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Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

February 26, 2023 / 01:22:48

This episode features Dean Lonigan discussing his career in boxing promotion, his past as a rugby league player, and his personal journey. Key topics include his experiences with notable fighters like Joseph Parker and Jaya Pattaya, as well as his struggles with financial setbacks and mental health.

Dean Lonigan shares insights about his early life, including his time as a semi-professional rugby player and the challenges he faced after retiring from sports. He reflects on his transition into boxing promotion and the establishment of Fight for Life events.

Lonigan highlights his work with fighters such as Jaya Pattaya, who fought with a broken jaw, and discusses the importance of resilience in overcoming personal and professional obstacles. He also touches on his relationship with his son, Liam, and the significance of family in his life.

The conversation covers Lonigan's financial struggles, including a failed circus venture that led him into significant debt, and his determination to repay creditors rather than declare bankruptcy. He emphasizes the lessons learned from these experiences and the importance of maintaining integrity.

Throughout the episode, Lonigan provides a candid look at his life, including his current living situation with family, his views on fame, and the evolving landscape of boxing promotion in New Zealand.

TL;DR

Dean Lonigan discusses his boxing promotion career, personal struggles, and the importance of family and resilience in overcoming challenges.

Episode

1:22:48

00:00:00

Escape Runners only with dime Harley

00:00:03

's only with dom Harvey and Dean lonigan

00:00:06

g'day mate how are you yeah fantastic

00:00:08

thank you so much for coming over no

00:00:09

problems it's fair to say haven't done

00:00:11

too much running of late you're looking

00:00:12

like a Scandinavian racing sardines and

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I'm looking like a fairly bloated

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pump that way or maybe oh you're being

00:00:20

too hard on yourself what is um first of

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all thanks for coming over I had I told

00:00:25

some people you were coming over and

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they said oh what's he selling or what's

00:00:27

he promoting I said no nothing he just

00:00:30

agreed to agreed to come over is that a

00:00:32

reputation you have oh I'm assuming it

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is you know by Nature I think I'm a

00:00:37

Salesman and we I sell stuff for a

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living that's what I've been doing for

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the last sort of 30 or 40 years and at

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the moment we're in the business of

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selling boxing and we're we're

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re-establishing ourselves back here in

00:00:47

New Zealand we've got some stuff coming

00:00:48

up but I'll talk about anything you want

00:00:49

to talk about Dominus you're uh you

00:00:52

asked me over I have no idea what the

00:00:54

agenda is so we'll just roll with it

00:00:55

well there's there's no agenda this is

00:00:56

just um basically to unpack your

00:00:58

fascinating life I've always found you a

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fascinating dude I promise you it's not

00:01:02

that fascinating especially when you sit

00:01:04

in the middle of it so

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um first of all yeah the podcast is

00:01:08

called Runners only what what is your

00:01:10

relationship with running do you run at

00:01:11

all not anymore Once Upon a Time

00:01:14

obviously uh when I was a young fellow I

00:01:16

aspired to be a professional a football

00:01:18

player which I sort of managed to

00:01:19

achieve on a semi-professional basis and

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used to do quite a bit of obviously

00:01:24

training like predominantly short stuff

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but uh you know with a benefit of time

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and looking at the times when I achieved

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the most I did them in sport uh the

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longer distance was definitely the way

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to go to get a base and the sport that

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we participate in now in boxing and we

00:01:37

don't participate we organize all boxes

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if you want to be good they have to get

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out and do the miles on the road in the

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morning five six miles or whatever that

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equates to in case gives them a good

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base running for 45 minutes to half hour

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sorry 45 minutes to an hour and that

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that provides the base for what they do

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but yeah certainly a long time ago I

00:01:55

used to do it I get out and I walk you

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know and I've got to get out and move

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more and walk more I'm probably about 20

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kilos overweight so I've got 20 to lose

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so I'm working on it

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um yeah the distance you were talking

00:02:06

about that's probably the best Pad like

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10ks and uh I know like Tyson Fury and

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Joe Parker those guys do that most

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mornings and David nikau who is in

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Australia in similar location to where

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you've been he's um he's a demon isn't

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he runs super he's an outstanding

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athlete you just got to get his shirt

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off to see

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is that he's he's cut he's very much in

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the uh he could be a male model quite

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easily yeah ridiculously good looking

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and what I can't believe I think he's

00:02:33

about six foot three six foot four and

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he fights a Cruiserweight which is about

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91.5 kilos how he gets down to that

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weight is beyond me because he is all

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muscle so I can only imagine he's got

00:02:43

fairly light bones so God knows what

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reason and he must have reasonably

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skinny legs because he's just he's built

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like a brick [ __ ] house up top so and he

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is an exceptional boxer uh he's going to

00:02:54

be a great New Zealand Talent yeah

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phenomenal and you you're back in New

00:02:57

Zealand because the the fight for life's

00:02:59

coming back oh at some stage I'm sure

00:03:01

we'll be announcing that but we come

00:03:03

back here uh we had a contract Liam and

00:03:07

my son we run a company called DNL

00:03:08

events which stands for Dean and Liam

00:03:10

it's very clever I never would have

00:03:13

guessed it short to the point

00:03:15

um and you I tell you what when people

00:03:16

are taking down your email addresses you

00:03:18

have to spell it out them letter by

00:03:19

letter by letter because it's actually

00:03:21

not that easy strangely enough and they

00:03:23

look it looks like dandel events but

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it's not but um we had a contract with

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Fox Sports I think for seven and a half

00:03:29

eight years and unfortunately that come

00:03:31

to a conclusion December 31 and so we've

00:03:34

still got a stable of fantastic New

00:03:36

Zealand boxes uh and Andre mccailovich

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is is one who's a middleweight he's

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probably the greatest middleweight

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Prospect this country's ever seen we've

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got Jerome pampalone and they're both

00:03:46

world rated guys and we're looking to do

00:03:48

a deal and maybe put some stuff on with

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a young lady called miyamatu who was

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quite Sensational she uh she's capable

00:03:54

of fighting for a world title so we've

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got some really great New Zealand talent

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and we've currently got the only male

00:03:59

world champion in Australia a guy called

00:04:01

Jaya Pattaya Jay is without doubt the

00:04:04

toughest man I've seen in my entire life

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and I I would say he's probably the

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toughest Combat Sports sports athlete on

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the planet he fought in a world title uh

00:04:13

July 2 last year on the Gold Coast and

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he fought the number one guy in the

00:04:16

division a guy called Morris breedus he

00:04:19

broke his jaw Joy broke his jaw in the

00:04:21

first two rounds of the fight so he had

00:04:23

to fight 10 Rounds with a broken jaw but

00:04:26

then and I was right ringside when I saw

00:04:28

this he broke it on the second side

00:04:32

um in around 10. so his whole Jewel for

00:04:34

two rounds was literally flopping around

00:04:35

in the breeze and I I should can you

00:04:38

imagine the intense Agony every time you

00:04:41

get even a light gray he couldn't talk

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afterwards he was just an immense pain

00:04:45

but to be able to still walk forward

00:04:48

like he was taking shots on the chin

00:04:51

biting down on his jaw and it was just

00:04:53

flopping he said it was like bite into a

00:04:55

mouthful of marbles and like he he

00:04:56

couldn't hold the jaw together but he

00:04:58

still kept fighting but I don't know

00:05:00

anything like that I'd be so mad at my

00:05:02

corner for not throwing Talent well I

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think I'd go over there and grab that

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towel myself to be fair Joy Joy would

00:05:07

have been gutted if they did that

00:05:09

because his his goal is mate he this is

00:05:12

what he does for a living he's always

00:05:14

wanted to be world champion he got his

00:05:15

chance and he is the greatest advocate

00:05:19

for

00:05:20

um how do you get over pain and

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adversity this is a guy who had a broken

00:05:24

hand for five years so he's a South poor

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and his left hand is power weapon he

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couldn't fully land that because it was

00:05:32

broken for five years and he kept

00:05:33

fighting and didn't tell anyone because

00:05:35

he needed the money

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this is a guy who probably started

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boxing age eight or ten went to the

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Olympics was selected for the Olympics

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for Australia when he was 16 fought when

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he was 17 one of the youngest boxers to

00:05:46

ever go to the Olympics

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um got his chance at a world title and

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nothing was going to take that chance

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away from him no matter what broken jaw

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he actually broke his ribs a month

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before the fight and Rib injuries I

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don't know if you've ever had them done

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but I fractured as well that's excrucia

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they are excruciating well he it not

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only broke it separated crossed over

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another rib and ripped all the rib

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cartilage off and Rib cartilages are the

00:06:08

most painful injury you can ever have

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and normally these things are take two

00:06:12

three months minimum he was fighting six

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weeks later he did the injury on a

00:06:17

Thursday had surgery on it on a Sunday

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and about a week and a half later it was

00:06:21

back in nearly full training his

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tolerance of pain is through the roof

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and I can't

00:06:26

everything you see on Conor McGregor on

00:06:28

the outside and how angry and tough he

00:06:30

looks that's what Joy's got on the

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inside and uh watch out for him he's

00:06:35

something very very special I've never

00:06:36

seen anything like him and uh Liam and

00:06:39

herself think he's going to be something

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special okay now this is the funny thing

00:06:42

this Joy guy that you mentioned and all

00:06:44

those kiwi Fighters hand on heart I've

00:06:46

never heard of any of them but you and

00:06:49

your son do such a phenomenal job like

00:06:52

promoting these people like you you

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should have made Joseph Parker a

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household name well we worked with

00:06:56

Joseph yeah all we did was provide him

00:06:59

the platform and Joe took advantage of

00:07:01

it by doing what he did which is win

00:07:03

fights the reason why you haven't heard

00:07:05

a lot of Andre michaelovich and miyamadu

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and and Jerome pampalone is simply

00:07:09

because we've been over in Australia and

00:07:10

these guys have been fighting over there

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so our job over the next 12 months is to

00:07:14

blow these people up because they are

00:07:16

seriously world-class they're all

00:07:18

they're coached by a guy called Isaac

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Peach who's a hardcore heavily tattooed

00:07:22

West aucklander who lives out in West

00:07:24

Auckland but in my opinion he's a

00:07:26

Bastion of world-class Excellence he

00:07:29

really knows what he's doing when it

00:07:31

comes to boxing he's he's got a world

00:07:32

champion where he's got a guy called

00:07:34

David light's going to fight for a World

00:07:35

Championship uh I think March 25 in

00:07:38

England against Lauren sir Cole who's a

00:07:40

WBO World Cruiserweight Champion he's

00:07:42

got miyamadu he's got

00:07:44

um he's got uh

00:07:46

um Andre michaelovich and Jerome pamplon

00:07:47

that's fascinating about all these

00:07:49

Fighters he's had them all for about

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four years or more none of them have

00:07:52

lost yet

00:07:54

he is just an incredible uh boxing

00:07:57

trainer and I think you're going to see

00:07:58

some big things out of him and over the

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next sort of couple of years you're

00:08:01

going to start seeing New Zealand boxing

00:08:02

you know come to the four again Joe

00:08:04

Parker's going to keep what do it Joe

00:08:06

does I think Joe's an exceptional Talent

00:08:08

mate I think he could go back to a

00:08:09

heavyweight title at some stage he's not

00:08:11

that far away from it kiwis can be very

00:08:13

critical if they don't see amazing

00:08:15

performances every time someone steps

00:08:17

out yeah it's terrible thing it is a

00:08:19

little bit but you know what the fact is

00:08:22

that they care enough to have an opinion

00:08:23

and you'd rather have people who've got

00:08:24

an opinion good bad or otherwise and

00:08:26

people not have an opinion and not

00:08:28

knowing who they are yeah that's true

00:08:30

um right enough about other people let's

00:08:32

talk about you Dean lonigan so you um so

00:08:35

you you became famous like in the late

00:08:37

1980s uh early 90s playing um for the

00:08:40

Kiwi League team I wouldn't quite say

00:08:42

famous but I was interested involved in

00:08:44

uh involved in back then there was no

00:08:47

social media there's no fragmentation of

00:08:49

media that I think there are only

00:08:50

probably three or four TV channels going

00:08:51

at the time and uh the kiwis played

00:08:54

Australia I think in 1991 at Mel in

00:08:56

Melbourne we hadn't won against the

00:08:58

Aussies for a long long time and uh they

00:09:01

had one of the all-time great teams that

00:09:02

had the likes of Steve roach I think

00:09:04

Wally Lewis and a number of other really

00:09:06

high profile players and in 91 we went

00:09:08

over there with a very unheralded young

00:09:10

Underdog side I was part of that along

00:09:13

with Clayton friend and Gary Freeman and

00:09:15

Peter Brown and a whole lot of other

00:09:17

guys and we managed to pull off a win

00:09:19

and uh

00:09:20

at the time I got knocked out probably

00:09:22

10-15 minutes into the game I uh was

00:09:25

this the one is this the one where you

00:09:27

um you were like convulsing on the floor

00:09:29

yeah right yeah I guess it was like a

00:09:31

concussion a head knock yeah it very

00:09:33

much was we um might still be on YouTube

00:09:34

if anyone wants to look it up but it's

00:09:36

it's sickening right well it's not great

00:09:39

but we I was very very keen to put a big

00:09:43

shot on roach because we'd played Stevie

00:09:45

roach and we played Balmain early in the

00:09:47

New Year early in the preseason uh

00:09:49

Auckland rugby league played Balmain and

00:09:51

one new roach was going to be in the

00:09:52

side so we had a bit of a fracker in

00:09:55

that game and I was very keen to put a

00:09:57

big hit on him early on and you know try

00:09:59

and intimidate him it was the dumbest

00:10:00

thing I could have done because I ended

00:10:01

up getting knocked out he ended up with

00:10:02

about 20 stitches in his head I got

00:10:04

knocked out and convulsed on the field I

00:10:06

got carried off and came back on a

00:10:08

little bit later

00:10:09

yeah that was sort of the incident that

00:10:10

blew us up and then I got a job on radio

00:10:12

hierarchy after that right wait wait

00:10:14

wait you are moving way too fast like

00:10:16

this uh we need to digest this somewhat

00:10:19

like the podcast will be over in four

00:10:21

minutes so yes so you get knocked out

00:10:24

it's sickening um I feel like this was a

00:10:27

golden era for league and it was a time

00:10:29

where yeah fights were still sort of

00:10:30

encouraged and you know if you squirted

00:10:33

some water on your head and came back on

00:10:35

the field you were considered like like

00:10:37

heroic in a way that wasn't the reason

00:10:39

behind it right pretty much as I was

00:10:42

being dragged off I could see George

00:10:44

Mann who I'd played with in the Auckland

00:10:46

team and I played against him in quite a

00:10:48

few Club competitions George was warming

00:10:50

up and I just thought man I've fought

00:10:52

too hard for you to have the spots yours

00:10:55

so as soon as I regained my George ran

00:10:58

on and as soon as I regained my stuff I

00:11:00

said to Bob on it Bob Bailey who's a

00:11:02

coach this is mate I'm ready to go back

00:11:03

on it was 10 or 15 minutes later so he

00:11:06

threw me back on and I've only I've

00:11:07

watched the game once and I know how do

00:11:10

you feel when you watch it all right

00:11:12

it's like somebody watching somebody

00:11:13

else yeah but I know when I come back on

00:11:16

if I'm staggering all over the place we

00:11:18

managed to get through the first I don't

00:11:20

remember much about the first half we've

00:11:21

got we got through the game and we won

00:11:23

the game and what's really interesting

00:11:25

right is that you don't know what people

00:11:27

are going to come into your life as a

00:11:28

result of things like that and Liam and

00:11:31

myself have been working in Australia

00:11:32

for the last seven years and the

00:11:35

commentator who called that game was a

00:11:37

guy called Pat Walsh and Pat had gone on

00:11:40

to be quite instrumental in uh in

00:11:43

Channel 7 Brisbane and massive media

00:11:45

context so Pat has been incredibly he

00:11:48

remembered the game he remembered me

00:11:50

from that game Pat Walsh has been he

00:11:52

only just retired incredibly helpful

00:11:54

toward for us in terms of connections

00:11:56

all around Australia you know so it's

00:11:58

just and those sort of connections they

00:12:00

last for a very very long time so yeah

00:12:02

it's quite it's quite interesting where

00:12:04

where things end up and what you end up

00:12:06

doing how many other times were you can

00:12:08

cast I I couldn't tell you are you right

00:12:11

now yeah I think so so my memory is not

00:12:13

as good as it could be but then again

00:12:14

most people well you're in your late 50s

00:12:16

so that's yeah I'm 57 you know so but

00:12:18

you know you look at guys overseas in

00:12:21

Australia in particular and they've all

00:12:22

got the fading memories like I think the

00:12:24

Ray Price has got some issues I think

00:12:26

Steve mortimer's got some issues

00:12:28

dodge a bullet do you think well I

00:12:30

finished quite young so that the the

00:12:33

game that I got knocked out and I played

00:12:35

one more test match after that and I

00:12:37

might have had another five or six games

00:12:38

after that then I finished up so I was

00:12:40

only 26 when I finished rugby league and

00:12:43

then I was lucky enough you know that I

00:12:45

didn't think much of it at the time but

00:12:46

I was lucky enough to get a job on radio

00:12:48

hierarchy and I got to tell you Dom you

00:12:50

did 25 years plus on radio yeah there is

00:12:53

no doubt that in my opinion of all the

00:12:55

media of anything you can do radio is

00:12:58

the greatest job because you know I I

00:13:01

wouldn't have done I never took it as

00:13:03

seriously as you did as your career

00:13:04

right and it was something I just

00:13:05

stumbled into and just got lucky but um

00:13:09

I got a job on radio hierarchy I used to

00:13:11

do six to nine fine I'd turn up at five

00:13:13

to six and I'd leave at nine o'clock

00:13:15

you're part of a very successful show

00:13:18

called the morning pirates with um was

00:13:20

it Mark Perry and Leah Mark Perry and

00:13:22

Leah we took what happened was that what

00:13:24

sort of music was it a rock station

00:13:26

classic rock to The Cutting Edge and

00:13:28

made it we hierarchy at one stage it was

00:13:30

very very popular in Auckland way back

00:13:32

before the days of the fragmentation

00:13:34

you've got now and you're all up and in

00:13:35

the country and it was very very popular

00:13:37

so how how did that um how did that

00:13:39

career come about like were you just

00:13:41

quote were you were you quite

00:13:42

charismatic at aftermath speeches and

00:13:44

stuff or you had another natural Flair

00:13:46

for no I think what happened was uh I'd

00:13:49

been on this show a couple of times

00:13:51

because you had Phil Gifford and um I

00:13:53

can't remember the other girl's name and

00:13:54

Mark Perry was on the show and then I'd

00:13:56

been in the studio a couple of times

00:13:58

which was one of the local rugby league

00:13:59

players and when I got knocked out

00:14:02

obviously there's a bit of I was quite

00:14:04

high profile and I

00:14:07

yeah I was in the media a lot for a very

00:14:09

short space of time but uh I ended up

00:14:11

being quite good mates with some some of

00:14:13

the radio guys Dan Boyle was in there

00:14:15

and Mike Regal who was a program

00:14:16

director and when um for whatever reason

00:14:19

I think more FM Cam and poached Phil

00:14:21

Gifford and I think it was Kathy at the

00:14:23

time and they took them down to

00:14:25

Christchurch so that's when Phil left so

00:14:27

all of a sudden there was a space so

00:14:29

they got me in for a few days to cover a

00:14:32

few days turned to a couple of weeks a

00:14:33

couple of weeks two to a couple of

00:14:34

months and then a couple of months

00:14:36

turned to I think I did seven years so

00:14:38

it was just luck amazing I feel like you

00:14:40

get bored of things too so seven years

00:14:42

for you is a long time you know what I

00:14:44

really enjoyed it radio is a lot of fun

00:14:46

and do I get bored with stuff

00:14:48

some maybe I don't know but I did enjoy

00:14:51

radio and it's a great meeting to be

00:14:52

part of and I'll tell you the perfect

00:14:53

place to do radio would be Sydney London

00:14:56

or New York where they get paid Millions

00:14:58

to do it yeah because it's the world's

00:15:01

easiest job and I know a lot of people

00:15:02

you know a lot of people aspire to it

00:15:04

and and and they should do and a lot of

00:15:07

people are in there for their careers

00:15:08

get all nervous about it and they do a

00:15:10

lot of work and that's fantastic but I

00:15:12

can only tell you how my experience and

00:15:15

compared to bloody working 12-hour shift

00:15:17

set at Coca-Cola driving forklifts and

00:15:19

packing loads or being an offsider on

00:15:21

trucks delivering Coca-Cola you know and

00:15:23

then I was also I used to be a cleaner

00:15:26

so I used to run three jobs yeah I used

00:15:28

to run three jobs so when I first left

00:15:30

school I went what you'd call to be an

00:15:32

offsider on trucks so you help people

00:15:34

deliver soft drinks right then I'd

00:15:37

finish that and I'd come home and I'd do

00:15:39

I was a cleaner at a school at my school

00:15:41

I used to work at so I used to go to

00:15:43

school at and then after that I would be

00:15:46

at rugby league so effectively I had

00:15:48

three jobs because I was getting paid

00:15:50

for all three of them so it's a with

00:15:52

money any good in Rugby League at that

00:15:54

time yeah I was right yeah you know like

00:15:56

so these jobs sort of LED before you

00:15:58

were a professional player yeah a lot we

00:16:01

were getting paid to play rugby league

00:16:02

and it's all relevant right back then I

00:16:04

remember I brought my first house as an

00:16:06

investment was like 75 grand well when I

00:16:09

at the time I might have been making 50

00:16:10

or 60 Grand a year before tax you know

00:16:13

so it's very very easy to get into these

00:16:15

things and when I was a young fella

00:16:17

maybe 21 22 I remember having two or

00:16:19

three houses you know so um it was a lot

00:16:22

there's no doubt it was a lot easier

00:16:23

back then compared to what you've seen

00:16:25

now in average house prices are up over

00:16:27

they're now coming back but yeah so and

00:16:30

the opportunity to buy in was a lot

00:16:31

easier unfortunately you know I was

00:16:34

going to keep these houses and have 10

00:16:35

or 20 by the time I'm 57 didn't quite

00:16:37

work out that way

00:16:39

ex I remember

00:16:41

um just when I sort of left school and

00:16:43

started in radio this would have been

00:16:44

like 1990 I guess early 90s I'd come up

00:16:47

to Auckland stay with my friend Robert

00:16:48

Scott who's on the breeze now and

00:16:50

because you guys were on 2xs together

00:16:52

right that must have been a great place

00:16:54

to work because I've I'm on social media

00:16:57

it's one of the great things about

00:16:57

Facebook Facebook friends with a few

00:16:59

people and I always see this 2xs stuff

00:17:01

come up and people say what a great time

00:17:03

it was down in the manner with two in

00:17:04

Palmerston yeah

00:17:07

for like really quite good radio talent

00:17:09

for some reason yeah um but yeah I'd

00:17:11

come up and stay with Robert and he

00:17:12

lived in sarsfield Street and I'd point

00:17:14

out your house really and I don't know

00:17:16

if you were playing League at the time

00:17:17

or maybe just started on radio but it's

00:17:18

like one of the most expensive streets

00:17:19

in Auckland now that it has probably

00:17:21

worth seven or eight metal it probably

00:17:23

is and I wish I had to keep the bloody

00:17:24

thing but yes I was in Southfield Street

00:17:26

we were right down the bottom of it and

00:17:28

it was a lovely it was amazing

00:17:29

neighborhood yeah but like I said it's a

00:17:31

lot easier to get back getting it back

00:17:33

there what it is now and I think yeah I

00:17:35

paid about a half a million bucks for

00:17:36

that place whereas now it's like

00:17:38

whatever it's worth and at the time it

00:17:40

was a real stretch for me and you know

00:17:42

and I was really I was being a wanker to

00:17:44

be honest because we used to live in a

00:17:46

place called wanganui Ave which is on

00:17:48

the other side of uh Hoon Bay and I love

00:17:50

her I love wanganui Ave but that was

00:17:53

sort of the Southern slopes and all the

00:17:54

knobs were on the other side of the uh

00:17:56

the northern slopes and then my

00:17:58

stupidity as a young fellow I thought it

00:18:00

was a call to be with all the knobs but

00:18:01

you know I should have stayed where we

00:18:03

were it was a lot a lot less to get in

00:18:05

there and make great place to live it's

00:18:10

close to where we are now in the podcast

00:18:13

space so um were you were you married at

00:18:16

the time have you ever been married no

00:18:18

so you so you you're um a father of one

00:18:20

Liam and one thing that strikes me about

00:18:22

you from my relationship with you is

00:18:24

just how much your relationship with

00:18:26

your son means to and I'm talking way

00:18:28

back when you used to work in the same

00:18:29

building as me and you'd come in and

00:18:31

Liam was a young fella at the time and

00:18:32

you always give them a shout out on the

00:18:33

year using his middle names the whole

00:18:35

lot that's yes I've got a mate of mine

00:18:38

Leah I've got Leo Malloy who's Run for

00:18:40

the mayor of Auckland always calls them

00:18:43

lrd which is Liam Robert Daniels which

00:18:45

is I always call them uh Liam Robert

00:18:48

Daniel on here so yeah no it's you know

00:18:50

we got Perfection on the first go

00:18:52

there's no need there anymore

00:18:54

so so Liam's mum and your ex her name is

00:18:57

Julie Julie it is yes you were never

00:18:59

married no we didn't marry but we're

00:19:01

still really good friends yeah you know

00:19:03

she's been an amazing mum and you know

00:19:05

she's a good friend of mine and I get

00:19:07

she's married now and I get on very very

00:19:10

well with her husband so yeah it's been

00:19:11

a while it's not never ideal it's been

00:19:14

as good as it could be I think when did

00:19:16

when did you break up when Liam was

00:19:18

quite yes yeah Liam was on a young

00:19:19

father maybe one what happened you want

00:19:21

to talk about no and not particularly

00:19:23

it's not a period that I'm proud of I

00:19:26

made a complete dick of myself on a

00:19:28

number of occasions yes infidelity or

00:19:31

yes but look there's a lot of water

00:19:34

under the bridge oh

00:19:36

the answer is you're right and we all do

00:19:39

stupid we do it younger you can't you

00:19:41

can't hold that much killed in the same

00:19:43

quarter of a century later if I had my

00:19:46

chart if I had my time again you'd do

00:19:48

things way differently so yeah it's not

00:19:50

it's not a proud period of my life

00:19:52

wasn't it she forgiven you though oh

00:19:55

yeah you need to forgive yourself well I

00:19:57

probably have I just don't ever want to

00:19:59

talk about right

00:20:01

but you were I mean you were famous at

00:20:03

the time you know you were young you

00:20:05

were successful I suppose there was a

00:20:06

lot of they're not excusing your

00:20:08

behavior but there was a lot of

00:20:09

Temptation

00:20:10

it's really interesting you say famous

00:20:12

right

00:20:13

I don't kill anyone says you can't be

00:20:15

famous in New Zealand there's five

00:20:17

million people live here you might a

00:20:20

whole lot of people might recognize you

00:20:21

when you go past but I once spend some

00:20:24

time with a guy called Mark Jackson and

00:20:26

Mark played in the AFL and he fought in

00:20:28

one of my fight for life he was a real

00:20:30

character a real character and he used

00:20:33

to say you know these people of

00:20:35

Australia think they're [ __ ] famous

00:20:37

they're not famous Frank Sinatra is

00:20:40

famous and I hung out with Frank Sinatra

00:20:41

in the 70s you know what I mean like

00:20:43

these if Tom Cruise has got real Fame

00:20:45

yeah and it's true when you look at the

00:20:47

likes of the Brad Pitt's and the Chris

00:20:49

rocks and the the rock and all these

00:20:51

different Arnold Schwarzenegger they're

00:20:52

really famous that's real Fame yeah the

00:20:54

stuff we have down here is just a few

00:20:56

people recognize you on the way through

00:20:58

and annoy the [ __ ] out here when you go

00:20:59

out and you might you might have a drink

00:21:01

when you go out no I actually don't

00:21:04

drink milk milk and water's my drink of

00:21:06

choice yeah actually I I do want to get

00:21:08

to that well by the way I got you a

00:21:10

drink if you want to I've got your own

00:21:11

milk Dom actually would you believe this

00:21:13

with my current fat guts I need to stay

00:21:17

off the milk I love milk it would be my

00:21:19

favorite drink if I wanted to I could

00:21:21

drink four and five liters a day easily

00:21:23

but I choose not to because it's not

00:21:25

good for me yeah I went to see it like a

00:21:27

nutritionist years ago and she was like

00:21:29

oh you need to cut your coffee out you

00:21:31

know milk is used to fatten babies well

00:21:33

correct and it's not only milk is used

00:21:35

we use another species milk the cows to

00:21:39

feed us I don't know that it's overly

00:21:40

healthy but I do love the stuff better

00:21:42

yeah and that's one thing that struck me

00:21:45

about you always like if you're out at a

00:21:46

bar with you you'll have like a pint of

00:21:48

milk and it's like you'd be probably the

00:21:50

only person I know over the age of eight

00:21:51

that drinks milk is like a recreational

00:21:54

drink it's a very bizarre site so I

00:21:58

think you know like now I'm sitting

00:21:59

there with the milk we've actually I the

00:22:02

the late great Phil Kingsley Jones I

00:22:04

went to Wales with him and we were

00:22:05

searching for people to fight in one of

00:22:07

our fight for life one year and we and

00:22:09

Phil was a great guy a good just an

00:22:12

amazing character for anyone that

00:22:13

doesn't know Jonah lomey's manager he

00:22:15

was General but he was way more than

00:22:16

just that he was a personality in his

00:22:18

own right and he's a great speaker and

00:22:20

had great jokes but we went up to the uh

00:22:22

The Valleys of of Wales which is and

00:22:25

that's the coal mining area and I've got

00:22:27

to tell you I've never seen so many

00:22:30

rough hardcore women in all my life and

00:22:32

they all knew and loved Phil and one of

00:22:34

the piece of his ass back then but

00:22:37

um yes and he could not believe I'd send

00:22:39

him to the bar and he'd have to order

00:22:40

pints of milk yeah so yeah

00:22:43

um why have you never been married do

00:22:46

you think are you sorry just going back

00:22:48

to that are you better on your own or

00:22:49

you just never found the right person or

00:22:51

are you just busy focused on Career

00:22:54

stuff it's really interesting have you

00:22:55

been married yeah I'm well I'm still

00:22:57

legally married to JJ but we broke up

00:22:59

about five years ago yeah look I've had

00:23:01

some

00:23:03

significant relationships but haven't

00:23:05

quite got around to doing the Marion

00:23:06

thing and you know I

00:23:08

as you get older in life I think you can

00:23:11

reflect on a whole lot of things and you

00:23:12

go you know what maybe I was the problem

00:23:15

as opposed to them so as you get on in

00:23:19

life you go

00:23:21

yeah it's not uh and look I I live an

00:23:25

amazing situation at the moment which I

00:23:28

can't believe I'm in but I'm there and I

00:23:31

really enjoy it you know it's very cool

00:23:32

what is it what's the situation I live

00:23:34

with my I live with my mum and my sister

00:23:37

and I absolutely love it I'm telling you

00:23:40

right because I've been transient for

00:23:42

the last or leaving myself in particular

00:23:44

I've been transit for the last bloody um

00:23:46

the last probably five or six years

00:23:48

between here in Australia you know we

00:23:50

had an apartment over in Brisbane for

00:23:52

quite some time

00:23:53

and then uh we moved sort of down to the

00:23:56

Gold Coast and we come and we become a

00:23:58

little bit transient and one of the

00:23:59

things I I hate in life I just hate it

00:24:01

is moving house it is the worst it is

00:24:05

one of my pet hates and I've been a

00:24:07

transient for 30 40 years so uh yeah

00:24:11

that's the hell is your mum now you're

00:24:12

in your late 50s my mom's

00:24:15

77. that's nice and your dad's still

00:24:18

alive as well yeah you should I had 79

00:24:20

dead Deads and they're both incredibly

00:24:24

fit and healthy like all the mum's

00:24:26

um brothers and sisters one brother died

00:24:28

young but they all lived to a ripe old

00:24:30

age you know the older sister got to 92

00:24:33

I think and so I expect mum's got a few

00:24:36

more uh

00:24:37

miles left on the tires getting dad's

00:24:40

dad still he lives in waiki Island

00:24:41

trains three times a week and very very

00:24:44

strong still well it looks a lot like

00:24:47

you to be honest Fitness wise so he does

00:24:49

a lot of weight training and and

00:24:51

exercising and the Germany's been doing

00:24:52

it for 20 25 years and Dad's committed

00:24:54

no matter what happens to get into a

00:24:56

hundred so you know which is it's a

00:24:58

pretty good goal to have that's a great

00:24:59

goal so

00:25:01

wow is it that seems like a weird

00:25:04

dynamic living with him so your sister's

00:25:06

a similar age you know 50. my sister is

00:25:08

uh she's four years younger than me

00:25:10

she's 53 and my mother's they brought a

00:25:13

house together going back probably 20

00:25:15

years ago and then they sold that house

00:25:17

and they brought a really really big

00:25:19

house so we live in a big house it's

00:25:21

like three stories high and I sort of

00:25:23

have commandeed the middle level mum has

00:25:25

the bottom level and my sister has the

00:25:26

top level okay so you're not all three

00:25:28

of you are sitting on the sofa it's a

00:25:31

big house

00:25:33

I've got to get the situation sorted out

00:25:35

I can promise you that you know like

00:25:37

I've got some land up in taupaki that I

00:25:39

need to um I need to get a house on at

00:25:42

some stage but uh yeah I I just feel

00:25:44

like you're not a not overly

00:25:45

materialistic were you materialistic

00:25:47

before you lost your fortune and that's

00:25:49

that's such that's a big understatement

00:25:51

I was very very committed to when I was

00:25:53

a young fella and I was going to be done

00:25:55

and dusted by 30 or 40 you know I

00:25:57

retired yeah retired and doing nothing

00:25:59

and made millions and you know

00:26:01

unfortunate I've had ups and downs yeah

00:26:05

I want to get into the seat you have

00:26:08

your radio career which is very

00:26:09

successful then you get out of there

00:26:12

never we had a great time but never made

00:26:14

huge money out of it got paid okay yeah

00:26:16

but enjoyed it immensely but never like

00:26:19

you were rooming at one stage to be on

00:26:21

300 000 plus a year which is brilliant

00:26:23

money

00:26:24

oh yeah yeah a bit more but more than

00:26:26

that especially if you get the kpis

00:26:28

there you go um which is if you're doing

00:26:30

radio and a three-hour shift and I know

00:26:32

you probably prepped a lot more and

00:26:33

you're turning yeah I took it way too

00:26:35

seriously you turn up at four and you go

00:26:38

you know then you're prepping afterwards

00:26:39

you've got to do that if you're going to

00:26:40

be paid the big money yeah

00:26:42

um but you also got to enjoy it along

00:26:44

the way and I've got to tell you some of

00:26:45

the people I got to do to to work with

00:26:48

like the absolute highlights like Leah

00:26:50

panapa um she's still a great mate we

00:26:52

went out to lunch just recently Nathan

00:26:54

rarely I was very lucky to be on air

00:26:56

with Nathan Nathan's real strength on

00:26:59

radio and this is very rare his real

00:27:02

strength was the same guy turned up

00:27:04

every single day and was pleasant and

00:27:07

was a nice guy and he's just such a good

00:27:09

guy to deal with and you would know this

00:27:11

Dom over the years

00:27:13

you want consistency whereas you know

00:27:16

some people in radio they come up they

00:27:18

might have different things are

00:27:19

happening in their lives and they're all

00:27:21

over the place which it happens because

00:27:22

they're creative talented people and uh

00:27:25

mate he was uh Nathan was amazing you

00:27:27

know and we got luckily got to talk with

00:27:29

Ian Smith as well who I think is one of

00:27:32

the all-time great Cricket commentators

00:27:34

no anywhere in the world his

00:27:36

commentaries over the years there'll be

00:27:37

nothing short of stunning and I'm

00:27:39

saddened to see he's not working with

00:27:40

Skye anymore yeah so that you're talking

00:27:42

about that's when I got to meet you so

00:27:44

you um you you lost all your money with

00:27:47

the circus thing yeah so you got back

00:27:48

into radio

00:27:50

we're gonna we'll backtrack and we'll

00:27:52

get into that but when you're working

00:27:54

with um Nathan and Smithy I remember

00:27:57

this clearly we're in the same building

00:27:58

and it was um all the radio stations

00:28:00

faced this internal Courtyard and you'd

00:28:02

be I don't know how many voice breaks

00:28:03

you did on here but you're wander around

00:28:04

the courtyard on your phone all [ __ ]

00:28:06

morning and then Nathan would tell me

00:28:08

stories that um I think you were

00:28:10

contracted to where to wait 30 or 9 A.M

00:28:12

and he said 9 aim on the dot if in the

00:28:15

middle of an interview or something and

00:28:16

Dana would just give him the thumbs up

00:28:18

like

00:28:19

let me take the headphones off and set a

00:28:20

tiptoe out

00:28:22

oh

00:28:24

that was more out of necessity like when

00:28:27

I when we I did about seven years I

00:28:29

think on radio Herrick you know I think

00:28:31

about seven or maybe eight years I think

00:28:33

it was radio what was it called live

00:28:35

talk spot lifestyle live Sport and I got

00:28:38

a call out of the blue from Brent Impe

00:28:40

and Brent had been instrumental in me

00:28:42

getting the job already howicky Brent as

00:28:44

it turns out uh he's a Bastion of New

00:28:46

Zealand broadcasting has been wonderful

00:28:48

to me

00:28:49

in my all through my life to be honest

00:28:52

my adult life because he he got me the

00:28:54

job on he was chairman of the board or I

00:28:56

think he was a CEO of the company when I

00:28:58

got on radio hierarchy then he was sort

00:29:00

of really high up in the radio industry

00:29:02

when I got given this job already alive

00:29:04

or live Sport and he also on a number of

00:29:07

occasions put my Fight For Life on TV

00:29:09

three you know and I've had subsequent

00:29:11

conversations with the Rugby Union about

00:29:13

all sorts of things and Brent's been a

00:29:14

conduit to get me in there so he's been

00:29:16

very very good to me that's great I'm

00:29:19

very very uh appreciative of the support

00:29:21

that I've always had from from bimpy

00:29:23

unfortunately he's retired or

00:29:25

fortunately he's retired now he's on a

00:29:26

few boards but he was certainly good to

00:29:28

me and my broadcast yeah likewise as

00:29:30

well actually great great man so okay so

00:29:33

you you leave radio helodecki is that

00:29:34

when you start the fight for life is

00:29:36

that when you bring the fight for life

00:29:37

like corporate boxing to New Zealand

00:29:39

feels like it's such a big thing now

00:29:40

even the non-televisions yeah like I

00:29:43

think around 2000 right maybe even just

00:29:46

before 2000.

00:29:51

oh yeah yeah no that's right no you did

00:29:53

right so I at when I left radio hauraki

00:29:56

no I was I was at Radio hierarchy I

00:29:59

finished Rugby League at probably 26 and

00:30:01

I had played at the Canberra Raiders got

00:30:03

a phone call out of the blue from Tim

00:30:04

machine says look we'd love to bring the

00:30:06

camber Raiders over to play in a local

00:30:08

game and I said yeah that'll be fine

00:30:11

so I did a joint venture with radio

00:30:14

hierarchy who I was working with at the

00:30:15

time this is sort of the start of my

00:30:16

entrepreneurial career I'd only been out

00:30:18

of rugby league for about a year maybe

00:30:19

less and um we put this game on Auckland

00:30:23

versus this is way before the Warriors

00:30:25

this is like 1991. so we put this game

00:30:27

on Auckland versus uh the Canberra

00:30:30

Raiders and they were the hottest thing

00:30:31

at the time you know you had Mel meninga

00:30:33

he had Laurie Daley Bradley Clyde you

00:30:35

had at least 10 to 15 bloody people who

00:30:40

played for Australia and New Zealand or

00:30:42

you know state of origin it was a big

00:30:43

big so it was a big we sold the thing

00:30:45

out and made it we made a couple hundred

00:30:47

grand and I took a hundred and Harrogate

00:30:50

took 100 and I thought at the time geez

00:30:52

this is better than playing footy so

00:30:54

that's we concentrated on doing for the

00:30:56

next sort of two or three years and then

00:30:57

I got tied up Kevin Barry came up for me

00:31:00

said look I've got this really hot young

00:31:01

heavyweight David tour I don't know much

00:31:04

about promotion do you want to help out

00:31:05

so I helped him put on the first David

00:31:07

tour fight and uh just singing spiraled

00:31:10

from there and eventually we got to a

00:31:11

thing called fight for life and what had

00:31:12

happened with that a friend of mine who

00:31:15

used to work I think in a media works

00:31:17

called Peter Spears a sales rep in there

00:31:20

and he's a good Maid of mine and his

00:31:22

house had burnt down and he had no

00:31:23

insurance so we put together a little

00:31:25

fight night there's I fought on it Spiro

00:31:27

fought on it my mate Mark bournville

00:31:29

fought on it and we got a few mates

00:31:30

together and we we raised some money for

00:31:33

him to give him some money for his house

00:31:34

so we raised about 50 Grand and made it

00:31:37

was like walking on ears one of the

00:31:39

greatest things I've ever done is like I

00:31:40

don't drugs are not my go but I can tell

00:31:43

you if drugs make you feel as good as

00:31:45

this you'd be on them all the time

00:31:46

because it was just a real highlight and

00:31:48

it was just to do something for a bloke

00:31:50

anyway one thing leads to another and

00:31:52

there's a place called yellow ribbon

00:31:53

Marco Marinkovic was at that event I

00:31:55

think

00:31:56

and he said would you do that for us I

00:31:58

said yes sweet but we gotta we'll try

00:32:00

and raise you a million bucks and we've

00:32:01

got to get it on TV and we'll use rugby

00:32:03

league players he said sweet so he gave

00:32:05

me full license to do what we did I that

00:32:07

first year I did it for nothing

00:32:08

and we raised about half a million bucks

00:32:11

and we ended up with the number one

00:32:12

rating show on TV three and it just yeah

00:32:15

just it spiraled from there yeah so is

00:32:17

that is that how I started so you're

00:32:18

doing like league players fighting rugby

00:32:20

players

00:32:21

yeah the clash of the codes and we had

00:32:24

some real Legends yeah you know for

00:32:25

those who are old enough to remember we

00:32:27

had Mark Graham and buck shelford and

00:32:29

there I had uh

00:32:31

um Mark bournville who the horse who

00:32:33

went on to become really amazing and

00:32:34

fight for life and Stevie McDowell we

00:32:37

had Mel meninga fought with Kevin

00:32:38

borovich so yeah there's a it was a big

00:32:40

deal to us at the time and it was a lot

00:32:41

of fun to do it so when did you when did

00:32:43

you broaden it and get into a like other

00:32:45

sort of mainstream celebrity started or

00:32:48

mainstream celebrities that just sort of

00:32:50

continued on for quite some time and

00:32:52

then um

00:32:53

we tuned into more of an entertainment

00:32:55

event you know I think we need like

00:32:56

dwarfs and yeah well no that was sort of

00:32:58

the second alliteration I used to bring

00:33:01

in these really cool acts you know like

00:33:03

we'd have motorbikes doing backflips

00:33:05

over the boxing ring and we'd have uh

00:33:07

we'd have got you know motorcycle foot

00:33:09

juggling X coming in where we had all

00:33:12

these acts and I thought oh wouldn't it

00:33:14

be a good idea if we took all these acts

00:33:16

out of fight for life and put them into

00:33:17

a circus and that was probably the

00:33:19

dumbest thing I ever did in my life but

00:33:21

you're you're like you're a risk taker

00:33:22

so you don't know it's a dumb thing

00:33:23

until you got the benefit of hindsight

00:33:25

so the you so you took a big bath on

00:33:27

this one this year yeah we dropped in

00:33:29

one year uh I'd done a number of things

00:33:32

it wasn't that smart so one I put the

00:33:35

circus on I lost about a million bucks

00:33:37

on that

00:33:38

I'd brought I I'd sold off previously

00:33:41

half my company to a couple of guys and

00:33:43

they were good guys and I brought them

00:33:45

out of the company and I had some issues

00:33:47

around tax I was about 1.8 million

00:33:49

dollars in debt and I had no assets to

00:33:51

back it nothing so what happened to

00:33:54

those houses we talked about it well you

00:33:56

know you sell things as you go and you

00:33:58

make mistakes you get separated and you

00:34:00

make sure people are looked after all

00:34:02

that sort of stuff so you know like I've

00:34:03

made

00:34:05

if I could make some changes in my life

00:34:07

it'd be the slow accumulation of assets

00:34:09

right I got mates of mine who had very

00:34:12

long-term plans and they've done very

00:34:14

very well just out of slow accumulation

00:34:16

so that's my advice to all you Risk

00:34:18

Takers out there it's fantastic Throwing

00:34:20

It All into one and you know having a

00:34:22

crack but I suggest you just out the

00:34:24

back end just accumulate those assets

00:34:26

slowly but um so yeah you mentioned um

00:34:29

Leo Malloy before and I've had him on

00:34:31

the podcast and we talked about he he

00:34:33

ended up bankrupt for a time after he

00:34:35

set up a bar called cardiac yes he did

00:34:37

and he reflected on the podcast on his

00:34:39

mistakes and he said he sort of through

00:34:40

everything that he knew about

00:34:42

Hospitality out the window with this is

00:34:44

that what happened to you do you think

00:34:46

you got too big for your boots yeah 100

00:34:48

yeah you know you're taking look we

00:34:51

hadn't when we're doing fight for life

00:34:52

so I was putting more and more money

00:34:54

into the entertainment side of it and

00:34:55

there was bugger all net profit coming

00:34:57

back it was just bigger and better

00:34:58

events you know with bugger or net

00:35:00

profit and so we got to the end of it

00:35:02

when we did this bloody massive circus

00:35:04

which lost a huge amount of money and I

00:35:07

got all the aspects of circus that you

00:35:09

get right I got them wrong so if you're

00:35:12

the dumbest thing you can do if you're

00:35:13

ever going to put on a circus the

00:35:15

dumbest thing you can do is fly the best

00:35:18

accent from all around the world and

00:35:20

only have them compete or you know do

00:35:22

their stuff for a week which is what we

00:35:24

did in a fixed outlet and the reason why

00:35:26

it's dumb is firstly their prices

00:35:28

through the roof and then you've got all

00:35:29

the accommodation expenses you've got

00:35:31

all the bloody um airfares coming in to

00:35:34

be amortized over no more than sort of

00:35:35

seven days

00:35:37

smart circus acts right they have their

00:35:39

own tents they travel around the world

00:35:41

or travel around the area and you employ

00:35:43

them for a long period of time their

00:35:45

cost per day goes through the floor so

00:35:46

you don't have to sell as many tickets

00:35:47

anyway so I dropped a million on that I

00:35:50

was probably 1.8 in debt and it took me

00:35:52

four years to pay it off there's no way

00:35:54

I was going to go bankrupt because I

00:35:56

knew if I did that I was going to be all

00:35:57

over the front pages of the paper so I

00:35:59

called my creditors in and said look

00:36:01

here's my problem and I said to them if

00:36:04

you just hang tough with me I'll get you

00:36:06

paid then I turned around and I borrowed

00:36:08

about half a million it was about 550k

00:36:11

off three different people

00:36:13

they gave me that so I managed to work

00:36:16

out a whole lot of non-risky events

00:36:19

right that I could run there's no risk I

00:36:21

was going to make money so what we would

00:36:23

do is I've got the half million and I

00:36:25

paid off as much of it keeping everyone

00:36:27

happy and then I just went on the slow

00:36:29

ride of sort of selling the events

00:36:30

paying them off selling new events and

00:36:32

paying off the old credit that's when

00:36:34

you and I got to meet and sort of become

00:36:35

friends because you got back into radio

00:36:37

first yeah well the radio thing came up

00:36:38

because I desperately needed the cash so

00:36:41

I was working I was running a small

00:36:43

business trying to make some money I was

00:36:45

working for an organization trying to

00:36:47

raise their money and I was also working

00:36:49

on radio so I basically had three jobs

00:36:51

so when you were uh saw me on the phone

00:36:54

it's because I'm desperately trying to

00:36:56

place the bills mate I can tell you this

00:36:58

I remember one day I'm on the North

00:36:59

Shore and made I couldn't pay my [ __ ]

00:37:03

phone bill you know and having your

00:37:05

phone disconnected is you won't do

00:37:07

nothing so they were they were hard

00:37:10

times but you know you have some good

00:37:12

times along the way I end up I went and

00:37:15

moved into a flat with a good mate of

00:37:17

mine called Grant Church who I just love

00:37:19

eternally and we we in it we're in this

00:37:22

flat or it was a house another major I

00:37:24

know it's a three-bedroom house and I

00:37:26

was in one bedroom and he had the main

00:37:27

bedroom which had the uh the ensuite it

00:37:30

was really nice and uh it was a great

00:37:32

Victory to me when he moved out and I

00:37:35

could afford to move into the main event

00:37:37

for the simple fact like that was just

00:37:40

to move forward right you know was that

00:37:42

like in the hindsight looking back was

00:37:44

that period um I would say that's the

00:37:46

last period of your life man it was

00:37:48

stressful it's got to be um I mean you

00:37:50

you can probably like look back with

00:37:52

enough hindsight now to get a picture of

00:37:53

things but to go from like being

00:37:55

successful like being a successful

00:37:57

League player successful broadcaster

00:37:59

successful promoter having like all the

00:38:02

money all the assets and stuff and then

00:38:03

being down below zero it was just gonna

00:38:06

be [ __ ] hard it was stressful yeah I

00:38:08

reckon I was depressed for a year really

00:38:11

what did depression look like for you

00:38:12

depression for me

00:38:15

um

00:38:16

the only Escape was sleep from the

00:38:19

pressure

00:38:20

and like for the first year I knew that

00:38:23

if I got it wrong I was going to be all

00:38:25

over the news and for doing this and

00:38:27

doing that and I'm a low life when all

00:38:29

you've done is made mistakes and tried

00:38:31

your best so

00:38:33

the first year was the hardest right and

00:38:36

when you get to the end of the first

00:38:38

year all of a sudden you realize I can

00:38:41

actually do this and I'm going to get

00:38:42

out

00:38:43

but when you talk about pressure the

00:38:46

second you wake up you're stressed and

00:38:49

you're thinking about what's going to go

00:38:51

wrong and then you're anxious right and

00:38:53

that feeling doesn't leave you and it

00:38:55

doesn't leave you until you go to sleep

00:38:57

it's like going to bed with a wet

00:38:58

blanket and when you go to sleep it

00:39:00

disappears but when you wake up it comes

00:39:02

back and it's just stress and it's

00:39:04

horrible so 12 months was probably like

00:39:06

that and then it started to diminish

00:39:09

after 12 months because you go I can get

00:39:12

out of this why did it start to diminish

00:39:13

were you just making a Headway because

00:39:15

you're making Headway every time you

00:39:16

paid off a bill or paid some money off

00:39:19

it's another it's another Victory you

00:39:21

know and all of a sudden all the new

00:39:22

ideas you're forced to have they're

00:39:25

working you know like you're never going

00:39:27

to get rich off them but you sure as

00:39:28

hell are going to pay your debts so at

00:39:30

the end of 12 months I've gone right

00:39:33

this is a long long tunnel but we go I

00:39:36

can see the light at the end and it took

00:39:37

another three years after that

00:39:41

see a therapist or anything in that time

00:39:44

would I you know I don't think so no I

00:39:46

might have I might have you know and I

00:39:49

read an article somewhere you were

00:39:50

reading like a lot of self-help books at

00:39:52

the time yeah yeah yeah like this is a

00:39:54

long time ago yeah yeah like so you know

00:39:57

it's a long time again we've we've had

00:39:59

all sorts of successes and failures and

00:40:01

challenges since then but

00:40:04

having someone you could talk to is

00:40:06

essential because it's like a relieving

00:40:09

of pressure yeah who did you have is it

00:40:11

like look I always have my mates right

00:40:13

they were great you know like Mark

00:40:15

bournville and Mark Bedford and Mike

00:40:17

Patton's mate Steve cousins you know

00:40:20

they were fantastic

00:40:21

that you know you also need to have

00:40:24

other people you and it's I would

00:40:26

recommend

00:40:27

therapist I'm not not big on Psychiatry

00:40:29

but certainly from am but if for some

00:40:31

people that works for them but a

00:40:33

psychologist someone you can go and have

00:40:35

a release valve too also I suppose if

00:40:37

you're 1.7 million in debt spending 250

00:40:40

or for an hour with a trained

00:40:42

professional probably a lot of people

00:40:43

that's chump change look at me at the

00:40:45

time that was a huge amount of money you

00:40:47

know so uh and it just took a long time

00:40:49

to pay it back which was pretty shitty I

00:40:52

wouldn't want to go through it again why

00:40:54

I mean it says a lot about your

00:40:55

character I think like not just

00:40:57

declaring bankruptcy why didn't why

00:40:59

didn't you just do that that would have

00:41:00

been the easiest thing to do right I

00:41:01

guess

00:41:03

my attitude is is that

00:41:06

if somebody supplies to you a good or a

00:41:08

service right you're it's up to you to

00:41:11

pay for it now in that case it just took

00:41:13

a long time for some people to get their

00:41:15

money but that supplied me the goods and

00:41:17

the services so they have to be paid you

00:41:20

know and and the alternative

00:41:22

you know the alternative as you end up

00:41:24

on the front page of the paper and

00:41:26

[ __ ] all sorts of others but I've

00:41:27

heard people have said that they've gone

00:41:29

bankrupt and the stress and pain goes

00:41:32

instantly it was just not an option for

00:41:35

me that was all just a character thing

00:41:36

to say well I don't know if it's

00:41:37

character because everyone it was just

00:41:40

it was just not an option yeah because

00:41:42

everyone approaches these things

00:41:44

differently you know I've had friends

00:41:46

who've gone through similar

00:41:47

circumstances and they did things

00:41:48

differently and that's fine as well you

00:41:51

know and I think the most important

00:41:52

thing you can do with people just be up

00:41:53

front and tell them the truth

00:41:55

yeah one thing I've said a fan over life

00:41:57

is that um the the [ __ ] hits the fan for

00:42:00

everyone at some point everyone goes

00:42:01

through good good times and bad times

00:42:02

and one thing you find is people that

00:42:04

you think are really good friends

00:42:05

they're either like lean in or lean out

00:42:08

when that happens and uh Did you sort of

00:42:10

I don't have anyone lean out yeah not by

00:42:13

any stretch the imagination they more

00:42:15

leaned in yeah that's good yeah so you

00:42:18

know

00:42:18

you're lucky I saw something by Tom Tom

00:42:20

Hanks was sitting down there that I saw

00:42:22

on social media is a wonderful thing but

00:42:25

there's this little sort of 30 second

00:42:26

one minute clip where he was sit with

00:42:29

some really famous guys I might be

00:42:31

Robert De Niro and and and and and

00:42:33

Steven Spielberg and a few others and he

00:42:36

said when I was I wish someone had told

00:42:38

me when I was a young fella this too

00:42:40

shall pass and what he was talking about

00:42:43

is that you will have hard times in your

00:42:45

life this tooth shall pass you will have

00:42:47

amazing highs in your life this too

00:42:49

shall pass so you've I think the lesson

00:42:52

is try not to get too stressed because

00:42:55

one way or another you're going to get

00:42:56

out of it or you know and um don't take

00:43:00

it all too serious you've had to learn

00:43:02

these lessons the hard way though and

00:43:05

where does where do you think this

00:43:06

resilience comes from or is it something

00:43:07

that you've you've had to build by

00:43:09

necessity over the years I have no idea

00:43:11

I don't know it's resilience it's just

00:43:12

oh I know it absolutely you get you get

00:43:15

faced with situations and you just got

00:43:17

to overcome them and it's really it's

00:43:18

about about the key thing is is just

00:43:21

doing what's in front of you just deal

00:43:23

tackle what's in front of you and then

00:43:25

tackle it again the next day and the

00:43:27

next day and in the perfect world you'll

00:43:28

get to a point where there's the

00:43:30

challenges are overcome and you start to

00:43:32

get this from gravy and have some fun

00:43:33

[Music]

00:43:35

um yeah you must be immensely proud of

00:43:37

how you handle that whole situation

00:43:38

getting out of that hole looking back

00:43:39

don't really think about it too much no

00:43:41

no just clearly learn some good lessons

00:43:43

though yeah

00:43:45

just glad I did it the way we did it as

00:43:48

opposed to take taking the option of not

00:43:50

having to pay everyone yeah you know I

00:43:53

think I read an article about you at the

00:43:54

time and you're talking about that flat

00:43:55

situation with that guy Church you're

00:43:57

talking about and another guy called

00:43:58

mango yes what was the flag called the

00:44:01

the flat of broken men or something what

00:44:03

is it the house of misunderstood

00:44:07

I used to write a bit of a Blog yes so

00:44:11

we uh I had two guys in the flat with me

00:44:14

one was called Church which was

00:44:15

obviously and church was when he was we

00:44:18

went to school together and played rugby

00:44:19

together and church was and his an

00:44:22

absolute rocket scientist like he is in

00:44:24

six subject class at school used to do

00:44:27

five subjects of school C and I think he

00:44:29

went to uh he went he could have gone to

00:44:31

University he got great marks but he

00:44:34

ended up you know driving us a a uh a

00:44:37

roller called the space shuttle he

00:44:39

called it Challenger Space Shuttle you

00:44:41

know like those Steamrollers and uh he

00:44:43

is just he's just a great guy

00:44:46

and and just just a really good guy an

00:44:50

amazing flatmate you know I wish we were

00:44:52

still living with the church because

00:44:53

he's such an amazing guy but uh we used

00:44:55

to have this other guy called mango and

00:44:57

he was called mango because he used to

00:44:59

ride motorbikes really fast and

00:45:01

everybody would say look at that man go

00:45:08

oh God what a time God it sounds like it

00:45:11

sounds like some sort of sitcom doesn't

00:45:13

it well I ended up at some at one stage

00:45:17

there might I can't remember because all

00:45:19

the dates you know

00:45:22

but I used to write this blog and my mum

00:45:25

encourages me to to go back to writing a

00:45:28

Blog and it used to be called the house

00:45:29

of misunderstood blokes and it was

00:45:31

predominantly about the life of my mate

00:45:33

Grant Church who was the world's

00:45:35

greatest drain layer and we used to talk

00:45:37

about his uh how he'd go on dates and

00:45:40

you know like I was chronicling his life

00:45:42

it was quite funny but I've said to her

00:45:43

Manuel if I do this again mum I'm gonna

00:45:46

have to write about you and my sister

00:45:47

because that's who I'm living with what

00:45:49

we call it did you uh like did you fall

00:45:52

back on alcohol or anything in any of

00:45:53

these low points how do you not because

00:45:55

a lot of people would like deal with the

00:45:57

stress of a situation like this by I

00:45:59

made a conscious decision going through

00:46:02

going through it that if you drink

00:46:04

alcohol like you know like I said it was

00:46:06

I had a really hard time for the first

00:46:08

year but if you drink alcohol

00:46:10

you're going to escape all your problems

00:46:12

for three four five or six hours right

00:46:15

and then the problem is when you wake up

00:46:17

the next day even worse it's way worse

00:46:19

and not only that is way worse for three

00:46:21

or four days so I sort of thought right

00:46:24

I'll kick alcohol for touch and commit

00:46:26

myself to doing what I've got to do

00:46:29

and at the back end of it which was four

00:46:31

years I lost the taste for the alcohol

00:46:34

hence I don't drink anymore because I

00:46:37

just don't like the taste of it there's

00:46:38

no great hidden meeting like I used to

00:46:41

drink so much when I was a young fellow

00:46:42

and I used to you know I used to have a

00:46:44

good time and used to go out and have

00:46:46

plenty to drink but that's not the

00:46:47

reason I don't drink anymore it's just I

00:46:49

don't like the taste if you could make

00:46:52

alcohol taste like a strawberry

00:46:54

milkshake

00:46:55

I'd get drunk 24 hours a day but as it

00:46:59

turns out you can't that's good so you

00:47:01

got through that period with a clear

00:47:02

head and very very dense bones for all

00:47:04

the calcium you're having probably you

00:47:07

um but I'll tell you what I do now right

00:47:09

with the milk I cut it in half

00:47:11

suddenly that is my drink of choice is

00:47:14

half I get the biggest glass I can get

00:47:17

half milk half water lots of ice

00:47:20

it's actually really good and the key

00:47:23

thing is to have it cold but that way

00:47:25

you can drink you know you can you're

00:47:28

not drinking as much as milk because

00:47:29

milks I don't think it's overly healthy

00:47:31

for you and I'm sure fonterra doesn't

00:47:33

want me to say this yeah but yeah geez

00:47:37

you're an unusual guy was it around this

00:47:39

time when you're living in the flat with

00:47:40

these two other misunderstood blokes

00:47:42

that you were you were adding

00:47:43

um you had like a Nando's thing as well

00:47:45

you're eating Nando's every night of the

00:47:46

week did I read that somewhere I don't

00:47:49

think so

00:47:50

you're making this episode did we

00:47:54

had those

00:47:55

Espionage ah yeah

00:48:02

I'll be all I am a creature have it

00:48:04

Nando's is very good and very healthy so

00:48:06

do you think um part of it is like um I

00:48:09

don't know like a a like a Steve Jobs or

00:48:12

Mark Zuckerberg thing you know they were

00:48:13

the same clothes every day because it

00:48:15

just takes a like a decision-making out

00:48:17

of their day like if you're eating

00:48:18

Nando's you can't possibly put my name

00:48:20

in those two in the same sentence Jesus

00:48:22

but um no but you know what I mean it's

00:48:25

like a decision every day that's like

00:48:26

man it's because look I go to the same

00:48:29

Cafe most times because I like going

00:48:31

there because I have food that I like I

00:48:33

ate nandos if I ate Nando's every night

00:48:35

for God knows how long it's because I

00:48:37

like the taste of it as opposed to

00:48:39

taking the decision-making process away

00:48:41

right like I'm not I'm just not that

00:48:43

complex I don't know but I think I think

00:48:45

you are smarter than what you give

00:48:46

yourself credit for I I sometimes wonder

00:48:49

yeah

00:48:50

um

00:48:52

um what else was there so okay so so you

00:48:55

get through that first year is difficult

00:48:56

and then you start to see a bit of

00:48:58

Headway then you make more and more

00:48:59

progress I suppose it's like a Snowball

00:49:01

Effect then how do you um how do you get

00:49:03

back into the promotion game is this is

00:49:06

promoting all the way through yeah I was

00:49:09

working on contract for a lot of people

00:49:10

I worked I'd do anything to get the

00:49:12

money in and one of the contracts I got

00:49:15

was with uh with Duco

00:49:17

and yet a guy called David Higgins who I

00:49:20

don't have much of an opinion on and

00:49:22

John McRae were there and they were

00:49:24

putting together the David tour versus

00:49:26

Shane Cameron fight they didn't have any

00:49:28

experience at the time right boxing

00:49:29

specifically but they had a nose they

00:49:32

definitely had a nose for uh what made a

00:49:34

good promotion so I helped them put that

00:49:36

together and I charged them through the

00:49:38

nose for it and uh and helped put them

00:49:41

together and it turned out to be very

00:49:43

very successful it's a phenomenal event

00:49:44

yeah the fight of the century I had um

00:49:46

Shane Cameron on the podcast and we yeah

00:49:48

he is a good guy he's a great guy and we

00:49:50

talked about that fight and quite a bit

00:49:52

of length and uh he's got so many

00:49:54

regrets he said it took seven years for

00:49:55

him to get over there I bet it did yeah

00:49:57

seven years seven years before he

00:50:00

realized huh I haven't thought about

00:50:02

that all day today wow crazy huh but

00:50:06

that's that's what that's what been in

00:50:08

the boxing ring can do to people you

00:50:11

know because that was Shane's whole life

00:50:12

was boxing and he built himself up along

00:50:16

with his manager Kenny rangefield as you

00:50:18

have to do to be the L for male of the

00:50:20

country and all of a sudden there's

00:50:22

another alpha male who realizes you

00:50:24

might be a great white shark but this

00:50:26

boy over here is a killer whale I mean

00:50:27

he's the top of the food chain yeah and

00:50:30

and I'm sure Shane's made peace with it

00:50:31

since then you know and David are

00:50:34

friends now they've had a couple of

00:50:35

tequila nights together and yeah

00:50:38

do you do you feel

00:50:40

um You probably don't it's just business

00:50:42

but I mean they were we talked about the

00:50:45

interview that they did on a show it's

00:50:46

called Uh close up at seven with Sansone

00:50:48

I remember it yeah and there was like it

00:50:50

wasn't quality trash talk it wasn't

00:50:52

Conor McGregor style but it was high

00:50:54

quality trash cool you think so why

00:50:56

because it was authentic and it wasn't

00:50:59

and Shane was probably putting it on a

00:51:01

bit right but tour wasn't Tua I remember

00:51:05

Shane and and and and giving David a

00:51:08

hard time and it was just Shane doing

00:51:10

the best he could from a trash talk

00:51:11

point of view he's a high quality human

00:51:12

being and a great guy but David tour he

00:51:16

wasn't trash talking he did something

00:51:18

like he he moved his neck around like

00:51:20

that and made it crack and he just

00:51:21

looked I think at Shane and says I'm

00:51:23

really going to hurt you and thank you

00:51:25

for the opportunity that was about as

00:51:27

authentic as it gets yeah you know what

00:51:29

I mean when David tour had never said

00:51:31

anything like that in his entire career

00:51:33

and Kenny rainsfield who's a good mate

00:51:35

of mine I've known for 30 years was

00:51:37

manager of Shane he really got under

00:51:40

David's skin and he was doing things

00:51:42

which as a promoter you look at him go

00:51:45

thanks Kenny you just did a great job

00:51:47

and of course that sold massively well

00:51:49

both at the venue down in Hamilton and

00:51:51

uh and on TV yeah Shane and our podcast

00:51:53

he talks about regrets he's gone and he

00:51:55

conducted himself in a way that's not

00:51:56

not him to his core yeah but do you feel

00:51:59

a little bit good about that because I

00:52:00

feel I feel like you guys made him made

00:52:02

him well not made him instead of hyped

00:52:04

the fight because all you can do right

00:52:06

at the end of the day all these Fighters

00:52:08

make their own decisions as to what they

00:52:10

do and all you can do is provide the

00:52:12

platform and Kenny in particular Kenny

00:52:14

really got he'd been a promoter himself

00:52:16

and Kenny rainsfield who was Shane's

00:52:18

manager understood the need for

00:52:19

promotion and Kenny was a genuine tough

00:52:22

guy as well you know he represented New

00:52:24

Zealand in the Commonwealth Games I

00:52:26

think he went to the Olympics as a

00:52:27

wrestler and one of the great stories

00:52:30

about Kenny rainsfield is that going

00:52:33

back 10 years ago and he's going to hate

00:52:35

that I tell the story but Kenny could

00:52:38

hold himself well and account when it

00:52:41

come to a street fight right because

00:52:42

he'd have all his background of

00:52:44

wrestling but he got into a fight with a

00:52:46

guy in ponsonby Road who was lesser

00:52:49

fighting more an altercation which the

00:52:51

other guy should never have started but

00:52:53

Kenny did something I've never heard

00:52:55

anyone do and was the most painful thing

00:52:57

of anything in anyone's life he grabbed

00:53:00

the guy by the hand his thumb like that

00:53:02

and he snapped it down with a quick

00:53:04

movement so he broke the guy's thumb and

00:53:06

I've thought about that on many of

00:53:08

occasions as one how do you think about

00:53:10

doing that and two the pain and her that

00:53:14

you were reflected on someone yes is

00:53:16

beyond beyond thoughts it's like torture

00:53:19

oh mate that's like medieval [ __ ] you

00:53:22

know so Kenny was a he was an

00:53:24

interesting cat and he's now chairman of

00:53:26

the New Zealand Warriors amazing there

00:53:28

you go amazing so yes after the um the

00:53:31

fight of the century the two of the

00:53:32

Cameron thing um it's when you you uh

00:53:36

Duco started working with um Joseph

00:53:37

Parker yeah I started they brought they

00:53:40

brought me into the company right

00:53:43

I owned half of it okay and you you guys

00:53:46

did a phenomenal job with Joseph Parker

00:53:48

like what

00:53:52

what no look what was that noise

00:53:55

all I can take it from is like um I was

00:53:58

on a top 40 radio station called The

00:53:59

Edge and we'd never have a boxer on yeah

00:54:01

you guys um presented us with Joe Parker

00:54:04

well I think we had him on as a favor

00:54:06

for you because you're a nice guy and I

00:54:07

like it yeah and then he did a good job

00:54:09

on the air and see then that

00:54:11

relationship was formed so yeah you guys

00:54:13

sort of made Joseph Parker like a

00:54:15

mainstream household name in a French

00:54:16

sport all we did was provide the

00:54:18

platform and Joe took advantage of it

00:54:20

don't forget David tour versus Linux

00:54:22

Lewis

00:54:23

was the number one rating show of all

00:54:26

time on television in New Zealand so to

00:54:28

say boxing was a French sport I think

00:54:30

it's a probably a bit of a stretch

00:54:32

because and I know it's not the All

00:54:33

Blacks right but

00:54:34

tour went to fight for the heavyweight

00:54:36

championship of the world his rise was

00:54:38

well documented in New Zealand media

00:54:39

then Shane Cameron came along and he was

00:54:42

there and Joe was sort of the next

00:54:43

alliteration of that standing on these

00:54:45

shoulders to some degree so uh but Joe

00:54:48

definitely all you do is provide the

00:54:49

platforms up to the individual athlete

00:54:51

to take advantage of it yeah we have we

00:54:54

hassled at people and got them on where

00:54:56

we had to get them on and if they're no

00:54:58

good here's what my experience is

00:55:00

most of these guys they start off not so

00:55:03

good in the media some of them are born

00:55:04

to it right but most of them aren't that

00:55:06

good but the more you throw them in you

00:55:07

can give them the media train in the

00:55:09

world I'm not a big fan of it the more

00:55:10

you throw them in the more you do it the

00:55:12

more comfortable they get and you start

00:55:13

to see the real person come out and

00:55:15

that's all we did with Joe was just keep

00:55:16

throwing them and throwing them and

00:55:17

Joe's got a lovely personality and he's

00:55:19

a genuinely good guy you know so when

00:55:22

that starts to come out it's quite

00:55:23

amazing that he boxes for a living

00:55:25

Because deep down to be a boxer you've

00:55:27

got to give some angry [ __ ] going on

00:55:28

yeah he's not a Savage is he

00:55:31

I think deep down he still loves to

00:55:33

fight anybody who loves to fight and

00:55:35

what look not everyone's going to be

00:55:38

Conor McGregor right yeah but in all

00:55:40

boxes good or bad but the really really

00:55:43

good ones what Conor McGregor's got

00:55:45

going on the outside a lot of these

00:55:47

boxes have got going on the inside they

00:55:48

just don't show it because mate it is

00:55:50

not a normal thing to do these are the

00:55:52

Gladiators the mod Gladiators there's

00:55:54

only about ten thousand maybe 15 000

00:55:57

professional boxes in the world and out

00:56:00

of those fifteen thousand no more than a

00:56:02

hundred to 200 will make money out of it

00:56:04

and no more than 10 make the millions

00:56:07

that you hear about you know so it's a

00:56:09

very very competitive Sport and it's uh

00:56:11

it's very very cutthroat

00:56:16

see what you want to drive back up who

00:56:18

called you

00:56:20

but was it Kevin Barry

00:56:24

was it yeah I think it was Liam's

00:56:27

talking in the background I'm pretty

00:56:28

sure he's right was Judith Collins who

00:56:31

was Joe's Auntie oh the Old National

00:56:33

party leader yeah really yes right

00:56:36

Professor Collins my memory is terrible

00:56:38

right concussions

00:56:40

oh I'm also of the opinion there's only

00:56:43

so much your brain can do yeah yeah and

00:56:45

sometimes stuff comes in if it's going

00:56:47

to stay there something's got to go out

00:56:48

to Wrangle around now you're right Liam

00:56:51

Judas Collins did ring me about and tell

00:56:53

me about him see he wasn't on your radar

00:56:55

at that point

00:56:56

no no no and look this is a long time

00:56:59

ago crikey when did we first started

00:57:01

promoting um Joseph

00:57:04

2010 maybe it's like 12 years ago it

00:57:08

just goes so fast

00:57:10

what was that what was that groaning

00:57:12

noise you made before when I when I

00:57:13

brought up Joseph Parker I just do cover

00:57:15

is not a period in my life that I want

00:57:17

to talk too much about I have zero zero

00:57:20

respect for the bloke awesome business

00:57:21

four I think it's fairly well known why

00:57:23

we separated I mean it seems like a sad

00:57:26

in a way because you guys were

00:57:27

incredibly successful together and I

00:57:29

hope maybe there would come a time maybe

00:57:30

they won't where you can look back and

00:57:31

reflect on that but it's yeah it seems

00:57:33

sad like um like Kevin Kevin Barry and

00:57:36

David tour like it's another very very

00:57:38

successful relationship that had a

00:57:40

terrible split and it seems sad in a way

00:57:42

that you can't rescue anything from it

00:57:44

at the end you guys were successful I

00:57:46

think you had the Charisma of the

00:57:48

operation and I I don't know I'm

00:57:50

guessing here but you you both bought

00:57:52

different things to your partnership it

00:57:54

as a partnership you and David were very

00:57:56

success useful I can tell the way you're

00:57:58

sitting here like

00:58:00

I don't want to talk about one day I

00:58:02

might one day I might serialize it you

00:58:04

know and tell what really went on and

00:58:06

why I was separated one day and he

00:58:08

himself for that one day when it comes I

00:58:11

can promise you that

00:58:13

there's no no love lost no relationship

00:58:15

there now no um

00:58:17

I once run into them in the gray Lynn

00:58:19

RSA and I ended up chasing around a car

00:58:23

and unfortunately I'm fat and overweight

00:58:25

and he's quite skinny so it's like I'm

00:58:27

like Wiley Coyote chasing the Road

00:58:29

Runner and I just wish I could

00:58:42

but that's not for the podcast

00:58:52

well I mean

00:58:54

like time time he was done has a lot of

00:58:57

words so maybe there'll become a time

00:58:58

where no chance wow not ever

00:59:03

you don't want to get into any of I mean

00:59:06

I've heard some marimbas over the years

00:59:07

about what happened but your neighbors

00:59:09

are probably true right

00:59:11

um

00:59:12

but I've got a saying in life like you

00:59:14

know you shouldn't believe everything

00:59:15

everything you hear uh they are usually

00:59:17

you know where there's some smoke

00:59:18

there's some fire but yeah it's fair to

00:59:21

say you shouldn't believe everything you

00:59:23

hear yeah yeah

00:59:25

um move on okay

00:59:26

so then so after after 2K that I I hope

00:59:29

there comes a time where you can look

00:59:30

back on on that period um uh you know

00:59:33

with some sort of pleasure because um

00:59:35

yeah what you did was very very

00:59:36

successful you deserve it we did some

00:59:39

okay things you know like the rise of

00:59:41

Joe Parker that was that was a lot that

00:59:43

was a lot of fun and seeing someone like

00:59:44

Joe being successful

00:59:46

also the NRL Auckland nines was you know

00:59:49

that's right I forgot about the nrl9s

00:59:51

yeah that was very successful and uh

00:59:53

that was very that was probably the most

00:59:55

gratifying thing for me because we got

00:59:57

to bring rugby league

00:59:59

you know to Auckland and it was a real

01:00:00

great celebration of rugby league and

01:00:03

the Auckland rugby league Community got

01:00:04

to come together and you know we we got

01:00:07

NRL players out into the clubs and it

01:00:09

was really cool that was very cool been

01:00:11

from a league background so then so then

01:00:14

um post Duke you go to Australia yep

01:00:17

um how come why did you

01:00:19

well when we had the split I went with

01:00:21

Jeff Horn who with Australian fighter

01:00:24

Australian boxer welterweight and the

01:00:26

Zenith of Jeff Horn was to fight Manny

01:00:28

Pacquiao at suncorp stadium and he beat

01:00:30

many 51

01:00:32

000 people turned up for that event and

01:00:34

it's probably the signature event in

01:00:36

boxing in Australia even to today

01:00:38

um Manny pacca a little little Filipino

01:00:40

he used to be the president of the

01:00:41

Philippines he ran for president ran for

01:00:43

prison but Manny was in all one of the

01:00:45

all-time great stars of the game and he

01:00:47

fought against the guy

01:00:48

and I think Manny's end of that fight

01:00:51

was about 100 million dollars Bob's

01:00:53

Aaron's in was about 50 million and

01:00:55

Floyd's was probably about 150 million

01:00:57

so they made some serious money out of

01:00:58

that so you were involved in

01:01:00

negotiations not for that fight yeah but

01:01:03

for the one in Brisbane that we did yeah

01:01:05

we I did it from top to bottom so your

01:01:08

dealings with um Manny Pacquiao uh with

01:01:10

Bob Aaron right right Manny was a lot of

01:01:13

fun was he a lot of fun when we we did a

01:01:15

bit of it he didn't need dog in

01:01:16

Australia

01:01:19

many was one of the most generous men

01:01:21

Manny Pacquiao did [ __ ] I've never seen

01:01:23

in my life so he comes over to do a

01:01:26

promotional tour no he comes over for

01:01:29

the fight and I had to have a quarter of

01:01:32

a million dollars in cash which was

01:01:34

Manny money and many money was given out

01:01:38

to all of the the cohorts that had come

01:01:40

over so he hired a private plane and

01:01:42

brought about a hundred to 150 people

01:01:44

with them all stayed in the hotel who

01:01:46

like his Entourage yes like all his

01:01:48

friends Manny Pacquiao how many staff

01:01:51

how many staff and how many friends I

01:01:53

honestly I couldn't tell you but what I

01:01:55

had to have that quarter million dollars

01:01:57

ready for him when he got there and that

01:01:59

was handed out he brought to that event

01:02:02

see every fighter gets an allocation to

01:02:04

the fight nights and how much you know

01:02:06

their tickets to give away he brought

01:02:08

850

01:02:10

000 worth of tickets to that fight I kid

01:02:13

you not and so and we had to give him a

01:02:16

quarter of a million bucks as he got off

01:02:17

the plane it was all deductible a person

01:02:19

stuff like that so many had this

01:02:21

progression of Filipinos coming in from

01:02:24

all around Australia which he's handing

01:02:26

out money and tickets to to go to the

01:02:27

fight and whatever he's and generous

01:02:29

like he'd be getting someone to shine

01:02:31

his shoes at the airport and give him a

01:02:33

hundred dollar U.S tip wow Manny is the

01:02:36

only boxer I've ever been out with who

01:02:38

offers to pay for stuff right so we went

01:02:40

out and had a dinner and maybe there was

01:02:42

a couple of grand and there's a whole

01:02:44

lot of people and it was he he's pulling

01:02:46

money out of his pocket to pay and go

01:02:47

Mania you don't have to do this you know

01:02:49

I was um

01:02:51

but many formed a friendship with a very

01:02:54

very unique character called Jim

01:02:56

bannigan Jim's a very good friend of

01:02:58

mine

01:02:59

and I don't know how to describe Jimmy's

01:03:01

an Australian agent player manager he's

01:03:03

been a very good friend of me a very

01:03:05

good friend but he is one unique

01:03:06

individual and Jim is the guy in life

01:03:09

that you can equally hate and love at

01:03:11

the same time because he will really

01:03:12

piss you off I mean piss you off with

01:03:15

things you've never seen before he was

01:03:17

at the time quite an obese overweight

01:03:19

white Australian male with great

01:03:22

religious beliefs and that's why

01:03:24

he's a Catholic and that's why him and

01:03:26

Manny because the Filipinos are very

01:03:28

very religious and very Catholic so him

01:03:30

and many Struck it off but we went on

01:03:32

this bit of a tour and um Manny made the

01:03:36

mistake of giving Jim a bit of lip now

01:03:38

Manny Pacquiao

01:03:40

couldn't give anyone lip in the world

01:03:42

that he wants because he's Manny

01:03:43

Pacquiao so we're in a small bus going

01:03:46

from place to place doing his

01:03:47

promotional gigs

01:03:49

and Jim Bennigan turned around and

01:03:52

looked at him and says Manny Pacquiao

01:03:54

you can go and get [ __ ] now I promise

01:03:58

you in 25 years of Manny Pacquiao being

01:04:01

who he is he's never been told to get

01:04:02

[ __ ] in his entire life man he took

01:04:05

one look at this fat overweight

01:04:06

red-faced Australian telling them to get

01:04:09

[ __ ] and what the things he's going to

01:04:10

do and he just cracked up laughing fell

01:04:12

on the floor of the bus and he's never

01:04:14

laughed so hard in his life so you have

01:04:16

you meet some interesting characters and

01:04:18

you and interesting things happen along

01:04:20

the way but equally that same guy Jim

01:04:23

oh this is typical Jim bannigan right so

01:04:26

I had Jim doing the media

01:04:28

uh on this Manny Pacquiao bloody tour

01:04:31

and I sent him into the Philippines

01:04:34

where many lived uh with a whole lot of

01:04:36

media worked him quite hard and Jimmy

01:04:39

was under stress and pressure so Jimmy

01:04:41

had a stroke about three weeks before

01:04:43

the fight so I'm very concerned about

01:04:46

Jim because people die from Strokes so I

01:04:48

go in to see him one day I've made a few

01:04:50

phone calls we're going to see him at

01:04:51

the hospital one day and he's got his

01:04:53

whole family's around him and he looks

01:04:55

up at me and says this is your [ __ ]

01:04:58

fault

01:05:08

that's just over the top yeah but you

01:05:11

know you have you have your so there's

01:05:14

some good yards you meet some

01:05:15

interesting people yeah so financially

01:05:17

how are you now if you don't don't quite

01:05:19

well out of um duko and Australia the

01:05:21

last few years look why are you living

01:05:23

with your mum and your sister

01:05:24

I'm sort of in between places right now

01:05:27

look we've done okay yeah it hasn't been

01:05:28

brilliant we've done okay I've got some

01:05:30

land that I'm looking to develop up in

01:05:32

taupaki at the moment but it's been you

01:05:34

know it hasn't because of the uh

01:05:37

the entrepreneurial ride that you take

01:05:39

man I've had ups and downs all over the

01:05:41

place what's your relationship with

01:05:43

money money like now are you sort of

01:05:46

neutral to it or I think so yeah like

01:05:49

Everyone likes would like to have a bit

01:05:50

more of it and um and I've been very

01:05:53

very lucky I've similar had some amazing

01:05:55

investors come along along the way and

01:05:57

wanted to be part of the journey

01:05:59

so uh I think the path going forward is

01:06:02

going to be a lot smoother as a result

01:06:04

you know we get a lot of advice off

01:06:06

different people

01:06:08

um you'd like to be more successful than

01:06:09

what you are but at the end of the day

01:06:11

you know

01:06:12

money is something that you should use

01:06:15

to just help you get through life and

01:06:17

obviously you want to get ahead right

01:06:19

but you know as you get older it becomes

01:06:21

less and less of a focus and and you

01:06:24

want to be spending time with more time

01:06:25

with family and friends but you also

01:06:27

want to have that success and then your

01:06:29

financial side to help you achieve that

01:06:32

more and more you know but it seems like

01:06:34

you you don't have an ego at all I think

01:06:38

um I think you've got to have an ego to

01:06:39

get things done yeah you know like there

01:06:42

you go I suppose like an ego like um

01:06:44

when you when you went through that

01:06:46

circus stuff and then you know you you

01:06:48

were stripped back to be a Basics like

01:06:50

not even in the biggest room in the

01:06:51

house yeah

01:06:52

um yeah I suppose you learned a lot

01:06:54

about yourself then well when you go

01:06:56

through shitty times like that your ego

01:06:58

takes a bit of a hammering yeah and

01:06:59

you're not quite as good as you thought

01:07:01

you were you know and uh but you look

01:07:04

back at those times and if I could look

01:07:06

I had really good times in there it's

01:07:09

just if you could do it without the

01:07:10

stress and the pressure you know

01:07:13

stress and pressure is one of the

01:07:15

[ __ ] of life and and

01:07:18

along the way I've worked out that I

01:07:21

suffer from anxiety up until probably

01:07:24

five six years ago I didn't realize that

01:07:26

I did but it's probably been a part of

01:07:28

your life for a very very long time what

01:07:30

do you mean what did that look like for

01:07:31

you

01:07:32

um like panic attacks or no no no no

01:07:35

um your guts tuning on a regular basis

01:07:37

worrying about how you're going to solve

01:07:39

problems overthinking things thinking

01:07:42

things over and over and over again

01:07:44

and it's only been the realization that

01:07:46

you do it you go oh wow okay this is

01:07:48

what sort of I used to do some work for

01:07:50

the phobic trust and they used to do

01:07:52

some stuff around anxiety and at the

01:07:53

time I didn't know what was really all

01:07:55

about but now I do and it's only with

01:07:58

realization that you you suffer from it

01:08:01

you go oh okay now we've got to work out

01:08:03

how do you deal with this and I think

01:08:05

that's been you know and one of my pet

01:08:07

things in life is I don't want to go

01:08:09

through anxiety and I think a lot of

01:08:11

people do and it's a shitty place to be

01:08:13

because that feeling in your guts that

01:08:15

you

01:08:16

you just work to get rid of it yeah

01:08:18

fortunately there are I can actually I

01:08:20

think I can identify why I get it when

01:08:23

you can identify why you get it then you

01:08:25

can help yourself get rid of it Well

01:08:26

everybody's different why is it for you

01:08:28

oh all sorts of different things yeah it

01:08:30

could be anything it could be um I don't

01:08:32

know let's just say we're going to

01:08:34

announce a fight night and we haven't

01:08:36

got a couple of guys signed up you start

01:08:38

thinking about it and go you know but

01:08:40

all the thinking in the world doesn't

01:08:42

necessarily solve the problem if you're

01:08:44

thinking the same [ __ ] over and over

01:08:45

again yeah I I I saw a therapist a

01:08:48

couple a couple of years ago and um she

01:08:50

asked me like about overthinking and

01:08:52

doing that stuff and she said when you

01:08:54

catch yourself doing it you just got to

01:08:56

pause and ask yourself is this helpful

01:08:58

yes and it never is but it's easier said

01:09:00

than done to then just throw it in the

01:09:02

back it's taking me years to work it out

01:09:04

and it's taken me years to understand

01:09:05

I'm not sure I'm brilliant at getting

01:09:08

rid of it but it's taken me years to

01:09:10

work out okay I when I get into work and

01:09:13

attack problems one by one by one the

01:09:15

anxiety disappear years and you get on

01:09:17

with it right but it's when you've got

01:09:18

that thinking time and and the worst

01:09:21

time and this is I think this goes for

01:09:22

everyone is when you wake up so two or

01:09:24

three in the morning as you get older

01:09:26

and you're going to start suffering this

01:09:27

for whatever reason older blokes get up

01:09:29

at two or three in the morning they have

01:09:31

a purse I don't know why it is but they

01:09:32

do and if you can't get back to sleep

01:09:34

that's when it's at its worst you know

01:09:36

I've talked to a lot of my mates about

01:09:37

it and they're all the same you know

01:09:39

it's funny because

01:09:40

you sell legit going to be the next

01:09:41

question I ask you like how do you sleep

01:09:43

at night yeah well most amazing I get I

01:09:46

go to bed early right it's early like

01:09:49

nine ten earlier 8 30 9. does your mum

01:09:53

make you no

01:09:55

I quite like it I'm on the bed before we

01:09:57

love that's truly tragic hey why are you

01:10:00

just exhausted at the end of the day or

01:10:01

is it just yeah an old routine it's I've

01:10:04

always been to bed early you know and I

01:10:07

always get up early and if you get up

01:10:09

early you want to go to bed early so but

01:10:11

yeah but I do watch a lot of Netflix and

01:10:14

I have seen the Big Bang Theory at least

01:10:16

five times maybe six every single

01:10:18

episode but when you um I suppose a lot

01:10:20

of a lot of your work at least from an

01:10:22

outsider's perspective is being on the

01:10:23

phone like if you get up early what are

01:10:25

you doing for those hours when you can't

01:10:26

ring people

01:10:27

um

01:10:28

the first thing I do is go and have

01:10:30

breakfast that's all and then you sort

01:10:32

of start your day at 8 39 if you can and

01:10:35

then you're away you know

01:10:37

yeah so I I like to try and finish like

01:10:39

you try and do nine to five but that's

01:10:41

not how long yeah I get told all the

01:10:43

time that I'm on the phone all the

01:10:45

weekend and you get you're all on the

01:10:47

phone all sorts of different times and

01:10:48

one of the things as you get older I

01:10:50

think you try and be more present

01:10:52

in what you're doing rather than being

01:10:54

on a phone call or being a hundred miles

01:10:56

away or thinking about something else

01:10:58

try and be present in the moment because

01:11:00

that moment ain't coming back you don't

01:11:02

know if your family or friends or

01:11:04

whatever you're doing be in that moment

01:11:06

because that's important yeah what's the

01:11:08

rest of your um life or career going to

01:11:10

look like you're never going to retire

01:11:11

are you what are you now 57 57. you'll

01:11:15

be one of these people that keeps

01:11:16

working when you man you have to I would

01:11:18

rather not really really what would you

01:11:21

do what would retirement look like

01:11:22

um retirement would look different to

01:11:24

what I do now right but you know I would

01:11:27

like to have my build my Airbnb up in

01:11:31

taupaki and have people from around the

01:11:34

world come and stay there and then six

01:11:37

months of the year go off and do what

01:11:38

you've got to do you know whether it be

01:11:40

Gold Coast whether it be going to the

01:11:42

states whether it began England hanging

01:11:45

out you know hanging out with friends

01:11:46

and family in particularly we've got

01:11:47

Liam over here you know we used to do a

01:11:49

lot of traveling I'd like to get back to

01:11:50

that

01:11:51

but at the moment we've got to you know

01:11:53

we've just finished up in Australia

01:11:54

we've got to rebuild our business back

01:11:56

here and mate there's another you know

01:11:58

fight to be had

01:12:00

literally and figuratively and we're

01:12:02

slowly getting there you know so um yeah

01:12:06

as um is your relationship with your son

01:12:08

one of the things you'd say you're most

01:12:10

proud of in your life oh yeah yeah it's

01:12:12

the number one priority I mean he's been

01:12:14

sitting here he's a grown ass man but

01:12:16

he's been sitting here watching this

01:12:17

whole interview and I think that says a

01:12:18

lot about a lot about you as a person

01:12:20

and a lot about the relationship that

01:12:21

you guys have together Liam

01:12:24

uh listens to more podcasts than any man

01:12:27

I know so it will be remiss of me not to

01:12:29

bring him down to see how they're made

01:12:31

he haven't seen hundreds of them yeah

01:12:33

but it's it's a podcast but it's still

01:12:34

listening to your old man talk [ __ ] for

01:12:36

an hour and a quarter well there's no

01:12:39

there's no there's nothing I've said

01:12:41

that he hasn't heard yeah right right

01:12:43

well that's cool well you've always had

01:12:45

a real close relationship with them as

01:12:46

as I said you used to come on my radio

01:12:48

show and give them a shout out that was

01:12:49

the first thing you did and the fact

01:12:50

that you're in business together now

01:12:51

it's still incredibly close I think

01:12:52

that's his lot not every not every

01:12:54

Father and Son relationship is like that

01:12:56

no they're not and I'm sure I drive a

01:12:58

mentor quite often and I'm sure there's

01:13:00

a number of times when he wants to

01:13:02

headbutt me and to be fair he would

01:13:04

probably be quite right in doing so like

01:13:06

Liam's managed to see things in our

01:13:08

business that I haven't seen and he's

01:13:10

given me advice at times that I haven't

01:13:11

taken

01:13:13

and I need to listen closer because he's

01:13:16

got some great ideas that he understands

01:13:18

a macro part of our business you know so

01:13:20

there's a lot of things we do now

01:13:21

because if there's suggestions yeah I'll

01:13:23

say yeah yeah I suppose young ideas

01:13:25

fresh ideas different perspectives not

01:13:26

big time and if he really really

01:13:28

understands this game because maybe

01:13:30

watches and loves the fights that we do

01:13:32

and he loves UFC and he understands

01:13:35

media so you know it's a pretty good

01:13:37

it's it's a pretty good ground yeah and

01:13:39

he's been rounded all his life Christ I

01:13:41

got photographs of Liam when he was five

01:13:43

or six when I'm fighting and he's in the

01:13:45

corner with a sinuses go Dad that's

01:13:47

pretty cool oh how cool yeah and what

01:13:49

about um what about you personally yeah

01:13:51

you hope to find the one do you believe

01:13:52

in soul mates

01:13:54

I'm not holding my breath I've managed

01:13:57

to get to 57 years and haven't quite you

01:14:00

know got there yet so yeah actually I

01:14:02

was talking to

01:14:03

um I I just had 50 the other week I've

01:14:05

got a mate has a similar age and he

01:14:06

broke up how long you've been single for

01:14:08

now no four or five years oh I've been

01:14:09

seeing I've been seeing a single lady

01:14:11

for the past year right

01:14:13

um but me and JJ we broke up about five

01:14:15

years ago is that your first marriage

01:14:17

yeah yeah yeah yeah I've got to make

01:14:19

that broke up with his wife a similar

01:14:20

time and he's he said the thing that

01:14:22

he's worried about is like getting like

01:14:23

set in his ways now because he quite

01:14:25

enjoys being single now yeah and just

01:14:27

being able to do as he pleases when he

01:14:29

pleases but I think you like you're a

01:14:31

great guy and you've got a lot to offer

01:14:32

someone I feel like you've learned a lot

01:14:33

about yourself as you've evolved you

01:14:36

might want to give me one Dom

01:14:40

give you one like metaphorically

01:14:42

speaking who knows

01:14:46

like do you like are you on any apps or

01:14:48

anything or no no no no no so you'd want

01:14:52

to meet someone organically like that

01:14:53

yeah

01:14:55

I don't think about it too often yeah

01:14:57

like if these things if they happen to

01:14:59

happen if they don't they don't you know

01:15:01

it is what it is yeah and you just get

01:15:03

on and at the moment I got

01:15:05

other priorities and the priorities I

01:15:07

gotta we just we're coming back into New

01:15:09

Zealand we've got to reestablish

01:15:10

ourselves back here we've got a whole

01:15:12

lot of good ideas and we just got to bid

01:15:13

them in and get them done and most

01:15:15

importantly we've got some Fighters

01:15:16

signed to us who are very very good at

01:15:18

what they do and we they deserve to have

01:15:20

a platform you know these guys are

01:15:22

seriously seriously talented so uh we've

01:15:25

just got to provide the platform for

01:15:26

them to do what they do best yeah well

01:15:28

it's great to have you back in New

01:15:29

Zealand and to be here man I got to tell

01:15:32

you like when you're overseas Australia

01:15:33

is a very very tough place to do

01:15:35

business is that if you're a kiwi or for

01:15:37

anyone for anyone like a lot of people

01:15:39

would say it's one of the hardest

01:15:40

markets between that and China is the

01:15:41

hardest markets in the world to crack

01:15:43

and uh it's it's nice being home with

01:15:46

family and friends and what have you can

01:15:48

go and see on a regular basis you know

01:15:50

you run into people in the street and

01:15:51

stuff which is because you haven't lived

01:15:53

there all your life it doesn't happen in

01:15:54

Australia yeah yeah and I mean back here

01:15:56

here you run into your mum and your

01:15:57

sister every time you go home and how

01:15:59

good is that

01:16:00

how good is that yeah that's gonna tell

01:16:03

you this man when I was 21 the last

01:16:05

thing I would have thought I'd be doing

01:16:06

is saying I love living with my mum and

01:16:08

my sister but I do and I love I tell you

01:16:11

what else I love doing I love going down

01:16:13

to waiheke on the weekends and living

01:16:15

and and starting with dad's place at

01:16:17

Rocky Bay you know so little things in

01:16:20

life man that's cool you're quite family

01:16:22

orientated as you get older you be you

01:16:25

know you realize how important it is

01:16:26

yeah but often as you get older you

01:16:28

realize how important it is but it's

01:16:30

like if you had if you didn't have the

01:16:31

relationship with your son all the way

01:16:33

through and you decide now it's

01:16:34

important no no I agree yeah I agree

01:16:36

yeah you need to do the work all the way

01:16:38

through yeah I'm talking about extended

01:16:39

family but even extended family when we

01:16:41

were young we used to all going to work

01:16:43

you on them for Christmas you know like

01:16:45

and you've been there for six weeks and

01:16:46

you had six or different eight branches

01:16:48

of the family there and you'd hang out

01:16:50

together on a regular basis and you

01:16:52

don't realize you just think it's normal

01:16:53

right you don't realize our special

01:16:55

letters until you actually you get older

01:16:57

and other people don't get to do that

01:16:59

sort of stuff you know Mom and Dad they

01:17:01

had they built their first house in

01:17:03

Massey they built a bloody they brought

01:17:06

a section and built a house or built a

01:17:07

batch down at waiheke and we've had this

01:17:09

lifelong affiliation with with waiheke

01:17:12

and Rocky Bay you know which goes right

01:17:13

back to my grandparents in the 30s built

01:17:16

a place of Rocky Bay and back then they

01:17:19

have to do like a one and a half hour

01:17:21

trip on a tram or a bus to get to the

01:17:23

downtown then the ferry was another sort

01:17:25

of two hours and they used to catch a

01:17:28

milk cart from bloody the rocky Bay

01:17:31

store up to their place you know so it

01:17:32

was five or six hours to get down there

01:17:34

and they had six kids in tow

01:17:36

so uh it's amazing how times change you

01:17:39

know and she said would have been your

01:17:40

dream being on the milk truck yeah

01:17:43

you believe this you know sections back

01:17:46

then when I was maybe 22 23 I had the

01:17:49

opportunity to buy sections for five

01:17:52

thousand dollars a section those same

01:17:54

sections are half a million bucks now

01:17:55

it's quite amazing with a passion of

01:17:57

time you know but you got no regrets

01:17:59

about

01:18:00

your financial decisions or anything

01:18:01

yeah financial decisions of course yeah

01:18:04

because if you could change three or

01:18:06

four fundamental decisions along the way

01:18:07

life would be a lot easier but at the

01:18:09

end of the day you can't change it so

01:18:11

you can't think too much about it the

01:18:12

best you think you can do I think is

01:18:14

learn from it learn learn from your

01:18:15

mistakes unfortunately wise people learn

01:18:18

from other people's mistakes

01:18:20

I have to learn from my own so uh you

01:18:24

know hopefully we've learned all the

01:18:26

mistakes from the mistakes we've made

01:18:28

and we can Implement and go well I feel

01:18:30

like you're living with your mum and

01:18:30

your sister by choice so it's not like a

01:18:32

financial decision

01:18:34

to be bluntly honest if I wanted to live

01:18:36

elsewhere I probably could but for

01:18:38

Christ's sake don't tell them that they

01:18:41

can't see this podcast hey mate it's

01:18:44

been wonderful sitting down with you

01:18:45

today I really appreciate you being so

01:18:46

generous with your time and your stories

01:18:48

it's all right brother and it's

01:18:49

wonderful to be here and it's great to

01:18:51

see you're out having a crack by

01:18:52

yourself and fingers crossed you get you

01:18:55

know you get up to a couple hundred

01:18:56

thousand listens a show and you can sell

01:18:58

it off for millions of dollars just like

01:18:59

Joe Rogan did that's that's [ __ ]

01:19:02

terrifying doing something on your own I

01:19:03

mean this is new to me but you've been

01:19:05

doing it for decades now but see what's

01:19:06

really interesting for you is this is

01:19:08

not new to you you've been doing this

01:19:10

exact thing for 30 years this is just an

01:19:12

extension of what you've done the only

01:19:14

thing you're doing differently is you

01:19:17

don't have the guaranteed income and

01:19:19

you've got to get out and sell it

01:19:20

yourself and all those sales reps and

01:19:22

Those Years Gone by that you used to

01:19:24

curse and swear for having you to read

01:19:25

[ __ ] and endure stuff you didn't want to

01:19:26

endorse you're going they actually might

01:19:28

have been good blokes because they

01:19:30

helped pay my wages yeah they used to

01:19:32

say things like oh I pay you a wages and

01:19:34

I'll be like [ __ ] off without the

01:19:35

ratings I deliver you've got nothing to

01:19:36

sell exactly but I do understand it now

01:19:39

yeah well and the thing yeah eating a

01:19:41

bag of [ __ ] yeah and look you know Dom

01:19:44

I'm sure you're going to end up doing

01:19:46

this you'll be the biggest podcast in

01:19:48

the country very very quickly you've

01:19:50

only done what 56 57 apps yeah just a

01:19:52

year on a year that's incredible man

01:19:54

what are you doing one a week yeah one

01:19:55

per week I think I think Joe Rogan does

01:19:58

three a week three a week I'd love to

01:20:00

build up to that level yeah

01:20:02

yeah something is you know the the the

01:20:04

the the

01:20:06

um things been set he's done something

01:20:07

like

01:20:08

1935 apps or something because I've

01:20:10

become quite a follower of him and he's

01:20:12

really impressive it's incredible and

01:20:13

you look back to the early stuff like he

01:20:15

was doing this 10 years ago so he's like

01:20:16

an overnight sensation there it's been

01:20:18

years and years grafting away and he

01:20:20

probably did it just because he loved

01:20:22

doing it 100 yeah there were no

01:20:23

Financial reward in the first however

01:20:25

many years which is I guess why you're

01:20:27

doing this is yeah of course you want

01:20:28

Financial recompense but you actually

01:20:30

like doing what you do yeah and you're

01:20:31

good at it look at some of the

01:20:32

interviews you've done like Mike King I

01:20:34

thought was outstanding oh thanks very

01:20:35

much yeah there's been some been some

01:20:37

really really good ones and uh it's

01:20:38

getting easier and easier to get good

01:20:40

people on the the issue that I have to

01:20:42

get over is um I've always Associated

01:20:44

success with money right and I need to

01:20:47

somehow split those two apart and

01:20:49

realize that they're not always hand in

01:20:51

hand so I've had more feedback about

01:20:54

this podcast I'm doing than what I had

01:20:55

in the last few years of radio so it's

01:20:57

like I know I'm on to a good thing

01:20:58

that's because when um when you're doing

01:21:00

short form radio like you have what a 3

01:21:02

three minute talk right yeah there's not

01:21:04

much you can do you know it's like short

01:21:06

hits try and be funny get in and get out

01:21:08

and you don't really get to talk in

01:21:11

depth like we're doing now oh 100 like

01:21:13

if we're doing for a chat it would be

01:21:14

get Dean and talk about how he drinks

01:21:16

milk get your Scala point and then send

01:21:18

you on your way yeah pretty much you

01:21:21

know we wouldn't get to we wouldn't get

01:21:22

to dig through the surface and find out

01:21:23

that you're living with your [ __ ] mum

01:21:25

what's really fascinating right is that

01:21:27

what's really fascinating with social

01:21:29

media it's all about short clips 15 30

01:21:31

seconds you want to get cut through get

01:21:34

in and get out but Joe Rogan has shown

01:21:37

that long-form media has got a real

01:21:40

place and that's what you you know

01:21:41

you're starting to get into which is

01:21:43

totally opposite to what you've done all

01:21:44

your life yeah

01:21:45

which is pretty interesting that's

01:21:48

enjoyable too it's enjoyable and I can't

01:21:50

thank you enough for coming and being so

01:21:51

generous with your time today great to

01:21:52

have you back in New Zealand and uh

01:21:54

those boxes that you mentioned at the

01:21:55

beginning I look forward to um hearing

01:21:57

more about them Andre michaelovich

01:21:59

Jerome pampalone and of course Jaya

01:22:02

bataya who's the current IVF

01:22:04

cruiserweight champion of the world

01:22:05

they're all very very special in their

01:22:06

own way and they can really fight and

01:22:08

look ahead look out for them on the way

01:22:10

through because they're about to do some

01:22:12

cool stuff

01:22:13

sounds like a made-up name it's too good

01:22:15

to be true

01:22:17

he actually hit the open tires I think

01:22:20

come from West Auckland originally oh so

01:22:22

he's been over there for a couple of

01:22:23

generations but yeah he's a

01:22:25

he's something very very special all

01:22:28

right and so are you Dean lonigan thanks

01:22:30

for your time good man

Badges

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Episode Highlights

A Life in Boxing
Dean Lonigan reflects on his journey from rugby to boxing promotion.
“I had a contract with Fox Sports for seven and a half years.”
@ 03m 29s
February 26, 2023
The Pain of a Champion
Jaya Pattaya fought 10 rounds with a broken jaw, showcasing incredible resilience.
“He fought 10 rounds with a broken jaw.”
@ 04m 26s
February 26, 2023
A Journey Through Radio
Reflecting on the early days in radio and the friendships formed.
“What a great time it was down in the manner with two in Palmerston.”
@ 17m 03s
February 26, 2023
The Importance of Family
Discussing the close relationship with his son Liam and family dynamics.
“Your relationship with your son means so much to you.”
@ 18m 26s
February 26, 2023
The Birth of Fight For Life
How a personal tragedy led to the creation of a successful charity event.
“It was like walking on air, one of the greatest things I've ever done.”
@ 31m 39s
February 26, 2023
The Weight of Stress
He describes the overwhelming pressure of debt and the toll it took on his mental health. "The second you wake up, you’re stressed and thinking about what’s going to go wrong."
“The second you wake up, you’re stressed and thinking about what’s going to go wrong.”
@ 38m 46s
February 26, 2023
Finding Resilience
He talks about how resilience is built through facing challenges head-on, leading to eventual recovery. "You just got to overcome them."
“You just got to overcome them.”
@ 43m 15s
February 26, 2023
The Rise of Joseph Parker
The podcast discusses how Joseph Parker became a mainstream name in boxing, thanks to effective promotion.
“We sort of made Joseph Parker like a mainstream household name.”
@ 54m 15s
February 26, 2023
Manny Pacquiao's Generosity
Manny Pacquiao surprised everyone with his generosity, offering to pay for dinners and giving away tickets.
“Manny Pacquiao is the only boxer I’ve ever been out with who offers to pay.”
@ 01h 02m 36s
February 26, 2023
Anxiety and Self-Realization
The conversation touches on the speaker's journey with anxiety and the importance of self-awareness.
“It’s a shitty place to be because that feeling in your guts...”
@ 01h 08m 11s
February 26, 2023
The Importance of Presence
Being present in the moment is crucial for relationships and life satisfaction.
“Try and be present in the moment because that moment ain't coming back.”
@ 01h 10m 56s
February 26, 2023
Life Lessons on Regrets
Reflecting on past decisions, it's essential to learn from mistakes rather than dwell on them.
“You can’t change it, so you can’t think too much about it.”
@ 01h 18m 09s
February 26, 2023

Episode Quotes

I’ve never seen anything like him.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey
You need to forgive yourself.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey
You're a risk taker.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey
It was high quality trash talk, cool and authentic.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey
Manny Pacquiao is the only boxer I’ve ever been out with who offers to pay.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey
You can’t change it, so you can’t think too much about it.
Boxing Promoter and former league player Dean Lonergan || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

Key Moments

Running Talk01:06
Career Reflections08:35
Family Reflections18:20
Fight For Life31:37
Financial Struggles33:35
Debt and Pressure38:12
Resilience43:11
Being Present1:10:56

Words per Minute Over Time

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