"That first show was so weird and scary. I was terrified I didn’t have the proper insurance. I was worried how people would react to it. My opponent not showing up for that was probably the greatest thing to happen to me. "
— Jeff Osbourne
"The way I first heard about it was, there was a kid in my high school who had gone to one of the first HOO Kn SHOOT events. He was really into pro wrestling, but he knew I was into martial arts stuff and so he told me about going to this fight and showed me the program from it, saying, ‘You gotta see this.’ Through some kickboxing competitions, I began to hear a little more about Jeff and the gym he trained at. People would say, ‘They’re shootfighters!’ It was like, well, that sounds fun."
— Aaron Riley
"I think Jeff Osborne is the reason women’s MMA exists in America. There could have been this fight and that fight before HOO Kn SHOOT, but I know that’s what kept it going. He was the one giving women a home and a place to fight. He’s the reason that there is female MMA in America. Of course things have progressed and I’m biased towards Invicta being the home for women always, but I don’t think there would be an Invicta if there wasn’t a Jeff Osborne. I don’t think there would be women in Strikeforce if it wasn’t for Jeff Osborne, and thus women in the UFC. Because there had to be a launching point. Granted it’s not the first generation of women out there fighting now, but they built off of the people below them. Every generation is kind of like a layer, and he was the one who allowed for it to flourish in the way that it did."
— Julie Kedzie
"Jeff launched a ship. He did. Something really happened, something very special for women in the sport. To be in the UFC, to be in Strikeforce, to be in Elite XC, to be in Bodog, all of these things, these were such great opportunities. But they never would’ve been there for me without HOO Kn SHOOT. Never. Not in a million years. They would never be there without Jeff Osborne."
— Julie Kedzie again
"It was heaven for me, honestly. It seemed like every time the women fought, people there paid attention. Sometimes it was to tell them that they wanted to (expletive) them in the mouth, which is what sometimes happened to me, or they were just really into the fights. But it seemed like you didn’t notice the same prejudice toward women fighters there, just because Jeff had made it his thing to have lots of women fight. "
— Julie Kedzie yet again
"I was on the UG and I was getting into fighting, but I’d only had like one amateur fight at the time. There was this girl who hated me, couldn’t stand me, and I really couldn’t stand her either, so we had this big rivalry. Jeff Osborne was throwing this all-women’s show, and he asked if we wanted to fight each other on the show. I was like, hell yeah. Everyone knew HOO Kn SHOOT back then. And Jeff was smart. He jumped all over that fight because of the heat it had generated on The Underground."
— Tara LaRosa
"HOO Kn SHOOT became like my family. Other places you’d fight, it felt more like a transaction, this cold, clinical thing. But if you fought for HOO Kn SHOOT, you knew all the people, everyone behind the scenes. You’d go fight and go for drinks after and it felt like you were a part of it. To them, you were a person. You had a name. Now, on most shows, you just feel disposable."
— Tara LaRosa again
"I had heard about this women’s tournament on, like, Thanksgiving weekend. I had just had my first pro fighter in October, so I was really green, but I kind of thought, why not? At that time a lot of the organizations would make women fight three-minute rounds. That’s how it was in Elite XC and a lot of the few other places that did women’s fights. But Jeff and HOO Kn SHOOT were allowing women to fight five-minute rounds, which was awesome. They were also one of the only ones paying women well."
— Kaitlin Young
"It was one of the first organizations to take women seriously and not just use them as a sideshow. Some of the other shows, it’d be like, ‘Oh, and here’s something weird, a women’s bout!’ At HOO Kn SHOOT it was perfectly acceptable for women to be the main event and the main attraction. It was ahead of its time, compared to many other shows."
— Kaitlin Young again
