Depretz Ch. Clovis (mostly Known as “Don” Clovis) is the
manager of Perry Ubeda, Bas Rutten, Rob Kaman and many other
big names! He is the man who gave color to kickboxing. He
has dual nationalities. He was born near Paris, France in
1946 but changed his nationality to Dutch like his daughter
in 1999.
In the sixties he was a singer in a famous French group
called “Les Charlots”. He was just fourteen when he had his
first Rock and Roll hit on the famous Sidney Bechet label
called “Disques Vogue”. The label had very big names in
contract like Johnny Halliday, Petula Clark, Francoise Hardy
and Jacques Dutronc.
“Rocker” Don Clovis
At a later stage he even became manager and producer
of some of his idols like Vince Taylor and P.J. Proby.
That was in the period between 1974 and 1980 when he
worked as a producer in Los Angeles. One day he had to
be in Paris for TV recordings with his band and that was
were he met the Dutch group called Ekseption.
The drummer of the band invited him over for a short
holiday. It was instant love when he came to Amsterdam
in March 1969. Not only Amsterdam but also the whole
Dutch mentality had a big appeal for him and that has
never changed. His daughter was born in Amsterdam and he
still lives there.
Don
and K-1 founder, Mr. Ishii.
Don and
Perry Ubeda in Thailand
Don, Bas
Rutten and V.Dijk in Japan
His nickname “Don” was invented by Paco Rabane, the
French couturier. It started as a joke. Together with
Rob Kaman they had a dinner to discuss a new line of
clothing for Paco Rabanne called K.O. Man. The fourth
man at the table was Didier Simonpietri the chief-editor
for the big French sports magazine called “Les
Gladiateurs”.
Sport was an item at the table and at a certain point
they talked about the power of Don King. Paco Rabanne
said, laughing, “They have Don King but we in Europe
have Don Clovis”. They did not know at the time that
Didier would write this down in his well-known magazine
and the name followed Clovis everywhere from Japan to
America.
Don
with Semmy Schilt and Maurice Smith
Don
as President of WKA France.
Don
and Rob Kaman
Don Clovis got acquainted with the
ringsports through the V.D. Vathorst family about 18
years ago and he was lost forever. They still meet after
all these years. After the first steps it went very
fast; his first fighter was Ivan Thorne. Don loves the
sport and is willing to do anything to promote it… then
came Ramon Dekker & Cor Hemmers. In a giant flow he
became manager of many famous Dutch fighters like Andre
Masseurs, Perry Ubeda, Andre Mannaart, Luc Verhey, Brian
Pieters, Rob Kaman, Rayen Simson, Bas Rutten.
He was the one who organized the
first big kickboxing fight: Peter Aerts vs. Maurice
Smith in Paris. Don Clovis is one of the old soldiers.
He was part of the birth of K-1. Mr. Taro, Mr Ishii and
Don were sitting in a French restaurant in Osaka to talk
about the idea before the name was born.
Don’s trademark is that he always wears
a red tie at an event. Besides the fact that he thinks
that one should be well dressed as a manager, he prefers
a black and red combination of clothing. “A manager is
the visiting card of the fighters,” Don says. “The
French may be conservative but in like standing, that is
the rest of my French nature.”
Don, Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten
Don is also in the movie business. He
studied at the Film academy in Amsterdam and has a
degree as a producer. At this very moment he is trying
to promote Bas Rutten, Rob Kaman and Perry Ubeda for
some action movies.
Now that many big names are at the end of their
career and the old generation is fading away, Don is
wondering: “Where is the new generation? I mean guys and
girls who are fully committed to the sport instead of
these vanity models”. In the early days a fighter was
committed to his gym; today many fighters hop from gym
to gym and from manager to manager. This has a big
influence on their style of fighting, their general
capacity and, last but not least, on the rules of decent
behavior.
Don,
Frank Shamrock, Bas Rutten and other Pancrase
fighters.
Don prefers the old-fashioned way of
discipline because that is the best way of becoming a
champion. He bows deeply in admiration for all of the
real fighters out there. These fighters keep showing the
beautiful dimension of Martial Arts that he loves so
much.
We would like to thank Don Clovis for
his help in creating the Perry Ubeda, Rob Kaman and Bas
Rutten tributes. Our editor, Gus Fant, considers Don to
be his friend. You can contact Don at the following
e-mails: basruttenacademy@hotmail.com ,
donclovis@hotmail.com.
