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[5thprofession47]

Morris was an RBWI (Robert Bussey's Warrior International) practitioner, and IIRC an Instructor Advanced Status (2nd Degree Black Belt) not a ninjutsu practitioner.

Robert Bussey taught Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, and Ninjutsu in the 1970s to mid 1980s and then formed RBWI which is something of a hybrid of these systems and Bussey's own additions.  Bussey quit the Bujinkan in 1988 IIRC. 

I trained in RBWI in 1989-90 and they stressed that it was not Ninjutsu, and instructors would correct anyone who used that term, or even if they'd use other Japanese terms.  They did not want anyone thinking they were associated with Ninjutsu at all, at least at the time I was in.

I saw the fight on video in 1993 and his attack did not resemble anything I ever saw in the Bujinkan or RBWI.

Steve Jennum, on the other hand, was one of Bussey's top instructors and did train while Bussey was still teaching Ninjutsu, at least his version of it.

In short, Morris had nothing to do with Ninjutsu other than saying he trained in it.

I guess a little perspective is in order before I chime in on this. I trained for 20 years with Robert Bussey and hold several rank/instructor titles under Mr. Bussey and his business partner James Rosenbach. So here goes...

Scott Morris was a good martial artist. He trained under Mike Bussey, Robert's brother. I saw Scott not two weeks after his UFC fight mentioned above. He was just fine. It looked worse than it was. He lost, plain and simple. The back story on this is interesting. Robert Bussey wanted one of his Omaha black belts to represent RBWI in the UFC. His brother Mike had one of his students (Morris) in mind. There was some debate and for whatever reason, Mike convinced Robert to let Morris fight. RBWI is/was a terrific martial art with a lot of merit to it. Yeah, it had plenty of flash at times but it also had rock solid skills at it's core. The people involved were/are some of the most talented, respectful and kind people I have ever met.  Many are still good lifelong friends to this day.

Stay safe,

Chris

[Benjamin Liu]

Morris's skill level or fighting ability really dosn't have anything to do with whether he trained in Ninjutsu or not.

Bussey broke away from the Bujinkan in the late 1980s and when I was there he and top instructors would correct any student who used the term "Ninjutsu" and would say things like "This is RBWI, not Ninjutsu."  They'd even say, "That's a half staff" if a student mentiond a hanbo.  They were very clear that they did not consider it Ninjutsu.

Obviously, some Taijutsu can be seen in RBWI movements, but the systems are still different.  The techniques from the time the first video series was made were similar, but by the time I was in it was very different, and even farther away by the time the second series was made. 

In the context of threads on internet forums, it is very popular to equate the two and use UFC 2 to attack the Bujinkan.  There are many reasons to criticize the Bujinkan, but this isn't one of them.

Seriously, the post I responded to was using UFC 2 to attack AKBAN, a totally unrelated group started by Israeli Bujinkan instructors.  It was more specifically using UFC 2 to attack AKBAN's knife training, and it is  something totally irrelevant to the subject.

[michael]

I had not heard of AKBAN, but looked it up because of this thread. It says they have trained under Doron Navon since 1977 and proud to be associated with the Bujinkan. I trained in the Booj for 5 years, and attended many seminars as well along the way, including one by Doron. He is an awesome and very skilled martial artist, while having a good ground in the realities of real-world fights vs. much of what is taught in the Bujinkan. I learned a lot of useful skills there, but of course much of it is fluff.

[Benjamin Liu]

The thing I looked up when I first saw this thread said they were independent, but in either case it doesn't matter.  Using a UFC fight by an RBWI instructor against AKBAN makes no sense.  Morris did not train under Navon, AKBAN, or even in the Bujinkan.

I know several very bad Bujinkan instructors who'd perform very poorly in almost any situation, but even bad taijutsu will be recognizable as taijutsu and easily distinguished from someone doing something else.