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[Music] kiwi's love first like Finn we're making [Applause] waves generate switch online
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today Dan the hangman hookout welcome to my podcast that's my name don't wear it
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out um you were just saying before we uh reflect into record mode um you've seen
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all my messages and I'm a Ser I'm a Serial ignorer really you just got to
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it's just persistence you know now I know now then I knew you wanted it yeah
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yeah yeah on the 25th time on the 25th Mage yeah all right come on there mate it's embarrassing though because it's um
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you've got a lot of followers like 600 700,000 followers so I thought oh maybe
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he just hasn't seen the M yeah you can just pretend like you don't see them but
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you you did see them and I saw a few I I did see a few but no I like what you do
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I've seen you um interview my coach obviously you interviewed Eugene so I've
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been I've been following everyone not here JJ and Dom we grew up we grew up watching that did you well I've been a
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big fan of yours Len I was trying to pinpoint um I'm not I'm not a massive um
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like UFC guy you know there's some hardcore fans but um I got some free tickets to um the UFC in February 2020
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just before Co started you were the headline act I was up in the no nose beds F fight yeah yeah and I was
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surrounded by people saying [ __ ] him up [ __ ] him up and it was the most incredible incredible display
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performance I've ever seen yeah that was a wild that was a wild fight um them
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gingers man they're both different he he kept yeah we we both ended up in the hospital after that is obviously uh
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quite a wellknown fighter we were getting stretched in next to each other but yeah we both ended up with like rabo
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I don't know or RAB so I've had it a few times after fights but it's like well
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your body um identifies that it can't there's too much muscle damage and it
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realizes that it can't fix it all so it just starts like pissing out like your
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piss is like black so you just yeah cuz I thought I was going to the Afterparty I was like Yeah Boy we're going to the
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after party and then I went to I went they just said you piss in this cup and then you can go and I was like all right
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and then I piss in the cup and it was like black I was like oh no but then I was going to get my sister to piss in
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the cup cuz she was there but then I was like I was a halfway through asking her
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like come on like trying to convin come on come just go around the corner get Chuck this out pissing here and then uh
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the the nurse walked in and she just said you're not going anywhere champ but
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I still got out uh I still got out of the hospital that night I think fer was in there for like
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three three days they they kept him in there and um yeah it's it's but I've had
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up probably five five or six different fights amazing so that's I've got a
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photo here that's the um yeah yeah that's the one there no that was like no real Dam like
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that hell of a fight War man that was an absolute that was an absolute um I I wouldn't want it any different like I
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know the fight ended like split decision but it's like you you put that much into
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it you you both just pull your absolute heart and soul into a fight and then it comes down to that moment as well where
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it's just like one for him one for you and you're just going oh no like because
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that's your your I fought in uh spark or Victor Arena three times so all three
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cards here in New Zealand I've fought on all three of them and obviously being
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the main event one and you just the added pressure of it cuz it's like that's 10 that's always sold out every
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time that's 10,000 people that you have probably met at one stage or another of
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your life so it's like if you lose or you get knocked out at home it's so
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you'll hear about that till the day you die you'll be in the Pu of a 50y old man
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and they'll be like I remember I was there when you got knocked so it's like
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the added pressure of so when when you get taken to hospital with your opponent after a fight CU there's this massive
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buildup um there's the there's the the we in the ster down then there's the
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actual fight what's it like what's it like in the hospital afterwards is it is
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it what's yeah what's done is done at that point like the the the fights I've
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been I've been like a few different times jayen Turner me and them get wielding together I've been wielding
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after uh Doria fight as well and that's the same thing like he was kind of um
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after the fight finished and because that was a funny one cuz I had that fight after this Felder fight and it was
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that was um like deep in Co that was like one of the first cards of the Apex and so they were just fighting in Las
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Vegas at the Apex which is like a UFC facility and I counted on the walk out that there were there was 17 people in
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the in the room we were having like a UFC Main Event like Thor people still message me every day about that fight
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and yeah there was 17 people in the room so I like sat down after the fight because I knew I'd lost and it was just
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like no adrenaline just because if you got 10,000 people I wouldn't have sat
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down but I just forgot that there were uh millions of people watching at home so I kind of sat down Dustin started
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getting into me and yeah then we ended up getting whe next to each other at the hospital and I was like oh I said what's
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all caring on about there of course you know we had a lot I got into him a little bit of that at the hospital and
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we yeah but what's done is done you got 25 minutes to hit someone if you're
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still upset at them then you should have done more and I feel like um at the moment I we're recording this at the end
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of 2024 I feel like it's um it's like Peak Dan hooker like you you've you've
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never been more famous than what you are now and I'll give you an example I was
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out at um a bar in pby with my with my girlfriend and a few of her friends maybe a couple of months ago and uh you
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you turned up at a bar next door and everyone was buzzing like oh Dan Hook is next door Dan Hook is next door and uh
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then the girls were like oh he's with some girl and it's not his wife and I
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don't know who the [ __ ] it was maybe your sister for all I know but they were
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then they were looking up on Instagram like are you are you are you conscious or aware of like how recognized you are
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now or how I don't tend to um yeah I don't like I don't want it to affect my life so I I I live my life
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like normally I'm not like I'm not going to hide away or or duck away or stay
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inside just because people are going to go out and and say any kind of thing like I just I just live my life and then
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everyone else kind of has to deal with it well it's kind of like um uh Dave Chappelle he's got a comedy stick sketch
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where he talks about um he knows he's in other people's dreams like so when he
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meets someone that's less famous than him I yeah I well to me personally like
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I don't think of myself as like a famous person because that's it's just like a
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strange way to live like walk around like waiting for people to recognize you that's just a I feel like that's an
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awful that's an awful way to live I live in my like own kind of bubble I'm in my
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own bubble people like physically stop me or burst my bubble um then that's fine like I'm cool with that but yeah I
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don't really yeah I don't consider myself a famous person well we when do
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you get I listen to quite a bit of Joe Rogan he he loves you he talks about you often like when when does that stop
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being surreal like the biggest podcaster in the world you know the he had Trump on he had but but like I've met Joe yeah
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of course yeah yeah but it's like um the people message you like oh Joe talked
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about you on this episode yeah like yeah you always get people buzzing and that's
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cool cuz like anything that creates energy is like a very um is like a very cool thing because that's like people
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buzzing and talking about you like that's cool I like you're giving people
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like special moments with fights you know what I mean they always like I get a lot of people from like my last couple
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of fights where they're just like oh I'm going through a tough time or I just had
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suffered an injury in training like I got hurt um and they message you like oh I draw a lot of inspiration from you
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being able to push through difficult times so it is like cool that you're getting out there and inspiring people
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yeah I wonder I thought about you I suppose cuz I was doing some research for this um I did like an ultra marathon
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last weekend the 60k Mountain Run and in the last 20ks it was really [ __ ] tough like mentally and I thought about
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you a lot and I thought you be like Dan be like Dan just like block the pain and
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push through um yeah people think that but the thing is like no like that's the
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that's the funny thing about uh difficult times is that people think that I'm just like in a fight and I'm
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just the whole time just like yeah that didn't hurt like people think like I
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don't have uh I did um interview and they were like oh you should do the Pain
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Olympics and I'm just like no like I hate I hate getting hit like I hate getting hit I hate pain like getting
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tattooed I hate getting tattooed it's actually my M was like you're actually
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horrible at getting tattooed like I actually hate it I just have like I just have I think I just have like a good
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poker face cuz people watch a fight and they think that you're just like persevering the whole time and just
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brushing the stuff off but in my head internally I'm sitting there going like
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ow ow go it this hurts so like I'm so tired but it's like an internal battle
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with yourself constantly that that internal battle never stops no but after your I think it was your last fight you
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you became like a meme with the um I think it was in between the second to last and the last round you're in the
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corner and you're like O Boys Boys Boys you got blood everywhere you go I love
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this [ __ ] yeah that that was more that's more it doesn't look like a guy that's
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upset with that was more like just my way of speaking to my coaches cuz obvious my coaches come in uh e and
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Andre and and I like I I knew the gravity of the situation it was probably like one one round a piece like he won
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the first round I won the second round like it was it was one in one it was like a tough fight we're both exhausted
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covered in blood I got five cuts all over my face you know like this and my coaches came in and they were just like
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like real urgent like and I felt like kind of stressed you know what I mean so that was that was just my way I just
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said boys like boys like laugh at off I said like I love this it was just my way of letting them know like it's it's
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under control I've got this you know what I mean like I was just my it was my
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way of telling them that chill out chill out Andre gave me a little whack behind
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the head like Focus like Focus but yeah it's just my way of letting them know
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that it's relax boys I know what I got to do I got this but it didn't didn't
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look like he had it that's the secret Bubba that's the secret um you're the
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king the king of the king of chaos Bubba like Yeah the more chaos is going on the
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karma the karma I will be you are I feel like you you enjoy being caught a psycho
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like I've heard I don't think I am but I think they say the same thing about
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crazy people they say like if you don't you don't realize that you don't realize
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you're crazy it's just everyone else has to doal with it I've heard Rogan call
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you a psycho um um Israel on numerous podcasts including the flagrant one after the medicine Square Garden fight
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like he he called you a psycho yeah it's funny like you I I used to think everyone thought like me you know what I
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mean I used to think like growing up or or or even fighting in the UFC like I thought that that's the way that
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everyone thought I thought everyone was like had that Killer Instinct and as competitive and stuff like that and like
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that willing to to push the boundaries but yeah like it's it's quite funny when
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you get to the top of the world and you realize there's only like a handful of
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guys like that it's cool when you run into them like DUS and por is one like
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you realize that Paul Feld is like another one there is like a handful of out there okay we'll um yeah I want to
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go back to the early years of Dan hooker so we can like deconstruct you a little
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bit but first of all um we'll just focus on a couple of the viral moments um that
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have sort of come up recently um yeah like being caught a turtle in a tree who who called you a turtle in a tree oh
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mooo yeah yeah it's like a a guy I was trying to fight and yeah he just um like
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uh then he got ranked ahead of me and then I was obviously calling him out I tried to I challenged absolutely every
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rank fighter to fight me in uh perf and um the only guy that took it was kind of
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the UFC for gam uh like gamrot took the fight who was ranked um number five at the time and then I beat gamr like I
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tried to fight moano and moano didn't want to have the fight he was blaming saying that the tax is too high in per
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he didn't want to have the fight so then I beat a guy ranked ahead of him so I
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just jumped right over him but I made it very clear like I'll of course thought I
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tried to call you out you thought that I would lose you turned down the fight with me you put me in the tree like the
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the this only person that snuck the turtle up there was him turning the fight down and then he went and fought
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in uh France and paid the exact same amount of taxs but you you seem like a really cool and and composed guy like a
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guy that never loses your your call when you when you see something like that or
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you hear something like that in the media does it does it does it wind you up oh that's what they all like that's
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the thing about it like once you got something everyone else once once you're
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ranked in the top five once you're ranked above them once it's like everyone's like a scary dude until you
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win the world title and then you every man and his dog starts calling you out it's you just have to you just have to
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want some you just have to have something that everyone else wants that's that's the key to to it in the
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fight game and you can't just sit around and get like offended by everyone that's
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why everyone targets me is cuz I do I do uh I do chir back I do chir back and they they they try to get under they try
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their best to get under this skin but I've been doing it so long and so experienced and seen absolutely
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everything it's like it's like when you're saying like oh at the moment
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you've never been more famous and this and that yeah it's because I'm uh have
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won my last couple of fights that's why everyone's being nice to me if I had
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lost those fights then no one would be nice to me and I've been in this position multiple times in my career so
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I know who are the people that truly have my back and who are the ones that haven't because I started my pro career
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like three wins three losses and then earned my way to the UFC I got in the UFC and I was uh my UFC record when I
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first got in was three wins three losses so everyone does like turn on you and I've been through these difficult times
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so many so many like it's the you just get like a better process of dealing like dealing with loss straight away
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like I have like good processes of processing those emotions so you can work through it faster because the
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faster you can work through being upset then the quicker you can get back on track yeah yeah physically you seem to
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handle like win wins and losses physically you handle that okay but um mentally how do you handle a loss a
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tough loss it's but it's all from experience I I deal with the losses mentally just because I have the
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experience of doing it so many times before like I've I've been here so many
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different times in my past and I've had a I've had a lot of losses and the
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losses aren't really like a lot of our sport is is comes down to um like timing
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doing things at the right time and and a a lot of times in my career or most of my career and most of my losses is
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because I fought when I probably shouldn't have fought well I was advised to not fight like all through Co when we
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were getting like locked down I did Training Camps I did full training camps in uh like my garage at home with police
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chasing me around the streets telling me that I if they catch me one more time that I was going to go to jail and stuff
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like this like it I've been through all those difficult times and you just get
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like a great process of um of bouncing back like it's mental experience I'm not
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mentally tougher than anyone else I don't feel I just have more experience oh no you are
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though 1,000% you are you're a Savage um okay another quick quick couple of things um I show speed uh the YouTuber
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um that's probably the most at the time we're recording this this is the most
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recent thing you've been um I suppose in the in the mainam media cycle for um so
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yeah YouTuber with like 100 million followers over all his platforms um he came to City kickboxing yeah yeah oh
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he's um yeah he's hell famous like I definitely knew who he was before he
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came into the gym but yeah one of the fighters uh Aron to had had got hit up by uh our friend raah and they said I
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show speeds in New Zealand they'd like to come in the gym and and like do something so I thought he was just
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coming in and I was going to let some of the younger guys thought obviously Navajo Sterling is a a younger fighter
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and he streams as well he does streaming as well so I was like oh I'll just leave
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it to the younger guys but then he walks in the gym and he's just going like who
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Who Am I who am I fighting he was like who am I fighting he's I'm I'll beat
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anyone up here I threw him in with like the younger guys I tried to match him with like an amateur boxer and I tried
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to put him in with one of the younger guys and but he was just hellbent on on getting in there with me and I've beaten
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up a few social media people in my time you love it you go hard no it's like I I
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don't walk in your [ __ ] office and you know what I mean with a briefcase sit down at a desk and start [ __ ]
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typing pretending like I know what to do like know what I'm doing like I I feel
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like when you walk in a gym and you you put those gloves on like it's a reality
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check like what have the what have they done to to like even earn that position to be there they need to know like this
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is the reality of the situation so what um yeah what percentage were you hitting
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hitting him like 60% there's no there it's not like really like a percentage
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kind of thing like I was just going when uh like he was stop reset like start and
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I'm just sitting there just having a good time like that's you were you were
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having the best time you look like a kid in the candy shop yeah yeah like I've
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done a few times uh like the ne boys have come in i' I've beat them up Kai
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yeah Kai teated up with the uh NE boys and the same thing I was I was Dusty I had a big night this a while ago I had
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like a big night and then Kai's like can you come in and beat the N boys up tomorrow and I was like was like you
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know I'm running running late I get there hung over as and I was running late for something else I only had 15
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minutes and then the boys go like oh so we're all going to have a go and I was
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just thinking on my head I don't have time for the SLS I was like I have an idea I was like if I beat the first guy
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up real bad I was like then the other guys won't want to do it you know what I
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mean and so he went to touch gloves and I started booting him in anyway smash them and then they go any I go like
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anyone else when I ever go and they're just like nah like nah and I said all
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right boys I'm running late got to get out of here unbelievable is it I believe this
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is um this is the reason you didn't get to meet Mark Zuckerberg that is oh you've done your research you know what
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I mean you yeah yeah well it was the Z story well the Z story was like before the uh jayen Turner fight like um they'
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all planned it like uh vul and Israel and stuff like that they were all going to California and they were going to
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like do some training with Mark Zuckerberg but no one metioned to me the whole week and after fight cuz I broke
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my arm they were like oh it's cuz you broke your arm I was like this has been
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planned there must have been a big scheme buying the things like no one tell Dan that we're going to go meet
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Mark Zuckerberg cuz I yeah like I I would have I would have done that like that's just that's just what I do at
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spant is a yeah like you know there's no malice in or not being malicious in
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training but it's just like you need to know I feel like it's your obligation to
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let people know like no said you would have got too hard you want to [ __ ] the Facebook gu in the face this is this is
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reality I am a reality check and it's like a good test of character you get to
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see you get to see who someone is like when you put them under pressure like that and you're pumping them and and
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like who have I ever like there's a lot of people I've HT but who have I ever
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injured I haven't injured it's like the it's like when uh who I go I went on the
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Rock the boys had me in and it was um then the Mitch got me to uh one of the young producer got to put him in a
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couple of chokes you know what I mean he oh again again and I was like all right
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you asked me you've asked me three times now so I put the like put the choke on
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he's tapping away but like I put him and this's experience here cuz I put him the
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perfect amount of out where it's not like you put someone uh too far asleep then they start like waking up gurgling
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or they're out for too long and everyone starts to get worried or like it's not
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or it's not out enough where no one really notices and he can kind of brush it off but it's like the right amount of
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out where they're just out for like five six seconds and then they spring back to
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life but do you know how many people you have to have choked out to know the perfect
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amount what's the number is there an exact number there' be a lot but I've
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been CH out probably a hundred times myself like the but you you you love it he you [ __ ] love it I do but it's
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like that's the contrast of of loving something is you you you have to hate something you have to have like the
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equal ability to hate something I probably hate it I probably hate it and I've been to the lowest lows in the the
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absolute lowest low scraping the Barrel in the sport you know what I mean but that's why you can truly test like
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coming into that that fire it's not like um yeah like that last fight that game
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out fight like the the training like the training camp and all that like to be honest I was kind of over it like I was
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going home telling my M like I I'm kind of I was like I'm over this and it
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wasn't until like I actually had the fight and that kind of like reinvigorated my my passion and love for
00:21:35
the sport but lead to coming into that fight like I was like thinking about other [ __ ] to do because you've been
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doing it a long time you 15 15 years professionally I start I had my first professional fight um like a week a week
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I just in 19 so I just in a week 19 when I had my first professional fight and now 34
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so yeah you doing it longer than longer than most yeah what about um oh Trump have you met
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Trump I haven't like met I've seen him through the cage after uh the jayen
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Turner fight and I just like walked over and gave him like a gave him a wink and
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he gave he gave me a win back on one of those it was cool when you meet someone like that but him being in in back in
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office is so good for the the fighters on this side of the world like we have no idea how much um um like influences
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kind of thing had because when when uh like because a lot of the times like American politics doesn't mean dick to a
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New Zealander you know what I mean it doesn't impact your life but it actually
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impacts being uh being like a New Zealand fighter or Australian fighter traveling to to the United States
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because when Trump was in power it was just before the uh in Co times just before the DUS Emporia fight and like
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the Visa officers were were were closed and this and that the Ambassador for new
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the US ambassador for New Zealand called me like I just got a phone call and he's
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like hey I'm the Ambassador for uh the US he's like I heard you need something
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and I was like yeah I need a visa he's like come in tomorrow morning there'll
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be a bring your passport and we'll stamp a Visa in there and I was like to have
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that was crazy and then before the nas hakaras fight uh I could not get uh word back with like the B the obviously the
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Biden Administration and that like they cuz obviously like Dana White's like a
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huge supporter of trump and and that sort of thing they like best friends so I kind of felt like we were getting like
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brushed to the back and to get a visa for that fight I actually started a a Twitter social media campaign like
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harass the New Zealand Embassy and that like people were submitting just hundreds and hundreds of like fake
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applications and stuff like that so eventually they called me back just so they're I feel like the consulate would
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get left alone so like your podcast rule the rule of P pure pure harassment like I just
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harassed the the the Visa office till they called me back and and Dana White you um you once accidentally told him to
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[ __ ] off I did I did I was after the uh after the Eds and baroza fight and obviously that got my absolute [ __ ]
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kicked out of me in that fight like that was um yeah like yeah not going to blame
00:24:20
anything but I had my um it just wasn't the most important thing going on my
00:24:24
life at that point I had uh the birth of my first daughter was I think three weeks before that fight and to be honest
00:24:31
I just didn't think about the fight like I was there at the training is physically but mentally it just not the
00:24:36
most important thing of my life so I'm not thinking about it at all so the bir
00:24:40
birth of my daughter and then um three weeks after that I think fight week when I got to Milwaukee for fight week I
00:24:48
hadn't slept since uh the birth of my daughter so I slept for a week straight
00:24:53
and then I kind of wasn't until I was standing in the cage and I was like all
00:24:56
right it's some Barosa I was like how do I how do I deal with this kind of so
00:25:01
yeah I got the [ __ ] kicked out of me anyway but I'm out the back but my coach
00:25:05
is Bor as well car was there my coach was bought as well and someone come up and like tapped me on like hit me on the
00:25:11
shoulder when I was in the medical tent and I thought I looked I thought it was car and I was like get get the [ __ ] off
00:25:16
me I was get the [ __ ] away from me I turned around this uh Dana White and I was like oh [ __ ] but yeah he goes like
00:25:22
oh we'll get you anything you want like what do you want I'll get you anything
00:25:25
you want I said uh first class flight home and uh take me to McDonald's those
00:25:30
are my the two things that I the two things that I wanted m is that yeah since you brought that up the um the
00:25:37
babosa fight um I watched that the have you have you ever watched it back trying to think I've obviously seen
00:25:45
the highlights like people that don't like me send me the highlights all the
00:25:48
time do they yeah yeah yeah I mean it's it's BR it's brutal to watch it's awful
00:25:51
but it's um it's old school [ __ ] it's old school [ __ ] but yeah I mean you you
00:25:56
lost and you got beaten badly but P me wers if you're like like proud of like
00:26:01
how determined you were and like like the fight ends with you basically walking head first into a fist like
00:26:06
you're not you're not caring or Shing away I couldn't see I couldn't see any
00:26:11
of I couldn't see anything what do you mean I couldn't see anything like my
00:26:15
orbital was cracked so like my vision was gone and I have like a a lazy eye anyway so this eye was shot then my
00:26:21
other eye like was getting punched in as well so I was looking I couldn't see
00:26:25
anything that's why I was but what like I would have to go I would have to go
00:26:29
off his punches to my head to try and find him that's what I was thinking like
00:26:34
like like extreme Marco Polo extreme Marco Polo I was like well I can't see anything so at least if I walk forward
00:26:42
and he hits me then I know that the end of his arm will be his head but why did you like why did you keep fighting or
00:26:51
why did you your corner not not throw the Talon because I'm glad that it was um yeah uh
00:26:59
my coach Kyle Weber was in my corner for that and he like CED a lot of CR criticism myself but he he knew what it
00:27:05
was like I I'm thankful that he was the one cornering me for that fight so he
00:27:10
let me test myself to that level because I knew after the first round that the the
00:27:16
fight was the the the possibility of winning the fight had slipped away but like in what what other Walk of Life or
00:27:24
what other sport do you get to test what your mental made of to that extreme like
00:27:30
there isn't a single other sport on the face of the planet that you can test
00:27:35
that and it's like old school [ __ ] it's like uh I wanted to see him if I would
00:27:40
quit in my own head I wanted to push I wanted to push the the yeah that mental dog of Me Myself
00:27:47
And like I know that that thing's I like I try not to rely on it but I know that
00:27:52
that's look at what look at what my mind will let me do my my mind will let me
00:27:58
walk head first Into the Fire and there's not many other people that have tested their mental capacity to that
00:28:05
extent so I'm thankful that my coach let me test it it could have been so easy
00:28:10
for me to stop their fight like in between the the second and third round um like they obviously checking my eyes
00:28:17
cuz I like could not I couldn't actually could not see and they come and check
00:28:21
your eyes like they cover one eye and they hold up some fingers and they go how many fingers am I holding up and I
00:28:26
just took a stab in the [ __ ] dark but I I just I just guessed it like and and to get the fight stopped all you had to
00:28:35
do was like say it's wrong or or they're actually really good um the doctors that
00:28:40
like not or not the doctors like the referees like you like you want to keep you want to keep going they'll whisper
00:28:46
something to you like if you want the fight stop look away look away like they'll whisper in your ear and I was
00:28:51
just like all I had to do was go like this like break eye contact and the referee would have stopped the fight but
00:28:57
I [ __ ] you're you're a Savage and I I do do you still like um DM him [ __ ] you
00:29:04
from time to time every now on them I haven't done it in a while though I haven't done it in a while of course I
00:29:10
want that one back I said if he ever wants to come he moved the weight class down if he ever wants to come back like
00:29:15
oh I would love to get that one back when so a fight like that how long how long does it take to get over like
00:29:21
mentally um that one was more uh that one was more physically um cuz obviously when I go back to New Zealand I had a
00:29:28
newborn and and that um but yeah I I had uh a broken orbital from that one and cuz yeah I I I regret
00:29:37
that CU they they would I should have got it fixed um in America because it happened it happened in America they
00:29:43
were like oh you can hang around get it fixed or you can fly back to New Zealand
00:29:46
and get it fixed and I just wanted to get home to my baby so I said I'll get
00:29:50
it sort of in New Zealand but it just so happened I came back and it was uh like
00:29:54
Christmas so all the surgeons had um taking off so yeah I think it was like five weeks I just was walking around
00:30:01
with like a hole on my in the side of my head and then they were like oh so just
00:30:05
go go into middlemore and I just went into midmore every day they're like wait
00:30:10
wait going at 7 wait there and I wait there they tell you about midday like oh no try again tomorrow try again tomorrow
00:30:16
three days I got like turned away from three days I sat at the hospital got turned away not not today not today and
00:30:23
then on the final day they they got it sorted and I was like oh well I should got it done in the US it would have got
00:30:30
sorted a lot quicker is that how you got the nickname of the hangman you just hang around a hospital hanging around
00:30:34
hospitals baby I spend a bit of time but also after that fight I had uh vertigo so I say vertigo that's like um because
00:30:42
you have crystals in the in the back of your ear and they they tell you like they help your equilibrium and your
00:30:47
balance and stuff like that so it would be uh I thought it was initially thought
00:30:51
it was concussion at first but it was actually vertigo because it's like uh it
00:30:55
would take me about a minute and a half to stand up like a have to like sit up and then just sit on the edge of the bed
00:31:01
and the room's like spinning then stand up and just not move yet because the
00:31:06
like the your your brain's telling you like this is up like this is down you
00:31:10
don't know what it is till it settles down but yeah it was just uh vertigo but
00:31:15
then after that fight I went and got qualified as a real estate agent I was just making sure that I wasn't
00:31:22
[ __ ] do you yeah do you do you do you worry about like long-term like brain damage or anything like that oh
00:31:28
you definitely like you can't get away from that um facing that and acknowledging that that's uh
00:31:35
definitely like a part of the sport that that's we we have been aware of that of
00:31:39
this that's the difference between us and like a lot of a lot of like you see
00:31:43
it happening in rugby um league and Union now they're taking concussion like
00:31:48
very very seriously but that's something that we've known in Combat Sports for
00:31:52
for the longest time it doesn't it's not really hard to see like what's happened
00:31:55
to Legends in the fight game like Muhammad and this and that that we have always been aware that you should be
00:32:01
looking after your brain and and taking time out but yeah like I've definitely
00:32:08
um like after like serious consideration like you have to you have to look after
00:32:13
your brain yeah cuz see there's some people that are like hell prone to it like I definitely feel like some people
00:32:19
are far more prone to it than others like I've have um friends that have never been punched a day in their life
00:32:26
and they get in a car accident and they that uh got concussion for a year and a half two years like there there's some
00:32:32
people that are definitely prone to and I feel like on the scale of being prone to it I'm obviously
00:32:38
not yeah CU you seem fine but um you say how old are you again 30 34 34 see so I'm 51 so I'm uh what's that 17 years
00:32:47
older than you so when you are my age and I still think on the big scheme of things like I'm quite I'm quite Young
00:32:51
when you're my age your daughter will be in her 20s you know maybe you'll be
00:32:55
about to become a grandfather I don't I don't know and there's still a lot of
00:32:58
life left to live and I just wonder if you if you worry about that next chapter of your
00:33:02
life I've set my life up that it's idiot proof like I'm very my life my life is absolutely idiot
00:33:10
proof what do you mean in terms of like Financial Security or Financial Security
00:33:14
like it's all I couldn't spend all my money if if I absolutely wanted to it's
00:33:17
all in locked up all my assets are locked up in trusts and and companies and businesses and it's all it's you
00:33:24
couldn't I couldn't cuz yeah you see that with like a lot of old Fighters
00:33:28
that they they they blow their life savings or they fall into drugs or they fall into gambling and they end up um
00:33:35
they end up broken and with nothing but yeah I've I've I anticipate my own
00:33:40
stupidity and I protect myself from it yeah no no I just worry I guess more for like a mental health aspect like you
00:33:47
know yeah L later on later on in life but I think you're fully aware of it you'll know when to get out at the right
00:33:53
time it's a [ __ ] no it's a they're dragging me out bu they're dra
00:34:00
they're dragging me out they're dragging me out I don't anticipate fighting
00:34:03
before like stopping fighting um like I want to say 40 I want to say I I'll pack
00:34:09
it in when I'm 40 but yeah like it's a it's a I've sat down with my wife and
00:34:14
and I've sat down um my family knows like that this is this is you could stop
00:34:19
me from fighting if you if you absolutely wanted to yeah and and after fighting like what
00:34:26
would bring you the same amount of um like I don't know adrenaline or dopamine
00:34:30
or whatever do you know what you know what I mean I think uh I might become a skydiving instructor that's my that's my
00:34:37
that's my thought process I don't know if that's serious or not skydiving
00:34:40
instructor yeah that's that's where that's where I'm going but yeah like
00:34:44
there's like a lot of different things I could be doing like even even for MoneyWise like even when I got um I'm
00:34:49
not here uh for the money or anything like that do I need to fight like I don't have to fight another Dam if I
00:34:55
live um like the the like where I'm living right now and the Comfort level that I'm living right now
00:35:03
like I would never have to I would never have to fight again I would be I could easily get a a normal job but yeah like
00:35:09
it would drive myself crazy like still have the itch in the back of my neck that I I I
00:35:14
still could have been the best you know what I mean like you're still in a position you're you're number five
00:35:19
number six in the world and and I'm I'm pretty much like one fight away from
00:35:25
being able to prove that you're the best fighter in the world H well as I said at
00:35:29
the beginning I feel like we're sort of at like Peak Dan hooker now like I feel
00:35:32
like your stars just rising and rising and people are like and people are like oh you know you're 34 you're getting old
00:35:37
like and you worry about slowing down it's like man I was 19 fighting and I was slow like I i' never been fast like
00:35:45
am I worried about slowing down like I'm definitely like I've never I'm not a
00:35:48
fighter that's ever relied on physical attributes like all of mine uh skill like it doesn't look like it so much
00:35:56
when a fighting but there's a lot of like skill involved in that um yeah skill and I rely on on my mentality so
00:36:03
am I worried about like slowing down or physically not being able to to have that same reaction time it's like I've
00:36:10
always been slow like I've had coaches other coaches yelling at their fighter
00:36:15
like he's so slow like how are you still getting hit and it's like cuz I'm tricky
00:36:19
M and you I mean I don't know a lot about the sport but you look pretty skillful to me it looks like you're very
00:36:24
good at kneeing people in the chin that is always there that's always that's
00:36:28
that's not a your signature move that's a signature move that's not that's not a
00:36:33
uh yeah that's not really even a uh I don't have to train that thing it's got
00:36:36
a it's got a mind of it own I've SE I've seen that in slowmo I wouldn't want to
00:36:40
be neat in the chat it just it just whips up out of nowhere yeah that one pays the mortgage that one I keep them
00:36:45
around yeah I'm I'm pleased to hear about the financial um piece of the puzzle that they sorted for you cuz you
00:36:50
you're um I believe you like when you first um like sort of you know weasel your way into the UFC by emailing
00:36:57
someone and saying o I should be on this you got $88,000 for the first fight 8K yeah yeah was 8 and8 was what the UFC
00:37:05
contracts um used to be so that's $88,000 to to to take the fight and make weight and go inside the cage and then
00:37:14
another $8,000 to um if you get your hand raised so yeah like it's it's uh
00:37:20
and for the years of work that you put into it to get to that stage that's like
00:37:23
5 years investment like a lot of the fights on my pro career I've fought and
00:37:27
it wasn't paid a cent like a lot of those fights on my pro career couple hundred bucks or or for absolutely free
00:37:33
you know what I mean so there's 5 years of working to get that first and if you
00:37:37
lose after you get 8K tax pay your coaches pay management uh pay your medical expenses you're probably walking
00:37:46
away with like a couple of grand so yeah it's not it's not a sport you would do
00:37:50
for the money yeah do you because of um and you're partly responsible for this
00:37:55
like you've paved yourself and um I suppose Izzy and Kai and Carlos and whoever else you've um paved the way for
00:38:02
a lot of young Fighters and they've realized that you know the UFC is is a possible dream for new zealanders you
00:38:07
must see a lot of people come to City kickboxing and you like how do you manage their expectations obviously the
00:38:13
the the the the sport is is grown like the the sport is huge and and yeah obviously Ki City kickboxing is crammed
00:38:21
War to war and this every Pub in Oakland or every Pub over the over new is is packed when there's a UFC on and this
00:38:30
and that uh Jiu-Jitsu is flourishing boxing is flourishing like it it's definitely spread but in terms of people
00:38:37
that are about this that that uh are cut out to be professional prize Fighters like that
00:38:46
number has never trained like this this the people always find the sport like there there's only a few people and
00:38:54
there are the people that are like teammates of mine like Aaron to and this like guys that this is where we should
00:39:00
be like this is the most constructive thing that I feel like I could be doing with uh Authority problem and and and
00:39:09
anger issues like they're it's like finding something constructive to direct
00:39:14
that into and I've been able to to make a healthy make a great living from th
00:39:20
from those two things which you see like a lot of young men in New Zealand with those Authority problems and and um and
00:39:27
anger issues destroy themselves like most most young men with those problems destroy themselves I've just used them
00:39:34
see I would have never um have have Associated um like anger issues with you because you seem so composed and
00:39:40
controlled that's a secret I'm always angry what what really yeah what makes
00:39:44
you angry like what ons you are no no I'm pretty like yeah super chill I am but that's because I've been at the gym
00:39:51
already punching people's head in and know yesterday doing the same thing like
00:39:54
I get to I get to let like let that out in a in the most controlled environment you can possibly direct it into like
00:40:02
that's why if if I'm not able to go to the gym like you go absolutely wild like
00:40:07
when I broke my arm I broke my hand and then I broke my arm and had two surgeries back to back and yeah look I
00:40:14
ended up drawing all over myself I ended up covering tattoos because I needed something another uh and like a tattoo
00:40:21
is like a fight like you're going in there and like before you get it you're
00:40:25
just thinking oh man this is going to be tough you know there's going to be a
00:40:28
good push like and then you're there you're you're same as a fight like
00:40:31
you're trying to stay calm and composed like during the whole procedure and then
00:40:34
after you're you're resting and and recovering and this and that so yeah I
00:40:39
wasn't when when I broke my arm and had surgery like I actually wasn't allowed
00:40:43
anywhere near the gym so I yeah I directed it into drawing on myself what does make
00:40:50
Angry like getting hurt I hate I hate getting you know what I don't believe it hate I absolutely hate
00:40:58
it that's why that's why as soon as I get hit I absolutely lose my co and
00:41:02
start swinging cuz you guys train um really hard like there's a clip on YouTube um the spider thing yeah yeah
00:41:10
yeah so so spider is where basically you do you want to explain what it is what's
00:41:15
the spider oh it's like a so like fight simulation so if you're you're fighting
00:41:19
three five minute rounds or five five minut rounds we come in and we pretty much get like shark tanked you get
00:41:24
exhausted and shark tanked and it's um just you get to run through it it's more
00:41:29
a mental thing than actually a physical test physically obviously you get to test your your mind and this and that
00:41:36
but it's like you get to every week we do it every week at the time that you
00:41:40
would fight so that's about like Sunday midday here in New Zealand so every Sunday midday your whole of fight Camp
00:41:47
you get in the gym you go through fighter and you you pretty much get like eight practice runs at what you would do
00:41:52
on fight day so when it actually gets to that day your body and mind is used to used to to firing at that time but yeah
00:41:59
like it's hard you get you get pushed to your absolute limits by your teammates
00:42:02
CU you guys go go hard on each so how do you how do you feel on Sunday morning when you wake up and you like Are you
00:42:07
full of nerves and anxiety or do you look you look forward to driving in fight the I like spider I like doing
00:42:16
it but yeah oh it's that it's not as fun as uh like an actual fight like
00:42:22
definitely not the same nerves I get oh I don't oh man it's nothing B waking up
00:42:27
on fight day that's my that's my absolute favorite when I wake up on fight day I have a just a warm fuzzy
00:42:34
feeling of my stomach when I know that I get to go out there and and go out in front of and I do like I love fighting
00:42:41
in front of everyone I hated Co times where you're fighting in front of just a
00:42:45
handful of people when you know there's a soldout stadium and you get to go out
00:42:49
there and like like Shear something with those people like that there's there's
00:42:53
nothing better than that so I wake up fight day like for smile on my face and a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach Yeah
00:43:01
Yeah from what I've learned about you you don't really get nervous eh not for
00:43:05
yeah no not for not for fights and that's not like a good thing that's I'm
00:43:10
not saying that to like I'm not saying that to Young Fighters like you shouldn't wake up ner nervous on fight
00:43:15
day because you should because nerves bring out the best in you you should wake up um on fight day like nervous and
00:43:22
like oh not too much because you obviously need to be able to control that that I I control it like a tap um
00:43:29
it's because I don't I have to do the opposite where I don't wake up with
00:43:33
nerves which is not a good thing because I've had a lot of fights in my career
00:43:36
where I'm like getting beaten up for five minutes and then I go oh that's
00:43:40
right it's a fist fight like you have to wake up for this like then I'm the
00:43:44
reverse where I have to make myself like a little bit nervous you know I have to
00:43:48
think at home yeah you got to pay oh you got to pay your mortgage oh Everyone's
00:43:51
Watching like I have to turn those nerves up a little bit whereas most people most people are
00:43:58
controlling it and turning it down yeah what's um what does behind the scenes
00:44:02
look like on the day of a fight say say you're at somewhere like medicon Square
00:44:06
Garden for example like what's it like behind the scenes there that must be [ __ ] that's insane yeah that's wild
00:44:12
because uh I don't know until after the fight but you um like everyone that fights and I think uh wins at Madison
00:44:19
Square Garden like there's a hallway with like all incredible basketball players and and um UFC fighters so if
00:44:25
you win you get a your own pitcher so next time I go back there to Madison Square Garden there'll be a picture of
00:44:29
me on on the wall the hallway but yeah like that's that's that's go time now
00:44:34
baby like I'll wake up fuzzy feeling have some breakfast like hang out depending on what time the fight is
00:44:39
little bit of lunch just watch some TV sit on my ass and then uh yeah like go to the venue and then out back you're
00:44:47
just hanging out with all your mates like obviously on that card like Israel was fighting uh there was like all our
00:44:53
team out the back and I'm just like I am every day at training like joking around
00:44:57
with my mates hanging out and get like a little bit warm I don't like to warm up
00:45:01
too much I call it I call it if you're always ready you don't got to warm up I
00:45:07
hate I hate warming up I want to save that I want to save that energy for the fight I don't like to burn off too much
00:45:12
nerves or get myself tired in the warm up I like to yeah yeah I've seen Mark
00:45:17
hunt warm up and it was like the funniest [ __ ] I ever seen in my life like he was sitting there uh he was
00:45:22
sitting there and then he's like out back and he's just like and then they
00:45:27
like come on do some pads he stood up he threw like four or five Upper Cuts sat back down and he was
00:45:32
like he was he was he was pissed off that they got him up you know and then he went out there throw uppercut boom
00:45:39
knocks the guy out massive like so I was like oh maybe I don't have to maybe I
00:45:43
can do it my way and that's what I'm doing is I'm just doing it I'm doing it
00:45:48
my way and and like a UFC Afterparty in in New York when you've been at Madison
00:45:53
Square Garden what does that look like I always I always make the after party I always make the as he was on the the
00:46:00
flagrant podcast with Andrew shz the next day and he threw you under the bus he said you yeah he start he started
00:46:06
always make Church 7 a.m. the next day make church but I always make it yeah jayen
00:46:14
Turner fight broke my arm broke my orbital and I still made it to the after party I called me mom I called me Mom
00:46:20
after the gam up fight five cuts on me face stitched up both eyes both eyes shut out get people walking me around
00:46:27
but yeah like I said don't worry Mom said I'm still going to the after I'll
00:46:31
make the after party she just uh horrified and who who's who's at the Afterparty is it like a who's
00:46:39
who well the last one I couldn't see anyone so that was who goes it could have been here you
00:46:45
could have chucked me in the cupboard and put some music on I would had a [ __ ] clue
00:46:49
like Ben does does your mom does your mom worry about you um oh she would like I I get stressed when my friends fight
00:46:56
like I don't I have no idea I would yeah like people ask oh what if your daughter
00:47:01
do it would be like oh I would jump in the cage if if another an 8-year-old girl punched her I'll be jump in the
00:47:06
cage I could not I don't understand and that's like normal people fighting I get
00:47:11
nervous with my friends like that's normal people I'm like me I don't know
00:47:15
how my mother do does it but she's cool as a cucumber she's seen me do some
00:47:19
pretty like fight heavyweight Air New Zealand and yeah absolute Wars and she's
00:47:24
always like just cool Karm and collected I know she worries but she she yeah lets
00:47:29
me do my thing yeah she she s she sounds crack up so when you when you first started fighting you you had like um a
00:47:35
postmatch thing where you'd like slit your throat and pretend to lick the blood well I would if there was blood
00:47:41
that was like that was my that was my old thing like after after fight like you'd have blood on your gloves and
00:47:46
there and I do that like hang man I go and then I'd look like look the opponent's blood or my blood or whoever
00:47:52
his blood it was like yeah look it off look it off my um gloves and then my mom just hey Dan can you uh the blood thing
00:48:00
she's like that's I don't I don't really like that she's like can you can you do
00:48:05
something else so I did it as like a piss I think the first one was I fought King of the Ring here in New Zealand and
00:48:10
that's like after every after every fight like finish knock them out or win or whatever I would turn to the crowd
00:48:16
and I just would do a bow like I did like a curtsy I did I just bow bow to the whole crowd I said Mom you like that
00:48:23
one better I said you like the bow and she says I do I do like the bow yeah I get told of she tells me for swearing as
00:48:30
well I'm going to get in trouble for swearing a few times on this fight week
00:48:33
I have to uh last fight week I promised no no swearing in my in my fight week interviews I only I only swore three
00:48:41
times by accident so what was um what was your upbringing like yeah chill my parents uh yeah couldn't be better
00:48:48
normal kiwi family Dynamics your parents St together yeah yeah siblings they're
00:48:52
St together I got two um two older sisters oldest says uh yeah been married for a long time and then I got my um my
00:49:02
uh second sister sedding next week oh cool yeah what were you like as a kid were you what was the most trouble you
00:49:10
got in oh I tried to stay I see I always stay away from these questions no one's
00:49:17
actually been able to get to the bottom of this really I throw I throw a lot of people off I throw a lot of people off
00:49:23
but no like no yeah no it was good my mom my mom didn't an incredible job of
00:49:28
like I feel like I was always like a a a wild kid but she was just incredible at
00:49:33
um being able to being able to manage me she didn't ask much like my mother didn't ask much but when she did ask for
00:49:40
something like I knew that you know oh I'll do that hey Dan can you knock this
00:49:46
on the head like yeah yeah all right who who was the disciplinarian was it like your mom or your dad oh my dad yeah yeah
00:49:53
yeah yeah yeah just like uh yeah I'd say like most most family's like a normal
00:49:57
like he he's got no idea but so you want me to get your father he's got no idea
00:50:00
what's going on but yeah the same with yeah he just always ready to go what you
00:50:06
you the belt wouldn't SP what was it no no it was good like it was good yeah
00:50:10
just a smack on the bum nothing yeah yeah CU we'd get a a belt growing up he's that's the funny part he comes in
00:50:16
the room like no idea what's going on but yeah he's just really whack you on
00:50:20
the ass which is it's cool because yeah then then most of the time it's like a
00:50:25
person like me like a guy like me yeah um like you can truck me in as many naughty corners and this and that as you
00:50:31
want but it's like we give you a yeah yeah I'll dip out so yeah like Mom yeah
00:50:37
mom did all the work dad dad was ready to go it sounds similar to to us it'd be
00:50:42
like wait until your father gets home then hours later would' be in trouble for some [ __ ] we couldn't even remember
00:50:47
nah I'll give you what you want I'll give you what you want um what are you
00:50:51
um just just looping back to what we were on before like are like you did you get in some real trouble when you were
00:50:56
younger or you embarrassed about or you ashamed about some of the [ __ ] you did
00:51:00
when you were younger or what no nothing at all I don't I don't tend to CU tell you
00:51:08
look no criminal record mate well well it's not uh what you do it's what you get caught doing in
00:51:16
life so in some ways I I had another guy I don't expect you to know the name this
00:51:21
guy um called officer J Jamie panel and he was um he was a little bit Wayward growing up and then he discovered the
00:51:26
army and you know it became a badass in the SAS and you know went on um tours with Willie appat and and stuff um and
00:51:34
he reck the Army sort of you know put him on the right track so I feel maybe it's the same for
00:51:40
you with um the combat sport 1,000% a th% like I finished sco I didn't know um
00:51:46
kind of what way what direction I was going to go and I actually uh I actually was like thinking about the Army I was
00:51:53
like oh maybe I'll maybe I'll join the Army and I googled um is New Zealand at
00:51:57
war with anyone cuz I was like I'm not going to sign this Army if I can't kill
00:52:00
anyone and then and I said New Zealand's not like's not at war with anyone and I
00:52:06
was like oh [ __ ] a waste of time so then I yeah I found I found fighting soon after that um yeah what would you chin
00:52:13
army with no war what would you be doing now if um like if you didn't if you
00:52:17
didn't lean into fighting I you did um you studied business for a bit real estate Landscaping what do you think
00:52:22
you'd be doing now oh anybody's guess absolutely anybody's guess like life is
00:52:29
life and you you roll with the punches and and um but yeah like I'm not can't
00:52:35
sit and say I would do any one thing but yeah I wouldn't like I just or yeah
00:52:43
you just always know what you're capable of and always know that you're capable
00:52:47
of of doing more so I feel like no matter what I would be doing I would be successful at it yeah cuz you obviously
00:52:54
have that ability to just like apply yourself and really [ __ ] lean into whatever you're doing well that's it if
00:53:00
you find something that you you're passionate about and you absolutely love well then how can you like it's not that
00:53:07
I've just stuck at this longer than anyone else like am I better am I the best guy I've ever trained with am I
00:53:13
better than guys I trained with 10 years ago [ __ ] no like I've been getting my
00:53:17
ass kicked every day for the last 15 years I'm by far not the the most skillful the most talented the the the
00:53:27
strongest the fastest like I'm absolutely none of those things I just I just have been I just stuck at it I just
00:53:35
kept doing it longer than anyone else has been doing it I don't know I think
00:53:39
you're being alarmingly modest alarmingly modest like like just a that's my yeah but that's like my
00:53:45
mentality on the thing I don't like you you you're built from different stuff to
00:53:49
most people like whether whether you can see that or not like I last night I watched the the first UFC fight you did
00:53:55
and um the the guy's got you in what's the league thing called is the league
00:53:58
bar he did a a hill hook so it looks like he's about to snap your he did snap
00:54:03
your leg Yeah that's why he like cuz he was like a leg lock specialist he did he
00:54:08
he dropped down for the leg lock and like the first round and that was my debut in uh the UFC and it was just down
00:54:13
the road there I think was spark aren at the time and he did and he he got he got
00:54:18
we were both dry he grabbed my heel and yeah he he snapped it there was probably
00:54:22
like six or seven um like loud like you can hear uh it popping you can hear your
00:54:28
ACL crack like your your ligaments in your knee like it's loud I heard it he
00:54:32
heard it the ref heard it and they all just like but he he tore it and then he like looked up at me and I was like in
00:54:38
my head I thought well [ __ ] it I was like and I was trying to convince myself before the fight I was like look if he
00:54:44
gets you in it cuz it was like his move if you if he snaps your ACL it's like a
00:54:50
surgery and and minimum 6 to8 months rehab to to get back to training so I was telling myself like look you know
00:54:57
you took this fight on short notice like if he really gets you in it just tap because we can get back and and fight in
00:55:03
the next one but then in my head he he's snaps it eight times looks at me and in
00:55:08
my head I thought [ __ ] it I was like snap it off then I was just kind of let him break it and I was just going to
00:55:14
punch my way out of it because yeah that's the way I but yeah it was like absolutely you end up just like
00:55:21
clobbering him in the head and well that's it like cuz he that's that's um
00:55:25
like a lot of my Wis on most of my WS is like you you people's when they think
00:55:30
they have the fight one one the mind wanders like the once you think you have the fight in the bag you you relax and
00:55:38
you start thinking about oh and I'm going to say this at the post fight press conference and I'm going to go to
00:55:43
the Afterparty and everyone's going to think I'm the man and then they look up
00:55:47
and Dan hooker's still [ __ ] standing there still swinging at them and their
00:55:52
world just comes crashing down because it's the hardest thing to when you think
00:55:56
you have it in in the bag and it slips through your fingers like that is it and I've been there in fights I thought I
00:56:03
had the thing one I thought the guy was going to tap out I thought I had him and
00:56:07
then he he was tough enough to stick in there and there's no worst feeling in
00:56:11
the world then your mind wandering to the Afterparty and then you come back to reality and you're you're exhausted and
00:56:18
you're still getting hit oh it's a horrible feeling so I from experience of
00:56:23
having experienced that I use that against people but when when this guy's snapping
00:56:30
your leg you like you're not um you're not you're not yeling in pain there's no
00:56:35
frown on your face like you're just it's just a blank expression yeah I don't know what I'm
00:56:40
supposed to because if you do cuz if you so like a cry out in pain is a is a tap like that's a in our sport
00:56:49
in our spell like I cry if I go oh like then that's that's the referee is
00:56:54
allowed to stop the fire if I make any noise so my head just like don't make
00:56:59
noise and the fight will continue I can hop around like you can do you can do a bunch of different shirt on one
00:57:05
leg Yeah but it's just like a natural human instinct isn't it when you're in
00:57:09
pain to ah yeah but then you you'd have a few more losses on your record yeah
00:57:16
um [ __ ] but this is so much fun what time um what time do you have to be out of here today you've got another no
00:57:24
plenty of time got my sky TV show I do a show there I do a show there yeah this is this is great there's so much to so
00:57:30
much to talk about um oh yeah let's talk about the co stuff so Co was real actually I've got a photo here this this
00:57:38
photo sort of went viral yeah yeah yeah that's you and and miq um for anyone that's listening to
00:57:46
this down the novel I did a few stints there at the novel was it's a heartbreaking photo sock I would never
00:57:52
stay there as a guest though I don't know and I did I did two SS in the navor
00:57:58
house and got got the same I got the same [ __ ] room I was like not the same room that was this is this is why I
00:58:05
realized that this is when I realized that I would not function well in prison like I'm at a fivestar hotel and I was
00:58:12
going absolutely insane so I run around the car park every morning uh the 10 10ks in the car park and like you just
00:58:19
run around in a square like I'd get up because you we weren't allowed to
00:58:24
exercise for more than half an hour but I made a deal with the guy I was like well if I get up earlier I was like can
00:58:29
I run around for an hour and a half so I used to just every day wake up just run
00:58:33
myself to death and you were only allowed to go One Direction so I was like I like five days and then one of my
00:58:39
hips just was like completely wrecked so then I spend the next five days running
00:58:43
the other way but this photo it's terrible though like it sum sums everything up it says um yeah there that
00:58:49
saying a a pature paints thousand words it says so much so you're on you're
00:58:53
you're separated by um got a [ __ ] time worse than that because that's how when
00:58:58
it first started going down this is when they weren't even um like look the the
00:59:03
the fence got higher they got further away they got completely blocked off we had to have mass like things got a hell
00:59:10
of a lot worse than what's going on in that picture that was just the start of
00:59:14
it but my mentality during the whole thing was like [ __ ] you like I'm not letting like I'm not letting this get in
00:59:22
the way of what I want and I took a lot of fights that I shouldn't have taken
00:59:26
cuz I wasn't able to train for them I wasn't uh able to get down the gym and
00:59:31
be with my training Partners or or My coaches because we away for so long uh like I got stuck out of the country with
00:59:37
the voucher system from like four five months in in Vegas uh two months I got stuck in uh Dubai so
00:59:45
my coaches obviously couldn't come with me because uh I can't expect them to be
00:59:48
away from their family for four months five months two months like that that's
00:59:52
just too much to us but in my head I was thinking I'm not letting you stop me live life like I hate that that
00:59:59
element of control that was trying to get that put on everyone so how many how many stints in miq did you end up
01:00:06
doing yeah three two of the never and then one they they flew down to uh Christ Church I hate even talking about
01:00:13
this stuff cuz I feel like anyone that's listening or watching is like oh I don't
01:00:16
over it yeah yeah but they forget about it like completely forgot about it they just look at my record and they see like
01:00:21
a bunch of losses at that stage and they're just like now I'm on free wins
01:00:25
they're just like oh oh he's not [ __ ] after all and it's like I yeah I wasn't
01:00:30
able to people have just blanked out that Co thing all together yeah cuz I feel like you guys were treated um like
01:00:36
really really poorly uh like in terms of a Sports organization and you know in terms of not getting am but that's just
01:00:43
that's just in general like in terms of that like obviously rugby was able to to
01:00:48
operate and that what like that's fine I know um that's just that's just in
01:00:54
general like in terms of our Sport and like cage fighters like I used to I used to carry myself like a mainstream
01:01:03
athlete because I wanted to set a good example for like Combat Sports and and make it like a mainstream Sport and I
01:01:09
know that it is violent I know it can't be ex like a lot of people it's not
01:01:12
their cup of tea and that's fine I've got absolutely no problem with that but
01:01:16
I thought if I act like a mainstream Sportsman long enough they'll start treating me like a mainstream Sportsman
01:01:21
but like through the co times and like we just didn't and even since then in
01:01:26
terms of like sponsorships like Fighters get uh gambling which I'm happy to do I
01:01:31
gamble myself like uh maybe a protein powder and like we don't get the sponsorships that other sports get and
01:01:39
it's like they they I tried to act like a a main like a professional Sportsman
01:01:48
but they just treat me like a cage fighter and it's they do that for long enough where I just thought [ __ ] I'm
01:01:54
going to just start you want to treat me like a cas fighter I'm quite happy to
01:01:57
act like a cage fighter and you see that with like sponsorship like do you see any of us sponsored by add Des or like
01:02:03
have any meain like anyone that that sponsors rugby do any of them sponsor uh they want us to act like professional
01:02:10
Sportsmen but then they want to treat us like cage fighters yeah you're not getting um like Rick owner or Co the
01:02:15
only reason why you know the Warriors and the All Blacks and do that like act like that is because the their unions
01:02:20
have made them sign a contract which says that they can't do gambling they can't swear can't talk about this they
01:02:27
can't talk about that we're just lucky that with the UFC like we're we're
01:02:31
pretty much allowed to comment on anything that's why people like speaking to to the UFC athletes because we're
01:02:36
allowed to speak our mind like we're not controlled by any big organization to
01:02:40
say anything but yeah like I'm I'm quite happy and comfortable like acting like a
01:02:45
cage fighter like that's because that's uh through and through that's who I was
01:02:49
I just kind of gave up on it and it's it's funny because they're going to
01:02:52
regret that they're going to like the the the mainstream companies are are are
01:02:58
going to regret that because i' I've said I've talked about this in the
01:03:01
sponsorship meetings and just been like um like you're you're the Next Generation like your kids go go to your
01:03:07
go to your kid and and um ask him to name rugby players and then ask them to name UFC fighters like they they the
01:03:16
Next Generation like your kids are watching us and you we're not we don't
01:03:21
have to act like professional athletes we we're allowed to swear we're allowed
01:03:24
to gamble we're allowed to go out have a good time and I'm quite comfortable
01:03:27
doing that like they as far as I'm concerned they're like they missed the
01:03:31
boat they missed the boat yeah it's interesting you should say that because I I reckon um yeah the the the term role
01:03:39
model needs to be sort of redefined you know because there's this perception
01:03:41
that being a role model you should be perfect you should be well that's it we're we're redefining it because like a
01:03:46
lot of the guys uh like rugby players and that like they're they're just a
01:03:52
bigger piece of [ __ ] as we are but but they're actually not owed to say it like
01:03:56
they have to they have to hide that expect away from it whereas like us I'm not going to lose any sponsorships by by
01:04:02
going out and and promoting gambling I'm not going to lose any sponsorships by
01:04:06
having a good time or swearing or commenting on something like I'm not going to lose any sponsorships by doing
01:04:11
that kind of thing well no nobody's perfect as well so I think like being a role model you should be allowed to make
01:04:17
like at the end yeah at the end of the day we're cage fighters like you like me
01:04:20
cuz I [ __ ] send people to hospital like that's why people like me so it's
01:04:25
not like I got to sit up here and yeah like and I've been doing this for so long I've been doing this since before
01:04:31
it was cool I've been doing this since before no one knew what the [ __ ] this
01:04:35
thing was and and what was going on even I I had no idea the level that this sport would go to and and how main
01:04:41
streamer will become but yeah like I I do this because I truly enjoy going out there and hurting people like that's
01:04:49
through and through that's why I I love to do this thing so yeah now you expect
01:04:54
me to be a role model and you don't treat me like one it's like don't learn to day yeah so there's
01:05:02
yeah there's another thing in that Co time so you guys had um like your own your own bubble uh where you living we
01:05:08
standing at the gym probably like like I think like 12 1 guys we just cuz they said uh New Zealand's going into
01:05:16
lockdown uh and obviously with level four lockdown you're not allowed outside
01:05:19
of your bubble and it goes down at midnight so our coach Eugene said got I think it was 8:00 p.m. at the time he
01:05:27
says boys we're going into level four you can't n that outside your bubbles
01:05:30
grab your [ __ ] grab your sleeping bags kiss your misses say goodbye you're
01:05:36
moving into the gym so like 12 of us moved into the gym just set up mattresses brought sleeping bags down
01:05:42
the gym so that was like our bubble then eventually we were trained for like a couple of weeks and then yeah like six
01:05:49
cop cars pull up one day and they just said yep no the bubble's too big even
01:05:54
though we were sticking to our our bubble and we weren't breaking any of the rules and they said nah you just got
01:06:00
to piss off back to your houses like you're not allowed you guys aren't allowed to train here so then yeah then
01:06:06
I started training at at my own gym CU I still had a fight coming up and it's
01:06:10
like I've had Co a couple of times and uh it didn't do absolute dick to me I'm
01:06:15
more worried about you know getting hit by a a professional fighter and having not trained I'm more scared of that than
01:06:23
I am about getting the flu where I can't taste anything like that is is [ __ ]
01:06:28
so yeah I went to my own gym um and then yeah they had a uh we were training like
01:06:35
a couple of guys like a handful of guys we're training on my own facility which
01:06:38
I owned there in Aly and they set up uh they oh some guy I remember his name I think it's George I want to say George
01:06:48
Bush James Bush no not that what's his name it'll come to me I still follow him
01:06:53
on Instagram because I wanted like to get like to send him him a message every now and then I stor got my eyes on you
01:06:58
but was like a reporter and he he he had like a long lens parked like super far away from the gym and then took like
01:07:05
photos of us as we were like coming out of the gym and then we had uh like I had
01:07:09
a senior Sergeant come around to my house and be like you've been caught blah blah blah like if we catch you one
01:07:15
more time like you're going to get locked up so then I grabbed two training partners and I moved them into my house
01:07:21
and then we were just training in my garage um for the fight [ __ ] what a snitch and then yeah yeah
01:07:29
big time snitch big time Big Time but then then I had then I had cops coming around to my house like every couple of
01:07:35
days like just checking making sure that I'm not at the gym like making sure that
01:07:39
I'm not doing this so I'm guessing something like that makes you angry but you managed to
01:07:45
control I just no I I I took a lot of pride in not having it let not letting that stop me because I don't let that
01:07:53
stop me and the the Visa office to get actually for the fight I was training for the Visa office was shut so I wasn't
01:08:00
actually allowed um there was no possibility of getting a Visa until I just got social media harassment and I
01:08:07
just harassed them and it was the latest anyone has ever arrived for U ofc5 was that one and I arrived uh weighin was
01:08:15
the the next day weighin was 8: a.m. and I arrived uh at midnight Midnight on the
01:08:21
Thursday so it's was like yeah the latest anyone's everever arrived for a
01:08:24
UFC fight cuz I didn't get my Visa till like a day before I I left so I arrived
01:08:31
uh yeah Thursday night at midnight and then I I just went straight to the pi cut weight and and wait in so between
01:08:38
Landing from uh New Zealand was in Las Vegas and and fighting was yeah like 24 hours and was was that that the the
01:08:47
period where it was like fight Island where it was you guys just fighting with no CR I did uh I did fight there now
01:08:52
this one was um in Las Vegas Las Vegas had like returned to normal but yeah I fought it I fought it fight Island as
01:08:58
well I took over my my cornerman for that fight was uh Nate La still fighting but it was a guy that had probably
01:09:04
walked in my gym like a year and a half before that never cornered anyone in in his life and I just took him with me and
01:09:12
just me and him went to F isand and and fought Michael Chandler well why did you
01:09:17
find um um managed isolation so hard is is it just like being in being bored and
01:09:22
being in your own head space for that long or what oh yeah yeah I I absolutely hate being bored I have to I like
01:09:29
to keep busy I'm the more [ __ ] I got going on the the Cal I am the more chaotic life is like the more Chiller I
01:09:37
am if it's if if things is quiet down or they stop like I just get absolutely
01:09:41
bored to death well you got too much thinking time or I don't know yeah I don't know what
01:09:47
it is I don't know what I remember saying what I think um I obviously don't
01:09:51
think like most people so it's like yeah and it's it's good it's good that you're
01:09:55
unique um I think it was one of those thingss in mq where like there was some social media footage of you like
01:10:00
removing your own stitches would that be right yeah well I've done that I've done
01:10:04
that heaps but I learned that I learned that from my old man my old man used to play league and he's just like yeah yeah
01:10:09
why would you go to the bloody doctor for some Stites my old man yeah like hard man hard man that's a yeah I think
01:10:16
that's where I get a lot of it from as my old man and he doesn't even realize
01:10:20
like how maybe doesn't realize that how much it impacted me but it's like hard
01:10:24
dude that's like a hard old school dude never seen him cry never you know like
01:10:29
just one of those old hard kiwi BLS but yeah why would you go to the doctor like
01:10:34
you just here I'll show you how to take them out what what about you you've never
01:10:39
seen your dad cry are you are you an emotional guide or or yeah like I I think there's nothing wrong with cry
01:10:45
tear up um things are pissing me off every now and then but it's fine like there's nothing wrong with um yeah like
01:10:51
that's why that's why like fighting's just that's why we would be so hard to
01:10:56
to walk away from because you you just really get to it's just the extremes of
01:11:01
the the human emotion that you get to experience because obviously you win it's nothing higher than that everyone
01:11:06
loves you uh you got things come life gets to move forward but if you lose like then everyone thinks you're a loser
01:11:13
probably probably if I if I win I probably have thousands of messages across like social media if you lose I
01:11:19
get three three messages like your mate uh my my mom and my misss like that's
01:11:27
that's the people that's the people that are like there for you so if I want to
01:11:32
invite you back on the podcast I need to wait till you lose and that's why you
01:11:35
will send my message that's that's how you get me in that's how you get in um
01:11:39
yeah like um I've seen the style Benders movie and um like you guys you guys are
01:11:43
super masculine like it's a you know it's it's a it's a badass sport you do
01:11:47
and you guys are very manly so I feel like you guys can sort of show vulnerability which um as we know is a
01:11:52
strength not a weakness um for sure for sure but you said you said you you cow when things piss you off like like like
01:11:58
tears of like anger or frustration or n not like that not like that I'm just
01:12:03
yeah yeah yeah I live I live life to the full like there's nothing wrong with
01:12:07
with crying it's it's fine no it's a great emotion as I get older I'm getting
01:12:11
more and more emotion that's why I love that's why I love fighting is is because
01:12:16
yeah you you will never feel like an extreme of the emotion like that like I've cried when after fights like you
01:12:21
lose and you're just upset with yourself and performance you think everyone hates
01:12:25
you like it's the biggest deal in the world but you get to feel you get to feel something you get to feel like yeah
01:12:32
the most yeah it's got to be the loneliest sport in the world when you lose it's all your fault like you have
01:12:39
to there's no one the there's no teammates to H behind it's not like uh
01:12:42
yeah game game of football or anything like that where you lose and and you can oh you know just hide behind your
01:12:48
teammates together like when you lose you everyone points the finger at you like you have to take responsibility for
01:12:54
that 100 100% and that's why it's like so good when you win because you get
01:12:59
everyone's just looking at you you get you get 100% of that emotion but when
01:13:02
you lose it's all your fault you no one else has taking the heat for you when
01:13:07
you lose so when you lose not not even the The Russian Lady messages you not even ran oh oh yeah I heard about I
01:13:15
heard about that in another Russian stalk I've had some good ones over there
01:13:19
yeah but yeah yeah yeah this bird was for Years bro like what messing me you grab me m profile like take all her
01:13:26
pictures start um start her own yeah I had a stalker for think like 3 years yeah she would messag me constantly and
01:13:33
then uh yeah she would like send me um to my cuz she got the address on my gym she would like send me like mad [ __ ] mad
01:13:40
[ __ ] send me phone like send me a phone message me on this phone like wanted me
01:13:45
to kill my mrss and run off of her and yeah all sorts of [ __ ] and I was just like well well probably like there was a
01:13:52
stage there for like a year which she would make like at least 10 fake accounts a day and just
01:13:58
message me off like every last one of them wild yeah wild how did that end eventually she just disappeared I
01:14:06
don't know maybe yeah just ignored it it's a yeah she pissed off yeah she
01:14:14
never made it to New Zealand though as far as you Fu than [ __ ] she never made it to New Zealand holy rck and what
01:14:19
about you in Israel atna like you it seems like you you moveing very different circles and you're very
01:14:24
different guys but you're still still incredibly Incredibly Close there's that
01:14:28
clip on YouTube where I think it's titled for enemies um are you friends oh for sure yeah for sure we've got each
01:14:35
other's back 100% sure yeah yeah without a shadow of a doubt like goes back to
01:14:41
the day we die like that that friendship is not yeah it's not one of those friendships where you have to message
01:14:46
each other every day you going like [ __ ] we're don't yeah but we're like yeah we
01:14:52
go through like a lot of the the similar things obviously I I don't tell the
01:14:57
levels that he's at like the levels of Fame that he's at is absolutely wild and
01:15:00
we are very different people like he's like that's the funny part about it is
01:15:04
people think like people think he's the bad one and I'm the nice one and I'm
01:15:08
just like thinking what the heck Israel's like one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life like he is
01:15:15
actually like a really nice heartfelt dude like and I'm just not so I don't
01:15:20
know why do you why do you say that everything of um yeah read about you uh watched about you heard about you
01:15:28
in the past week it's real good energy real good energy yeah but you're getting
01:15:32
me on fight week where I'm happy I'm happy as Larry most of the time you see
01:15:36
you see interviews and stuff like that like that's that's uh yeah there's no
01:15:40
Israel Like There's No Malice in it like he doesn't it's a a competitive Sport
01:15:45
and he's there's he's got no like malicious intent like when he fights
01:15:52
that's that's kind of what I mean by like are malicious intent like I have
01:15:59
terrible I want I want yeah yeah like I will [ __ ] I'm just trying to hurt someone but you need to cuz they want to
01:16:06
hurt you as well yeah but there is that but there is like uh like more than that
01:16:10
say it's not um yeah like I love it I yeah I love it like I will never walk away from the
01:16:20
sport I'm going to get dragged out I guarantee it wow I'm pleased to hear that and what
01:16:27
about um that's people think I'm old at 34 I'm like [ __ ] me days like they'll be
01:16:32
rolling me out they'll be welling me out at 45 I'll still be oh what about Conor
01:16:37
McGregor is that is is that a thing or no you so you you were you went to helper maid in Spain at a beer knuckle
01:16:43
fighting competition be knuckle thing like well we um we got like a lot of mutual friends
01:16:49
like uh Oscar who runs the the the Conor McGregor's um like social media thing
01:16:54
and Lee uh so Lee and Oscar they're on the Mac life like YouTube channel which
01:16:58
I've worked for uh with for years like doing a podcast we do me and Oscar do a
01:17:03
pub uh a a podcast called Pub talk where we just pretty much have a couple of beers and talk a bunch of [ __ ] about
01:17:10
everyone but yeah I've been doing that part of Conor mrig channel for years and
01:17:14
we have a lot of similar friends and I went over to Spain and was hanging out with the guys he grew up with from there
01:17:20
and we seemed like pretty uh yeah pretty similar at the end of the day but yeah he's going through some hard times at
01:17:26
the moment I don't know when when he scheduled to fight next but yeah like that's uh that's a fight that makes a
01:17:32
lot of sense like in the in the future when when he chooses to come back he said he wants to fight you in February
01:17:37
but you you've got a baby Jew at that time he uh yeah he's not fighting in
01:17:42
February he's got a he's got a bit of [ __ ] to do but yeah like he'll come back
01:17:46
I think maybe sometime next year but yeah it's not like a fight I'm going to
01:17:50
sit around and wait for like I have something um lined up for I think March um next year so I'm I'm
01:17:58
just in the gym getting ready for that this me so well what's left to achieve world title yeah is that it I
01:18:08
just won it once I just won it once I just W up for for just one night and um I'm happy days just just to lie down in
01:18:17
bed with the world title and just no one can dispute that no one can dispute that
01:18:23
because yeah like there's a lot of people that don't think um that you're
01:18:26
capable of achieving it but there's a lot of people that's the thing about
01:18:29
people is they've doubted me since before my first fight you know like you've always got people that are there
01:18:35
doubting you and you're continually like proving them wrong but even with with
01:18:39
the belt like the doubt is though still come up with some [ __ ] to say for sure
01:18:43
for sure but that's it you have you have the the symbol that proves it it's not
01:18:48
like it's not about the money or anything like that at the stage it's just yeah focus on the title and people
01:18:54
can say you're never going to achieve that um as long as they want but the reality of the situation is that I'm one
01:19:02
one fight away from from lining myself up for a title what what would you say I actually maybe more specifically like
01:19:10
say if you ask your wife what your worst habits or flaws were what would she say no
01:19:18
patience I want and I wanted it yesterday like I've got absolutely no not a shred of patience not a shred of
01:19:26
patience if I want something I'm going to go and get it that day like I don't
01:19:31
yeah and you're you're in a voice what's your in a voice like so just when you're
01:19:34
when you're alone in the car or in a a seat on a plane flying somewhere what
01:19:39
are you like are you are you quite you quite kind and positiv to yourself or beat yourself up or like yeah just a
01:19:49
very just a very simple man I've got nothing but uh three maybe four emotions
01:19:55
and then that's it you happy uh Angry hungry or horny those are the four emotions that I had in my life and I'll
01:20:04
cycle between those four yeah cuz you always seem like so positive and so update simple very simple man it's a
01:20:10
good way to be it is it is um in terms of Legacy how would you like to be remembered in the sport I can't say that
01:20:18
I'm too attached to to to being um setting in kind of Legacy or or being Remembered in the sport because uh it
01:20:25
it's so fleeting and it passes so it passes so quickly like it's to be remembered in anything would be I don't
01:20:35
know that's like a weird like you're going to give up um not do things in this life because
01:20:43
you're worried about how you'll be remembered like it it all fades it all
01:20:46
fades so and it fades especially in our sport it fades incredibly quickly like you could retire and then the sport will
01:20:52
move on the sport moves so much like uh Muhammad Ali passes away what a couple years ago and it's like and give it
01:21:00
another 10 years and see if anyone like the the just time moves so to think um that I think that highly of myself that
01:21:08
I'm going to be remembered in time is uh yeah I don't think I don't my head's not
01:21:15
that bad are you proud of yourself it's a it's a it's a hard one for a kiwi to answer right not yet
01:21:25
not yet not yet yeah not yet not yet yeah like uh I haven't achieved the things that I set out to achieve yet
01:21:33
you've achieved a lot though I have achieved a lot uh but definitely not the
01:21:37
yeah it's like a k I don't know it's like a kiwi thing I think my old man
01:21:40
keeps me uh very humble like he he constantly I thought because he he don't really compliment the fights or whatever
01:21:48
and then I remember I won King of the Ring which is like three fights on one night and then I like went home and I
01:21:54
had a big check had $10,000 on it and I had a big check and I was like I had a belt nice shiny belt and I thought I was
01:22:00
the man and he I walked in and he's just like they found three guys [ __ ] enough
01:22:05
for you to beat in one night and I was like damn it but he like does keep you like that's it's like yeah it's like a
01:22:11
reality check and then I won I I thought I was rich when I I won my first fight in the UFC and then what that was like
01:22:18
uh I looked at my bank account and leading into that I spent my whole bank account on the Medicals to to get into
01:22:24
to I think MRI was 1,500 bucks and that blew me back out I had to do like a t-shirt fundraiser for my first fight in
01:22:32
the FFC to pay for the Medicals so yeah I had nothing when I stepped in that cage and then I won and I think 15 grand
01:22:38
appeared in my bank account and I thought I was a man and I was like check this out you know check this and he's
01:22:43
like well you've been doing this for a long time he's like you know let's go
01:22:50
over the last year 15 grand for a year he's like you may as well work parttime
01:22:53
at McDonald's probably would and I was like well reality of it is like yeah that that is 100%
01:23:01
correct yeah I mean it's a big apprenticeship you do isn't it it's a
01:23:05
it's a with no guarantee that you're going to end up with a good job at the
01:23:07
end of it it's huge it's huge like the the yeah that's why when you say like oh
01:23:12
you know the sports becoming mainstream and there's a lot of young kids getting
01:23:15
into it like [ __ ] go play rugby like this is when I'm doing hill Sprint I'm
01:23:20
doing hill Sprints NE next to Carlos oldberg and Navajo Sterling and I'm going like you know at the time neither
01:23:27
you know the these guys weren't UFC fighters or anything like that now they're they're earning like some good
01:23:32
money you know but I was if I was had the your guys rigs I'd be an all black
01:23:37
making millions of dollars I was like I'm 75 kilo soak and wet like I can't be
01:23:42
a NRL player I'm looking at navoo steerling of a 12pack and 6'4 and I'm
01:23:48
just go I'll be kicking a bloody rugby Bo ground making millions like this sport is you got to have the heart for
01:23:54
it you got to have the mind for it like it's you got to love it more it can't be
01:23:58
about the there's so many people that are drawn to it now because they see like that you get heaps of Instagram
01:24:05
heaps of Instagram likes you know like there's people that that get into the
01:24:09
sport now for Instagram likes and it's like when you get that first punch on
01:24:14
your nose and you hear that thing crunch it doesn't matter like you're gonna
01:24:19
you're gonna start looking for the door and the way out like you it truly there's a handful of people that this
01:24:25
this thing is truly for what's been your biggest single payday um You've Won heaps of like
01:24:34
$50,000 like fight of the night bonus is yeah yeah yeah yeah um yes I'm good money really money yeah
01:24:42
over uh yeah over half a milon damn but again welld deserved and like the the hours that go in before you
01:24:50
even I never I never I never anticipated having money from this thing like I when
01:24:55
when I first started um training in this sport like it was yeah like it definitely wasn't mainstream or or well
01:25:02
known and wasn't on ESPN I think there was like we used to have uh like one pay-per-view or one UFC event every five
01:25:09
or six weeks and there used to be a bar in takapuna that would show and the bar wouldn't even be full it was the only
01:25:15
bar in ockland that would play it I think the elephant wrest and we used to all the MMA Community used to go there
01:25:21
and watch it at this bar we wouldn't even fool the thing out there' be you
01:25:24
know there' be 20 people where to buy like it wouldn't even and it's the only
01:25:28
Pay-Per-View event in the last 6 weeks or month now everybody in town is absolutely full like you wouldn't get
01:25:35
into this because you wanted to be cool and girl so like you and Instagram likes
01:25:40
like that that can't be your motivation for this thing and do you get um yeah
01:25:46
that just triggered something that I remember do you ever get people trying to pick a fight with you like the there
01:25:50
was the Israel out of s clip earlier this year where me not so much because there's a whole lot of evidence that I
01:25:55
will kick the [ __ ] out of you you're missing with the wrong dude my my thing is if I can if I can justify
01:26:03
it by law if I can justify it by self-defense like you're getting I'm taking you out of the game like that
01:26:10
that's that's my line if I can justify it like that guy came up to me that guy
01:26:17
was being incredibly threatening that that was that yeah that that you've come
01:26:22
into my personal space you're you're it looked to me like an attack was imminent
01:26:28
and I would have to I would have to I would be forced to protect myself using also for him I also saw him put his hand
01:26:34
in his pocket he told me he was going for a knife and he was going to kill me like I will if I can get out of if I can
01:26:40
justify by law you are [ __ ] but um as's response was great he said to the guy something like bro I get paid
01:26:46
millions of dollars to knock people out yeah yeah but like again like Israel is not going to he's got way too much to
01:26:51
lose like he like that guy's just being a guy's just being a [ __ ] like he he
01:26:56
what you're going to get a name off of that like didn't you almost didn't you
01:27:00
almost get a fight with someone at the 50 Cent concert no am I I did oh yeah I did I what's the story
01:27:06
there you a shirtless by the way what we doing where was your shirt at the 50c concert me and the muses are big 50 Cent
01:27:12
fans so we we're wait we're waiting for that one like we grew up we grew up get
01:27:18
rich or die trying me and babe but yeah like uh it was the opening act whoever that was uh like his mates are down in
01:27:25
front of us well on the stand or whatever and the was just dancing around this and that and then like spilled like
01:27:32
a little bit of her drink out of her cup and like a little bit hit the guy's
01:27:35
shoulder who was like down there and he I saw them they turned around and they were like you know what like what and I
01:27:41
go sorry like sorry boys like apologize apologize and then um I just switched places so the Mrs I
01:27:50
just moved her over she's just dancing away oblivious of the whole thing moves her out of the way he was like get
01:27:56
out of the way and then like carry on dancing and they were like no no you need to get her and she needs to
01:28:03
apologize and I was like true I was just in my head I'm going like I ain't
01:28:08
telling my M [ __ ] I was she's having a good time if you think I'm upsetting her
01:28:13
you you got another thing coming so yeah I just showed him the bottom of my boot
01:28:17
and I said if I come over this rail I said I'm going to stomp your heading buba I said this is the last thing
01:28:21
you're going to see I had my TBS on show the the bottom of my boot and then they
01:28:25
got a freaked out and then they sacked her I was just like having fun with her you know I was like I like yeah I I like
01:28:32
conflict I en I truly enjoy like having like an good oldfashioned argument and but you need to remember that the only
01:28:40
reason you ever see me argue is to fight if that's what an argument is for an
01:28:45
argument an argument is a precursive fight but anyway like they went and got um the like VI VIP security and there oh
01:28:54
that guy over there blah blah blah and then uh he's actually um like a friend
01:28:59
of mine and he he looks up and sees at me and he just he just laughed to himself and shook his head cuz he's like
01:29:05
if you think the H all the security and [ __ ] vinaa can get Dana out of here if I go boys back me up like if you
01:29:15
think you're ever going to be able to get me out of there you're absolutely
01:29:18
off your head but yeah like the M had no idea what was going on eventually say the the the security made leave they
01:29:24
told them to puss off and then they told them like if you they said uh about the Afterparty boys I'd forget
01:29:32
about it they said go back to your hotel stay in your hotel and do not leave your
01:29:38
hotel room tonight they're like d you do not want to see den and his mates silly must be quite impairing um
01:29:48
like knowing you can [ __ ] someone up like to me you don't you've got nothing
01:29:51
to prove to anyone I suppose that's what I mean yeah like that's why you're like less prone to to
01:29:56
like a confrontation because you you do have like nothing to prove but but if if
01:30:01
com has taught me nothing it's it's how fragile the human body is like the the
01:30:06
human body is incredibly fragile so that's why I I take that's why I don't
01:30:11
muck around with influences I don't I take everything incredibly serious because I know that if I get hit I'm
01:30:19
just as likely to get knocked out as everyone else like I know I know the exact points where you get hit that the
01:30:25
body switches right off like so that's why I take everything incredibly seriously because you need to you need
01:30:31
to hey this has been great thank you so much for responding to my DM how's it
01:30:35
been for you do you enjoy this or yeah I I enjoy it if there's uh yeah interesting questions then I then it
01:30:43
just feels like a a a conversation like I told I told you that before that if you're coming here and you ain't done
01:30:48
your homework I will just troll the absolute [ __ ] out of here like I'm a troll Head and Shoulders above
01:30:53
everything else if you came he you're like so where did you grow up I'll be
01:30:56
like oh I grew up in uh Pocono I uh yeah I used to go to Pocono primary and then
01:31:03
yeah cuz you didn't do your research and no I would have just trolled you for an
01:31:05
hour and a half but you did your research that's a lie he came he came prepared Mount Ross School M Albert grar
01:31:11
School Albert grar school I got it I got you hey it's been so nice to finally
01:31:16
meet you I've um I've been so excited about this ever since you replied um
01:31:20
initially I was um I rep I was like oh come in next Wednesday this time and you just replied mad and I was like is this
01:31:26
going to happen or is it not going to happen then I heard um heard a story about your very first um signing with
01:31:32
the um with the UFC when you messaged that guy and it was like you're like I'm
01:31:37
a one word answer guy I'm I'm going yeah I'm going to release that one day it
01:31:40
would be funny like to actually like CU from my negotiations with the UFC when I
01:31:44
first got in like I emailed the UFC I said hey you're coming to New Zealand I'm the best like give me a shot and
01:31:51
they'd heard about me but they all they said was can you make fill weight like
01:31:55
can you make 65 kilos and I just messed back yes and then someone else sent me a
01:32:00
contract but for most of my UFC career instead of my like last two or three fights I've managed myself for like most
01:32:08
of my UFC career and yeah like they Sean sh we will messag me like you want to fight this guy this state this place and
01:32:16
I'll just message back cool like we're just full there there's no negotiation
01:32:22
process it's just like sweet like see sweet see you there just one word answers but that's like that's why Sean
01:32:27
CH be like you know he's got a softball for me CU like [ __ ] easy to do of oh
01:32:33
yeah that's another thing I love that about you um so he ended up coming back
01:32:36
to you and saying hey hey Dan uh we need to negotiate to give you some more money
01:32:41
yeah you weren even you weren even you weren't even about the money early on no
01:32:44
like I just I had two fights uh in the UFC and then he was like oh do you want to fight y Rodriguez in Houston I was
01:32:51
like bet and then he's like like do you want a new contract for more money and I
01:32:57
was like do I ever I was like yeah what I would have done it for way less than that like yeah just a just an idiot yeah
01:33:05
just to like get my foot in the door I see now the the importance of a manager and stuff like that but I wouldn't
01:33:10
change any part about it I enjoyed that time I enjoyed like the the things I learned from that and the freedom that's
01:33:16
why I yeah I like difficult times and it's not about what you get from it it's
01:33:20
about um it's about what what difficult times make you then if I took back any of those losses or or
01:33:27
hard times in my career then I wouldn't be the person that I am and I wouldn't
01:33:30
have the skills and and the the like emotional maturity to to to work through loss the way that I can well you got
01:33:39
great energy thank you sir this has been you bring it out of me because it's like
01:33:44
if it's a [ __ ] questions in a [ __ ] podcast then you're like I feel like
01:33:48
that's why when Israel fiz like got to UFC in that I I said let like they have
01:33:53
to like an interviewer or or someone has to ignite the passion in you you know like you you are not uh I'm not a
01:34:01
performer like I don't come in here and then like do a show and dance and and
01:34:06
put on any kind of performance it's like if if you got [ __ ] questions it's going
01:34:10
to be a [ __ ] interview but if you can light a fire and Spark and ask a good questions then I'm motivated to to you
01:34:17
invigorate uh like memories and emotions in me and then I get to share them with
01:34:21
everyone else well if if anyone's going to give me um like 2 hours of their time
01:34:25
like you have today I'm not going to disrespect them by not doing the work Dan hook you're a great New Zealander
01:34:29
thanks mate really enjoyed it than you very much