He went absolutely wide open trying to kill Smokey and only done this when a dog was no danger to him. Because of the intense heat outside and all the weight that Max was caring the pace slowed down and the Limeys were' able to get, a handle on Smokey with Max to go.

It's Max to scratch. His handier releases him but Max don't move. The Scotsman’s cousin then slams his knee into Max's side and Max flies over to finish what is left of Smokey. The Limeys quite rightly shout foul, and the Scotsman’s cousin looks over to ask the Scotsman what a foul is? But a foul it was and the match should have been stopped right there and Smokey declared the winner. No kidding was referee that day and he explained to the Limeys that the Scotsman’s cousin had never handled a dog in the pit before and although the Limeys had every right to claim the match as a win; this was a match between two dogs and not their handlers. After a moment the Limeys gave the cousin a fool's pardon and allowed the match to continue.  Maybe it was because they were trying to regain their good name in the dogs after King Limey robbed No Kidding that time, or maybe it was because they had brought with them a couple of Dutch boys who might go back to Holland and say the Limeys won by default, with a dog that was never in the fight. Personally I think that generally the Limeys were good sportsmen who knew we were stupid, but accepted we had a better dog that day. The match carried on but by 1.17 it was obvious that Smokey was getting killed so they picked him up.

The Limeys asked for a courtesy scratch for Smokey (AKA The Dentist), that killing dog who beat a champion in America, and guess what...? he never scratched It's easy for me to see that even today Hugh Limey is not too pleased with Max, but why insult the memory of a wee dog who overcame such handicaps and weight differences, why call a dog like that a rank cur.? Maybe Max was not a finisher and after demolishing Smokey he felt he had done enough. Maybe he got distracted by a fly on the wall and maybe he was even going to quit. The trouble is that no one will ever know because Max's handler struck him with his knee and Max did scratch inside 10 seconds.  As far as I am aware the first ever battle between two Champion Pit Bull Terriers in the United Kingdom was Northern Lads Champion Billy versus Champion Scotsman’s Max. Billy was also a son of Reid's Skipper and rated one of the best in the country. Even the journey down to arrange the match was an education with the likes of Grand Champion Jacko, Champion Klogger , Black Max, Champion Desperado and Grand Champion Rocky, all living within walking distance of the Northern Lad and Champion Billy. It still puzzles me just how little our friends in Europe and America seem to know about the dogs up here in the North and across the border into Scotland. Our mistake was that we never shouted about them. The weight for this match was made at fifty pounds and the atmosphere leading lip to it was electric. as Champion Billy hit the scales at forty nine and three quarters looking stripped to his limit  Max entered at forty eight and a half pounds carrying extra weight but probably in the best condition of his life: The battle between these two Champions could be drawn into three sections. (1) The dogs are released and both go straight at it. Max is tuning a lot and at thirty minutes Champion Billy's superior strength and ability is starting to show. Max is still trying to get into the fight but Billy is all over him. (2) Max goes on to the bottom, he is locked into Billy's throat but Billy is dragging him all over the pit and biting hard on anything that's in front of him, Max stays in the throat, his eyes are closed and for the next two hours he just stays on the bottom riding out the storm. At around 2hrs 3O min Max starts those little whining noises and Billy's backers think that he is voicing the pain of a pounding he has taken for the last two and a half hours, but Max simply knew he had taken all that was coming. Champion Billy was going into shock, his strength had gone and Max knew it (3) Max comes off the bottom he is still locked into Billy's throat except that now he is working the hold and shaking hard. At 2.45 the Northern Lad gets a handle on Billy with Max to scratch, and he goes over like a missile hitting Billy straight in the throat, if the Northern Lad thought there was any quit in Champion Max before the match, well he sure as hell didn’t anymore and he pulled Champion Billy out at 2.46. The Northern Lad asked for a courtesy scratch but Billy had already given far more than he had. As soon as he was released he just collapsed on his scratch line and lay still. I think about Champion Billy from time to time, he was a true game dog and I won't forget him. But what about that old cur called Scotsman’s Max, how should we remember him? 

I don't have a problem with anyone who thinks that Max was not game; they can think whatever they like. The problem for me is that while pursuing a daft wee 'pen war with Springview, Hugh Limey stated on record that Champion Max was nothing more than a rank cur. And so now that the truth has come out Hugh, maybe you are thinking that you should have put some thought into it before you came away with that one, because I don't sell dogs and there is no other reason for me to write this, other than to do a real game dog a bit of justice and say that the day you called Scotsman’s Max a cur was the day that you shit your pants in public and that smell is going, to follow you around forever. See! The fact is that your killer was never enough of a dog to test the gameness of Max in the first place and even a good dog like Champion Billy could not find the depth of him.  So now let me state on record, that while I admit to being a big fan of the Limey dogs it would be clear to anyone who saw Champion Max that Limey Kennels never owned one, bred one or even clapped a dog that ever got close to being in the same league as Max was. It would be clear, the only time your ROM litter met with a decent opponent, they quit. As for Smuggler I am not sure why he was put down (bad towards kids maybe), but I’ve seen the video and if you call that McCoy dog a worthy opponent for any dog boasting the title of Champion then it speaks volumes about your ROM litter and their opponents.  Now take a look at them Skipper dogs we had up here in Scotland, have a look at the class of opponent we matched into and although (unlike Big D), I would never dream of comparing any of our dogs to Tudors Dibo, their ability to produce was not only unmistakable it was unbelievable. Reid's Skipper ROM produced Champion Max who beat Champion Billy. Max's brother Champion Dread beat East Ends Champion Neilson. Then there was Buddy who became a two time winner before the RSPCA got their filthy hands on him, and their sister Ray Rocks Lightning produced Champion Curstopper when she got bred back to her nephew Champion Hagar.  Champion Max was only bred a handful of times and I know of just six dogs out of him that ever got matched, all the rest either went to pet homes or certain death in the hands of the RSPCA. After his Rambo dog scratched dead game against Champion Massada, the Scotsman bred Max to Rambo's sister; this produced my two-time winner Charlie. Scar Kennels were looking for another victim to match into their four timer Champion Klogger at 48 pounds. Charlie only weighed 46 pounds, but I had a feeling he was a bit special so I took the match. Anyone who was around back then will know Kloggers reputation for finishing a dog, and most of the bets going down that night said my dog would be dead in half an hour. But that never happened because Charlie done moves that ballet dancers would be proud of and after he took Klogger to school for an hour and then set about killing him Champion Klogger quit in his comer at 1.18. Max was bred to Scotsman’s Tania twice and produced five dogs that saw. the square these were, Tosh, Huc, Archie, Yogi and Hagar.  The first thing to put straight right now is that Tania's pedigree is a complete lie...She was stolen from a terrier show in England and although she resembled a Buzz type bitch, it would be impossible for anyone to know how she was bred. It was only after Champion Yogi and his brother Champion Hagar entered the limelight that Joe Graham and those in England who were still interested in Skipper started making enquiries about Tania's pedigree, rather than come clean about her.  The Scotsman went to see a guy who owned a brother to Champion Billy called Buster. He just copied out Buster's pedigree and attached it to Tania and so this is why Tania's pedigree reads (Skipper X Lady). Incidentally, that dog Buster was just an old family pet, but he's the very same one who produced what could be the greatest European match dog of that era. That dog was Grand Champion Bill. If I told you how good Bill was you might call me a liar, and if I told you that after he killed Champion Dirty Bertie in 1.44 you could have taken Bill straight to a vet and the guy would have sworn he had never even been in a fight.  You might call me crazy, but ask someone who was there and they might just say the same. Out of the Max x Tania pups Junk Yards Tosh was the first to be matched, he got picked up game in 1.40 and died shortly after. Thankfully he had already been bred to a real good granddaughter of Skipper called Duchess This mating produced three good ones that I know of. Two met with accidents while quite young and the other one would even had made old timers cry. Every mistake that ever happened to a Pit Bull happened to this dog, He was rolled too young, matched too light, under conditioned, over conditioned and still he stopped opponents that could have become Champions had they not hit the brick wall that was Champion Bash. It was however his loss to Champion Yogi that showed a few of us there that day the quality of Bash and the depth of his gameness. His owner made the mistake of matching into Champion Yogi at 42 pounds, Yogi was a real good dog anyway, but Bash was only 38 pounds and going 4 pounds up hill against Yogi was plain suicide. At 1.10 Bash was in shock and two of his legs were not working anymore, so his owner conceded the match, but as soon as he tried to pick Bash up the wee dog 'just started to scream the place down. Not only did Bash want to continue, but the nut case actually thought he was winning. His courtesy scratch that day was unbelievable, his legs would not hold him up, so he crawled across and if looks could kill then Yogi would have died were he stood. His owner gave Bash away in disgust because he never won, so I took him home with me before passing him on to the Road Warrior and Yarrakin Lad who made Bash a champion at 38 pounds. As for Champion Yogi, he went across the water to Ireland and defeated Grand Champion Ned in his own backyard, then came back home next day cuddled up against his brother Champion Hagar in the back seat of the car. 

When I matched Huc into Limey's Kelly, I was using the first Pit Bull I ever owned. His keep was a shambles and after ten minutes; of dominating the match Huc ran out of gas and he never recovered. Kelly seemed more interested in sex than fighting, but Huc was getting hurt so after a dozen scratches I picked him up game at 1.14 and went home to learn how to condition a dog properly. I still believe that the best dog lost, but the fact is when you want to beat the Limeys, you turn up with a great dog, in great condition, and I had neither. In his next match against Grand Champion Jacko, Huc quit in 46 minutes I wouldn't hold it against him because it was only when I saw with my own eyes the mayhem that Jacko unleashed on his opponents, I realised that I could have given Huc a suit of armour and a big stick and still he could never have beaten that evil reptile.  I think it was the summer of 1989 when Springview brought Grand Champion Bruno to Scotland. Hagar had never been matched before and we didn't even consider him our best dog. Sam Marsden and I had been out stealing scrap metal all week to raise a few quid for a wee bet on the dogs at the weekend, but I was daft enough to leave him with the money and just like the true son of Ireland - which he was, Sam loved the drink. On the way to the match No Kidding and I were in the car with Springview and Bruno's owner following in the one behind. As we approached the place, No Kidding noticed a man staggering along the side of the road, completely out of his mind on the drink. I knew there was no point in asking Sam if he still had the money. No Kidding said I’ll bet that guy never makes it home. I told him he was probably right because he's handling Hagar. It wasn't true, but it was worth saying just to see the look on No Kidding's face. I guess we just had a different attitude about matching dogs than some of the more established outfits. Sure we liked to win, but mostly we matched dogs for fun and if we could scalp a Champion or Grand Champion along the way, well that just made it even better fun.  Springview on the other hand entered the pit shouting about money and side bets and we were all pissing ourselves laughing because every one of us was skint. When the dogs were released Grand Champion Bruno shot across and nailed Hagar deep in the chest before he even got out of his corner. Hagar went into Bruno's face taking him off on the nose and then switching to the ear and basically that's it. Grand Champion Bruno kept pushing in hard and trying to slam Hagar into the corners where he could do some damage, but Hagar would just spin out on the ear and once again Bruno was chasing thin air.  Hagar was now moving so fast that Bruno must have thought he was surrounded. At about 3O min Bruno's tail went between his legs and he was turning and protesting so much Hagar turned up the pressure and at 33 min Grand Champion Bruno was down and out. Springview did try to courtesy scratch Bruno, but the dog just folded right there at his feet (stone 'dead). It was only due to Springview's patience and medical skills that we managed to restart Bruno's engine and the wee dog recovered just fine. When the Pit Bull News and Sporting Dog Journal reported this match they said that in a 40 minute match against Hagar, Grand Champion Bruno was picked up and scratched game. All I can say is that he did not scratch and he was not game. 

I still believe that Hagar gave Springview a lesson in bulldogs that day and still he can't see it, because he's too busy shouting that none of the daft jocks would have a side bet with him. Maybe he thinks that we were all afraid of his killing dog, when in fact he could have walked straight in there with Grand Champion Zebo and any one of us would have given weight away just to get it on. Those "real strange moves" that Springview talked about in his excellent article last November, those very moves that made him think that Hagar was not game, was simply a hold out dog "par excellence". Hagar was a head dog, a counter puncher, a clever bastard, call it what you like, but we had three of them.  I don't know if Grand Champion Bill was game, because Champion Massada, Champion Dirty Bertie nor any other opponent for that matter ever phased Bill enough to test his gameness. The same might be said of Charlie, but Champion Hagar was dead game and that is a fact. My yard got raided in May of 1990, when one hundred and forty policemen busted me and thirty five other comedians when I matched Archie against a one time winner from the North East called Nailer. Earlier that afternoon Charlie had beat a one time winner called Sundance in 23 min and if the coppers had waited another 15 minutes then Archie would have made it Scotland 2, England 0. Archie was a monster. He was one of the hardest biting, most intense 50 pound dogs that I ever saw go into a pit and it's a 'tragedy that I never even got started with him. But like plenty of other fools before me who kept all their eggs in one basket, the RSPCA completely wiped out my yard of both dogs. They took prospects, match dogs and my brood bitches. It took more than a month of searching before I finally found out where they were being kept pending the trial. I wish now I had never found them at all, because when I eventually got there; what I saw made me sick and will probably stay with me all my life. Every bulldog in the place was starved of food and water. Maybe it was some crazy experiment to break their fighting spirit, or to provide good photo opportunities for the RSPCA propaganda war against dog fighters. Charlie was totally emaciated, his back bone was clearly visible through dry, staring fur and the rest were as bad. I had to choke back my anger as I told the manager of that death camp that I would be back in one week with a vet and a lawyer, and if the condition of those dogs did not seriously improve then the RSPCA would land in court and he would be in h hospital. 

When I went back a week later every dog had been moved away. I believe at that point, perhaps six months before the start of Britain’s biggest dog fight trial, the dogs were already dead. Sometime later I heard that someone sneaked out there in the middle of the night and burned that shit hole to the ground and although I never condone breaking the law I have to say that I slept real well that night. The trial was a joke, but I was amazed just how accurate the police had been in pinpointing the organisers of the match despite the very large numbers of people involved at the bust. The reason for this became apparent as we went to trial. Out of seven organisers named on the charge sheet, only six of us appeared in the dock. This is because one was sitting in the witness room. Of the 36 people appearing on various dog fight charges, only one man had his Not Guilty plea accepted. Only one man had money returned to him by the court and only one man's name was on a list of prosecution witnesses, right there beside the police and BSPCA. It was not an English man or an Irish man. IT WAS A SCOTSMAN.

When I got out of jail I jumped straight back into the dogs again. But new government laws had come into force banning Pit Bull Terriers and effectively ordering the genocide of that breed in the United Kingdom. To make matters worse I found dog men curring out so fast that it made me wonder why the hell they were ever around Pit Bulls in the first place. The Scotsman got out of the dogs soon after the ban and swapped Champion Yogi for a Lurcher. That was bad enough, but nothing would prepare me for the news that when the Scotsman’s cousin shit out of the game dogs soon after the trial, he had Champion Max destroyed rather than save him from a death sentence, sanctioned by a bunch of faggot politicians who were willing to accept any bullshit that their corrupt and paranoid little police force threw at them. Max deserved better than this, he deserved better than to have his life snuffed out by a maggot that never even had the balls to scratch just one time for the wee dog that gave us everything. For a while I tried my luck around some different dogs including a one time winner from the North East called Scar. I matched this one into Doctor Death using a Neilson/Mayfield dog called Bible. Scar won in 54 minutes but to be honest he did not have much more in his tool bag than a decent bite so I gave him to another maggot called Turley. If the Champion Max family survives or ever again reaches the heights we all took so much for granted back in the eighties, then it will be thanks to Ray Rock and the Yarrakin Lad who showed the dogs in the nineties when myself and Frank Mc Phie were not around. Ray Rock lined Champion Max's sister back to his son Champion Hagar and produced the wicked wee two time bitch Grizzly. Also in the litter was the Billy dog that killed a one time winner in a kennel fight before the RSPCA dragged him away. Yarrakin owned another pup and this was the pure game Champion Curstopper who finally defeated Grand Champion Jacko in a match going l hr 3O min making Curstopper a four time winner. Going after his fifth Yarrakin decided to cross the sea to Ireland and into another Reid dog called Champion Rocky. This was the first time that two, four time winners were to fight for the title of Grand Champion in the UK or Ireland (another first for Reid dogs). Sadly the match did not materialise because after driving over to the west coast, Yarrakin was forced to turn back when all Ferries across the Irish Sea were cancelled because of bad weather. Yarrakin drove North trying to cross over from Scotland, which he did successfully; however by the time he finally reached the South of Ireland; Champion Curstopper had dropped over 3 pounds in weight.Yarrakin had a tough choice on his hands; either go ahead with the match, using a weak dog fighting, four pounds up hill or pay the forfeit and go home. He decided that if Champion Rocky entered on or under the weight limit of 47 and a half pounds the match would go ahead. But if Rocky was even as much as a bees wing over that weight limit, then Yarrakin would lift the forfeit and head home. Rocky did come in over the limit, and Yarrakin did lift that forfeit. I don't know if Champion Rocky ever made it to Grand Champion (I hope he did) but Champion Curstopper remained open to match for exactly another twelve months with no takers and so he was retired a four time winner. 

Maybe some day I’ll write about the dogs Curstopper produced, dogs like Bracken and Peaceman. Maybe Frank will finally write that story about Bill, but until then I present to the readers Reid's Skipper ROM and his hard living son Champion Max who defeated Champion Billy and produced the dead game Champion Hagar. He destroyed Grand Champion Bruno and produced Champion Curstopper who defeated Grand Champion Jacko and is still producing them as game as himself or any before him. Some might say not fast lane, but I say…. proven against Champions.

So next time you boys invite the daft jocks to a dog fight do not be fooled by our shoddy appearance or by our dogs pedigree written on the back off a bus ticket, just bring the best one you got, because if you don't, then chances are you're going to find yourself standing over a dead dog.

CH GARNER'S CHINAMAN (4XW) ROM

Tom Garner with Chinaman

http://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/modules.php?name=Public&file=printPedigree&dog_id=26

Chinaman was born on the yard of R. Abernathy on November 29, 1977. He was one of three pups born to Abernathy's Molly and sired by Wood's Trouble. Molly always seemed to have 3 pups. This time there was Chinaman, Boy and a female who would be named Onyx Lady (who went to the owner of Trouble, Dr. Wood). Boy would end up in the hands of G. Wright, where he would win three matches. Chinaman was raised by R. Abernathy and when he came of age he was placed with Dr. Wood to find out what he was made of.

After a short stay, Dr. Wood shipped Chinaman to Vince and Bob in California to make up for an earlier prospect he had sold them that failed to live up to expectations. He arrived full of hookworms and roundworms and weighed only 42 lbs., 4 lbs. below his eventual best match weight of 46 lbs. Bob kept him on a long cable run and tried to help him overcome his emaciated state. Chinaman thanked him by biting him, so Bob shipped him to Vince. It was love at first sight. Vince wormed Chinaman and scheduled a roll for him.

After a 3-hour drive Chinaman was nauseated and dehydrated. He was pitted 10 lbs. uphill against a powerful red dog named Ch. Caesar who proceeded to mop the floor with him. When the big dog tired, Chinaman went to the stifles and punched very hard. Even though he was still nauseated and underweight he came up from the bottom to bite down and stop Caesar at: 28.

Chinaman's next roll was into Doc, a highly respected wrecker. If he could hang with Doc for even 10 minutes, Chinaman would be worth a bet. Doc came out hard and slammed Chinaman into the corner and tried to trade with Chinaman. Big mistake! Chinaman hit the gut and killed the Doctor in his own living room in 17 minutes! It was clear Chinaman was something special.

For his first two matches, Chinaman was hooked into respected head dogs that some expected to weather the storm and challenge the killing stifle and gut dog. Like their predecessors, neither lasted to the half-hour mark with Chinaman. For his third, a match was made with the highly renowned Gray's Hubcap who had dispatched the famous Red Danger dog in a classic 2-hour encounter. Vince and Bob traveled 7 hours with their dog and when they arrived, odds of 5-1 were being offered against Chinaman. The betting line changed dramatically after the dogs were released. Chinaman drove Hubcap into the corner on his back and this is where the match ended 18 minutes later. Hubcap was a memory and Chinaman was proclaimed a champion and best in show.

Suddenly no one had a 45-46 lb. male. Respectable dog men avoided him like the plague. Finally, when he was 7 years old, some determined fellows bought an expert head dog from R. Jackson, just to take out the aging Ch Chinaman. The dog from Jackson showed a lot of ability, but it wasn't enough to keep out an athlete of Chinaman's caliber. Chinaman worked past his defenses and curred him out in 38 minutes. This had been Chinaman's longest match, but the outcome was the same as always: he destroyed everything in his path.

For all who witnessed his matches, Chinaman became known as one of the roughest ever and a true finisher. According to scientific tests, he had the air of a greyhound. According to all who saw him, he had the mouth of an alligator. He was very clever. He would outsmart slick ear and nose dogs and cur them out. He would finish straight-ahead dogs even faster. Swapping-out was his game. Like all the truly great ones, Chinaman's build was like a sleek, muscular thoroughbred.

The Chinaman name appears in many of today's pedigrees. His contribution as a producer equals, or exceeds his dominance as a performer. Among his better known offspring were Ch. Eightball, Ch. Cotton, Ch. Chinabuck, Ch. Chinagirl, Ch. Stormy, Ch. Missy, Ch. Chinarose, Ch. Ninja and Ch. Crock. He had three sons (Brodt's Boar, Cottingham's Cotton, and Shockley's Header) go over the 3-hour mark on the same weekend! Perhaps his greatest contribution is as a producer of producers, as his son Frisco ROM has produced more champions and grand champions than any other living stud.

Vinny Romeo with  Chinaman