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[Music] David Nia welcome to my podcast thank you for having me friend oh mate I I um
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on my my uh run this morning I was going back through um our our DMS to set up this podcast and I'm sorry I'm like a
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mosquito I've uh I messaged you first in I think April May 2022 and then every
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couple of months there like yo David come on my podcast you kind of have to do it you kind of have to do it that's
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like um I wor you down it's badgering it's badgering yeah you're the honey
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badger you're the honey bger of the podcast world man no no no no I I honestly like um uh like I was saying
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just before for uh that's kind of the way you have to do it like um first and
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first serves but when it comes to like um tracking people down you have to keep bading them man and that's the that's
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why you're up to almost 100 yeah like yeah 100 podcast 100 podcast let's go um
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I I did I did wonder cuz um our our interactions going all the way back you've always been um impecably polite
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and well-mannered and your nickname is the nice guy um but it did make me wonder like are you are you a people
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pleaser do you say no if it's if it's something you don't want to do % of
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people pleas it yeah that that's pretty much me yeah it's um like uh I'm proud
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of it to a degree uh like there there have been times where I feel like um uh I probably could have put my foot down
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but um not to people like yourself like I've I've I know your voice since I was
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like since I was a kid you know so this is a privilege so thank you for having me oh thank you the privileg is all mine
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no cuz I um we'll get into your relationship with some other people including Israel ad you later on um but
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Kanye here I um I watched a podcast that I he did and he talked about uh you know his
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boundaries and he respects it now so if he's out for dinner or something someone
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comes up and wants a photo he's got no issues saying no whereas I feel like you
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would just be like h i I'll just say yes and get it done with I'm probably I'm
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probably not that famous yet probably not that famous I probably don't have that many people recognize me in public
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you know uh and be I tell you what being um uh a little bit moved as well so obviously living over in Australia now I
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think uh I have um you know like not as many people uh like familiar with me over there so I think there's there's a
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little bit of that um but uh yeah I I I probably am that's kind of kind of it's
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kind of trademark now the the the nice guy I actually I do have a hard time saying no to people um uh but I don't
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think it's it's not uh it's not hurting my career all my life you know I've I've
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uh um you know got to where I am today by being the person I am you know so I'm
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very proud of very proud of that yeah and if it's if it's who you are and not
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an act then it's it's not a difficult thing to do that's it that's it yeah
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it's like um uh we like it's it's part of uh part of my Integrity I like I try to upkeep that
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but I also don't I probably don't uh like I don't do many podcasts I don't I
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don't go out of my way to to uh being the public eye all the time you know this is um uh like when I when I when I
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come back to New Zealand now it's usually I want to see family or I have or it's it's work or it's business or a
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bit of both like this trip like I wanted to wanted to make sure I got to have a good chat with you so uh no it's um it's
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just kind of part of who I am anyway yeah I appreciate you making the time um and another thing that surprised me
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about you doing this research um this is on me I just assumed you were moldy you're you're Ugandan yeah yeah I um I
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kind of get uh I've got that that kind of complexion I get lumped in with like
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pretty much everyone I could kind of I I I um I identify as a white man uh and I'm 75% white I just get like a really
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good tan in summer you know so my my Heritage is uh I'm a quarter Ugandan and
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a quarter Welsh and the rest is like a like a a European mix yeah yeah is your dad Ugandan yeah my dad's my dad's the
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Ugandan Welsh so half Ugandan half Welsh is pretty quite a good quite a good mix
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I feel like um you know you get pedigree dogs and it's like uh a lot of them have
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like say they've got heart conditions or they've got like um you know they're a
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little bit too much of one thing I feel like I've got like just enough mix that
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you know I get eczema asthma and hay fever but that you know oh you you're one of those you're one of those I'm a m
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yeah come on come on yeah um another thing that surprised me about you're like a massive Disney fan right
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yeah well like hardcore you think about like um uh my generation grew up with with Disney and it was like uh I'm
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probably probably this I'm probably the start of a of a of a generation where we
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grew up with like really good TV good solid wholesome TV that was uh um kind of we were sat in front of the TV
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probably more than the generation before us I think like every I think I feel like my generation we all had TVs I'd
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like to say so having that kind of um exposure I took so much of my kind of uh inspiration and whatnot from from these
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cartoon characters you know what in particular Lion King or I um Lion Lion King was the first uh my first idea for
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my my pro deo actually so I did um I had a really cool uh like a ring entrance song that my friend M from high school
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uh like put together he like uh composed it like in his in his at at his family house you know and um I've always kind
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of Taken inspiration from uh you know it's easy to say now because like we've got social media everywhere and
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there's like we've got all this inspiration all this digital inspiration
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but um for me it was like I had so many Heroes that weren't actually real a lot of them were like
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they they're all uh fictional and made up but at the same time that was where I
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found my inspiration and they've all got like really wholesome kind of uh wholesome wholesome themes to it so for
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me it was like oh I can actually inspire the youth through a fictional story written and directed by myself you
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know only only uh we don't know the outcome I think that's I think that's
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kind of magic yeah I really like that there's there's so many little things
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like that to the David N story like including your love of bonsai and we'll get into that later as well um I yeah so
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many things that seem weird when you pitch them against you being this um Savage in the ring um which is is
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interesting first of all let's go back to the early years in Hamilton so um you're born and raised in Hamilton yeah
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so born born in Hamilton uh 1995 uh and we we we move uh I lived I went to a little Country School in
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called Paha uh and then as a family we moved over to the UK for 3 years from age 7 to 10 uh my mom mom was born in
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born in London actually so we've got British passports so we kind of got that
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dual citizenship um and coming back spent the next pretty much pretty much my entire life yeah in Hamilton went to
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Hamilton boys uh did my time and came out and was was straight into straight into uh professional being a
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professional athlete which uh which was which was kind of always the goal I had uh in the back of my mind I could uh you
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know study in sports science um but by the age of about 16 I kind of lost a lot of interest in everything but boxing so
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it really really kind of like encapsulated me yeah were you quite smart I no I was I was I was uh what I
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found moving to the UK they've got a wicked education system and I think I went to a good school I I went over
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there and kind of came back in my PR school was a little bit like you you you kind of outgrown the um our curriculum
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here so we'll get you to teach the other kids and by the time I got to H boys it
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was a small small country school and like um I it was more focused on leadership leadership and uh kind of uh
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uh you know uh building core values for for young young adults which I I I think
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that's paid dividends down the line you know I I like to think that I um uh am a am a natural born leader being a
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Leo I'm a Leo um so that this is this is something that I've always kind of
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strive to achieve uh but uh yeah over in the UK I got I got pretty clever I got pretty clever and that was uh purely
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just because I didn't want to be ordinary I didn't want to be average I I
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remember the a parent teacher interview uh I was a teacher's pet over there and like that was saying like he's
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really well behaved like what do you want to achieve what do you want to achieve out of your time here cuz we
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weren't going to be there forever but they were saying you know what do you want to achieve while you are here and
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um we spent 2 and a half years there and my my goal was to uh I didn't I just
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wanted to be better than average at something and that was kind of uh it seems like a very like rud like very
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kind of simple goal but I achieved that in in mathematics of all things and can't remember any of it now but it was
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it was just a it's just it was a good like uh goal for myself and I I I knew
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my future wasn't in academics um being the person I am and uh having so many
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other aspirations and like uh other hobbies that like I'm you know they get pretty distracting but I've got so many
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things I want to achieve and uh uh I feel like I'm finally in a place where I
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can actually start turning those into something something really quite special and quite beautiful yeah so why um why
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did you gravitate towards boxing you really you are a really good runner uh you and I were in Sydney at the same
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time the marathon you did the half you finished like in the half marathon bro your time was like an hour 22 yeah yeah
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which is which um forone that's not much of a runner it's it's really quick it's
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like a well under sub formate case and to give you some perspective you were I think 37th out of about 5,000 yeah yeah
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well and for for like for a big musly like to be a really really good longdistance runner you you want to have
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as little muscle on you as what you can you're stacked you're carrying around a
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lot of extra weight so you I suppose my point is like you you could have been a really good runner yeah um like I'm
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definitely a natural ectomorph um like I like weight just sheds off me that's
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part of I guess part of being um having ugand in Heritage you know I just like weight just falls off which is um which
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is really good but uh the the running was more of uh when I was young I was good at it and then through my younger
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years uh like early early High School I uh really struggled with the growth pains and stuff and so I lost the love
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for it like immediately immediately and I I like I started quitting in runs and I um I beat myself up a lot uh when I
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when I started kind of quitting at that uh at something that I used to think I really loved but I I didn't I was just
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good at it I was just good at it so um having grown up and kind of of yeah put a bit of weight on but uh I'm naturally
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I'm a really good runner uh and so um that that was that was something that I
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was like I'll set out a little challenge for myself and having having put on a
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bit of size that was a strategic thing leading up to the Olympics uh I wanted to move up to the
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next weight division so I had to do that uh I say artificially but I worked like
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a absolute spot and I ate seven meals a day if I did it again now I would wouldn't have eaten half as clean as I
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did cuz I was such a good boy man but um uh it it was it was really hard working
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I I transformed my body into a a three uh a 9 Minute fighter so uh my fights were three three minute rounds at the
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Olympics um and I really wanted to maximize my uh ability in that space and obviously transitioning to professional
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boxing now you fight for up to 12 rounds um in a fight and that's a completely
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different animal it's like a 400 met next to a 10K Runner it's like um completely different completely
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different and so I wanted to I wanted to kind of unpack a little bit and like that comes with being a bit more patient
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in your training and uh kind of dialing back the intensity at times as well uh in order to change your like it's not
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it's not just you know changing your mindset or changing how many rounds you
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train for but uh it's it's actually uh like changing your whole physiology and
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like I don't like I'm not a sports scientist myself if I went to University
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maybe I would be but but um but uh for me it was a matter of um kind of adap like re
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adapting but that that adaption was actually just undoing a lot of the things that I had uh worked so hard and
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tirelessly to to achieve um and yeah so now now I feel like I'm probably an 8 to
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10 round Fighter um and yeah we've got a little bit of work what do you mean I've
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seen I've seen your fights bro didn't last that long ex exactly exactly but
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but I'm built for probably built for eight rounds eight really solid rounds right now I could go 10 um but it's it's
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a it's a it's a whole it's a it's a it's a it's a package I need to kind of
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unpack um but it's a natural advantage of mine is being being a distance Runner
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so that um right so good bit a bit of like aerobic engine or something yes yeah yeah yeah yeah so that was always
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my strength when I first started boxing and then realizing oh okay you kind of need to shift that up a little bit we've
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got 9 minutes to work at the Olympics um and uh the the three or four years leading up to the the Olympic Games it
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was myself and my strength coach you know uh I didn't have uh a lot of uh external input in terms of my my boxing
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my boxing uh my technical boxing like I had a a gym partner that I was training alongside but um a lot of it was um I'd
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like to think I I did that myself you know yeah yes so what's the since you brought it up what's the um what's the
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difference between being an amateur boxer and a professional boxer so amateur you don't ear any money
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professional you do am has small shorter fights professionals longer fights yes so completely different sport and I I I
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probably didn't appreciate that uh during that transitional period so as an amateur boxer you fight three three
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minute rounds at the highest level three three minute rounds uh and as a professional for a world title fight you
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fight 12 three 3 minute uh 12 3 minute rounds um and obviously the the gloves change the gloves you can choose your
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gloves uh you don't wear head gear um obviously you don't wear headgear at the
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top level in amateur boxing either but um for me I found uh the biggest the biggest difference between amateur and
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professional boxing was uh it's a it's a mentality it's a shift of mentality
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between uh an amateur boxing you're competing against against an opponent in
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professional boxing you're fighting it's a it's a fight and um uh that's
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something that I started to kind of learn when I went went over to work with um like Tyson the likes of Tyson Fury
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Joseph Parker um working in uh two cruiserweight um world champions camps as well Chris bam Smith Lawrence AI um
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and I realized I was like oh this is we're fighting this isn't um this isn't
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something you can't break him man down in 9 minutes but if you have uh you know
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45 minutes over over the course of 12 3 minute rounds with one minute recovery uh the adrenaline runs out you know the
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well runs dry and all of a sudden you've got to dig and find something something
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else you know uh and that that's that's been the biggest learning curve for me
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is actually being a little bit more patient um kind of uh letting let letting go of the rains a little bit and
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actually just letting the fight unfold as it does uh and not forcing anything so uh I I I uh I guess I can say um I
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owe a lot of that to my to my new coach n Thornbury he's he's kind of uh really committed to my my development
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and that's uh I feel like I've come come a long way in the last 18 months kind of
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thing oh yeah he's going to come into the conversation later on potentially your future father-in-law love that guy
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yeah um okay well since we're on the amateur stuff yeah let's stick on there for a
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bit because um there's a lot to chat about with the a lot man how long we gone for how long you got how long have
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you got no I'm here is this an amateur podcast or a professional podcast for the distance man I'm
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breaking you down over 2 hours you ran a marathon I've only run a half marathon
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so we'll see you see who cracks first so um your first fight do you remember your
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very first fight how old are you 14 15 uh 15 yeah 15 I was uh 51 kilos um fought a guy with a with a pretty sweet
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mustache like just like you know little little mustache he he had no fights either um same age same age yep yep um
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and I remember getting to the ring I've been training for about maybe 8 to 10
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months I want to say uh before I got a fight and um I just remember getting to the ring
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and being like I can't remember how to do any anything I just you know like SP
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just nervous I couldn't remember how to box couldn't remember how to box at all
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but um uh I ended up stopping him in the third round but it was it was just a matter of
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kind of getting in there and thrashing around and I think by my sixth fight I'd
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uh I'd kind of developed a little bit I had a couple of good fights against other novice kids uh one of my first uh
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North iseland Golden Glove title um in the novices so under 10 fights but I got selected for the junior World
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Championships in in Kazakhstan uh and uh obviously having having won my six prior I went in there
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and I was like you know full of beans kind of thing and I um do you want me to keep going let me
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let me know if you want to cut cut me off or anything cuz I I I'll I'll keep
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going man no no way no way I'm invested I I went to I went to my uh First International Tournament and um it was
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it was really funny cuz when you're that young and you're that confident and
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you're that excited about a sport it's like uh I didn't feel like I could I
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could lose I didn't really know how to lose it didn't really know the landscape
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of of uh amateur boxing or which which countries were tough which ones weren't
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we um uh I drew I drew Ukraine first in my my first bout and I I called home to my coach and I said hey coach I've um
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I've got this is Rick Ellis from uh in Hamilton and we um uh I called him and
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said yeah I've drawn Ukraine and he and he was like oh yeah that's good they're
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a good strong boxing Nation but um uh kiwi uh tend to do really well against them and I was like oh sweet little did
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I know had won the most Olympic goals at the at the at the uh previous Olympics I'm pretty sure and and the world Champs
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and I was like um I was like oh thanks coach I was like oh well I'm sure I'll
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do great then and um I went and beat went in and beat the kid uh and yeah it wasn't it wasn't a bad wasn't a bad kid
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actually and um uh progressed to fight the the Russian in um in my next B might have been round a 16 or quarterfinal or
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something and um he went on to win the gold and that was my first loss and it was like I just
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didn't really know how to lose at that point but um was that was I feel like
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that was a really really kind of good way I feel like I had the right kind of leading to uh to an amateur career and I
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um I I do o a lot to to to wreck from from ringside um in Hamilton that was a like a huge huge kind of step towards oh
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it was a very small step towards a massive career a massive career which um is really feels like it's just just
00:21:00
getting started now 14 years later oh mate it's been an incredible career so
00:21:04
far so that first that first loss like how um how much did how much did that suck you learn a lot from it I did yeah
00:21:10
I felt I felt more bummed out that I like I think that because they scored the fights back then per punch and I was
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like it was 1910 and I was like no I didn't lose I didn't lose that bad I was
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I was more more bummed out that he um that he beat me by that much I was like wasn't that close wasn't that close it
00:21:26
was closer than that it was closer than that but um uh I I I think I leared pretty early that those losses kind of
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form the way you uh treat your development beyond that like I've learned so much more from my losses than
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my than my wins and um I think a lot of the time that's like life as well you
00:21:45
put your you put your losses behind you oh no you put your wins behind you cuz you're like uh uh been there done that
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been there done that what you don't realize the people that uh that you've
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beaten they hold in their memory a lot clearer than the than the winds you know so uh the guys that that have beaten me
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to date I remember every one of them I don't remember all of my wins how many
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how many how many have you been your professional record at this the time we're recording this it's like eight
00:22:14
eight wins for eight fights seven by Knockouts yeah yep and and my my amateur career I think was uh 98 fights 85 wins
00:22:22
13 losses um as a professional like it's it's really important I to have a clean
00:22:28
record like like as soon as you've lost a fight you like damage Goods is that
00:22:31
how it well it uh it depends depends who you're with like your your uh promoters uh your promotional team is
00:22:40
really important so if if you're if you're a salable fighter if you if you're marketable if you uh if you're
00:22:46
exciting that's really important if uh if you have a couple of losses but people want to see you fight people know
00:22:52
that they're going to get a good fight they they know that uh you're going to
00:22:56
uh rip tear and bust before you go out they'll keep paying to see you fight and
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they'll want to see you win because uh because you're entertaining so uh a loss
00:23:05
in a boxing career is not it's definitely not the end of the day it's not it's not the end of the world but uh
00:23:11
uh having a clean record Being able to say that no one's beaten you as a professional is huge it is huge it's um
00:23:18
a little bit different when it comes to like UFC and whatnot because those kinds
00:23:21
of sports are like very very chaotic and uh you know there are so many more elements to it but boxing it's like uh
00:23:32
it's a it's a little bit more damning if if youve if you've picked up a few
00:23:35
losses and and say for example if uh you run out a favor with your with your promoters finding another promoter is
00:23:42
really difficult you know so you as an amateur you did um was it two Commonwealth Games cycles and two
00:23:48
Olympic Cycles or two comms one Olympics two and one yeah two two and one com games at day so you mled at each of them
00:23:55
you got two Comm withth games gold and one Olympic bronze yeah yes the wrong color of gold a yeah rose gold it's rose
00:24:02
gold you know I to to be to be sitting here with someone that's got two Commonwealth Games gold medals and an
00:24:07
Olympic medal it's it's it's it's phenomenal it's amazing but I suppose
00:24:10
for you to win a bronze medal at the Olympics it still means you've lost somewhere along yes exactly line yeah
00:24:16
yeah so it's better sweet it's better sweet 100% And um you know no one wants to be the the
00:24:23
third best you know no wants to be the third best is like be fourth yeah if you're not first you're last you
00:24:30
know uh and like um I've I've like I I have an element of that in my mind I'm
00:24:37
thinking like you know a loss is still a loss and you know it like kind of um it
00:24:42
kind of tarnishes the achievement but at the same time knowing uh what I had to get through to get to that tournament
00:24:49
and um you know the the hurdles that you overcome along the way it's like it's
00:24:52
it's I'm like I can I can be proud of myself today and I I have uh no regrets
00:24:58
uh whatsoever for my for my amateur career no and nor nor should you are those medals um special like where are
00:25:05
they are they in a in a Sal drawer or they are they framed up somewhere at your parents house or uh I have my
00:25:10
Olympic medal in Australia um because obviously I wanted to you know show show my partner Lexi I wanted to show her
00:25:16
family um and uh I think my first my first com games gold medal I I took to every school like like I when I I had my
00:25:26
first kind of taste of um of like Fame and people wanted to talk to me I was like that's like uh for 18-year- old kid
00:25:32
I was like it was it was uh it was bizarre like I'd never spoken in front of my uh my high school before I went to
00:25:38
Hamilton boy high and uh the first time I ever spoke in front of them was after I left school like I didn't get a hell
00:25:44
of a lot of recognition while I was there uh but going back there and being like yeah I was like um not that cool
00:25:52
not that cool not that smart not that good at other sports but uh here I am like um but uh I I I didn't um I didn't
00:26:01
really think of the medal as uh you know like I don't I didn't like take good
00:26:06
care of it I think it actually got to the point where um my dad asked if he could take it to work and show his
00:26:13
workmate uh work colleagues and I was like of course yeah take it away and I I didn't see it for a couple months and I
00:26:17
was like I wonder if he's going to give it back you know I was like I was like man
00:26:22
I was like Hey Dad have you still got that he's like yeah yeah yeah I've still
00:26:24
got it I was like okay thank goodness and um uh it was my it might have been my 20th birthday he um gave it back to
00:26:34
me in a in a framed glass casing it was like here you go like stop like cuz it was hanging on by a thread kind of thing
00:26:40
like here you go but um uh that um if yeah if anyone has kept up with like the history of my medals I got my
00:26:51
uh 2018 com games Metal stolen out of my like glove box compartment compartment not sure if the car was locked or not
00:26:57
but it was was on my property and um someone ended up pinching it and we we actually went to the police and put out
00:27:03
a um we got uh we got footage of people we got footage long long story short of people involved and uh uh came full
00:27:14
circle on it ended up back in my my capable hands my in my not so not so watertight hands you
00:27:22
know what a strange thing to steal though like it means they're worthless really he like it's precious metal metal
00:27:29
I mean but it's um it means something to you but it means absolutely nothing to
00:27:34
anyone else that's right that's right um was pretty bizarre I actually I went on
00:27:38
to uh do a bit of study about like um obviously like if you went to uh Olympic gold medal I'm like man like I wonder
00:27:47
how much those are actually worth like cuz I I heard that there was uh there in order to call it a gold medal at the
00:27:54
Olympics there has to be a certain percentage of gold in it so I was like if I melted it down what could I what
00:28:01
could I get I learned that the oh this sounds terrible but like the bronze medal I'm pretty sure it's worth about
00:28:07
20 bucks yeah pretty sure it's worth about 20 bucks it's like the midle you
00:28:11
got at the syy half marathon me something to you nothing else um so at the the Olympics um where you got the
00:28:17
bronze is that where you got bit in the year um that the I've bit a few times
00:28:21
man have you yeah uh I got bitten I got bitten in at the on the gold coastcom games uh that was that was on my chest
00:28:29
that was on my chest I got a good little good little ring from it actually like um had to be checked by the our um the
00:28:36
doctor Yeah by yeah the the the medic to make sure they hadn't he hadn't broken
00:28:40
the skin um and then uh at the Olympics a um Moroccan boxer um I thought I thought he was trying to bite my face
00:28:48
but like looking at the replay and slowmo he's trying to get a good he had his mouth guard in so he wasn't going to
00:28:53
get a really good handle on it but yeah he had took a good crack at it yeah was that was bizarre but um uh we're already
00:29:01
fighting so I wasn't it's not like I'm going to get uh butt hurt by like
00:29:06
someone trying to like bite me when I'm already like I was beating I was beating
00:29:10
him up like well obviously it's an act of desperation is yeah yeah exactly yeah
00:29:14
um yeah don't even really blame him to be honest in the um in the the Olympics
00:29:19
that's where you were um joint Flag beer with Sarah hiy yeah um God they must
00:29:25
what happens there like when do you hear about it like do you did you get told a
00:29:28
couple of weeks before do you get asked if you want to be a flag bearer uh so um
00:29:33
originally I wasn't supposed to be the flag bearer it was um it was like a late
00:29:36
call up and it was because uh Hamish Bond had a like a scheduling uh Clash like I think his his competition clashed
00:29:45
with with the opening ceremony so um I'm very aware I wasn't supposed to be the
00:29:50
flag bearer however the the validation that you get from getting the call up and as a kiwi uh and like me
00:30:01
personally uh I've always felt like I kind of uh I can blend in but I haven't always
00:30:08
fit in with say the multiculture like I I I don't um I don't really have I'm 75%
00:30:14
pucky myself so uh I've never really felt like a um like I've like I've fit in into
00:30:23
anyone culture so my culture is very personal it's my family's culture you
00:30:27
know uh and only only we only it's only special to us but having um having Rob
00:30:33
woodell come and approach me in the village and say um hey M like uh Hamish can't do it um but we as the as you know
00:30:45
the shift de Mission and the and the the rest of the staff in the village would like you to carry it I was like come on
00:30:52
man that's that's really validating cuz um because because of all of that and
00:30:57
like you know uh I've um that's always been a little bit of an identity crisis to me I've
00:31:03
been like uh why can I why can I uh um blend in but not fit in you know and that and yeah so for me that was a
00:31:13
really kind of like a turning point where I could say okay no this is um this is who I am and I am that kiwi you
00:31:20
know it was a really really powerful it surprises me that that was the um that was the moment that you had that sort of
00:31:26
epony I thought that would have had happened at the gold one of the previous gold medals at the com games you know
00:31:32
yeah well like um but uh nobody put the cloak like the the cloak the cloak around me you know like no one no one
00:31:40
really um uh like I didn't feel blessed I felt like I'd achieved something um
00:31:46
but I didn't feel like I'd been blessed you know and like uh uh like receiving
00:31:51
like a tire half from um uh my gym in Hamilton from Kyo George and like it was blessed fire um you know I I like it
00:32:02
it's it's something that you don't you can't buy and uh you have to
00:32:07
be gifted and you have to be given um and so that that for me was was just validating and I've I've I've always
00:32:13
kind of like cherish those moments and being present in those moments makes me feel like oh yeah I belong here you know
00:32:20
like I don't know I don't know like I'm yeah it was it was I think you're you're
00:32:24
articulating it really nicely I can tell um just the way you're reflecting on now
00:32:28
it still means something to you yeah totally totally and and I'm still I'm
00:32:31
still uh setting out to impress I'm still trying to like uh uh I'm still
00:32:39
trying to impress myself I'm still trying to impress like my nation I'm still trying to do do everybody that I
00:32:44
care about proud you know um and uh I I I think like like the Next Generation needs people to like needs
00:32:53
needs like inspiration it needs Heroes to kind of uh validate their own concerns and their own feelings and it's
00:33:00
like uh I think people I'd rather be I'd rather be felt than heard if you know
00:33:04
what I mean like I'd rather people feel feel what I feel then uh then just hear
00:33:09
me uh say hey you should you know like uh don't swear be nice like you know like I don't know don't Litter it's like
00:33:17
just um just do good just do good man just do good yeah yeah yeah I feel like you are do um does it sit comfortably
00:33:24
with you being a role model I feel like you are you are a role model but yet I've heard um you and other podcasts or
00:33:31
interviews talk about your role models and you you your view on it really good your quote was something like I prefer
00:33:37
my RO role models to be closer to home like my parents and family and stuff which I think is how it should be
00:33:42
because if you have sports people as your role models they're only human you
00:33:45
got no control over their actions they might let you down not that you ever will no no but they do but they do and
00:33:50
like I'm not perfect either like I've I've done I've done bad things um my
00:33:54
parents have done bad things but like um knowing uh knowing their story and being
00:33:58
a part of their Journey uh and like feeling their hurt and feeling their pain and you know like uh um knowing
00:34:06
that uh like your parents are flawed and that they they make mistakes uh some people don't have those wrong worlds to
00:34:14
look up to they don't have something so close to home uh but um everyone knows
00:34:20
Hercules everyone knows tazan you know like so I I want to I want to create a a vision and um uh you know an
00:34:30
idea that uh we can like we can be whoever like whoever we want to be but uh it takes it takes a very courageous
00:34:39
man uh to break the cycle you know to break the cycle that their forefathers kind of like laid out in front of them
00:34:46
and um I feel like uh uh this generation is uh better than the last and I would like for my next Generation
00:34:56
to be better than mine you know like I'd like to keep building um like a like
00:35:03
creating better communities and like um I I I don't follow I don't follow many
00:35:07
Trends or many um kind of movements but uh this is this is something very personal to me and I feel like um uh
00:35:17
I'll create my movement if you want to follow it follow it but if you don't you
00:35:20
don't have to you know it's um it's is very personal yeah I like that why um so
00:35:25
so you went to the last Olympics and you turned Prof after that yeah yeah why why
00:35:30
did you spend so long as an amateur so you're an amateur like over 10 years stubbornness man I'm hard-headed no I CU
00:35:35
I missed out on the 2016 Olympics uh by a whisker so I um you're hanging for one
00:35:41
more I hung out for another 5 years dude I had Co for a year yeah yeah so I qualified for the um for the 2020
00:35:50
Olympic games um the qualification tournament was actually set for Wuhan China believe it or not and I feel like
00:35:57
if your uh history is sound you'll know that's where like the wet markets are
00:36:02
with the bats yeah yeah yeah yeah the bats let's let's start the conspiracy
00:36:06
theories um no we um so we were two days away from flying into Wuhan China and the um uh my actually my strength coach
00:36:16
Sean Patterson had uh warned me he was he was saying he's like hey like um probably nothing to worry about but
00:36:23
there's uh there's this virus going around in in Wuhan that um there 67 cases right now sounds pretty severe but
00:36:30
just be a little bit on guard kind of thing we went to we flew to Thailand for our training camp prior to the prior to
00:36:37
the competition um two days before we flew in there were over a thousand cases uh
00:36:43
and the the pin was pulled the qualification tournament was shifted uh to Aman Jordan uh so like
00:36:52
fast forward a couple months we went to this qualification tournament uh qualified came home and I was ready to
00:36:57
you know celebrate with my family the day after I got back to New Zealand uh we went into our first quarantine I
00:37:04
hadn't seen my family yet I hadn't seen uh I went back to my flat I hung out
00:37:08
with my dog for about uh you know like my flat matate to my dog for about a year or however long the first lockdown
00:37:14
was so didn't it was a bit of an anticlimax if I'm honest and uh the Tokyo Olympics themselves were just
00:37:21
bizarre oh yeah cuz you they were nice yeah so you and um you and S Hy when you flag bearers you got those big masks on
00:37:28
yeah and there were no Spectators watching your do they have sound effects like sound effects of crowd cheering not
00:37:36
like maybe I I can't really remember but like um uh the the most bizarre thing
00:37:41
was looking down the barrel of the the camera lenses and thinking okay there's
00:37:45
no one here but like there's probably couple billion down there you know um totally totally bizarre um and even even
00:37:54
the the um the the boxing tournament was uh hosted at a uh at a Sumo uh Arena a sumo wrestling Arena and they've got all
00:38:05
these like uh amazing like um banners of all the uh past and present Champions and it was like it was like glorious
00:38:13
glorious and I imagine it with a crowd it would have been so amazing but um what they did this was uh really bizarre
00:38:20
and people probably don't know this but they you'd get in the ring and I was
00:38:24
like like why can I I can hear people talking but there's no one here they had
00:38:29
ambient noise above the ring they had like a speaker above the ring and I was like who's like who's controlling that
00:38:37
cuz there's no one here and there was just like like murmuring in the crowd and then you start the fight and it'ss a
00:38:42
little bit louder and then when it's like uh when you hit like when you land
00:38:46
a punch there's some guy with a dial there's some guy sitting down there and
00:38:49
he go I was like how bizarre is that like um I I had no like uh and it seem it seems like that like uh
00:39:01
I'm not going to say that that any any uh fights that might have impacted the
00:39:05
the decision but like when do you when does the guy know to turn the dial up who's in charge of the guy with the dial
00:39:11
being like you know what this is getting good you know uh it was it was really weird though and like that was um that
00:39:18
was something that I just didn't expect it was like totally bizarre totally does
00:39:23
it feel like um you were you were almost in a way like cheated out of the authentic Olympic experience yes yes
00:39:30
however um performance-wise uh I think I probably perform better like that anyway
00:39:37
you know so uh there's a there's yeah it's kind of a catch 22 but I I I felt
00:39:43
like um uh having it felt like a really intense sparring session uh so I I think
00:39:50
performance-wise it probably helped keep me calm and levelheaded um I was harboring a pretty nasty injury to my
00:39:57
elbow going into it and um like I had like a liament Holding On by a thread so I knew if I threw the the wrong punch at
00:40:05
the wrong angle that my arm was basically going to become become like some wet spaghetti I could probably
00:40:11
still use it but like it wouldn't be it wouldn't be much good but um yeah that
00:40:15
was um uh like I I I think I think having like a a quiet Arena was actually fine
00:40:22
and it was aery it was Airy so if anything it was like no other Olympics for sure yeah so I I think as you get
00:40:29
older I mean this something like this is unlikely I would say touchwood to ever happen again in in your lifetime so in
00:40:36
some ways this Olympics and the way they were held will become more and more special as more and more Olympic Camp
00:40:41
hope so yeah I'd have to go to another one to know the difference you know comparison yeah yeah yeah but um yeah
00:40:48
the the amateur versus professional thing so the thing I'm curious about that is like um amateur you don't make
00:40:52
any money right is that right or uh like you you can um I I think uh to to to to
00:41:00
make money as an amateur boxer in New Zealand very very difficult uh you have to prove that you're um basically able
00:41:09
to to produce a top eight result at an Olympics and to do that it's like it's a
00:41:15
lot of lot of Hoops to jump through and like um I had to get pretty good at acrobatics to get there but like I I was
00:41:22
able I was able to um earn a grant through uh high performance Sports New Zealand in order to like keep keep me
00:41:29
going anyway um and that that's that that really kind of saved me at a at a pretty crucial time in 20 2017 I think
00:41:38
was um was when I first kind of like got that Grant and then I could kind of like
00:41:44
okay let me focus on let me focus on training yeah I've had Eric Murray on the podcast he was one of the early
00:41:49
guests and he talked about that high performance Grant and it's um I forget how much he said it was but it's it's
00:41:54
fine but it's not like a you know you're not going to become Tyson Fury if you
00:41:58
know what I mean I'm pretty sure there are some countries that like uh if you
00:42:01
win a if you win an Olympic medal you're kind of set for life kind of sit back
00:42:06
and like just chill you know but uh if you know I don't think that's probably I
00:42:12
don't think that would help me in any way shape or form you know like I've I
00:42:16
always want a goal to Chaser like um and making money obviously is is is important um but it's it's it's just
00:42:26
it's just a vehicle really having having Financial Freedom is great but uh like
00:42:30
what you do with uh the rest of your life it's kind of up to you but if if you kind of if if my identity was oh no
00:42:37
yeah I'm going Olympic bronze medalist and um that's it you know that's me
00:42:42
that's kind of me done I'll see seeing the next life kind of I was like come on
00:42:45
man I was 26 or something you know yeah well that's prob maybe I'm just more um
00:42:51
focused on on money and dollars than what you are but it just seems to me like boxing such a such a finite career
00:42:57
like by say 35 to maybe 40 at the oldest you're completely done um and you've
00:43:03
devoted so much of your life to it and it's such a high level as well like you
00:43:06
want to have some some something to show at the end of it I guess yeah yeah I think there are um a lot of boxes like
00:43:13
uh the ones that make it to the top and the ones that don't quite make it to the
00:43:16
top that uh you know it doesn't matter how much money they have made along the
00:43:22
way a lot of them stumble over and they haven't got their their life planned out
00:43:26
Beyond boxing um and I like I I I'm promising to myself right now that I I won't be that guy you know so uh I've
00:43:35
I'm planting seeds right now to to um not necessarily to for for like find I I like my my goal isn't to make keep
00:43:44
some money and be really rich I like obviously I'd like to have Financial Freedom but um Beyond boxing I'd like to
00:43:51
do a lot more good a lot more good and like be REM be remembered for the good I did not the not the people I kick the
00:43:57
[ __ ] out of you know and and there there have been people and there will be more people
00:44:03
that you kick not about kick the [ __ ] punch the [ __ ] out what was your what was your fastest fight like there was
00:44:09
one that I saw on YouTube it was like 12 seconds 16 seconds um yeah I think 12 12
00:44:15
seconds was was my was my PB unreal um like it was there was a weird fight actually I um uh I was fighting in
00:44:23
Albania I was trying to qualify for the um 2014 Commonwealth Games and I um I went
00:44:31
over there with like one coach uh it wasn't my coach but he was a coach that
00:44:35
kind of offered to go over uh cam Todd he was like really good guy uh and he um took me over there and like I needed to
00:44:44
win a certain medal and like uh I came up against a Macedonian fight I was like Macedonian good I'm not really sure and
00:44:51
um I think I hit the guy with like uh two two right hooks to the body and then one right hook to the head and he
00:44:59
went down and I was like oh like um I guess they're not that this is yeah I guess they're not great but I was like
00:45:07
Wow next day I like I sat sat at breakfast with him and he didn't speak any English his coach did though and he
00:45:13
told me it was his first fight and I was like oh okay I like why would you put him in why would you put him into an
00:45:19
international competition if if he's had never had a fight before oh did you feel
00:45:24
being the nice guy you are did you feel mean at that point no I thought his coach was a dick in I was like come on
00:45:29
man think about it um are you you so you said you got that guy with um two right
00:45:34
hooks to the body and then one to the Head where does it hurt the most to be hit someone that's never been
00:45:41
hit probably the liver probably the liver so your liver your liver kind of sits on the right side of your rib cage
00:45:48
um and like doesn't matter how tough you are how many how if you got uh one AB or
00:45:54
or 85 like that's going to that's going to sink a lot of ships man um in terms
00:45:59
of like that's probably if I were to get knocked out I'd rather get hit in the
00:46:02
head than to the liver I think cuz you feel all of that and it's like um have
00:46:07
youever have you ever been badly hurt uh I've been hurt yeah like um the times I
00:46:12
have been really hurt I think like the times that have been really hurt sometimes it's harder to see uh other
00:46:19
times you might get uh say like a grazing punch on the top of the head and something about it like I don't quite
00:46:24
know the entire anatomy of my brain but but you're clipped on the top of the
00:46:28
head and it just completely like your legs just turned to Absolute jelly kind of thing this I tell you what the most
00:46:35
painful place to get hit is probably squaring the nose right Square in the nose cuz it's like there's a lot of I
00:46:41
feel like there's a l a lot of nerves a lot of sensitive nerves around around
00:46:44
the front and center of your face back of your head uh you I think it's like
00:46:49
more of a blackout spot so you know like um uh say if you get up and you're really light headed it's like like black
00:46:56
it's like black and white uh side of the head like right in the temple that's
00:47:02
probably like uh KO that's probably like you get knocked out there and then the
00:47:06
top of the head is the the legs that's what I think anyway forehead you break
00:47:11
your hand yeah I've had a few of them actually I think I've broken I've broken uh my
00:47:19
hands um all together probably like maybe five or six times all of them on heads all of them on like forehead or
00:47:27
Topp of heads through the gloves through the gloves man like and the the amateur
00:47:31
gloves you have to remember um they're not designed to like knock people out
00:47:36
they're designed to protect your hands and protect your opponent uh but you hit
00:47:40
someone on the top of the head it's really really hard really really hard it's the hardest bone in your body I'm
00:47:46
pretty sure and um I've I've pulled I've pulled plugs of bone off of fractured uh
00:47:52
fractured uh like they call it they literally call it a Box's fracture where
00:47:55
you snap the Nick OFA yeah met a couple and um yeah none of them are fun sure so
00:48:04
last year you went to um a place called moram uh which what's the what's the um
00:48:10
Fury reality series have you seen that on Netflix Furies at home with the fuy yeah at home with the furies that's
00:48:15
right yeah moram looks like a bleak Place yeah yeah yeah yeah it's all right
00:48:20
it's so how how did you end up over there was that through your uh friendship or mentorship with um Joseph
00:48:26
yeah pretty much pretty much and um uh uh David Higgins has uh has had a lot to do with um my kind of uh progression
00:48:35
actually through through my early stages in in my professional career so like big
00:48:40
shout out to him because him and doo have done uh like so much for me without really kind of asking for much
00:48:46
recognition and they they kind of sit in the back a little bit cuz I I believe they're mostly um you know Event Event
00:48:55
Event uh or like big now is that synthony yeah black Clash everything like that like um uh
00:49:03
but yeah they've done a lot for me so getting over to that camp um Joseph was uh was and has been like a
00:49:11
mentor for me I feel like with uh like I've learned so much through him and he's I I never felt like I could asked
00:49:18
like like a dumb question you know um so he's been he's been a brother to me
00:49:22
which is which is really really cool and I think um having those mentors in a sport like boxing is like I can't even I
00:49:31
can't even tell you how important it is cuz there are like I said earlier there
00:49:34
are so many boxers that have been abused by the sport and um none of them know they're being abused at the time none of
00:49:40
them know because ons is like shady management and things I mean David T comes to mind like with um his dealings
00:49:48
with um whatever his manager name was yeah and like 100% that's um that's been
00:49:52
a um that's a a recurring theme in the boxing world and uh it's it's it's so easy to it's so
00:50:00
easy to be abused when you actually love the sport you love the sport and you give everything you literally give your
00:50:06
life to it and um you come out with no money and uh and CTE youve got like concussive trauma so um be hard
00:50:16
especially if you're a trusting person as well 100% yeah and like I am that guy
00:50:20
I tell you what like I've I've developed a few trust trust issues along the way
00:50:24
and I think they're serving me really well you know like just being a little
00:50:27
bit weary uh when it comes to you know uh there are a lot of um promoters that are like they're really good at their
00:50:34
job you know a lot of the big promoters they can sweet talk you and like make you feel really good about yourself um
00:50:41
but at the end of the day uh you're another porn on their chessboard you know um and if I if I uh like I I am the
00:50:49
main character I am the main character how like I'll I'll be the side character when as long as I'm as long as
00:50:56
I'm learning you know as long as I can like sit in the back and learn from from
00:51:00
from what's going on around me but at the end of the day we're all the main
00:51:03
characters of Our Own Story if we don't if we don't take ownership of that and
00:51:06
actually um grab Life by the balls you know and actually uh like go for it we're we we we we're not going to we're
00:51:15
not going to reach our potential but along the way you get you get Shady people and they're like they're always
00:51:20
going to be Wolves at the door that want to kind of like cut your lunch um but we
00:51:25
I think there are so many boxes that just aren't aren't aware of it um until
00:51:29
it's too late and you know their their career is kind of like already sring down the toilet yeah and I suppose
00:51:36
that's where where you go back for just one more one more silly fight or whatever just try to recoup some of the
00:51:42
losses yeah there is a bit of that there is a bit of that but yeah um Alo so yeah
00:51:46
so you go over to morom um as um Joseph's guess I guess how intimidating is that walking into a gym with um like
00:51:53
Tyson Fury Tommy Fury sunny sunny Bill he was at the same time right yeah yeah it's bizarre the whole thing was like a
00:52:00
bit of a trip but um I saw stuff on Joseph's Instagram stories it was like it was just a who's who of international
00:52:06
sport yeah yeah like um tell what Sunny Bill's a good dude I like um I learned a
00:52:11
lot from Sunny Bill and like um talking to him about his faith and stuff I like I really really appreciated how far he's
00:52:18
comeing in his life not just obviously his career but um he's he's a like he's
00:52:25
a top dude man and I feel I I feel really blessed to have spent a bit of time with him uh with with Joseph um
00:52:32
Tyson is one of a kind oh no sorry I should I should say Two of a Kind him and John Fury are like he's a carbon
00:52:40
copy he's a carbon copy and he's a little bit uh more filtered you know like John's hilarious John is like one
00:52:46
of uh the most entertaining men I've ever met same with Tyson but um it was like what you see what you see is
00:52:55
exactly what you get whatever you've seen on social media with the furies is
00:53:00
exactly what you get the TV show I'm not sure did it quite did it justice I think
00:53:04
they take a little bit of an angle like um they they want to they want to tell their own story but what you see um of
00:53:11
Tyson Fury is is exactly who he is and he's um I've never felt like a fraud
00:53:15
before but he made me feel like I was someone like I was acting like I was someone I wasn't because he would tell
00:53:21
you exactly what he's thinking no matter how it will make you feel if it if it's
00:53:26
offensive if it if you know if he attacks your person it's like okay you're going to have to take that on you
00:53:32
can't beat him up can you CU you're going to have to listen to it and just
00:53:36
swallow it you know but um no like uh I I like I appreciated that Honesty because in a in a sport like boxing you
00:53:44
only get one shot at it if if people are going to tiptoe around you kind of thing
00:53:48
and uh blow smoke up your butt like you're going to you're you're not going
00:53:52
to learn you're not really going to learn aren't you and um you start to
00:53:55
believe your own hype which dangerous that's really dangerous and I've like
00:53:59
I've I've been a victim of that 100% um uh and I feel I'm glad I'm glad I'm aware of it
00:54:06
at least you know because um I think a lot of people believe it until uh you know the balloon pops and
00:54:14
then yeah so so you meet Tyson Fury you you say hi I'm David from New Zealand is
00:54:19
he a we of you has he watched some of your fights to see if any idea who you are um kind really remember actually no
00:54:27
I don't think so what what does he say on the first meeting well um so I flew
00:54:32
into morham and uh Joseph came and picked me up from Manchester Airport and said oh we we're going to go have lunch
00:54:38
with uh Tyson oh no no no sorry he we we're going to go back to the to the hotel he's like I'm going to go have
00:54:44
lunch with Tyson and them and I gets a a call from um one of Tyson's close friends and says hey like um you still
00:54:51
coming to lunch and he says yeah I'm just going to drop uh Dave back to uh to
00:54:55
the apartment he says oh just bring him along just come straight and we're already here so he was like oh Dave do
00:55:00
you want to come and I was like I'd just come off at like 30 35 hours of travel I
00:55:05
was wearing like like a dirty dirty like uh dirty hoodie and like I felt terrible
00:55:10
and stinky and I was like okay well yeah of course of course like I'm not going
00:55:16
to say no am I um but I I don't think he he had just come home from his third
00:55:22
fight his Trilogy Bel against um Deontay Wilder so uh he still had like a black eye and um
00:55:29
was kind of just still uh celebrating the win and stuff and it was it was totally bizarre totally bizarre like
00:55:35
ended up having a few bears with them and like dehydrated super Dusty and I was like what is going on where where am
00:55:44
I what's going on but um I've always been uh I've always like I said before I
00:55:50
am a bit of a people pleasure I don't want to like ruffle anyone's feathers so
00:55:54
um I've been like I am I'm a of a yes man I'm like you want a beer yeah you're
00:55:59
all right like Tyson Fury offered it to you you know so um uh I've kind of I I I
00:56:07
appreciated the time I had there because I learned so much and just by uh being there and say um I got to spy a lot of
00:56:15
his sparring partners and his preparation to fight dillian white and um I did I performed really really well
00:56:21
and like I I got the nod from you know as manager from Tyson Tyson came in sat in my corner for some of this barring
00:56:28
and um kind of like uh help me along the way and so I I gained their their their
00:56:34
trust their respect um and actually they're they're bringing me into their
00:56:38
camp for the usyk fight in in February 17th yeah so oh my God amazing it's worked out dude so he he came to watch
00:56:46
my belt in uh in Melbourne um which I where I fought predominantly as a as a southb as as a as a left-handed fighter
00:56:54
and um I got I got a call about a week AG I'm not sure when you're going to
00:56:58
drop this but um got a call about a week ago asking if I would uh go and be one of the spiring partners um and on top of
00:57:07
that they want to put me on the card so that's that's the next step man that's
00:57:11
my uh that's that's where uh where where I'm headed from here they're talking
00:57:15
about potentially um putting a deal together in Saudi Arabia so um so is that is that a big deal because um you
00:57:22
get to train with those guys in that environment or is it a big deal because you get to on the same card and pays
00:57:28
some good money yeah it's everything it's everything so like um uh obviously
00:57:33
getting the nod from from his team and saying hey uh we want you to come and work with the heavyweight world champion
00:57:40
in the biggest clash in recent heavyweight boxing history so this is the first time since uh
00:57:49
1999 Mike Tyson's era Mike Tyson was the last person to unify the heavyweight
00:57:54
world championship uh and fast forward 25 years we're doing it again and I'm
00:58:00
one of the sparing puns so I'm like oh that's that's neat that's that's
00:58:03
validating again so like um I shared a little tear for that one I was like yeah that's a that's a nod man that's a nod
00:58:09
and I like I feel like I've done uh i' I've sat quietly and I've um I've
00:58:16
appreciated where I am when uh when when I was and who I am and now like things are starting to come together and like
00:58:26
like the the Universe I feel like is smiling and I'm just going to lean into
00:58:29
it and kind of send it you know this is um next this is the preludes over now now I can start talking my [ __ ] you know
00:58:37
it's been a big apprenticeship 100% it's been many years 14 years man that's half
00:58:41
my life I'm 28 years old yeah and as I said before it's a finite career as a
00:58:44
boxer you know you have so many good years so so you you spy with Tyson then uh I I sped I spared once with him um I
00:58:53
think he had had a he had had a surgery recently so like it was it wasn't the
00:58:57
heaviest sparring but um uh they've yeah they're bringing me in for a 5we camp in
00:59:02
in Saudi Arabia to to prepare for yeah one of the biggest clashes in recent history and so you you you hit them as
00:59:09
hard as you can when you're sparring with them or uh not that time no that time because he did he was uh like
00:59:16
recovering from an injury but um uh yeah I I don't think I don't think I need to
00:59:21
hold back being a cruiserweight fighter against against you know the 270 lb uh fully fledged uh world champion
00:59:29
heavyweight boxer I I think I reckon I could probably let a couple slip in he'll be fine he'll he'll be fine yeah
00:59:36
exactly he W hold a grudge David David it back it back I I I heard something I thought I heard something I read
00:59:42
somewhere that when you first met him he basically pulled your boxing game to BS
00:59:47
yeah yeah yeah yeah like um and like I I kind I respected it but I I like I also
00:59:54
kind of understood I was like okay so so I'm not going to undo everything like
00:59:58
I'll undo a few bits I I understand what you're saying but the the the biggest
01:00:03
thing that I learned was more uh what we were talking about before is that it's
01:00:08
the fight game it's the hurt game it's not a competition you're not competing
01:00:12
against someone you're trying to break their will and like dig into their deepest darkest secrets to find out uh
01:00:19
where their where their weaknesses lie you know um and uh it's it's a brutal
01:00:25
sport like that and I've I've I've taken my lumps you know along the way I've
01:00:29
been humbled and um now is my time to actually uh make a run for a you know for for a world title it's exciting man
01:00:39
pumped man it's incredibly exciting and you deserve it as well yeah couldn't
01:00:42
happen to a nicer person thanks man oh that that's really nice and and um Tommy
01:00:47
and Molly did you have anything to do with them there's there's like a slight
01:00:50
sort of tenuous length here I guess cuz your partner was in love Island Australia no yeah you training with him
01:00:56
he was been training at the gym right yeah no no so he was um he was in Camp while I was over there uh obviously he
01:01:01
fought on uh Tyson's undercard uh for for that dillian white fight so I was one of the uh one of the I I spared with
01:01:10
Tyson uh with Tyson and but most more more so Tommy um in his uh prep for that fight but um he's like he's lovely he's
01:01:19
he's actually like um like a really downto Earth dude and I um he seems like
01:01:25
the kind of guy that uh is is a little bit guarded um because of what social media can do to people
01:01:33
and you especially at that level yeah yeah and I like um it took me a little bit of while uh took me a little bit of
01:01:38
time to kind of get through to um you know a lot of the team but um uh I kind of uh I think they kind of just
01:01:47
appreciated that I just um got in got stuck in did my did my thing and got out I didn't bother anyone like you know I
01:01:53
was I was spending uh $100 a night of my of my own money um to live in an attic while I was there for
01:02:02
about six months um and like I didn't bother anyone I didn't I didn't ask you
01:02:07
know I wasn't asking to be picked up I wasn't asking to be dropped off I wasn't
01:02:10
asking for any special treatment I went over there and I um I did exactly as I was told but I would also I
01:02:19
I was always extending hand trying to trying to help you know and um uh and I feel like you know um I feel like
01:02:27
there's a lot of good karma out there and like um I've I feel like that's just
01:02:31
kind of coming coming back around because I've I've you know I've been
01:02:34
I've been like a I've been the support the support person for so long and now
01:02:38
now I'm finally getting getting some just do which is um which is really cool
01:02:43
makes G gives me a lot of faith in um in what it means to be like a good person and stuff so do do you do you practice
01:02:51
gratitude or is this just like um an inbuilt sort of person tra of yours what's uh like I yeah I think it's just
01:02:59
having a gratitude Journal where each day you write down a few things you're
01:03:03
thankful for and um it's something I I always thought it was a bit sort of woo
01:03:06
woo but once you do it for a while you you do become just more consciously aware of all the things you do have um
01:03:14
but it feels like you've just um sharpened that pencil without even trying yeah I um I I
01:03:20
I uh my mom my mom taught me um she G gave me a couple of piece of pieces of advice and I'm pretty sure she got this
01:03:27
from her mom she said she says uh do something every day for yourself and do something every day for someone else and
01:03:35
that could be like big or small um do something do something nice for yourself I had a
01:03:40
couple beers before I came here and um you know like just do do something simple like and hold the door open for
01:03:47
someone when they like uh if they want to walk into it you know it's like it's
01:03:51
basically it is just being a good person it's like just do something every day
01:03:54
and like um if you remind yourself every day all of a sudden that will start becoming a habit you know it will start
01:04:01
becoming a habit and then I kind of lay it on top of that um on those two ideas uh do something every day that scares
01:04:08
you so um if you're scared of heights if you've got social anxiety um talk to
01:04:14
someone uh give someone a compliment um you know like uh go up the sky tower you
01:04:20
know like there's so many things you can do um I have a c I have have a cold
01:04:24
shower every day cuz cuz I'm scared and I don't like it you know um but it's
01:04:29
it's like when you start doing those things every day and like I'm I'm guilty
01:04:33
of like letting that slip as well but um it's just something that I've always
01:04:38
kind of it's always kind of been in the back of my mind I'm like it's so easy
01:04:43
and it's actually just fun it's like it's like okay well like um if you want
01:04:47
to do something right now um give someone a compliment you know um yeah it's good makes them feel good makes you
01:04:54
feel good it's a win I know there are so many cultures out there that like um if
01:04:58
you're suffering from depression they tell you to go and like do something for
01:05:01
someone else you know go go um spend a bit of time at an orphanage or go um like I did a lot of fostering for the
01:05:07
sbca for a while uh while I was in New Zealand and um every day I was just like like that's that essentially that's kind
01:05:14
of um I try to take myself out of my own mind cuz the uh a sport like boxing is so uh it's so draining and like you you
01:05:23
spend so much time thinking about yourself and I I feel like um you know how you're
01:05:28
talking about like money and stuff people count their pennies and they're like well how can I how can I get more
01:05:32
of these pennies and it's like well just um don't worry about it like uh if you
01:05:38
if you if you if you keep doing the right thing and you keep offering um offering a hand and lending extending a
01:05:44
hand not like don't get me wrong there are a lot of people that don't deserve
01:05:47
it but um you can make people feel really silly when they say when they um you know when they don't deserve it and
01:05:54
you and you still go and lend L hand um and I I think it's just a great a great kind of um attitude to to live
01:06:03
by when because in this world there there are enough there are enough [ __ ] out there today there are
01:06:07
enough villains like it's better to just be be the hero and if that hero just
01:06:11
means like helping um helping someone helping an elderly lady get up the stairs or something do it man do it
01:06:19
you'll never you'll never regret it you'll never regret it yeah speaking of
01:06:23
that um you had a job at a time once you like that's my only job the only job you
01:06:30
had scho yeah I was 16 I was 16 like an after school job yeah I worked um that was the only
01:06:39
uh like um I think they called pay slips right that only pay slip I've ever received was cleaning dishes for about
01:06:46
four 4 hours uh for three nights a week why why why did it suck so much I just I
01:06:54
just realized I was like I'm not going to do this this isn't this definitely
01:06:57
isn't for me I'm not like and imagine doing that 8 hours a day 5 days a week I
01:07:01
was like ah I like I I would really really suffer I'd really suffer if I um didn't have the same kind of purpose
01:07:09
that I have today and like um I encourage everybody to to learn from that and to to think okay well can I do
01:07:16
a bit more or can I do a bit better like um you don't necess have to do more but
01:07:20
when I say better I mean um do it do it for for the right reasons you know like um are you doing it to to to stay alive
01:07:28
or you doing it to like just just survive or like do you want to actually uh see Improvement every day and like
01:07:34
when you see Improvement in um external things things people uh you feel better about yourself and like you
01:07:43
see growth in yourself um I like truly believe in that um and yeah I think I think that comes from being raised right
01:07:50
man I feel like good parents that like love me and um yeah yeah feel feel very lucky yeah oh they've done a good job
01:07:57
but then you've done a lot of work on on yourself as well as an ad and um I read
01:08:02
about your Three core values Integrity loyalty resilience um so were you raised with them is that something from your
01:08:08
parents or no that was um Dave galra you have you heard of Dave Dave galbreth he's um uh sports psychologist he he's
01:08:16
written uh book Chasing greatness he's worked with the All Blacks and whatnot
01:08:19
yeah yeah yeah I tell you what get him on the podcast if you can he's he's um
01:08:23
he's a he's a bit of a wizard um he felt like uh one of my kind of guardian
01:08:27
angels when um things got tough even though I didn't even spend much time with him it was just a few little key
01:08:34
things that um he he kind of uh taught me about like um uh doing like senseless acts of
01:08:45
beauty and like um that's kind of like doing doing things that won't make sense
01:08:51
to anybody else but you'll actually uh you know it's so liberating and freeing
01:08:57
when you can kind of um do something for like for no real reason but it's beautiful like just be yourself uh when
01:09:06
no one else is expecting it you know um I I think he's he kind of taught me to
01:09:11
to hold those values and to actually be um like don't like don't filter yourself
01:09:17
if you're not a bad person don't filter yourself and um that's that's kind of
01:09:20
like stuck with me um because if if you're any decision make um should be based around those core values right and
01:09:31
uh uh given that idea every decision you make should be easy if it fits those three uh three
01:09:39
values you know if you're if you're thinking um if you're thinking a should
01:09:43
you know should I eat that chocolate bar it's like hey okay well my loyalty says
01:09:49
you know like you know I've spent a lot of time with my nutritionist and she
01:09:53
said don't you know I'm loyal to her resilient you know so I'm going to stick
01:09:57
to my routine and uh my Integrity is like come on you know you know you shouldn't you know you shouldn't eat
01:10:02
that chocolate bar Dave but I eat that chocolate bar sometimes cuz sometimes you have to treat yourself man and
01:10:08
you're only human as well you can't get to I've got this I've got this Uganda
01:10:12
metabolism as well so that does me some solids Man Yeah you mentioned it may have just been a throwaway comment but
01:10:17
you mentioned um Dave G breth came into your life when things got tougher is this in reference to um just leading up
01:10:23
to the Olympics when you suffered some po mental health um DG came into my life way before that um well before that I
01:10:32
might have been uh I might have been 17 and I I only saw him like a handful of times and I I
01:10:40
never I never I never felt like I needed to see him I never felt like I needed to see
01:10:46
well the times that I did feel like I needed some advice or I needed to see someone about it um the the ad device he
01:10:55
gave me was so simple and it's not like it's so holistic and it's so kind of
01:11:00
like um I would I would kind of just think I was like what would DG say what would DG say you know and that that was
01:11:07
enough for me to kind of like uh throw myself back on track but um I I I really loved the the way he kind of um uh uh
01:11:17
Illustrated his ideas I love I love like a good analogy know I love an analogy I
01:11:21
love someone uh give me an idea don't tell me what to do why to do it but just
01:11:26
like like tell me a story you know tell me a story and that's um that's kind of
01:11:31
helped me through a lot of dark times but um the yeah the the the times leading up to the Olympics that was
01:11:40
um that was uh that was more a matter of um kind of unpacking my first exp like my first
01:11:50
very limited might I add experience with depression and that's um uh like I I
01:11:56
remember I remember kind of like going through the going through the motions and being like well I've got I'm healthy
01:12:02
like you know I'm fit healthy I've got a good family you know I've lived with my
01:12:06
dog my dog's great like like people love me um what am I missing you know and it
01:12:12
was um at the time I it felt so irrational that I should feel so sad and um as as men I think a lot of us think
01:12:19
oh you know um if you want to you give people advice and you say you know there's a lot of people worse off than
01:12:25
you are so um so you know don't don't don't beat like like get on with it kind
01:12:32
of thing but at the end of the day our problems are relative to ourselves and um the my lack of purpose during that
01:12:39
time uh was what made me feel really terrible uh and you know like having because they kind of pulled the Olympics
01:12:47
for a while and I was like well I've spent you know the last 11 or however long it was about about 11 years trying
01:12:54
to get to those Olympics so um I didn't of course it was rational of course I
01:13:00
should feel like crap you know but there was no immediate solution to that the solution was um uh kind of bit of self
01:13:09
chat um bit of talking to others but uh I what I I did find I started uh a bit like overcompensating a little bit I
01:13:18
start I felt like I I spoke a few too many things into existence that I could deal with at at that time so um when you
01:13:27
when you say things out loud you hear it and it's like it's like a [ __ ] you can't
01:13:31
it's gone now I can't get that back you know so I like like I said it so now now
01:13:35
you have to deal with it right um so for me I I felt like um it was just a like a it was a it was a it was a problem and
01:13:46
then as a man you're like better fix it but I spent a little bit too long kind
01:13:51
of like dwelling on it and um I felt like I I I opened I opened the floodgates and L in some bad stuff as
01:13:59
well I let i i l in some demons in that time and like obviously you don't want
01:14:04
to be the victim all the time and I felt like I kind of leaned into it and I kind
01:14:08
of relied on people's sympathy and I was like well that doesn't help does it and
01:14:12
um and like at some point you need to like switch off the valve and get to work you know like we do have to grit
01:14:20
our teeth and like uh playing the victim all the time won't get you any in the
01:14:25
long run we actually we actually I think men especially you need to fix a problem
01:14:29
and you can't do that without gritting your teeth and actually doing the work
01:14:33
and um really proud to say that I like made it through that because um like I said everyone's problems are relative
01:14:40
you know like um there are a lot of people out there suffering from illnesses that I can't even imagine you
01:14:47
know oh yeah BR yeah I mean if you're there's that saying comparison is the
01:14:51
theft of Joy but if you compare down you never have to look far to find someone that is a lot happier with a lot less
01:14:57
that's right one thing I've got from this uh this podcast is um everyone
01:15:02
everyone deals with some adversity he like nobody gets through life unscathed and uh you're either going to have some
01:15:07
[ __ ] to deal with or you've got some [ __ ] to deal with or had some [ __ ] to
01:15:11
deal with but you yeah you you need to be tougher than the problem like you need yeah you need to to quote David
01:15:18
goggin's like callous your mind yeah yeah yeah yeah and that like that was that that um uh you know in this in this
01:15:26
uh day and age in this kind of society uh we we do sugar coat things a lot and like we we have to remember what makes
01:15:33
us what kept us alive all these millions of years is uh we don't have a we don't
01:15:40
have a choice we don't have a choice like um we have to survive we have to uh
01:15:45
you know like um I had an epiphany not long ago I was like you know when a lion gets hungry right they literally have to
01:15:53
get off their ass Chase something grab it kill it with their mouth eat it raw all of it just
01:16:01
eat all of it like do you want to eat the eyeballs not really but like oh guess a better you know like imagine
01:16:07
that imagine that like like um um there I I highly doubt there were many like suicides back in the caveman
01:16:16
days you know it's like oh I can't really afford to do that I've got to
01:16:19
stay alive you know yeah um fames fam's got to we I got yeah and like um suicide
01:16:26
would have been easy back then they just go in front of a lion yeah yeah exactly
01:16:30
yeah it's like everyone ran right everyone ran because they want to survive yeah but um I feel like today
01:16:34
we've got so many so many kind of um distractions and like so many things that are uh like don't actually matter
01:16:41
they don't actually matter like social media doesn't actually matter um and
01:16:46
like it's it's more of a distraction it's more of a distraction from uh much
01:16:51
dire much more dire things that are going on in the world and um that's why I don't want to be distracted
01:16:56
by any of the like the trends that are going to take away from what um what's
01:17:02
what's really important you know you but during this um this confusing time leading up to the Olympics where I
01:17:07
suppose you s lost your purpose or you weren't sure I suppose you felt like a a boat
01:17:12
that just had no sail that was just like bobbing around the ocean exactly um but
01:17:16
you were recording like um pieces to camera on a GoPro like a video diing you never you never posted them what have
01:17:23
you done with them have you deleted them you still got them no they're still
01:17:26
there they're still there but um how do you feel when you watch them back uh
01:17:30
what's the sort of yeah really interesting question um uh I feel I I yeah I feel validated
01:17:40
that like um those times like I I I watch myself and I'm like ah you were really really sad like
01:17:48
yeah you had a good reason to be sad um but at the time when you're in it you
01:17:53
don't know you don't know what uh you don't always know what the problem is
01:17:56
you don't always know what the solution is uh and it seems like like hope starts
01:18:01
to kind of like like fade right and you're like imagine like I I try imagine
01:18:07
if I didn't have all the things that I had you know if I didn't have all the
01:18:11
like those core things that make me feel Joy and make me feel love and like all the all the good all the all the warm
01:18:18
fuzzies you know um and I'm like like you have you have every right to feel that way but um uh I feel like that the
01:18:29
the main lesson I learned from that was um you have to feel the way you're feeling uh and like talk talk to people
01:18:40
uh understand the problem but then you have to solve it you can't leave the faucet open because uh creepy crawlies
01:18:48
will get in there and they'll like they'll they'll lay eggs and they'll
01:18:51
they'll uh create webs they'll set traps and it's like um next time you turn next
01:18:57
time water comes through you're not going to want to drink it you know like it's going to that's poison um so for me
01:19:04
I I just I kind of use that to um really like like you just have you have to understand that we're we're all flawed
01:19:14
you know we're all flawed and like don't uh we're not we're not bulletproof as
01:19:19
much as as much as I've always felt bulletproof you know like um we're all
01:19:22
going to have we're going to have times like that but um uh there's there's so much we can we can
01:19:27
learn from just looking inwards and asking for help yeah will will you ever share those videos or no I don't know I
01:19:34
probably will I probably should um uh yeah I I probably should there's um uh similar to what I'm saying uh
01:19:46
now that would be opening the faucet so speak like for me personally I want to speak from a pos position of power a of
01:19:56
um uh like when I say when I achieved when when I got to the Olympics when I got to the Olympics and when I achieved
01:20:05
uh the things I set set out to do then you can talk about those things then you can uh speak about them as a success
01:20:12
story because they weren't a success story at the time right and um uh one day when I'm done competing you know
01:20:21
when I'm done competing and I'm and like uh you know there's there's um there's
01:20:27
no uh there's no drawbacks to showing weakness and the in the public eye you
01:20:34
know I like I there it might be it might be worth doing that but um for now it's
01:20:39
just it's just a it's a personal diary for me to look back on and to to kind of
01:20:43
Reminisce because that's um uh I like feeling sad is great feeling sad is good
01:20:49
for you like if you can cry if you can feel if you can um feel sad it means you have loved you know like there's no
01:20:56
there's no sunshine Without Rain yeah are you quite good at um showing vulnerability yeah 100% yeah that's um
01:21:03
that's never been um an issue for me but at the same time I'm aware that uh
01:21:09
showing too much vulnerability for too long uh you start becoming that frail character that you that you you start
01:21:17
paying too much attention to it and like if I were to say if I were to post those
01:21:22
videos now I'd be speaking to them speaking them into existence for everybody to see you know for everybody
01:21:28
to have and whatever comes back in uh if I read that or if it if it comes back full circle and someone says it to my
01:21:35
face that's one of my problems with social media today is people uh people have a direct link to your Consciousness
01:21:42
Consciousness so they can they can message you and you'll your your leg will buzz oh let me find out let me find
01:21:49
out what anyone has to say again anyone asking about the God damn we'll move on from this in a second I
01:21:59
can tell you're place but but you must have been um when you were in this like
01:22:02
mental health slump which is the first time you've ever experienced it in your
01:22:05
life um you you must have been really um like wearing it on wearing your heart on
01:22:10
your sleeve because I I I even heard a story about SAR Walker the the famous bmxer coming up to you in the gym one
01:22:15
day and asking if you're okay she was the first one she was the first one and
01:22:19
um she just tell you went yourself or don't know don't know but um that was a
01:22:24
really that was a uh that was kind of a there was another light bulb moment where I was like I I wonder if she saw
01:22:31
that or if she was just asking you know and after that I started seeing sadness everywhere I went I started seeing I
01:22:41
started s like um uh there were other athletes in the gym and I was like man like um I think I talked to my partner
01:22:48
over the time I said um she just asked me she just asked me and um I could easily have just said yeah I'm fine but
01:22:58
like um now yeah yeah yeah and it's like all it took was being like Oh yeah things have been a bit tough um such and
01:23:05
such is happening it's a bit weird isn't it yeah oh anyway like um you're doing a
01:23:09
great job cool but it's like oh like all a sudden you take like six layers off
01:23:14
and you're like man like that feels great and uh after that um I I kind of I
01:23:20
sat on there for a while and I was like I started um uh like all of a sudden people watching became way more
01:23:26
interesting because I was like oh that person's hurting that person's that
01:23:31
person's hurt you know and you start um appreciating some people that maybe you
01:23:35
didn't appreciate before because it's like oh they've they're damaged you know
01:23:39
they're damaged good and um and maybe they need a hand you know uh and it it
01:23:45
takes it actually takes a strong person to uh it's one of those things like I
01:23:51
was saying do something for someone else just ask them if they're all good you
01:23:54
know you know and um uh obviously you don't want to you don't want to become
01:23:59
that uh Vice for someone because like I said The more I talked about it the more
01:24:05
I kind of leaned I leaned into that idea of being like Oh like you know what I am
01:24:10
I am frail and I'm a man I'm a man and I I need to feel uh like I've got like I
01:24:17
like I can fix things and that I'm powerful and that I'm strong uh like so
01:24:22
I'm I'm thinking I acknowledge the problem then I got to do something about
01:24:26
it I got to do something about it and whatever that takes I'll do it because
01:24:30
um because now it's out there if I just leave it there it's going to Fester you
01:24:34
know and it's going to it's going to sit in the back of my mind I'm like I wonder
01:24:37
if the person that I said that to is still thinking about it and still thinking about how I'm doing and you
01:24:43
start processing what like what that what that might have meant to what that might have meant to them or what that
01:24:49
might have meant to other people but it's like beyond that moment you you you
01:24:55
get through that task and then you say then you say Dave you did a good job you give yourself a pat on the back you know
01:25:02
cuz that that like cuz you have to you have to treat yourself and it's um yeah
01:25:06
I think that that's really important oh thanks for sharing that stuff I appreciate it appreciate you being so
01:25:10
open about it all right have we got time for one more round ding ding ding ding ding okay let's talk about Lexie yeah my
01:25:18
baby Lia your baby so um so she was on love Island Australia um I believe the relationship
01:25:25
started as a a DM slide she slid into your DMs you read it let her on uh left her on scene and ignored it yeah I don't
01:25:34
think I I don't think I opened it so she was in my request oh right okay she was
01:25:37
in my request I didn't I didn't open it but cuz you're you're in a relationship
01:25:40
at the time yeah yeah yeah okay um so you didn't even read it from me like from memory there was a time remember
01:25:46
scrolling through like my explore page and um like I don't follow any uh love
01:25:51
Island um uh anything about love Island but like because it's so big across New
01:25:58
Zealand Australia um I'd been scrolling through and like these they all come up
01:26:02
with a like a a fluro color line down the side of the square and I was like like this is really weird and i' like
01:26:08
kind of gone I was like so what's this all about they're all through my explore
01:26:11
page and um obviously they're that it's that popular it's that big in like
01:26:15
austral Asia and um and I remembered uh a DM coming through from a from a someone from lava and I was like I was
01:26:24
like that's kind of flattering right had the verified te what well I saw her
01:26:29
profile picture was because she had just come off the show so she still got that
01:26:34
photo with the with the Flur thing down the side and I was like that's like flattering right flattering and I was
01:26:39
like I left it um fast forward uh you did you didn't even read it you didn't
01:26:45
even open it and read it uh from memory it was something really silly and like it was like um it was like oh like
01:26:53
um uh it was something like I'd let you punch me in the face or something okay
01:26:58
that's what she said like um she she she probably remembers exactly what what she
01:27:02
said but I I can't quite remember but she is as you're in so much trouble no
01:27:06
no no no she thinks it's hilarious but like she was so ashamed when uh uh she
01:27:12
got um uh her she got a phone call from her dad saying hey yeah so um I have like
01:27:20
her dad no like um he he calls everyone he's he's a call Guy calls everyone so
01:27:25
like I get a I get a phone call from him every day like while I'm here pretty
01:27:28
much and um and he uh sister to oh yeah I've got a I've got a New Zealand boxer
01:27:35
that's coming to train with us for for four weeks um and she was like what's
01:27:39
his name and he was like oh it's David N she was like you're kidding you're kidding
01:27:46
and um and uh so like Fast Forward I um I'm like training with the thought with
01:27:54
the thorn Brees and uh they they do a Sunday lunch every every Sunday and we watch the fights and that the extended
01:27:59
family comes down so grandparents um are over like the the families the siblings
01:28:03
are over and um and I meet Lexi she comes she pulls in and her like beat up hyi I I oh I30 or something it's like an
01:28:12
all like old beat up car she comes out she's like full full uh hair and makeup
01:28:18
and um her family's looking at her like what's she doing and I meet her and
01:28:25
like obviously like I'm respectful I'm respectful and like uh I'm like
01:28:29
obviously she looks really really nice like adorable gorgeous and um uh I um I make a conscious effort not to look
01:28:39
at her because because you're being nice guy yeah because I'm being respectful
01:28:44
right and so we're watching the boxing and um uh I didn't hear this but uh
01:28:48
apparently uh her her Nana says to everybody when I went to the toilet they go he must be gay he didn't even bloody
01:28:57
look at here go then yeah yeah go on then and um yeah like there was like this um
01:29:07
funny thing going on for a while where like um uh sh like we clicked like immediately and it was um like I i' I
01:29:17
would already I was already like really close with uh I say really close but I get on with her all those siblings her
01:29:23
brothers um they're all boxing as well so we're training together every day
01:29:27
she's training uh she's coming up from Brisbane a lot more often apparently and
01:29:32
her parents are saying oh it's really nice having Lexie around morning and I'm
01:29:34
like what she does she not come up this does she not usually come up this often they're like No And um Penny must have
01:29:41
dropped for you like you're not you you're you know you're a nice guy but
01:29:44
you're not naive you must be like oh yeah I see what's I kind like Part of Me
01:29:49
Part of Me hoped for that part of me hoped for it but at the same time I'm thinking uh okay Dave like um Keep Your
01:29:56
Head on you're only here for 4 weeks don't go and uh like become a like a
01:30:00
home wrecker by by doing something silly uh when you're going to be leaving in a
01:30:04
few weeks anyway and so I get through this fight and I wasn't really satisfied
01:30:09
it was a it was a really it was actually a difficult fight and it was obviously working with a new coach and we'd only
01:30:14
been working together for four weeks I'd had a couple of like tough and like
01:30:18
niggly sparring sessions and I was like um after the after the performance I was
01:30:22
thinking uh like I'm not really happy with it and I didn't actually have any plans back in
01:30:30
the UK and so uh noled said well there's another um another card coming up that
01:30:35
I'm pretty sure I can get you on if you'd like to and I said yeah sure like
01:30:39
um like I think a lot of the stuff that we've been working on we hadn't really
01:30:43
been able to implement it in sparring let alone into a fight and so I was like okay yeah let's let's keep trying and um
01:30:51
uh so over the course of the next maybe two months uh I'm training with uh with
01:30:58
null with his sons and Lexi is coming in like spending a lot of time and we had gotten like quite close by this time and
01:31:06
um I remember like uh was like a really awkward um conversation I had with with nol um wasn't even a conversation we
01:31:17
were at sparing I was at I was at another gym in Brisbane for sping and um he had uh like I was checking my weight
01:31:25
on the scales he like how heavy are you you look you look pretty lean right now and I was like yeah I'll go check so we
01:31:29
went into like it was kind of like a little kitchenet area and it was like kind of dark and I like jumped on the
01:31:34
scale and we' been talking about how cuz me and Lexi had been hanging out quite a
01:31:37
lot um and I S oh like um yeah like really really like lexio and um I was kind of explained to him I was like yeah
01:31:47
we've um like she she's like a really cool Che you know like we like really
01:31:51
get on kind of thing and um I didn't get any response I just got and I I had no idea what to what to
01:32:01
what to think of that and like by this by this point we had like um I'm pretty
01:32:05
sure we had like become intimate you know yeah yeah and so I was like dreading dreading that conversation but
01:32:13
I couldn't I couldn't not say something you know I couldn't not say something
01:32:18
because I was like um like I actually really really respect no respect uh their entire family and um I'd spoken to
01:32:27
my dad uh at home uh back in New Zealand saying um uh just it seems it seems a little bit wrong and like it's it's
01:32:36
almost too good to be true right cuz um uh I've I've finally found uh a coach
01:32:42
that I trust you know thatd put me into a house like uh I'd I'd come straight
01:32:46
from the UK where I spending $100 a night to um to live in an attic and they just um they' freed up a space he's in
01:32:54
real estate so he was able to take a property that was um uh like kind of vacant and he'd gotten permission to uh
01:33:01
let me stay there while I while I was training and um and I was like Dad this seems like um
01:33:08
seems kind of off and a little bit wrong like I needed like I'm asking for advice
01:33:14
and um and he says hey man um the the universe is speaking and it's smiling so
01:33:21
just lean into it you know just trust it um you know obviously be yourself like youve um you're not doing anything wrong
01:33:28
you're not a bad person um and that's one of the best best decisions I've ever
01:33:33
made man really cool yeah I I can I can tell your eyes light up when you how long has it been now uh we're about uh
01:33:42
officially we're probably between about 18 months almost 18 months I think and
01:33:47
say her dad and I was like actually I'm I'm not okay with this it's like me and
01:33:52
the boxing training and I'm coach or it's my daughter up to you which way
01:33:56
would you have gone i' like I i' would 100% respect that I would 100% respect
01:34:02
that however I think they all knew that I'm really really good for her and um and I'm good
01:34:11
for uh you know I I'm really close with her siblings you know I've uh like spent
01:34:16
a lot of time with them in the gym with them like socially uh you know like um Cassidy her middle brother like was
01:34:25
having like kind of like issu like girl issues at the time and I kind of came in
01:34:29
and like uh like really G him up and I was like cuz he's the he's the like
01:34:33
honestly like probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met like um to a fault
01:34:38
and so I kind of like gave him a bit of like um uh a bit of like I je him up and
01:34:44
made him feel really good and he he ended up like he's he's like the coolest
01:34:47
dude now with an awesome girlfriend so um I felt like I was really really good for for her and for their family and so
01:34:56
it's actually ended up being um one of the one of the biggest blessings I think
01:35:01
for myself and for their for their family as well oh it's a win-win and also um s diit us like the fact that she
01:35:08
she was thirsty for you tried to slide into your DM and then next thing you know you're working with her dad I mean
01:35:15
what the [ __ ] it's manifestation dude man I was I was like she said I was the
01:35:21
only person she had ever she' ever d like um she had never gone she said she
01:35:25
never she deleted the she deleted the uh the message she uh never talked anyone else cuz she was like a shamed she
01:35:31
thought she was really cool because she had just got off love Island she was like that's my celebrity crush that's my
01:35:36
celebrity crush she saw me at the Olympics and was like that's that's him
01:35:40
and I was like obviously that that sound I sound like a massive [ __ ] saying that
01:35:44
now but it's it's believable we it's amazing and I think it's so cool man um
01:35:50
and I feel like that is one of those uh aha moments where it's like ooh we that's you know that's it's like it it
01:35:59
feels like home I've never felt homesick while I'm there and um come back to New
01:36:03
Zealand and I don't really have a home base anymore you know we don't have a
01:36:06
family house now so um I feel really really happy and like my cup's very full
01:36:10
out there you know and I've he I've heard her on a podcast talking about how
01:36:15
in the early days you were sing each other [ __ ] um you were training together at the gym and should um like uh
01:36:21
rehearse things to talk about or things to she is that true yeah she won't bloody
01:36:28
shut up now it's one of those things it's really good of her to admit it down the TR
01:36:35
because it's embarrassing no she's awesome it's really worked out well and did you so
01:36:40
you you're um so busy on with your own [ __ ] did you have you gone back and
01:36:45
watched any of her love Island stuff or no I like it's just one of those things
01:36:48
it's like um I'm not a jealous guy uh but I could be you know so it's like why
01:36:53
why open that can of worms cuz I had a bit of a a YouTube Wormhole last night watching some stuff and this guy Ryan
01:37:00
there she was singing this guy Ryan you want me to take him out oh you probably could from memory that they're not
01:37:07
they're not they don't seem like tough guys I know yeah um they did a thing
01:37:11
called a comp compatibility test which she wrote um so I've got the two questions that she asked Ryan I'll put
01:37:18
them to you describe a perfect relationship in one word easy easy yeah I think it should be easy
01:37:31
and like um like loving Lexi is so easy it's so easy and like it's never felt
01:37:35
forced it's never felt like something that um that we we uh need to do it's
01:37:41
just it's like it's not even a choice now it's like we just we just do it man
01:37:45
it's like um uh yeah I feel feel very lucky that I can say that cuz I I've
01:37:51
been in I've I've only had longterm relationships really I've only been I
01:37:55
was only single for a very short amount of time um and this has been such a um kind of Eye Opener to what What Love Can
01:38:04
Be You know so um the fact that I uh I like I'm I'm in love with a family I'm
01:38:09
in love with her and um uh you know she's uh uh like my my nephew is have like massive crushes on her like it's
01:38:18
like they're all under 5 years old I should add but they're like um it's just
01:38:22
it's it's man it's it's beautiful so yeah oh yeah I mean you're a
01:38:27
good-looking couple like if you guys ever have kids they're going to be goodl
01:38:30
looking baby they going be so tall I don't know I don't know how would feed
01:38:34
them I know how much I ate as a kid also if if you did have a baby um and it was
01:38:39
a son what would you call him don't know actually um this is another love Island question yeah yeah
01:38:44
no it's good um uh I've got a few I've got a few ideas and they um uh um a lot
01:38:52
of them's uh like revolve around uh kind of a lost a lost community and a lost um
01:39:00
kind of uh idea of like where I come from so like obviously my granddad moved to New
01:39:07
Zealand uh when he was like in his early 20s to do his Dentistry um but since since traveling back to Uganda and then
01:39:16
fleeing during the idam in regime uh he's only returned once and so um I kind
01:39:22
of want to know a little bit more about that background but he brought the name Nika over to New Zealand that was the
01:39:29
that was actually a nickname that he was kind of given um because he like mimicked his the chief of his village at
01:39:37
the time his name was Kika I believe and his um his original his original first name his name is Tom ner um but his
01:39:48
original name was uh darus like Darius and um like I kind of like Darius and it's like like Double D you know like
01:39:56
DAV Darius I I I think that's really beautiful she's all right with it I
01:40:01
think she's okay with it um but um if we if I say it on enough podcasts she might
01:40:07
be like fuing have to now you know I think that's beautiful anyway because yeah like um uh we we are the
01:40:15
first gener we're like a new generation we're a new uh species here in in uh in
01:40:20
New Zealand and um I like our culture is very very special and like very unique to our family and so I'd like to kind of
01:40:29
bring a little bit of that through to um to like the Next Generation but um so my
01:40:36
one of my nephew's name is Amos and that's my dad's middle name so taking my
01:40:40
grandfather's um you know original name would be would be pretty cool that's
01:40:44
wonderful and this this chief that you're talking about is it is he the one that used to carry around a stool yeah
01:40:49
that's the one yeah you've done your research man so he always had a stool to
01:40:52
sit on yeah so yeah my my granddad would follow him around the village when the the chief sat down on his stool he'd
01:40:59
stop he'd stop he'd sit down on the stool my Grandad would sit down with his
01:41:03
own little stool and he'd sit down and like um I I think you I think the chief
01:41:07
was like uh I don't know if he was a good person I think he might have been like a bit of a drunk but like it's uh
01:41:13
it's a it's a really neat story so um I I love that um I love that I kind of
01:41:18
have these like uh romanticized ideas of of what his life may have light but um that has since been left behind you know
01:41:28
I I just love how connected you are or how um motivated you are to keep your you know these these sort of links to
01:41:35
your extended family I think that's really cool and really special yeah you what yeah well I I haven't really like
01:41:41
actually touched on it yet I've the these all like seeds that I'm kind of
01:41:45
kind of planting every time I talk about it you know I planted them in my own mind as well yeah yeah oh that's great
01:41:52
what what a wonderful relationship yeah do you when do you think you'll propose
01:41:57
like have you talked marriage well you want to get married at some point or is it just not on the radar yet yeah
01:42:01
apparently uh marriage comes before babies so like we we'll do that but but we're talking we're talking about um uh
01:42:08
like I think we're probably a few years away from babies like I want to I want
01:42:11
to I want to I want that like you know Financial Freedom is is is important and I know that as soon as um like kids are
01:42:20
as soon as I like we do have kids um my entire kind of life will change and I want to I want to have I want those
01:42:27
seeds to turn into little trees before before I'd start uh before I you know
01:42:32
have my own little ones to to look after so um yeah got to be like a little bit responsible and she's only 22 so we like
01:42:39
we want to explore the world you know we want to like travel and whatnot um and so yeah that comes first for sure and
01:42:45
this may be from an earlier an earlier interview that you did that I read but um you talked about your goals post
01:42:52
boxing and some of them includ maybe having like a dog Century somewhere or doing some conservation work in Africa
01:42:58
um has that changed since Lexi came along no no no no I'm um I'm actually I
01:43:04
feel like I've I've planted the seeds for the um for the conservation and for
01:43:07
the um for the charity work that uh high impact athletes are doing and um uh it's
01:43:13
a it's a foundation a charity Foundation that I'm uh a part of now and so we're
01:43:18
trying to uh we're raising money um to fight against area um in Rwanda and like
01:43:25
the neighboring countries Uganda one of them so um one of my goals is to yeah you know improve the lives of of
01:43:32
thousands in in Uganda and it like I have I have no real Connections in Uganda other than my own uh you know the
01:43:40
color of my skin and my family so um at the moment like that that's that's a that's
01:43:47
a that's kind of like the the start of um of a a bigger a bigger project but um
01:43:54
yeah just kind of like planning those seeds now and I think um I I'll still be
01:44:00
like that's kind of it's kind of it feels more real now anyway because I
01:44:03
like uh the founder Marcus Daniels I met at the Olympics he was um amazing guy he
01:44:08
was in he was in my apartment was in my apartment at the Olympics so that's how
01:44:11
he met and he asked me to kind of jump on board and make a pledge so I pledge I pledge a small amount of money every
01:44:17
week to go towards uh these uh incredible Charities that have been like uh really thoroughly vetted so say you
01:44:23
say you give $100 to to a charity 95 like 95 of those dollars are going to go um into the actual cause you know
01:44:32
they're going to go into that's going to go towards buying these bed nets you
01:44:36
know $10 for a 10 New Zealand dolls for a bed net to protect two people for three years um that's that's kind of
01:44:43
where where I think I'm going to find the most um joy out of uh being um being
01:44:51
a person of influence like because I can actually do that and I can speak about it and like hopefully people are going
01:44:57
to listen you know so um that's that's yeah just the start of that's just the
01:45:02
start of my um my larger story but um yeah yeah I'd like to I'd like to like
01:45:08
to keep um keep nurturing that idea I love that yeah Marcus Daniel he's a he's
01:45:13
a great guy he he came on the podcast earlier this year he actually um he he messaged me to ask to come on and when I
01:45:20
first got the message I thought oh this guy [ __ ] rates himself um and then I um the more I thought about it I thought
01:45:28
I'm the problem here like this this is tall poy Sy that's your that's your ego
01:45:32
100% yeah um I'm just good on you for recognizing that yeah absolutely and the
01:45:37
reason he wanted to come on is not just to say you know I won a bronze meal and double tenis and I'm really cool it was
01:45:42
like four high impact athletes which is um he's so alteristic and he's so
01:45:47
passionate about it wants to spread the word um since then a few other people have messaged me wanting to come on the
01:45:51
podcast and I've I've changed my mindset completely instead of having that New
01:45:54
Zealand mentality where I'm like oh [ __ ] this person [ __ ] R them I've I've
01:45:58
recognized it's an issue with me and that's something I need to get over and
01:46:01
we should applaud people that are um yeah prepared to put themselves out like that like what what's the answer to that
01:46:07
though like what like how do you how do you keep nurturing that idea like for me
01:46:12
personally like yeah well you personally or what would what would you say like cuz cuz that that's something that's
01:46:17
that's everywhere in New Zealand and that kind of stems from uh I don't really know what it stems
01:46:24
from like what's your take on that like cuz that that's something that a lot of
01:46:27
athletes deal with you probably see a lot of it being being in like uh like radio journalism podcasting now you know
01:46:34
yeah I don't I don't know what the solution is necessarily but it's um it's
01:46:38
a anyone anyone in New Zealand that sort of puts themselves out put puts themselves out there it's like our thing
01:46:43
like oh this person's getting a bit big for their boots we need to sort of pull
01:46:46
them down yeah um but Marcus Daniel was incredibly humble he just wanted to come
01:46:50
on the podcast to um try and basically raise more money for the caes that he's
01:46:54
really cool I haven't had much to do with uh I've had little bits to do with
01:46:59
like SPCA and that was like purely because I wanted to like you know Foster Foster animals and lot I really thought
01:47:06
I was going to adopt one of them eventually but um cuz I was like mourning the loss of a family like our
01:47:12
family dog kind of thing but um the I just I've I've kind of done a little bit
01:47:17
of research around um some of the bigger Charities and I've uh you know volun
01:47:22
volun ered I've like applied for volunteer roles in Australia since moving over and it's just it just
01:47:29
doesn't seem like um doesn't seem like a lot of the big Charities really want to
01:47:35
maximize you know that yeah like uh like having having people to like the only the only option I had to go and um to to
01:47:44
be of value at these um Charities that I apped for was to sit in a retail store and I was like what am I going to do in
01:47:52
a retail store like I'm I'm I'm going to sit there for what like I'm not I can't
01:47:57
do more than a few hours at a time on a training day but like that's um just
01:48:02
like it's it's not us it's not using your profile and on top of that on top
01:48:06
of that it's like I don't really want to be um you know a lot of a lot of the big
01:48:10
Charities the money kind of gets skimmed off and skimmed off a lot of it goes to
01:48:14
Administration some of it goes towards paying off like paying someone's car you
01:48:19
know like yeah some of it's horrendous some of it's it's like 30 and the dollar
01:48:23
ends up going to the charity maybe Le for some um hey a couple of miscellaneous ones to finish with um
01:48:30
bons side trees this is like a hobby or a passion of yours yeah I tell you what I've actually had to I've had to hand
01:48:35
that down you know um I moved to Australia and obviously couldn't take my trees um how many are there I tried to
01:48:42
start again I Tred I had I had a fair few but um I I moved over and I tried to start up over there but it's so hot and
01:48:49
so dry I like was a bit of a bit of an eye opener like my trees just died immediately so um I I handed it down to
01:48:56
my brother and he's actually he's taken um a few of my like favorite trees and
01:49:01
he's actually started um his own collection in there like it's looking awesome he's actually done a really good
01:49:06
job with it so where did this patient start is this from karate with lock it was during lockdown when I was really
01:49:13
really sad and like I I I um I was trying to find a way to um uh to heal myself and so I I had I had my fosil the
01:49:22
kittens and looking after them was good for me uh and then I was I needed something else and so I started um uh
01:49:30
creating Bonsai and there's something you create pain and Beauty in something
01:49:36
other than yourself and it's it's a it's kind of a brutal art form where you you
01:49:40
like you're trying to turn what's a small a small um plant you're trying to
01:49:46
twist it bend it torment it and like torture it to like near like near death but what comes of it is like um it look
01:49:56
it's like aged Beauty it's like it's like a really it's a really kind of um
01:50:02
special art form yeah oh [ __ ] I've dropped I've wet myself sorry man that's
01:50:07
all right that's interesting um another one another thing I want to ask you about
01:50:13
there I've seen a couple of you maybe maybe it was just one or maybe it's more
01:50:16
of um like the weighin before a boxing fight there's one in particular where
01:50:20
you're you're with a um an opponent that's short than you and you guys are
01:50:23
like like butting foreheads like your noses and foreheads are almost touching each other and when you're doing that
01:50:30
like what are you saying to each other uh what's the conversation depends depends if they're talking you know if
01:50:35
they're talking [ __ ] or not um you like uh I think I think it'll change I think
01:50:42
it will change over time like um I'll get to know the players better and the
01:50:46
players will get to know you better and um at the moment it's kind of like uh
01:50:50
the guys I've I've been up against know I'm going to beat them and I think
01:50:54
everyone else knows that as well but um it's essentially uh like a I call it the
01:51:00
Prelude this is the Prelude to um a really exciting career um and so like getting to know the players more all of
01:51:08
a sudden you'll starts like you'll start knowing more about your opponents and I
01:51:12
think uh there'll be more to say you know but at the moment it's like it's
01:51:18
like you know like is it just I'm going to waste you you a [ __ ] going down don't know I don't
01:51:24
even know I think like gets in your face it's like oh it's going down like let's
01:51:29
let's go man like um like like people try like G themselves up and it's like I
01:51:34
just I'll just match your energy I like right here man right here like yeah I
01:51:40
don't know what you're going to I don't know what you're trying to do but like
01:51:42
um I'm going to kick your ass um uh another one from miscellania section Israel what's your relationship with him
01:51:48
you you've trained together a bit you've taught him some boxing tips I wouldn't
01:51:53
say I've taught him boxing but like um uh We've uh I was actually brought in
01:51:57
this is uh this is quite a cool story actually so uh I first the the first time I
01:52:04
really spent time with you want me to go right back to the start yeah go right I'm intrigued with oh he's awesome he's
01:52:11
like um he's uh he's what he's probably probably one of my favorite he's
01:52:17
probably my favorite sporting person alive today only because I I I appreciate and I understand
01:52:23
what he's doing why he's doing it and where I feel like I understand a little
01:52:28
bit of where he's come from um I first met him uh after a Joseph Parker fight um that I went to I
01:52:38
attended I like I got um complimentary complimentary like uh corporate tickets uh for myself my
01:52:46
brother and a couple mates and um we were we were going to leave later that night and um we were walking through the
01:52:51
car park and we hear some guy and like come out of the dark and he says Hey like where are you guys going into town
01:52:57
we turn around we're like uh not really we're not going towards the city we're
01:53:00
going back to Hamilton and he says oh like um do you think you could drop me into the city and we're
01:53:05
like um yeah sure it sounds like a sounds like a Jour sounds like a like a fun fun
01:53:11
side quest you know like so so this is this is isra this is this seems like you with your boundaries and not saying no
01:53:18
to people yeah yeah pretty much pretty much this is um I want to say this is 2014 so this is uh well before he um
01:53:25
makes it into the UFC um and I I just won my first kroth games gold medal that's why I'm getting like free tickets
01:53:32
and stuff and like I think this is through doco even and uh so they've been like uh I've been connected to them ever
01:53:37
since then and um uh they um so he's he's he's bald he's drunk he's like loud and he's
01:53:46
talking like the most [ __ ] the entire car ride and um we we couldn't really
01:53:51
get a word in and then he's finally kind of like I like what do you guys do and I
01:53:55
was like oh well um I've um I I I boxed I went to like the com games want to
01:54:01
call me he's like how old are you I 18 he's like oh that's that's awesome like
01:54:05
I real recognize real and that's the first time I heard this like I recognize
01:54:09
real and I was like oh like appreciate that that's nice like still don't know
01:54:13
who the [ __ ] you are I was like I was like yeah you see like you seem pretty sure of yourself
01:54:18
though so I was like that's awesome um and fast forward he's uh made it onto the UFC scene and
01:54:27
um uh they're looking for sparring they were looking for like like striking sparring for their fight the upcoming
01:54:34
fight against Anderson Silva and if you rewind another kind of four years Anderson
01:54:41
Silva was actually the reason why I got into Combat Sports in the first place he
01:54:45
was this uh amazing uh like uh versatile like totally like unorthodox had the craziest shots of ction like the um just
01:54:53
the most wild outrageous kind of fighter and um this was kind of like the coming
01:54:59
of age for for Izzy for israa so it was the passing of the mantle from uh Anderson the spider Sila to the style
01:55:08
Bender so if he can uh you know if he can overcome that hurdle he's like you
01:55:13
know he's he's kind of taken the mantle so I thought what a crazy opportunity to
01:55:18
be um to be able to like help this guy overcome um such a hurdle like and and that was special to me because Anderson
01:55:29
Silva was my hero you know and I was like oh that's really neat there's something about that as well and so um I
01:55:35
was like yeah I'll do it and like oh the only issue is like um Anderson Silva is
01:55:39
a southp you can spy southp right and I was like uh yeah yeah so southp is essentially being a left-handed Fighter
01:55:48
um and I'm I'm very right-handed you should like I couldn't kick a ball with
01:55:51
my left foot but um uh I was like yeah sure I was like let's do it so that was
01:55:57
how I that was how I first became involved with with uh with Izzy and since then like we've um uh I think we
01:56:03
we share a lot in common you know there's there's this uh like you say This Tall poppy syndrome there's also
01:56:09
this kind of um we have similar uh we've had similar experience but quite different experiences in New Zealand
01:56:18
um uh culturally so he was born was born in Nigeria uh raised in Niger until was
01:56:25
about 10 I believe and then came to New Zealand and um was obviously like looked
01:56:30
at as the black sheep and um myself I have like a differing experience where I was kind of expected to be uh to be M or
01:56:40
to be uh like U pacifical or to be something um something that I wasn't and so I was accepted by the Mali uh
01:56:49
Community however I didn't connect I couldn't connect and I I could it's not
01:56:54
your culture not my culture yeah and um however like I'm also you know um not
01:57:00
I'm not white I'm not white I'm not you know uh alter's idea of white and so um
01:57:06
we we had this kind of like we we I feel like feel like we shared something in in
01:57:10
that space um and so like yeah I've I've really appreciated what he's done for um
01:57:16
for the sport but also uh how he's kind of tackled a lot of those um cultural
01:57:22
kind of um I call them their disappointments they disappointments because I like I
01:57:27
find it disappointing when um you know people are like judged by by something that's so so like um so dumb so dumb
01:57:37
like like something like skin color or like uh like oh you don't look like someone I should trust what does that me
01:57:43
yeah it's bizarre yeah I think I think he's great um and um he like he yeah he
01:57:47
made a speech when he won the hellig sports award about to Poppy and um amazing aming then sure enough like um
01:57:53
last earlier this year he got done for for drunk driving and just the comments you read online it's like there is so
01:57:58
many people just sitting there waiting for the opportunity to tear them down it's disgusting yeah and um like that
01:58:05
that was really um that's that's actually that time period is actually uh
01:58:11
this this is another weird kind of um the stars align moment where um Israel came to watch my fight in uh Melbourne
01:58:19
Tyson furrious happen to be at the same fight they both came to watch watch me watch me fight there I fought that fight
01:58:25
entirely as a left-handed fighter because I had learned over that like like I'd learned a lot more over that
01:58:31
period of time working with the likes of Izzy uh to fight as a southp and like because I had to and like um fast
01:58:39
forward I've actually spent quite a bit of time in South boy and it's become
01:58:42
quite a um quite a weapon as well and Tyson Fury's watching watching me fight
01:58:47
and he's seen me Spar and um I remember remember one thing he said to me and I
01:58:51
thought this is hilarious um someone in the gym was saying oh like so so you can
01:58:56
fight southb and Tyson yells out he goes theyve thought that uh southp was a flavor of ice cream and I was like oh
01:59:04
you [ __ ] and then fast forward he comes and watches my fight and um now he's now he's calling me into camp for
01:59:11
to to to spar as a southp as a left-handed fighter against um for For an upcoming bout that's the biggest
01:59:18
clash in recent boxing history so yeah it's a it's a it's a strange world man
01:59:24
but the the universe keeps smiling on me so I'm going to keep smiling back you
01:59:27
know I'll keep doing the work well you you is that saying you reap what you say
01:59:32
yeah 100% I believe yeah that's awesome yeah I I believe in it to and all the
01:59:36
success that's coming your way you deserve it and you've worked so [ __ ]
01:59:39
hard for it for such a long period of time um and just before we wrap up like I I was listening to a podcast that you
01:59:45
did with your girlfri like you're sitting here you look perfect you you've
01:59:49
said all the right things but you fting you sleep yeah a lot a lot apparently a lot yeah
01:59:55
probably pretty loud I've got a do you want a story about that is that what you're asking for okay your story no I
02:00:01
can no I no I just wanted to shoot you down before we finish it's all right no
02:00:05
like I'll um I'll double down for you no so um I I I had some back like lower
02:00:11
back issues um uh well I'm still dealing with it it was probably when I was like in my like
02:00:18
earlier 20s like maybe 21 22 and um I'd had like a a quite a bad like disc uh bulge in in between one of my
02:00:29
discs and um I was getting a an x-ray um scene at at high performance sport in Cambridge um at the vome and I I went in
02:00:38
with my physio because it was actually was it was really crippling like I um like I couldn't I could barely change my
02:00:45
underwear kind of thing like it was was that bad for for quite a while but they they they're epic I big shout out to
02:00:55
do this without them um but I went into the the sports doctor and I'm like okay
02:01:01
he's going to bring up like we're going to talk about the progress um like you
02:01:05
know the the prognosis what what do we do now now that you've got like an 80-year-old back and so um he pulls up
02:01:12
the X-ray and goes o and I was like oh that doesn't sound good right and he goes um yeah you see there's a lot of
02:01:20
black dots there if you can I'm not sure if you you can see them and I'm like oh
02:01:23
that can't be good and he's like yeah those are um those uh air pockets he's
02:01:28
like so um that's those are little pockets of gas and I'm was like he's like oh so you've got a lot of
02:01:35
gas and I was like what the I like I'm with like a like a a younger a younger
02:01:39
female physio who's sitting right next to me and I'm like can we please get to
02:01:43
the point I'm get i s like I'm a gassy guys like can we let's just [ __ ] get
02:01:49
me tell me what to do and let's get me the hell out of I'm I'll never never
02:01:53
coming back here he was funny no I I love that guy he um yeah it's crack up just goes to show no one's completely
02:02:02
perfect thanks bro yeah anyway great note to end on yeah yeah yeah David NAA um Commonwealth Games double gold
02:02:10
medalist Olympic bronze medalist uh future world champion no doubt and I mean you're still still so young I feel
02:02:18
like boxing is not going to be I I I don't know maybe I'm getting h of myself
02:02:22
here but I feel like boxing is not going to be the ultimately the thing that defines you and what you're do in your
02:02:26
life I don't think so no and I I appreciate that and thank you for having me on the podcast cuz um yeah long time
02:02:31
the making and this is an epic podcast um I really appreciate what you're doing
02:02:35
you do this is all for good you know this is um uh like uh all the topics that you've talked to me about I I I
02:02:42
love because I can actually speak on it and I think um the more we talk about it
02:02:46
and the more we uh express our ideas and like share a few like share our vulnerabilities and our like our stories
02:02:54
and our um Journey the more people can kind of pick it up and run with it um and like we might save a lot of people
02:03:01
from uh some serious harm by doing this so good on you man thank you so much Dom
02:03:05
oh thanks I I really appreciate it and I'm I'm pleased I was so persistent in
02:03:08
making this happen get on now you can unfollow me and get on hey thanks mate love your work thank you cheers mate
02:03:16
[Music] awesome [Music] n