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[Music]
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Eugene Beerman welcome to my podcast
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thanks for having me Dom it's good to be
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here M it's it's an absolute honor the
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Mad genius um that's your your nickname
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uh one of the one of the nicknames what
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else is there not one that I give myself
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but some people throw that around you
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yeah how does that sit with you uh not
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to I mean I'm far from a genius yeah um
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that's that's definitely not an app
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description on me but um I'm a little
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bit mad but yeah maybe the Mad part and
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not the genius part um it's an honor to
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have you around here um I'm I'm a big
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fan of um UFC and MMA but there's this's
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I enjoy watching it but I don't really
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know what's going on there's probably
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like a diverse group of people listening
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to this some that would have no idea
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what it's all about so MMA mix martial
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arts and UFC Ultimate Fighting
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Championship are they the same
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thing they are they are not exactly the
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same thing so the UFC is the biggest
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organization uh that
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run um uh MMA shows MMA fights you'd
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think of them as like the NBA so there's
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basketball leagues all over the world
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right but the NBA runs the biggest one
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the the one that everybody aspires to
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and the UFC is the equivalent of the NBA
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so if you're an aspiring MMA fighter
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you're trying to get into the UFC league
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and when you've got into the league then
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you're in the you're you're in the Big
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Time MMA is the actual sport itself so
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that would be basketball so MMA
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basketball NBA UFC that would be a
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pretty good description I think I think
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that's a that's a great thank you for
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that explanation that explains a lot and
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um you're you're like a guru in um the
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the MMA UFC World um City kickboxing
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your business what feels like you're
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about to interrupt me uh I'm a coach uh
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don't oh this is going to be a tiring
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you this is going to be a hard podcast
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you're so modest you ah like what you've
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done what you've done is
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incredible is that like are you able to
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sit back and um go yeah I did that well
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or I didn't do that well or are you just
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are you just I don't know did people do
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that though I definitely I know you're a
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deflector of all your success and you've
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I
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think successful people uh never truly
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find the success that they're driving
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through all driving to get all the time
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so you're like you're people sit here
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and tell you you're successful and then
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but in my mind I'm like well [ __ ] man I
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haven't done this yet and this yet and
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this yet and this yet so the list of
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things that I want to achieve and be
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successful at is longer than the things
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that I've already achieved and being
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successful get I guess that kind of
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where my mind goes when you hear that
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like a growth mindset yeah yeah it's a
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growth mindset so you're like oh yeah
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I've achieved a bit but I've got so much
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more to achieve and do so I guess that's
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probably why I'm reluctant to say that
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I've reached
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massive levels of success
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but Guru all of that I'm Just What I Am
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is a guy that's the first person to get
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up and open the doors in the business
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and the last person to go to bed and
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close the doors of the business first
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person there last person to leave being
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that person for the last 25 years so any
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success I have can um be attributed to
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that yeah I mean it but there's um yeah
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this podcast might sit uncomfortably
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with you because it's um kind of like
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maybe a bit of like this is your life um
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which maybe won't S sit comfortably with
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you but you've I mean you've you've
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helped um accelerate some some careers
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and make some Fighters and what was
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essentially a niche sport household
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names like this style Bender Dan the
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hangman hooker Shane Young Blood Diamond
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um caros coming they're just ones that I
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can name and I'm not huge on the sport
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but then there's so much other stuff
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you've done as well well with um City
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kickboxing like um some you call it like
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a a gym for lost songs I think I've
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heard that and it's um you're kind of
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like a gang leader in a
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way in the best possible way like you've
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got this collection of um you know rag
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tag Misfit people and you've sort of
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given their life purpose and
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direction I yeah well man I have people
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from all facets of life I have uh you
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know misdirected misguided people but I
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have very very successful people too
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some of the top lawyers top owners of
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big uh businesses in New Zealand All
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training under the same roof but what
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they all have in common is they're all
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searching for a little bit of release
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and Define themselves a little bit and
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for whatever
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reason whether you are a gang leader or
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whether you are one of New Zealand's top
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lawyers you seem to be able you
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gravitate to the same thing and that's
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my arts and coming in sweating learning
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the learning the art hitting a bag
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hitting pads learning to control people
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for whatever
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reason no matter what area of the
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society you're in you you have that same
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pull towards the same thing and it makes
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people feel good and um I think I'm in
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the business of making people feel good
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A little bit of escapism a little bit of
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just let's just get away from everything
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and put our full concentration into this
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and forget the worries of life that
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we've got on just for an hour yeah I
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provide that I think look at your eyes
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light up when you talk about it you you
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just love fighting don't you and helping
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people I think I love Mar I love what
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the gym does I love the gym environment
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I I love what it does to people because
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it's like
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a when you're a kid you immerse yourself
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in your imagination so you go away and
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you play play with your Legos you play
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you know Indians and cowboys and
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whatever and you for that moment you you
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believe you're in it and you're real and
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you lose that going into adulthood well
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what the gym does the gym is just a big
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playground it's where adults can come
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and be like man you know I'm I'm this
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person I'm that person I'm and they can
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just Escape in a little bit of it's
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reality but there's a little bit of like
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you know Mis reality in there as well
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because they just get to escape and I
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think
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that um you need that when you're adult
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you need to get away and just be with
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yourself the only thing the only thing
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that matters is what's in front of me
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and what I'm doing right now there's
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just not many moments in an adult's life
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where they can do
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that and um are you still driving like
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an old white Haunter
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Civic in the style bind the movie uh You
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featuring it quite prominently I want to
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get into that later this is your podcast
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it's not is his podcast um but you drive
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having this like beat up old rusty White
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Honda Civic um I I want to know is that
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like um like stage for the movie or is
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that your car no that's my car that I
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just got rid of it like literally just
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got rid of it um like did you even get a
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trade in on it or you just had to like
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dump it so it was sitting in my garage
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and my wife got a new
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car and then we had another car and I it
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was just basically taking up too much
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room and something had to go so um I was
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forced to get rid of it but yeah it
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brought a tear to my eye but I did not
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no what man I had that car I had that
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car for you know would have been close
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to 20 years and it served it took me to
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the gym back and forth took all my
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Fighters like Israel all all my Fighters
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have memories of their car cuz we
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traveled the country going from City to
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city um fighting in the back of their
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car yeah and we it it did the job good
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old Honda Civic from what from the
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research I've done on you like you're
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not motivated by money at all but um you
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you you didn't have to be driving that
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car you that was a that was a choice on
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your part what are you driving now not
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not a
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McLaren uh no no I'm driving a not quite
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as old but reasonably old Toyota
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Yus yeah Toyota it's like an old lady's
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car yeah but I'm not going to I'm not
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going to lie I'm a I'm a bike guy right
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okay I'm a motorbike guy so I've got a
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couple of nice bikes but the cars it's
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yeah they just get you for me to be yeah
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hey and um so you're on a brand new TV
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show on um TV and Z online called
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motivation which is kind of like um I
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don't know the easiest way to explain
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it's probably like New Zealand's Got
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Talent except it's got the worst prize
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ever the prize is like one a oneyear
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scholarship at your gym to get beaten
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the crap beaten out of you um how did
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they get you over the line for that cuz
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I get the feeling you're you don't
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overly enjoy talking about yourself this
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is what people this is probably and
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probably you're you're one of the only
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persons to ask this questions in my
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little media realm um my media around
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that I've done
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but at least half of that idea was my
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own idea yeah so I got to give us some
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producer friends and I saw I thought
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this it might be a good idea so I kind
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of floated it to them then we went back
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and forth with some ideas and then um
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but turned into what it turned into but
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it was half of that was at least my idea
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which half I don't know but yeah I was I
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was all for the I just thought it was
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the right time I thought it was the
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right time
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to
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expose some parts of the gym that I was
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previously not wanting to expose I
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thought it was the right time for I
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guess the public to have a look inside
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and the inner workings of the gym or the
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inner workings of the SP
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sport I I started watching it it's a
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phenomenal watch so you got fighters
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that are that are already they're not
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complete novices so fight some of them
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have had like a 100 fights and then they
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come to um City kickboxing and suddenly
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they're you know sparring with um Dan
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the hangman hooker and they get their
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ass kicked uh so suddenly they feel like
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like a fish out of water or a novice and
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the reality is they still experience
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Fighters it's a real fascinating
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Insight yeah yeah I mean again for the
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viewers that aren familiar for MMA it's
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like it would be like a club rugby
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player getting um you know he gets to
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train with the All Blacks for four weeks
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so he's going to get his ass kicked for
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a while until he can but but at the end
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of those four weeks he's going to be
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very familiar with the environment he's
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not going to be at all level but he
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going to have one foot through the door
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and he's going to somewhat know what he
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needs to do to get where he wants to go
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and that was more like the approach of
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getting them involved with the higher
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level guys and yeah I think I hope
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people enjoyed it yeah it's bloody great
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and I'd urge people to check it out yeah
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relentless on TV andz okay so let's get
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back to your early years so your um
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Dutch dad Samo and m y can you sort of
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like break down your inner workings and
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figure out what comes from
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where um no yeah all definitely from my
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parents from my upbring I had I'm still
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do shouldn't talk about them in past
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tense because they're still around have
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terrific parents um my dad's a wonderful
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dad
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very I guess he's a kiwi but some very
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Dutch values he's he provided us kids
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with everything we needed every
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opportunity um and and my mom was uh
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very heavily religious lady so that's
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where we got those sort of values about
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being honest and truthful and the more
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typical Christian
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values I also got and I'm look back at
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this now and I'm thankful for this but I
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also got a lot of freedom I feel I got a
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lot of freedom
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to make
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mistakes and um it's not that's not
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something I've necessarily carried on
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with my kids I feel like I've gone the
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other way I got a lot of freedom yeah I
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just I just got to do things and I
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didn't necessarily have to check
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everything off with my parents my
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parents went helicopter parents um um
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they gave me an opportunity to do things
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and they gave me an opportunity to make
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mistakes and learn from them um I have
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not carrying on that um I'm not carrying
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on that Philosophy for sure I'm I just
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think don't I don't think it's done
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these days is it the old um yeah you
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give someone enough rope that's the same
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but you you seem like a super driven kid
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though way like I I heard stories about
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you so you were your rugby was your your
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go-to sport um you were pretty good at
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rugby quite reca like first first 15 at
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your school when you were 15 I was the
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first 15 captain and stuff so I was okay
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um I suffered from I think rugby as and
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especially the professional era like H
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was this relatively
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small uh person and
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Rugby's or at least at the moment is the
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game of giants in it at the moment um so
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in terms of a professional career I
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think I was never going to be big enough
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and um I also was very dedic ated and
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trained really really hard and at the
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lower levels of
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rugby
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um sometimes you don't have like-minded
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people around you so like some kind of
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like it can dig at you it can get to you
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yeah so you're making all this effort
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they're not professional so they're not
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making an effort and you you it's that
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inequality you're like man very
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frustrating so that's where I found a
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little bit of frustration in terms of
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rugby yeah so you're better suited to a
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solo sport I think I and the end in
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hindsight I think yeah definitely it was
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yeah yeah cuz I think I heard this on
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another podcast you did or maybe read it
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uh in an interview somewhere but so
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growing up as like a teenage boy you do
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um like long hill repeats on Bullock
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track Bullock track is like a really
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steep steep hill sort of at the back of
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like motac by the ockland zoo it's maybe
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3 or 400 meters but it's like a a
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massive massive vert and you'd go out
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there in the dark on your own uh like
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training for rugby where did that sort
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of like like I don't know self-drive or
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whatever it was come
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from I have in recent years done a lot
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of interviews and podcasts and press
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conferences and stuff but for most of my
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life I would say I was definitely an
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introvert I loved being by myself and I
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when I was by myself I felt I could that
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was when I felt most comfortable and
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when I could collect all my thoughts
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about life and so I was when I trained
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by myself with which I did a lot of
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that's that was where I got into my zone
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where I started to think about life and
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goals and what I wanted to do and where
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I wanted to you know where I wanted to
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end up I did all of that while I was
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training by myself it was not just about
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the physical training but it was about
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the mental release that I got from
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training by myself in the middle of
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nowhere and doing all these things I did
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a lot of training by myself for sure and
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it was around this time that you met
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Cara she's your wife now you guys were
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like high school sweetharts yeah yeah
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yeah how how did how did that come
00:16:04
about you're the same age or she old I
00:16:07
we basically the same age that wasn't
00:16:09
any great story it was just sort of that
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was the old typical kiwi saw a girl at a
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party thought she looked pretty
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nice went up to her found out she had
00:16:22
some mutual fans got introduced by the
00:16:25
mutual fans and yeah That's All She
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Wrote is you guys got four kids now so
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like it's it's all you've known for each
00:16:35
other so you you've been together since
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you were kids essentially it's really
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cool I think that's it's really powerful
00:16:40
stuff yeah man yeah it seems a bit of a
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thing um man I got my Fighters at my gym
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can't keep a girlfriend for more than a
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few weeks so yeah breaking the mold a
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little bit but yeah I'm not going to
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lecture them about that it's it's a
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Brave New World you you um yeah how did
00:16:58
the Rel CU you left school when you were
00:16:59
15 initially and you end up bouncing
00:17:01
back to school but how like how did the
00:17:02
relationship survive when you left
00:17:04
school you think you know you and Cara
00:17:05
she's at school you're not at school
00:17:07
suddenly you're in different Circle she
00:17:08
went to a different school so so we were
00:17:11
we were we were lucky in that respect so
00:17:12
shorty shorty so we already had a bit of
00:17:15
distance and stuff between us but um
00:17:18
yeah I mean didn't make a difference
00:17:20
when other school we were already used
00:17:21
to being a part but U I don't know we
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survived I'm not
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like I
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not a
00:17:32
womanizer I don't like talking to woman
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I would prefer not to I would prefer to
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be amongst my mates and amongst a bunch
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of BLS look some guys are good at
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talking to woman and others are not and
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um I can talk to my female Fighters
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quite well
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but damn I can't say anything on this
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podcast about female Fighters but you
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can say what you can say whatever you
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want um I don't know maybe the masculine
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side of those woman womanly those woman
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make me feel a bit more comfortable
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comfortable communicating with him okay
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I got
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you trying to put it trying to put it
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nicely yeah but yeah I just wasn't a
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womanizer and I I suppose I suppose the
00:18:17
woman in that sort of fighting
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environment I mean it's it's probably a
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very lty sort of environment very
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testerone test F environment they
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probably need to they are very feminine
00:18:26
woman when they want to be but the fact
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of the matter is they're
00:18:31
being they're in a masculine world yeah
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they're surrounded by BLS they're
00:18:35
surrounded by
00:18:37
testosterone um and man to be a woman in
00:18:41
a fight gym you've got to be tough
00:18:43
you've got to be tough and sometimes you
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have to let go of some of your more
00:18:48
womanly or female characteristics um
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just to survive so yeah maybe that's why
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I get on okay with the woman Fighters
00:18:56
imagine imagine if you found yourself
00:18:58
single like you'd have to trim your
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beard maybe maybe wear something other
00:19:02
than a swand
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dry the Civic you need to get a nicer
00:19:07
car to pick people it's never going to
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happen um you there was an amazing story
00:19:13
about you which you I'm sure you've told
00:19:14
a million times before so you're
00:19:16
probably sick of telling but it just it
00:19:19
fascinates me cuz here you are you know
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17 16 year old Eugene so you leave
00:19:24
school at
00:19:25
15 you you realize that it's um it's a
00:19:28
[ __ ] show out there there without any
00:19:29
qualifications and there's very limited
00:19:31
options um just the fact that you had
00:19:33
the the foresight to think that I think
00:19:34
when you're 15 like um I don't know when
00:19:36
I was that age like a job's a job like
00:19:38
if I was getting a couple hundred bucks
00:19:39
a week I would have been happy with that
00:19:41
but you decided you wanted more for your
00:19:42
life so you went back to school the
00:19:44
school basically just wanted you back to
00:19:45
play rugby but you wanted to go back to
00:19:47
study and um you spent like every
00:19:50
basically every spare second of every
00:19:52
day in the school library yep I mean
00:19:55
that if you want to put my life leading
00:19:58
to what it is now in one pivotal moment
00:20:00
in my life where everything changed it
00:20:02
was that moment when they weren't going
00:20:04
to let me back into school and and I had
00:20:06
the realization that I had
00:20:10
um I had effed up everything at school
00:20:14
or effed up my life up until that point
00:20:16
by not paying attention in school not
00:20:19
realizing the importance of an
00:20:21
education and uh what it did for me was
00:20:26
it forced me into a situation where my
00:20:28
back was against the wall and I had to
00:20:32
basically learn my entire four to five
00:20:35
years of schooling in one
00:20:37
year um and at that point I felt like
00:20:42
the success or what my life was writing
00:20:46
on was how well I did that and
00:20:49
so I took that pressure and I tried to
00:20:52
turn that pressure into something
00:20:53
positive and at the end I got my
00:20:56
qualifications but what it more made me
00:20:57
realize do is like mate I can actually I
00:21:01
I never saw in myself that I had the
00:21:03
potential to do anything that I wanted
00:21:06
to do I just didn't I thought I was just
00:21:09
a kid and when you're a kid you think
00:21:11
I'm just a kid I'm going to grow up
00:21:12
pretty normal and not going to do any
00:21:15
extraordinary things um and I I it
00:21:19
changed all that it just made me realize
00:21:21
man if I work hard I have the potential
00:21:25
to do whatever I want especially if I
00:21:26
achieve this and from that moment I knew
00:21:28
I could be successful at whatever Avenue
00:21:32
that my life took me down yes I mean
00:21:34
it's it's inspirational stuff so you'd
00:21:36
go to the library and you'd sit your
00:21:38
alarm for 3 hours and then um even if
00:21:42
you got all your your work and your
00:21:43
study finished then you just keep going
00:21:45
and to fill in that 3 hours I mean it's
00:21:47
like it's just astonishing really like
00:21:49
it's a just a a work ethic that I I
00:21:53
don't know I think when you when you get
00:21:54
older as an adult you can have more of
00:21:55
appreciation of it but to have that at
00:21:57
that age as a
00:21:59
16 17 year old boy when all your mates
00:22:00
were outside playing sports or whatever
00:22:03
it's um amazing sort of laser focus was
00:22:06
tremendously hard I know that because
00:22:08
and and I really really hope that what I
00:22:11
had essentially done was drift
00:22:14
through uh third fourth fifth and sixth
00:22:18
form without learning virtually nothing
00:22:21
I hope that doesn't go on today I hope
00:22:23
the education system now not picks up
00:22:26
those kids that are drifting like I was
00:22:28
and pluck them out and helps them um but
00:22:31
yeah I ended up with nothing so I had to
00:22:35
go straight back to the start and try
00:22:36
and learn everything in a year and that
00:22:38
was tremendously hard I would probably
00:22:40
not do it again but the reward I got out
00:22:43
of that was man I just got an
00:22:45
empowerment out of it right so um I
00:22:48
wouldn't change it for the world yeah
00:22:51
and that sort of changed the trajectory
00:22:53
of your life a little bit so then you
00:22:54
left school went to law school um and
00:22:57
then you discovered um fighting so you
00:22:59
dropped out of law school is that yeah
00:23:02
one year one year of law school yeah how
00:23:05
are your parents they must have been
00:23:07
speing yeah were they yeah when you get
00:23:11
when you get someone get into law school
00:23:13
in your family then I mean sure um law
00:23:17
current law students now and uh lawyers
00:23:19
now and it's the big thing right it's
00:23:21
like oh got on law school got on Oakland
00:23:24
got onota it's a big thing in your
00:23:26
family right so um yeah I I walked into
00:23:30
a gym and I just got the
00:23:32
bug and
00:23:34
then I knew that that was want to do
00:23:37
what I wanted to do with the rest of my
00:23:39
life I just I was quite sure that after
00:23:42
I had a couple of fights that um that's
00:23:45
what I wanted to chase that's what I
00:23:47
wanted to do in some form or manner yeah
00:23:51
but you can see your parents concern cuz
00:23:53
it's like um you've done all this hard
00:23:55
catchup work at school um and then you
00:23:58
get into to law school and then suddenly
00:24:00
you're throwing it all away for like a
00:24:02
career with no
00:24:04
options yeah but you're throwing away
00:24:07
for a hobby essentially aren't
00:24:09
you I mean you've turned it into a
00:24:12
wildly successful career but at the time
00:24:14
it was a hob more or Le it's it's a
00:24:20
lifestyle it's a
00:24:22
lifestyle you cuz cuz you you you you
00:24:26
just mildly mildly offended about 50
00:24:28
guys in my gym just in by calling it a
00:24:30
hobby no no what what I mean I don't
00:24:34
want to what I mean is like when when
00:24:36
you started so from your parents
00:24:38
perspective you're 18 19 they're like so
00:24:40
you're quitting law school for what yeah
00:24:42
um CU i s also also yeah talking about
00:24:45
the guys in new JY like I I saw a
00:24:47
YouTube clip a couple of weeks ago and
00:24:48
it was Joe Rogan on one of the late
00:24:50
night talk shows like 20 years ago
00:24:52
explaining what UFC is like everyone
00:24:53
knows what UFC is now but like when you
00:24:55
were starting out with your fighting it
00:24:57
was like it it wasn't like a there
00:25:00
wasn't like a a potential career path
00:25:02
that there is now 100% 100% yeah I mean
00:25:06
trust
00:25:07
me from the outside people are like yeah
00:25:10
this ridiculous like you're going to
00:25:11
stop law school to basically chase a
00:25:14
sport or a hobby but martial arts when
00:25:17
you get really deep into it is a
00:25:21
lifestyle it's a code by which you live
00:25:24
your life and so that's the side that I
00:25:27
was committing myself to um but I
00:25:31
also I I knew from my experience in life
00:25:35
up until that point especially the
00:25:37
pivotal point when I decided I'm going
00:25:39
to change my life and be like now buger
00:25:40
that I'm going to go to university and
00:25:43
change my life I'm going to give me some
00:25:45
good options into the future I also knew
00:25:47
that I could achieve anything I wanted
00:25:49
to achieve I felt I felt I had that in
00:25:52
me so um although my parents and from
00:25:56
the outside people wouldn't have seen
00:25:58
yeah I I I backed myself at that point
00:26:01
yeah I backed myself for sure sh and
00:26:02
it's paid off handsomely um yes so you
00:26:05
you were a fighter and you're you're
00:26:06
quite a good fighter 49 fights all up
00:26:09
yes across uh three different
00:26:13
disciplines yeah what are they
00:26:15
kickboxing mu Tai yeah MMA and I had a
00:26:18
boxing fight right and I I watched a
00:26:21
clip on YouTube just before you came
00:26:22
over I think it was your 49th and final
00:26:24
fight and uh yeah there's a quote at the
00:26:26
end you said it's one of the best
00:26:27
feelings in the world like win or
00:26:29
lose how how is it the best feeling in
00:26:31
the world even if it's um not a
00:26:33
successful night um
00:26:36
nothing when you're going out and
00:26:39
leading into a fight nothing in your not
00:26:42
not an instinct in your body or anything
00:26:45
in your brain says that it's a good idea
00:26:47
and you should be gravitating towards it
00:26:50
everything every hair on your body every
00:26:53
thought in your brain says don't do it
00:26:56
this is this is the stupidest thing that
00:26:59
you can sign yourself up
00:27:00
to overcoming that whether you win or
00:27:04
lose is the fight that's the battle
00:27:07
that's the battle for most Fighters yeah
00:27:10
the secondary battle is the result but
00:27:13
firstly just to get in there and and
00:27:16
beat all of those demons that is an
00:27:18
amazing feeling in itself yeah amazing
00:27:21
feeling oh you love it don't you you
00:27:25
love it how how do you find not being a
00:27:27
not being a fighter now
00:27:28
like just like watching other people is
00:27:31
is it sort of like you vicariously
00:27:34
living through them in a way not well
00:27:35
it's tremendously difficult it's
00:27:37
tremendously difficult because obviously
00:27:40
as a coach you have you can only control
00:27:42
so much of the environment the rest is
00:27:44
up to them and so that lack of control
00:27:48
that you have um it it really it eats it
00:27:53
you um it's much much you know for
00:27:57
anybody
00:27:58
young Fighters and or old Fighters
00:28:00
aspiring to be a coach 100 times easier
00:28:03
to be a fighter 100 times easier to be a
00:28:06
fighter why so I'm I'm in charge of
00:28:09
everything I'm in charge of what I do if
00:28:11
I perform uh it basically comes down to
00:28:14
me uh you know everything that happens
00:28:18
on that night when lose draw what
00:28:20
decisions I make whether I perform well
00:28:23
um it all comes down to me I'm in
00:28:26
control of it all the coach which has a
00:28:29
very helpless feeling of not being in
00:28:32
control cuz it's not them fighting yeah
00:28:35
so so if your Fighters lose you sort of
00:28:37
you you sort of it stings for you as
00:28:39
well it does it does it does Sting it
00:28:41
does Sting you've got to but you've got
00:28:43
to like man you've got to really immerse
00:28:46
yourself in that in in that fight you've
00:28:49
got to give your full commitment
00:28:53
emotionally spiritually physically
00:28:56
physically maybe in the training if
00:28:58
you're Hing them train but during the
00:29:00
fight you've got to put everything into
00:29:01
it all your intellect all your brain all
00:29:04
your commitment everything all your
00:29:06
emotion it all goes into that 15 to 25
00:29:10
minutes and uh man if they lose you know
00:29:14
you lose as well yeah you're you're
00:29:16
you're the same team you're the same
00:29:18
person yeah yeah um so City kickboxing
00:29:22
2007 you you you opened that up um what
00:29:25
were your goals and dreams back then
00:29:28
they're a lot different than what they
00:29:29
are now well I started that gym just so
00:29:32
I could fight more so it could support
00:29:35
me doing what I might so could support
00:29:37
me doing my hobby right I said you said
00:29:40
to think you do some personal training
00:29:42
have some people I thought I'd have like
00:29:45
30 women come in or 30 I should I can't
00:29:48
talk like that anymore I had 30 people
00:29:50
come in office men and women they'll do
00:29:54
a workout they'd pay their fees and then
00:29:56
they' leave me alone and I'll TR train
00:29:58
all day and this wonderful facility that
00:30:01
they're essentially paying for um and
00:30:03
that was the plan but that yeah um I
00:30:07
just found out the realities of owning a
00:30:09
small business is completely different
00:30:11
to that you really how how s just some
00:30:14
tough years lease
00:30:17
bills all these things that I wasn't too
00:30:20
accustomed to cuz I'd lived under my
00:30:21
parents roof I was suddenly responsible
00:30:24
for I had a lease with many thousands of
00:30:26
dollars and I had to come up with money
00:30:29
um at the end of every month um
00:30:31
electricity all the responsibilities of
00:30:33
being a small business owner they get
00:30:36
thrust on you and you start to realize
00:30:37
man it's not just as simple as opening
00:30:39
the door and letting all the people
00:30:41
flood in you've got to do some
00:30:42
advertising you've got to get a
00:30:43
reputation for doing as well and then
00:30:47
yeah so it started that that that was
00:30:50
the original idea but then it turned
00:30:52
into something else and then of course
00:30:54
what happened is those 30 office workers
00:30:56
that I me to get in every lunchtime they
00:30:59
gradually turn into 30 young aspiring
00:31:02
Fighters and yet 30 young aspiring
00:31:05
Fighters don't want to come in and pay
00:31:07
their fees and then leave an hour later
00:31:09
30 young aspiring Fighters want to come
00:31:11
in sometimes they don't have any fees to
00:31:13
pay because they've got no money and
00:31:15
they want to stay there all day and they
00:31:17
want to train with you and they want to
00:31:18
know this and they want to know that and
00:31:20
they want to know this and then before
00:31:22
you know it your dream of running this
00:31:24
Boutique little Fitness Studio turns
00:31:26
into this monster
00:31:29
turns into this monster and then and
00:31:32
then it develops into what it is today
00:31:34
but yeah right it's been been a funny
00:31:35
volution though what you say at least
00:31:37
from an Outsiders perspective no no man
00:31:39
it's been a ride I'm telling you it's
00:31:41
been like a hell of a ride I look back I
00:31:44
I do look back fondly on all those days
00:31:47
from its Inception to where it is now
00:31:49
yeah and I've heard you call it a gym
00:31:51
for broken Souls what does what does
00:31:53
that mean can you elaborate on that look
00:31:55
man if you if you if if you walk into a
00:31:59
gym like mine a gym a martial arts gym
00:32:02
or a fighting gym you you are coming
00:32:05
there specifically for that when you
00:32:07
walk
00:32:09
into uh you know a a health club or Le
00:32:13
Mills or something you're going there to
00:32:15
use the weights and to use the machine
00:32:18
or to use the treadmills or stuff but
00:32:20
when you when you wake up one morning
00:32:22
and you say man I'm I need something
00:32:24
I've got to what am I going to do I'm
00:32:26
going to get into this fighting gym as
00:32:28
martial arts gym those are people
00:32:31
generally that are searching for
00:32:33
something in their life that's missing
00:32:36
and that's what I mean and those sort of
00:32:39
people come and gravitate towards the
00:32:40
gym and those are the sort of people
00:32:41
that get the most out of the gym because
00:32:43
they find what they're looking for at
00:32:45
the gym
00:32:47
yeah oh that's so cool
00:32:50
yeah how do how do you manage the
00:32:52
expectations of people that come through
00:32:54
the door now cuz I'm you know due to the
00:32:57
success you've had and um the profile
00:32:59
you've got with the UFC I'm guessing
00:33:01
that there's a lot of people that that
00:33:02
knock on your door and say I want to be
00:33:04
you the next style Bender or I want to
00:33:06
be this or I want to be that like how do
00:33:08
you manage that sort of expectation cuz
00:33:10
that's um you like yeah making to the
00:33:14
UFC I suppose that's like a that's the a
00:33:16
1ent thing right yeah with great great
00:33:21
great great difficulty yeah with great
00:33:24
difficulty because on the same at the
00:33:26
same time I'm a
00:33:29
believer that anybody can achieve their
00:33:32
dream their dream okay anybody can do
00:33:35
whatever they want if they put the right
00:33:36
steps in place and work hard and blah
00:33:38
blah blah blah blah um the fact of the
00:33:41
matter is it's only 1% of the people
00:33:43
make it so you're trying to balance
00:33:46
their expectations with reality is very
00:33:50
very difficult we're in a day and age
00:33:53
now more than ever where I'm getting
00:33:56
young people come into the
00:33:59
gym
00:34:01
and they are coming into the gym and
00:34:03
they are stead set on becoming a
00:34:06
professional fighter in the UFC you're
00:34:09
just becoming a professional
00:34:11
fighter and that is
00:34:15
tremendously difficult thing for me to
00:34:17
deal with that wasn't even an option
00:34:20
when I started fighting we every fighter
00:34:22
in the gym when I was in a gym had a job
00:34:26
cuz it just wasn't even an option now
00:34:28
kids are coming at 18 19 20 I asked a
00:34:31
kid the other day have you I didn't
00:34:34
realize he left school I was like oh you
00:34:36
live school I said oh have you got a job
00:34:38
he was like no I haven't got a job I
00:34:39
said what are you looking for I said I'm
00:34:41
not probably won't get a job and I was
00:34:43
like what are you going to do and he
00:34:44
looked at me and he goes I'm going to be
00:34:45
a fighter and I was like man it's what a
00:34:49
crazy world we live in where now young
00:34:51
people are seeing that as an actual
00:34:53
career path yeah as an option as an
00:34:56
option but it's I it's my job to just
00:34:59
let them know not kill their dream but
00:35:01
let them know the reality of the
00:35:03
situation that it's a very uh tough path
00:35:06
to take and um if you want to take it
00:35:08
I'll get behind you but just understand
00:35:11
it's going to
00:35:12
take uh it's going to be very very hard
00:35:14
work to get there if someone's got that
00:35:16
red hot burning desire um but they don't
00:35:19
have the the like the the talent to
00:35:21
match it and you know they don't have
00:35:23
the talent were you were you are you
00:35:25
going at having tough conversations
00:35:30
or do you reckon even if someone doesn't
00:35:31
initially have the talent if they've got
00:35:33
that like sort of work work ethic and
00:35:35
that drive and that burning desire that
00:35:37
they can overcome
00:35:39
anything to answer the first part of
00:35:42
that the very the way that you put it
00:35:44
first I'm going to say that I I am
00:35:46
probably tremendously bad at having T
00:35:49
tough
00:35:50
conversations yeah I'll tell you why cuz
00:35:54
I've never told anybody that they can't
00:35:55
achieve their dream and I know in my
00:35:58
head that there's been people in front
00:35:59
of me and I know they can't it's
00:36:02
probably a little bit unrealistic to
00:36:04
have that goal and I've never told a
00:36:06
single person they can't reach it but on
00:36:10
the you know to to back myself up here a
00:36:13
little bit I also believe that there has
00:36:16
to be a little bit of self-discovery
00:36:18
there that what is the harm and them
00:36:22
trying to reach their go what is a har
00:36:23
trying them trying to reach for the
00:36:25
stars what what bad can come out come
00:36:27
out of it and I know the martial arts
00:36:30
Journey you might not get to the top but
00:36:32
I know you know I know what what it can
00:36:34
do for your life if you reach even
00:36:36
halfway I know how much positivity it
00:36:40
can bring into your life even if you
00:36:42
don't achieve the exact goals what you
00:36:44
what you what that you're set out to do
00:36:47
um you're learning you're learning a
00:36:49
code to live by that is just a beautiful
00:36:53
thing right so it's an intentional thing
00:36:55
you're not scared of having tough
00:36:56
conversations but you just want people
00:36:57
to sort of like figure it out in their
00:36:59
own time let them figure out out for
00:37:00
them themselves there's no harm in it
00:37:02
all they're going to do is train learn
00:37:03
martial arts learn the martial arts
00:37:05
lifestyle live a beautiful healthy
00:37:06
lifestyle meet some of the best people
00:37:09
I've ever met in my life they're going
00:37:10
to meet them they're going to
00:37:11
intermingle with them it's just a great
00:37:13
um positive environment something that
00:37:15
they should be involved with that's
00:37:18
going to that's going to elevate their
00:37:19
life
00:37:21
anyway also you don't always get it
00:37:23
right like I've I've heard stories about
00:37:24
your um your initial meetings with um
00:37:27
your two most famous students I guess
00:37:29
Dan hooker and israela you both um tried
00:37:32
to like Palm them off to other gyms
00:37:35
didn't you is that a
00:37:38
fact yeah yeah little little a little
00:37:40
bit little bit little bit dumb but I was
00:37:42
also I was also quietly confident that
00:37:47
my gym was doing things a little bit
00:37:49
differently to the other gyms and that
00:37:52
if they that they would probably find
00:37:53
their way back yeah so but you didn't
00:37:57
you didn't
00:37:58
see like UFC potential in either of them
00:38:01
initially no I did you did yeah I did
00:38:05
but I don't know just a part of me
00:38:09
wanted them to also see the potential
00:38:11
that my gym and my coaches had and my
00:38:14
and and I had so go away have a look at
00:38:17
what other gyms are doing and then come
00:38:19
back and be like oh you guys are there's
00:38:21
something a little different about what
00:38:23
what you guys are doing there something
00:38:24
a little bit different about the water
00:38:26
you guys are drinking so I think I'll
00:38:29
situate myself here yeah I wanted them
00:38:31
to see that as well what do um what does
00:38:34
an average day look like for you uh must
00:38:37
be like a time management Master Class
00:38:39
like you've got four kids at home how
00:38:41
how young is the youngest Like Preschool
00:38:43
age right what why's going to kill me
00:38:48
um I'm going to say four four [ __ ] I
00:38:51
could be wrong there yeah see what what
00:38:54
does the day look like what time are you
00:38:56
up 4:30 my alarm goes every day for the
00:39:00
last however many years yeah decade plus
00:39:03
decade and a half maybe even the last 20
00:39:06
years
00:39:07
4:30 I get I I drag myself out of
00:39:11
bed grab a protein shake jump on my
00:39:14
motorbike go to the gym I'm there about
00:39:17
five yeah I'm there about
00:39:20
five take a few classes train Fighters
00:39:23
up to about now uh 1 2:00
00:39:28
go home pick up my kids from school get
00:39:31
them come have have some food with them
00:39:34
a little bit of homework play around a
00:39:36
little bit back to the gym at 4: and
00:39:39
then I'm at the gym from 4:
00:39:41
till about
00:39:43
839 yeah 8
00:39:45
89 yeah so my day split but yeah it's
00:39:49
it's it's I mean I don't know how many
00:39:51
that's a long day so and then then you
00:39:54
go home a little bit of wind down time
00:39:56
or straight to
00:39:58
or uh at man i' I virtually have to go
00:40:01
straight to bed cuz I get up at 4:30 so
00:40:04
if you imagine I get home around this I
00:40:06
get home at 9:00 eat um spend some time
00:40:11
uh with the with the wife my two older
00:40:14
boys that gets me to 10 I got to have a
00:40:18
shower um what's that 10:30 and I got to
00:40:22
get up and like what's that 5 hours
00:40:24
later yeah so that's that's a lot of
00:40:27
sleep you're not prioritizing your sleep
00:40:29
are you no but I mean I i' yeah I've
00:40:31
never slept much I have I have
00:40:34
difficulty sleeping you know if I if I
00:40:36
sleep past 7 I'm happy I'm like man I
00:40:38
had to sleep in if I get past 7:00 a.m.
00:40:40
so yeah but that's my day but people you
00:40:44
know like you can sit here and be like
00:40:46
man that's a long day it's l and that
00:40:48
but it's not a long
00:40:51
day when all you'd rather do in your
00:40:53
life is be doing what I'm doing then
00:40:56
it's exactly what I want do and I think
00:40:58
that's the my best answer to people
00:41:00
saying oh man it's so long such a long
00:41:03
hours I'm you do it every day for the
00:41:06
last you know 15 years I'm like Hey
00:41:09
brother because I'm living my dream I'm
00:41:12
doing what I want to do I'd probably be
00:41:14
there for longer if my wife wasn't
00:41:15
nagging me I'd stay at the gym till 10
00:41:18
you know yeah that was going to be my
00:41:20
next like does
00:41:22
car like does it create friction at home
00:41:25
that you're not there and
00:41:28
it has over the years for sure for sure
00:41:29
I've gotten a little bit better at that
00:41:31
but look I couldn't do what I did like
00:41:34
there wouldn't be any success there
00:41:36
wouldn't be you know there quite
00:41:38
honestly wouldn't be an isra Eda or
00:41:40
Carlos orber or anyone if there wasn't
00:41:43
aara Nukem that's just the truth um if
00:41:47
if she wasn't the woman that she was
00:41:49
that basically brought up my kids um
00:41:52
with a little bit of input but she did
00:41:55
she's she's mostly brought up those kids
00:41:57
by herself um if she didn't do that and
00:42:01
she wasn't graceful about it and let
00:42:02
that happen and supported and supported
00:42:05
me then there wouldn't be those guys cuz
00:42:08
I would maybe because I would be
00:42:11
bringing up those kids and dedicating
00:42:13
more of my time to my family so um I
00:42:16
made sacrifices in that regard she made
00:42:18
sacrifices in that regard and um it is
00:42:21
what it is but yeah I'm not going to say
00:42:23
that it was all 12,000 whistles over
00:42:27
last 15 or 20 years there was definitely
00:42:29
some um shouting matches and some things
00:42:32
forun across the room but that's that's
00:42:35
that's life you know that's real life
00:42:37
yeah it's real life if you yeah if you
00:42:39
come home late enough so the kids are
00:42:41
asleep she won't want to create a
00:42:43
scene is that why you imagine you're
00:42:47
sitting in the driveway like is that a
00:42:48
trick you you
00:42:51
use so um you you've been through some
00:42:55
um just inredible adversity as well I I
00:42:59
think most most you don't get to your
00:43:00
40s without going through some sort of
00:43:02
adversity I think that's the same for
00:43:03
everyone but um do you want to uh talk
00:43:06
about the 2012 Tahiti incident with um
00:43:09
Wilman Rodriguez Gomez who was he he was
00:43:11
a good friend of yours very good friend
00:43:13
of mine um someone I started fighting
00:43:15
with um and then uh at my original gym
00:43:18
and then when I went and started my own
00:43:19
gym he called me up and said oh I would
00:43:22
like to come across with you when you
00:43:23
start your own gym and for you to train
00:43:25
me which is a tremendous honor right
00:43:28
it's not someone that it's not a new
00:43:31
person coming and asking me it's it's
00:43:33
someone that I was fighting with and
00:43:34
train with at the same time so um I took
00:43:38
that I took that as a I took that
00:43:40
responsibility like really really
00:43:42
seriously and um yeah we went to Tahiti
00:43:46
he had a match in Tahiti and he
00:43:49
unfortunately uh passed away in the
00:43:53
ring because he had some maybe a
00:43:57
aneurysm that wasn't picked up um and it
00:44:00
was made worse by the fight and he got a
00:44:03
he got a blow that he got a fatal blow
00:44:04
on the fight and um he never recovered
00:44:07
so um man life another pivotal
00:44:12
life-changing moment for me
00:44:14
um
00:44:16
I I 100% contemplated never doing that
00:44:19
sport again CU he he died on your arms
00:44:22
right you were there basically yep he
00:44:24
died in my arms I grabbed him I held him
00:44:26
I
00:44:28
I questioned the medical staff that were
00:44:30
working on him and I was like why you
00:44:32
need to do this you need to do
00:44:34
this yeah you know there was a disarray
00:44:39
you know in the moment and
00:44:42
um and then uh yeah it just when you
00:44:46
have things like that happen in your
00:44:48
life when you watch people more or less
00:44:50
die in front of you you it's it uh it
00:44:54
leaves an indelible it leaves an
00:44:57
impression you know and it certainly
00:44:59
left an
00:45:00
impression on
00:45:02
me they
00:45:05
probably to this day I would say there's
00:45:08
probably not a day but maybe every
00:45:11
second day nowadays that I don't think
00:45:13
of that kid a year you know for for at
00:45:16
least the first decade when he passed
00:45:19
away it was every day I used to in some
00:45:20
formal fashion think about um my friend
00:45:24
wman and U probably got that done to
00:45:26
every second day but I'm not afraid of
00:45:29
that like you I don't want to forget you
00:45:32
know I want him to be in my memory so um
00:45:36
it's not it's not a negative thing I
00:45:38
like that my thought flashes to him
00:45:40
every now and then I think that's how it
00:45:42
should be so um I think that's what all
00:45:45
anyone wants as well like um I don't
00:45:48
know I'm probably projecting here but
00:45:49
like if I was on my deathbed I think
00:45:52
your biggest fear would be being
00:45:53
forgotten or people not remembering you
00:45:54
so I think so I think like Liv living
00:45:57
someone's heart like that or their mind
00:45:58
and thinking of them every day or every
00:46:01
second day like 12 years on I think um I
00:46:04
think that's humbling says a lot about
00:46:05
him and
00:46:07
you yep that for sure I um yeah yeah I
00:46:13
every year I visit
00:46:15
him I don't know it's just one of just
00:46:17
part of oh his burial site his burial
00:46:20
site yeah and and there was there was
00:46:22
another incident when um when Izzy won
00:46:24
his first um yeah World title belt you
00:46:27
you took the belt to
00:46:29
Tahiti y yeah yeah I
00:46:33
mean I know I strangely think
00:46:35
everything's interconnected you know
00:46:40
um I
00:46:42
was 100% adamant that I was going to
00:46:44
quit the sport at that point
00:46:47
and our original coach me and wiman's
00:46:51
original
00:46:52
coach came over to my house and had a
00:46:55
very
00:46:57
poignant talked to me and he put things
00:47:00
in a way that made
00:47:04
me scared me frightened me a little
00:47:08
bit and his words were
00:47:11
basically
00:47:14
yene if you leave the sport how many of
00:47:17
your Fighters do you think will leave
00:47:19
the sport with you and I said to him I
00:47:21
said R I think they'll probably all just
00:47:23
carry
00:47:25
on and then I kind of walked into his
00:47:27
trap that's exactly what I what he
00:47:29
wanted to hear and then he turned to me
00:47:30
and he said is there anyone else on this
00:47:34
planet that you would trust to look
00:47:36
after those Fighters and put the same
00:47:39
you know and look after them in the same
00:47:41
way you do with the same dedication and
00:47:43
the same
00:47:44
commitment and then there was a couple
00:47:47
minutes of silence while I thought about
00:47:49
that and then I turned to him and I said
00:47:54
n yeah
00:47:57
wow yeah it still makes me emotional
00:47:59
thinking about that moment I don't talk
00:48:01
about it too often but yeah I said n you
00:48:05
know
00:48:07
what there's no one that'll look after
00:48:09
those kids better than
00:48:11
me there's no one that would do quite as
00:48:13
good a job and obviously a part of that
00:48:15
was my ego talking but at that point I I
00:48:18
just knew that he he and that one small
00:48:22
conversation he changed my mind
00:48:24
completely and I was like
00:48:28
yeah I was like [ __ ] I've got to keep
00:48:29
going I've got to keep going I cannot
00:48:32
put these guys in that danger and that
00:48:35
that young fell was
00:48:37
in um they can't do this without me and
00:48:41
then amazing because I've never s I've
00:48:45
never had my mind changed like that yeah
00:48:48
in such a simple conversation put in
00:48:50
such a simple direct way um our old
00:48:54
trainer um L hey who still runs a jym
00:48:57
one of the best um trainers and he's you
00:48:59
one of the best coaches in the world
00:49:01
still um yeah I have to thank him for
00:49:05
that conversation because um my life
00:49:08
would have Tak a completely different
00:49:09
direction if it wasn't for him bringing
00:49:11
me back into the sport yeah
00:49:14
powerful yeah I think thanks so much for
00:49:17
sharing that cuz I can tell it's not
00:49:18
easy for you to share so I do appreciate
00:49:19
it um yeah do do you do you think at
00:49:22
that moment you changed as a coach so
00:49:24
instead of just like teaching people to
00:49:26
to go in there and be [ __ ] Savage as
00:49:28
you're teaching them to look after
00:49:30
themselves as well or was that was that
00:49:31
like a sort of tun yeah 100% I realized
00:49:34
the seriousness of of what I was doing I
00:49:37
always took it very very seriously but I
00:49:39
took things to another level I was like
00:49:41
man we we there's a side of us that we
00:49:45
love and there's a side of us that we
00:49:47
find
00:49:49
fun and but there's a side of it that's
00:49:51
so so so serious and if we keep doing
00:49:56
this and we keep putting our boys in the
00:49:59
situation we've got to get them out of
00:50:02
there
00:50:04
um we've got to get them back to their
00:50:07
family parents love ones kids in one
00:50:10
pieace so yeah I I I just took that to
00:50:14
another level I took that very very
00:50:15
seriously yeah for sure yeah it seems
00:50:18
Seems like you're carrying a big burden
00:50:20
but it was uh it was ultimately like a a
00:50:22
pre-existing condition with e Wilman it
00:50:25
it it was and it and and to be
00:50:28
honest it quite often
00:50:31
is
00:50:33
um yeah there's a young man right now
00:50:36
who's been in a coma for about 3
00:50:38
weeks
00:50:40
um who who in denan and who's not
00:50:44
looking too good at this stage um I'm
00:50:47
praying for him and hoping that he pulls
00:50:49
through but again pre-existing
00:50:52
condition a very simple thing to do
00:50:54
would be to get a MRI
00:50:57
um uh m is the cheapest MRI you can get
00:51:01
it's two grand it's not a government uh
00:51:04
funded or subsidized um test for sports
00:51:07
anyway for Recreational Sports so most
00:51:10
Fighters can't afford to do it and they
00:51:12
don't do it but it would pick up any
00:51:14
pre-existing conditions and probably
00:51:15
save a few lows
00:51:17
but that's a bigger problem with society
00:51:20
that we're not going to go into but yeah
00:51:22
yeah it's an unfortunate thing that
00:51:23
happens in the sport sometimes yeah and
00:51:25
there was a another um recent incident
00:51:27
it was um again another another tragedy
00:51:31
but um this time you know completely um
00:51:34
outside the Octagon or the ring uh FV
00:51:37
yeah um jeez I I rewatched the um Izzy
00:51:41
fight this morning where he uh he's
00:51:43
talking to Joe Rogan afterwards and he
00:51:45
does the tribute to fou and then um puts
00:51:47
the belt down on the the ground and Bows
00:51:49
in front of it it's powerful stuff it's
00:51:51
emotional stuff so fou one of your
00:51:53
Fighters um very promising young fighter
00:51:56
and then um was like a street attack
00:51:58
like a coward Punch Yeah Yeah that's
00:52:02
just losing people to tragic
00:52:05
circumstances is just so so
00:52:09
difficult it's
00:52:11
and the difficulty of it is that it's
00:52:14
just so avoidable it's such a waste of
00:52:19
life tragedies and if when you follow
00:52:22
them back and you break down every
00:52:24
detail reverse engineer near them you
00:52:28
figure out that there's a thousand
00:52:31
simple things that you could have put in
00:52:33
place or done or walked left instead of
00:52:36
walked right stop to do your shoelaces
00:52:39
up there's a thousand things that could
00:52:41
have happened that could have prevented
00:52:43
that tragedy and that's why they're such
00:52:45
a shame and that's why they're
00:52:48
so hard to deal with so hard to get
00:52:52
over as well as that that was a very
00:52:56
close member of our team yeah very close
00:52:58
member part of a fighting family part of
00:53:00
a family that have um dedicated part of
00:53:03
four brothers that have dedicated their
00:53:06
life to um my team in my gym and now
00:53:10
those Brothers have gone from 4 to three
00:53:12
over just some crazy [ __ ] over
00:53:15
nothing over nothing really so
00:53:18
tremendously hard time um for me and
00:53:21
Israel and the and the boys at my gym to
00:53:24
deal with but
00:53:29
what can you do man you got you got to
00:53:31
just got to just pick yourself up and
00:53:33
keep going eh yeah I was going to yeah
00:53:36
that was going to be my next thing that
00:53:37
I asked you like um yeah how how do you
00:53:39
process that as sort of like a coach SL
00:53:42
leader Mentor like you're grieving
00:53:44
yourself but also you've got to Rally
00:53:46
these uh these guys around yeah for sure
00:53:48
it was tough but
00:53:50
I'm
00:53:54
yeah I
00:53:57
I try to deal with my
00:53:59
stuff
00:54:02
myself yeah do yeah just internally I
00:54:06
internalize a lot and deal with it
00:54:08
myself so I'm definitely not the type of
00:54:10
person I'm not going to sit in front of
00:54:11
Janet and talk to her and that's just
00:54:13
not me I and that's fine I think that's
00:54:16
fine I think everybody has the different
00:54:18
mechanisms that they use I just go with
00:54:21
them myself and just figure it out
00:54:23
myself and get in my own head I don't
00:54:25
need to talk to people about it so um
00:54:28
but that's not the case for everybody
00:54:30
and the problem with having a team
00:54:31
that's so deeply affected by this
00:54:33
tragedy is you have to put a blanket out
00:54:36
there that kind of captures all the
00:54:38
different people and the way different
00:54:39
ways that they are dealing with it and
00:54:41
you put this blanket out that kind of
00:54:43
figures them all out and brings them all
00:54:45
in at the same time and so I guess that
00:54:48
that was the the difficulty at that time
00:54:51
but
00:54:52
um yeah I just the way that I put
00:54:56
and and look this is the thing man like
00:54:59
when I want to motivate some guys
00:55:02
especially that have been through the
00:55:03
era of those tragedies and we've had a
00:55:06
couple other tragedies um to be fair at
00:55:08
the
00:55:08
gym it's very easy for me to look at
00:55:12
these guys that are on the mat and talk
00:55:15
to them and be like there's some guys
00:55:18
that we know that will if you're not
00:55:21
going to put an effort
00:55:23
here and you're not going to live in
00:55:26
this moment and give this everything
00:55:28
give this Sport and this team everything
00:55:29
that you can there's some guys that are
00:55:33
looking over us right now that will
00:55:35
trade places with you in a
00:55:37
second and that's a
00:55:40
very poignant
00:55:42
and confronting thing for me to let them
00:55:45
know that because I think you have to I
00:55:47
think they have to be reminded of that I
00:55:49
think every boy trying to be a
00:55:50
professional fighter or professional
00:55:52
fighters in my gym have to be reminded
00:55:53
that this like life is fleeting
00:55:57
sometimes and you you are here now like
00:55:59
you have the ability to do all the
00:56:01
things these guys who are on our wall on
00:56:04
our painting they don't have the ability
00:56:05
to do it they'll trade with you right
00:56:07
now make the most of what you're doing
00:56:09
make the most of this life do what
00:56:11
you're doing you've got an hour in the
00:56:12
gym make the most of it you can become a
00:56:13
better fighter you know they can't do
00:56:16
that anymore they're doing it through
00:56:17
you essentially yeah yeah that's a good
00:56:20
way of reframing it isn't it that's how
00:56:22
I frame it yeah and and I don't think
00:56:24
there's anything wrong with it I I I
00:56:26
like I enjoy framing it like that I
00:56:29
enjoy using those guys as inspiration
00:56:33
and motivation for the guys coming up
00:56:35
and I think there's I think it's the
00:56:37
truth yeah are you a reasonably
00:56:40
emotional guy do you do you cry quite a
00:56:42
bit I don't I would say I don't cry that
00:56:46
that often but yeah there are moments
00:56:48
that'll [ __ ] I just just when you
00:56:50
reflect on the hard stuff yeah I mean
00:56:52
I'm human yeah I'm human so there are
00:56:55
moments that you just yeah especially
00:56:58
for instance when you're talking about
00:57:00
these guys here
00:57:02
um yeah you sometimes you just emotion
00:57:05
takes over man it's yeah those those
00:57:08
scars Run Deep yeah I find I'm getting
00:57:11
emotional as I get older like during my
00:57:12
20s and 30s I could probably count on
00:57:15
one hand the amount of time times I cry
00:57:17
like Nana's funeral that sort of thing
00:57:20
and as I get older I'm more sort of open
00:57:22
to it it's quite confronting though way
00:57:24
yeah but I I think yeah you've got to
00:57:27
admit as you get older you have more you
00:57:30
give life more value right CU you've
00:57:33
seen more things you've seen you've seen
00:57:35
more tough circumstances and tragedies
00:57:37
and you're like man you just value life
00:57:40
a lot more and you value your time way
00:57:43
more than when you're young when you're
00:57:45
young think you're going to carry on
00:57:48
forever yeah 100% actually there there
00:57:51
was a scene in the sty binder movie
00:57:53
where you you were on the the sofa next
00:57:55
to Izzy and um you you you start um
00:57:59
crying or you getting quite emotional
00:58:00
when you're asked if there's a point
00:58:01
where you thought you couldn't face the
00:58:03
day yeah do you have many of those days
00:58:07
yeah no no I don't I don't have many of
00:58:11
those days at all
00:58:14
but that when that that was in reference
00:58:17
to that tragedy with uh fall yeah with
00:58:21
with f just happening
00:58:23
and um
00:58:26
and and and just to
00:58:29
clarify by not facing the day never in
00:58:32
any way meant offing myself what
00:58:36
sometimes there were days where I was
00:58:38
just like man just let
00:58:42
me stay under my bed sheets and just
00:58:44
hide there for or let me just let me
00:58:48
fall off Into Obscurity let me move down
00:58:50
to inago
00:58:52
and Stewart Island and just let me live
00:58:55
the rest of my life there like just [ __ ]
00:58:57
you know I'm human mate like you know
00:59:01
when you're facing something like that
00:59:02
you're like man I just just get me away
00:59:05
from all this get me away from this
00:59:07
heartache get me away from this pain let
00:59:11
me escape cuz this this isn't this can't
00:59:14
be happening this can't be this this
00:59:17
can't be real so I'm I'm not the person
00:59:22
that'll probably you know that'll off
00:59:23
myself one day but I'm some you know I
00:59:26
definitely go through thoughts of like
00:59:28
man is this all worth it just get me out
00:59:30
of here I don't want anything to do with
00:59:32
this with this pain with this heartache
00:59:34
just check me over the Caro the reality
00:59:37
of the reality
00:59:39
is the pain follows you right pain
00:59:42
follows you follows you under the bed
00:59:44
sheets it follows you to inago so um but
00:59:47
just for a fleeting moment you're like
00:59:48
[ __ ] I need to I need I need release
00:59:51
from this I need to get out of this but
00:59:53
the pain follows you all that the only
00:59:56
thing that ever helps with pain like
00:59:59
this is is time time and it never really
01:00:03
heals properly no cuz there is that
01:00:05
saying that um Time Heals the wounds but
01:00:08
um I I don't know I think your body
01:00:11
just doesn't really necessarily heal the
01:00:13
wound the body just lears to adapt with
01:00:15
this extra burden or pain you car
01:00:17
patches it up a bit e it's always it's
01:00:19
always like underneath the plaster it's
01:00:21
always there man when you lose someone
01:00:23
so close to you it can never leave you
01:00:26
leave you yeah for sure that's tough oh
01:00:28
that's a lot yeah also you're um your
01:00:30
Honda Civic it wouldn't have made it
01:00:32
down
01:00:34
inag yeah ando's a wonderful place I
01:00:36
quite like him you do you yeah hey um oh
01:00:40
yeah you can wear your bush [ __ ] there
01:00:41
all year round yeah I'd be I'd fit in
01:00:43
down there I reckon yeah let's talk
01:00:46
about um the UFC for a bit because it's
01:00:48
um it's such an intriguing is it the
01:00:50
fastest growing sport in the world I
01:00:52
think I believe it still is yeah it's
01:00:54
it's amazing Dana White do you know Dana
01:00:56
White at all have you met him you had
01:00:58
some meetings with
01:00:59
him if we pass each other on the street
01:01:01
I'm sure we'd recognize each other but I
01:01:03
haven't had big long conversations with
01:01:05
him at all the longest conversation I
01:01:07
had with him was
01:01:10
uh at a fight um another coup a few
01:01:14
months ago yeah I just asked him um you
01:01:18
know are we the ones fighting on UFC 300
01:01:21
is it going to be us and then he told me
01:01:23
no it's not going to be us it's going to
01:01:25
be another Alex perer and and then I
01:01:28
just said cool thank you and we moved on
01:01:30
that's the longest conversation I've had
01:01:31
with him wow he's he's done a great job
01:01:35
from a business perspective but um I
01:01:37
suppose you said come at it from a
01:01:38
Fighters perspective and I I know
01:01:40
nothing about any of this but all all I
01:01:42
know is like I saw a Conor McGregor
01:01:44
interview and he said I've made more
01:01:46
money than anyone else in the UFC but
01:01:47
I've also been ripped off more than
01:01:48
anyone else in the UFC in terms of I
01:01:51
suppose you know what they pay the
01:01:52
fighters versus what they're making as a
01:01:54
as a company any thoughts on that do
01:01:58
they screw the fighters over a little
01:02:00
bit I believe that they could probably
01:02:05
share more of the profit yep for sure
01:02:10
um not going to get into you know we
01:02:13
can't I mean I'm not going to get into
01:02:14
numbers that that needs someone who's
01:02:17
much smarter than me to talk about that
01:02:19
but
01:02:20
um it's a sport where the fighters make
01:02:23
a lot of sacrifice yeah and not throwing
01:02:27
a b ball for a hoop or they're not
01:02:29
trying to you know cross a ball over a
01:02:32
line and put the ball on the line and
01:02:34
stuff they are physically uh trying to
01:02:37
hurt each other tremendous tremendous uh
01:02:41
sacrifice that they're
01:02:43
making um and I just believe for that
01:02:46
sacrifice yeah I mean they they deserve
01:02:50
to be well paid for that sacrifice and
01:02:52
for
01:02:53
entertaining the masses yeah well that
01:02:56
company is all about the talent isn't it
01:02:57
it's all about the fighters yeah and
01:03:00
You' got to look at it from both
01:03:02
perspectives like at the end of the day
01:03:04
that sport has grown up with that brand
01:03:07
the UFC it wouldn't the sport wouldn't
01:03:09
be where it is without that brand and
01:03:11
without that company and without Dana
01:03:13
White um I guess the argument is always
01:03:17
going to be till the end of time is um
01:03:21
do the fighters get paid enough and then
01:03:24
some of them are going to be satisfied
01:03:25
with what they get paid and some of them
01:03:27
are going to be think they can get paid
01:03:29
a lot more so yeah it's a difficult
01:03:32
thing yeah have you been following the
01:03:34
slap at all do you do are you familiar
01:03:36
with the slap I I'm I think that's
01:03:40
ridiculous it is ridiculous it's absurd
01:03:44
but sh it's
01:03:45
entertaining yeah yeah but yeah I don't
01:03:48
know it's you think it's ridiculous like
01:03:51
from you just you just don't get it or
01:03:53
from a danger perspective or a health a
01:03:55
danger perspective and I just yeah I
01:03:58
mean what talent do you need to to [ __ ]
01:04:03
your hand back and slap a person as hard
01:04:05
as you possibly can is that like are we
01:04:08
starting to Define that as a
01:04:11
talent I don't think it's a talent I
01:04:14
don't think it's a talent that should be
01:04:15
rewarded anyway yeah oh I love I love
01:04:17
that you're so refreshingly honest so so
01:04:20
um the the week of a fight at one of
01:04:22
these big UFC events what does that look
01:04:24
like for you because I'm guessing say
01:04:26
whether whether it's Izzy or Dan or
01:04:27
whoever there's no more training you can
01:04:29
do in that week so are you sort of like
01:04:31
a therapist a
01:04:32
counselor are you just keeping them keep
01:04:34
keeping them calm and level what are you
01:04:36
doing that last week uh to be honest U
01:04:40
I've got a lot of other people in the
01:04:41
team that do that what I like to do um
01:04:44
nowadays is I like to oversee everything
01:04:47
so I like to kind of sit over the top of
01:04:50
everything and make sure that everything
01:04:54
runs smoothly
01:04:56
and also what I like to do is a lot of
01:04:58
my
01:04:59
own fight
01:05:01
preparation and a lot of that is like
01:05:03
just touching up on like last little
01:05:05
bits of video
01:05:07
analysis um we do do a little bit of
01:05:09
training um not much um so I like to
01:05:12
make sure that I'm covering all my bases
01:05:14
in those trainings and I like to oversee
01:05:16
everything I like to oversee that the
01:05:19
transport Logistics people have got that
01:05:21
right I like to oversee that the
01:05:24
dieticians uh got his part right I like
01:05:27
to know that the managers of the
01:05:30
fighters are you know got everything
01:05:32
like in line and ready to roll and
01:05:34
security is good to go I just like to
01:05:37
make sure that everything's running
01:05:38
smoothly yeah that's kind of my role
01:05:41
there's not a lot to do you're right um
01:05:44
but in terms of my own preparation I do
01:05:47
a lot of it's it's a very calming week
01:05:50
for me where I get a lot of time to
01:05:51
myself and I just touch up on little
01:05:54
things to do with the opponent and the
01:05:56
strategy go back and forth with my other
01:05:58
coaches and just make sure we've got
01:06:01
our eyes dotted and our te cross I guess
01:06:04
yeah and are you um are you a big star
01:06:07
in those environments so you you get to
01:06:09
Vegas or Florida or New York there must
01:06:11
be like super fans that recognize you
01:06:13
and I yeah yeah for sure but and no like
01:06:18
I mean no one for the most part all the
01:06:21
obligations are the fighters that
01:06:23
Fighters have to do all the media and
01:06:24
stuff I hide hide back in the me me and
01:06:28
the coaches we just hide in the hotel we
01:06:29
try not to have or the Airbnb or
01:06:32
whatever we try to have not try not to
01:06:33
have anything to do with that I don't go
01:06:35
to the press conferences and stuff and I
01:06:38
just stay at the house it's nice and
01:06:39
quiet at the house when everybody's at
01:06:41
the media days in the press conferences
01:06:43
and stay at the house and just collect
01:06:45
my thoughts let them do all the hoopla
01:06:48
and then I come in on that fight day
01:06:50
yeah so it's so so so you're in the
01:06:53
Octan in between rounds and you're
01:06:55
you're not excited that like Donald
01:06:57
Trump sitting behind you or Ryan
01:06:59
Reynolds is there
01:07:01
or are you a little bit star strike you
01:07:03
must have these moments where you're
01:07:04
like holy [ __ ] you know how did a how
01:07:06
did a boy from East Oakland end up
01:07:10
here yeah or
01:07:12
no just don't buy into the [ __ ] at
01:07:15
all no I mean n no you must had a selfie
01:07:20
with
01:07:21
Rogan
01:07:23
no n but I I don't know you've got
01:07:31
to you got to be a fan you got to be a
01:07:34
fan to see someone as a star I feel and
01:07:36
I I don't especially nowadays man I
01:07:39
don't watch movies or TV or anything I
01:07:42
wouldn't know who half the people are
01:07:44
all these people come out to Israel and
01:07:46
d and that and there's a thousand
01:07:49
photographers that come up and take
01:07:50
photos of those to I'm like I don't I
01:07:53
want to know who the guy was yeah so I
01:07:56
don't really get
01:07:57
Starck it's probably like Dave Chappelle
01:07:59
or something like that like a when you
01:08:01
don't know who the people are you don't
01:08:02
really you don't really good St but the
01:08:05
other thing is like the other thing is
01:08:07
when you do meet some of these um people
01:08:09
which I have
01:08:11
done they're just blogs M they're just
01:08:14
blogs mate like they they're just
01:08:16
they're the same as me really they're
01:08:18
not any different to me it's just I
01:08:21
guess when you're on TV and stuff um uh
01:08:25
because they're on TV and they're on the
01:08:27
movies or whatever the platform they're
01:08:29
on I don't know some people put them on
01:08:31
a pedestal and stuff but at the end of
01:08:32
the day they're just normal people yeah
01:08:34
100% but have you met anyone that stands
01:08:36
out you like oh actually he you know
01:08:38
he's just a person but he's a really
01:08:39
good person or she's a really good
01:08:41
person Mark Zabo oh really Zak yep yeah
01:08:45
yep had a a really good uh 10 minute
01:08:48
conversation with him about he's really
01:08:50
into martial arts and fight Sports um
01:08:54
very nice uh gen bloke very pleasant
01:08:58
conversation um yeah yeah he's he's he's
01:09:01
a good dude when I walked away from the
01:09:03
conversation but I know he's really cool
01:09:05
straight dude good on him ironically
01:09:08
you're probably one of the only people
01:09:09
in the world that doesn't have like an
01:09:10
Instagram
01:09:12
page do you have an Instagram page uh I
01:09:16
do not but I tell you what I tell you
01:09:18
one thing the the business has an
01:09:20
Instagram page the business has an
01:09:21
Instagram page and a couple of Romanian
01:09:24
lads took it over they tried to Heist
01:09:27
they they took the passwords and then
01:09:29
they messaged us and they were this the
01:09:31
classic oh will give give me you know
01:09:34
$500,000 or something to get the page
01:09:36
back and I was like I'll just start a
01:09:39
new page yeah you can have it yeah but
01:09:41
in the end it's good knowing who Mark
01:09:44
zerug
01:09:46
is quick call um and his Direction and
01:09:50
he puts you on to the right people and
01:09:52
they get back your Instagram page what
01:09:53
do you mean in his Direction have you
01:09:55
got a direct dial to Zach you get his
01:09:57
team you get his team you never get a
01:09:59
direct dial to to the man himself but
01:10:02
you are able to get his team and they
01:10:03
are able to point you in the right
01:10:05
direction when terms of getting your
01:10:06
Instagram page the rigar roll you have
01:10:09
to go through to get your Instagram page
01:10:11
is crazy you have to send photos of
01:10:13
yourself to get it B and I was like man
01:10:15
I can't do this so I just I had to make
01:10:18
a few calls and then I got a back sh
01:10:20
that's got not who you know oh educ semi
01:10:24
semi-educated guest who would who would
01:10:25
win out of um zacker BG and Elon Musk I
01:10:29
always got to back my man
01:10:31
Zach Elon Musk is a bigger dude though
01:10:33
isn't he does does wait or he's a bigger
01:10:36
dude but um Mark he knows about fight
01:10:41
Sports and he's dedicated and he knows
01:10:43
about technique and strategy and he's a
01:10:45
proper fight Enthusiast I think um Elon
01:10:48
would just be going in there and relying
01:10:50
on just pure size weight and athletic
01:10:53
advantages and I'm not sure
01:10:56
I'm not sure that's going to be enough I
01:10:57
think um technique and I think I think
01:11:00
Mark's technique and skill Will trump
01:11:03
elon's physicality it's just my opinion
01:11:06
I appreciate it geez you're a big fan of
01:11:08
Zach Z can do no wrong with you um and
01:11:12
what about post fight at the UFC what
01:11:13
what what does that look like especially
01:11:15
on a bad night so um I'm guessing like a
01:11:17
a big night where you you went about um
01:11:21
it's a celebration so there's nothing
01:11:22
that needs to be said what's what's it
01:11:24
like when it's
01:11:26
I have nothing to do with a big Knight
01:11:29
after a a big win cuz they
01:11:34
are they are just some you just don't
01:11:36
want to be a part of them they're just
01:11:38
too there's too much drunkenness and
01:11:41
Deery going on there's a lot of parting
01:11:44
going on yeah you can understand even
01:11:46
from a coach's perspective you must
01:11:47
understand why like 12 12 weeks 16 weeks
01:11:49
of intense discipline yeah yeah there's
01:11:51
a lot of steam to blow off yeah 100% I
01:11:54
mean I'm not I'm I'm All About It um I
01:11:57
think you should blow some steam off and
01:11:59
you should celebrate your wins they
01:12:00
don't you know they're finite they don't
01:12:02
come they don't happen forever you can't
01:12:03
do the sport forever celebrate them have
01:12:06
a good time do it safely is my one sort
01:12:09
of thing you know do it on a safe
01:12:11
environment around people good around
01:12:12
good people that's always the the key
01:12:14
thing there um but a night where you
01:12:19
lose yeah absolute dog [ __ ] there's
01:12:22
never been there some of the worst
01:12:23
nights of my life did do you do you say
01:12:26
anything to the fighters on the night or
01:12:28
do do you like give them time to sort of
01:12:30
debrief and process themselves yeah
01:12:33
depends who they are depends on their
01:12:34
personality some Fighters they want to
01:12:36
go get debriefed straight away what went
01:12:38
wrong what could we do better and you
01:12:42
got to do an analysis right then and
01:12:44
there um you know um you know hook it
01:12:49
never say a word to them you just walk
01:12:52
out of the stadium and go home grab a
01:12:55
feed and go home you don't have to say
01:12:57
anything to them we're lost you don't
01:12:59
want to hear about it that's it you you
01:13:02
don't want to acknowledge it um but
01:13:06
man just losing is tough at the top
01:13:09
losing is tough and such a Cutthroat
01:13:10
sport cutro real and you got to
01:13:13
understand you have how the UFC Pay
01:13:17
structur is structured is you
01:13:19
have X amount you have half of your pay
01:13:22
for showing up and you have half of your
01:13:24
pay for winning so essentially if you
01:13:27
don't win you're only getting half as
01:13:29
much as you could have potentially
01:13:30
earned if you win and that could be
01:13:35
$150,000
01:13:37
$250,000 $300,000 yeah cut because you
01:13:40
can't win that's pressure yeah that is a
01:13:44
lot of pressure that's huge pressure
01:13:47
huge pressure imagine in 15 minutes
01:13:49
being able to you know having the
01:13:51
responsibility to be up 300,000 or down
01:13:54
300,000 in a 50 minute space of your
01:13:57
life only that you just train 3 months
01:13:59
for and this is what this your your
01:14:02
family needs that money you know you
01:14:05
your family the people your blls that
01:14:08
everybody needs that money all the
01:14:09
people around you they need that money
01:14:11
if you go without it man it's huge
01:14:15
pressure yeah actually yeah there's
01:14:17
something in the style being the movie
01:14:19
you sort of touch upon the financial
01:14:20
situation like as he does in particular
01:14:23
like uh so are you on a like percentage
01:14:25
deal with him yeah yep mostly works like
01:14:28
each trainer um and they they're on a
01:14:31
percentage um and then each trainer
01:14:33
negotiates what that percentage is
01:14:35
between him and the fighter right so you
01:14:37
get say like 10% 5% whatever I get get a
01:14:40
few
01:14:43
percenti he makes out in the in his
01:14:45
movie that like he's set up for life and
01:14:47
um it looks like he's he's doing pretty
01:14:49
good um but he he says you are as
01:14:51
well yeah yeah I mean as he has looked
01:14:56
after me but I've looked after him you
01:14:59
see it's uh the relationship is he
01:15:03
there's a part of that movie where he
01:15:05
gets a bit pissed off and he probably
01:15:07
says something that is he probably
01:15:09
shouldn't have said or I don't I
01:15:10
disagree with it at all I don't agree
01:15:12
with it at all and most people wouldn't
01:15:14
agree
01:15:15
with
01:15:18
but
01:15:20
izy um came to me with the a goal and I
01:15:23
was like man let's do it it's I'll do
01:15:26
everything in my power to help you
01:15:27
achieve that
01:15:28
goal and um and I did and and he's
01:15:33
eternally grateful for that and he pays
01:15:37
me for that he pays me for that and um
01:15:43
and in return I do the very best job
01:15:45
that I could possibly
01:15:47
do I did that for a decade without
01:15:52
ever getting a scent
01:15:55
you know what I mean and I didn't know
01:15:56
whether he would ever make any money
01:15:58
because you just don't know there's so
01:16:00
many things that can happen um you know
01:16:03
in a Fighter's career you don't know
01:16:05
whether they're going to be successful
01:16:07
and make you know large amounts of money
01:16:09
you just don't know so I went on that
01:16:13
Journey with them we went on that
01:16:15
journey together and we were we were
01:16:18
lucky enough to you know kind of break
01:16:20
through and achieve some of our goals
01:16:23
and we did that together and we look
01:16:25
after each other because of it yeah it's
01:16:26
been a incredibly successful um
01:16:29
partnership and um I mean due to his age
01:16:33
now it looks like it's you're going to
01:16:34
be the only coach that he ever has you
01:16:36
know for this for this portion of his
01:16:38
his career like it's not going to be
01:16:40
like a Joseph Parker situation where
01:16:41
it's like no we've reached the end of
01:16:42
the road it's time to try something
01:16:44
different yeah
01:16:47
but
01:16:49
you have
01:16:51
to the reason that I have a lot of
01:16:54
fighting
01:16:56
that um stick with me and my coaching
01:16:59
team and my gym is
01:17:01
because my coaching team myself and my
01:17:04
gym are always evolving there's always
01:17:06
something to improve there's always
01:17:07
something to learn there's always a new
01:17:10
pull out of the sport where you can make
01:17:13
an take an advantage from over other
01:17:15
teams and it's that first for
01:17:20
evolvement that keeps the fighters
01:17:22
interested in and training with you and
01:17:24
when you stop doing that when you get
01:17:25
bored of the sport and you don't want to
01:17:26
evolve and you don't want to find out
01:17:28
the new techniques the new strategies
01:17:30
that's when Fighters are like man I have
01:17:31
to go somewhere else you're not evolving
01:17:33
as fast as the sports evolving so I'm
01:17:35
not evolving and so it's one thing me
01:17:38
and my coaching team have always done
01:17:39
we've moved very very quickly with the
01:17:41
sport
01:17:43
yeah how's your relationship changed
01:17:45
over the years as he's got more famous
01:17:47
and more
01:17:47
successful um yeah I don't know I
01:17:50
probably wouldn't have thought about you
01:17:52
know this line of questioning until
01:17:53
after watching the sty being
01:17:56
one line particular you about thek
01:17:58
sheets the which I
01:18:01
like yeah yeah I
01:18:04
mean he's less accessible like I don't
01:18:07
see him as often
01:18:10
but it was easy to see him you know when
01:18:14
none of us had any money because what
01:18:17
could you do you had to hang out with
01:18:20
me you had $5 in your pocket and I had
01:18:23
$10 in my pocket so to give to give a we
01:18:27
had $15 all we could do was hang out
01:18:30
together in the gym well that's not the
01:18:32
case anymore I'm still always in the gym
01:18:35
but he he wants to um you know he wants
01:18:39
to have some bance the fruits of his
01:18:41
labor like he wants to enjoy the fruits
01:18:43
of his labor and he's he's entitled to
01:18:45
do that so um you know he can now he can
01:18:48
go in jitsy and go fishing and travel to
01:18:52
see his friends in London and stuff like
01:18:53
he had he has the freedom to do that I
01:18:56
guess what the what the thing that is
01:18:59
that he has to be aware of is he just
01:19:00
has to keep everything in Balance he's
01:19:02
still a professional athlete he still a
01:19:04
professional Sportsman so um you can do
01:19:08
so much of that but at a certain point
01:19:10
um when does that start to take away
01:19:11
from who you are and what you're doing
01:19:13
he's got that balance pretty good for
01:19:15
the most part um I think um he's turning
01:19:19
a corner a little bit later in life and
01:19:21
realizing what all kind of athletes that
01:19:23
are coming into their mid-30s realize
01:19:25
and that realization is that they've got
01:19:28
to dedicate themsel a little more to
01:19:30
their craft than what they did when they
01:19:32
were young um and I think he's coming to
01:19:34
that realization
01:19:36
so he's got a he's got a few good ones
01:19:38
left in it yeah I heard I I heard him do
01:19:41
a podcast with a guy called Theo Von who
01:19:43
loves um loves the fighting yeah and uh
01:19:46
as he talked about through his 20s it
01:19:48
was like he was living on a diet of
01:19:49
uberit and now he's got like a mate that
01:19:51
lives with him that's like a chef so
01:19:53
he's taking care of the nutrition side
01:19:55
of things which um I suppose it's all
01:19:57
like yeah one percent is or two percent
01:19:59
is here and there maybe a little bit
01:20:00
more than that for the nutrition but
01:20:02
yeah like as you know like you just your
01:20:05
your body your body your mind might work
01:20:09
the same as when you're young but your
01:20:11
body just starts to operate differently
01:20:13
yeah and so you if you want to be a
01:20:16
professional athlete at the top level
01:20:18
you have to adjust the way that you live
01:20:21
from especially from your mid 20s yeah
01:20:23
you're not going to be a get away with
01:20:25
that stuffff so it's just again he's
01:20:28
going through a bit of a learning phase
01:20:30
or he's been going through a bit of a
01:20:31
learning phase the last couple of years
01:20:33
getting that balance right um realizing
01:20:36
that his body isn't operating the same
01:20:38
way it was when he's um 25 um and he's
01:20:42
adjusting he's adjusting a lot of things
01:20:44
in his life and his lifestyle and the
01:20:46
way that he trains um to suit that I
01:20:49
think the important thing is that you
01:20:50
make that realization and start to make
01:20:52
the adjustments yeah well
01:20:55
would you say that you two are friends
01:20:56
or do you need to sort of keep a
01:20:58
respectful sort of distance in order to
01:21:01
cuz I'm the stoping to movie there's a
01:21:03
couple of um couple of scenes that are
01:21:05
really [ __ ] awkward to watch actually
01:21:07
one where he's um he's not in training
01:21:09
cuz he's clipping his nails and you give
01:21:11
him a serve then there's another one
01:21:12
where he's late for an early morning
01:21:13
training in Vegas you you um you drop
01:21:16
the seab bomb it's a very angry scene
01:21:18
I'm guessing if you're if you're really
01:21:20
broy with someone you can't sort of have
01:21:22
these tough conversations is this
01:21:24
something that you've consciously done
01:21:25
over the years like sort of keep each
01:21:27
other at arms length yeah that there's
01:21:29
definitely uh a tight Bond there a
01:21:33
friendship right but I guess
01:21:37
um I'm a little bit judicious with it
01:21:41
because most of the time with Israel
01:21:44
most of the
01:21:46
time my integration into his life is as
01:21:49
a coach it's as a coach so I'm very
01:21:53
judicious um with the moments that I
01:21:55
have to be a friend but it's definitely
01:21:57
there he he's my mate I won't train
01:21:59
anybody who's not my mate I won't uh you
01:22:02
you have to be someone who I would
01:22:03
consider your mate before I am willing
01:22:05
to give you so much sacrifice and me and
01:22:07
my coaches are willing to give you so
01:22:09
much sacrifice so I guess I'm just a
01:22:11
little bit judicious about when I need
01:22:13
to be his friend but and when I need to
01:22:14
be his coach because at the moment at
01:22:17
the moment or most of the time in his
01:22:19
career I've had to be more of his coach
01:22:21
than his friend so yeah I guess that's
01:22:24
good way to explain it CU you're you're
01:22:26
very different very different dudes
01:22:28
aren't you like he says on the star Bend
01:22:30
movie that you're much much older than
01:22:31
him but you're not really like he's in
01:22:33
his 30s you're in your 40s but so when
01:22:35
so you're you're in your white Honda
01:22:37
Civic and he drives up for the first
01:22:39
time in his um brick red McLaren was
01:22:42
orange McLaren whatever it is what like
01:22:45
what do you make of that are you like
01:22:47
for [ __ ] sake [ __ ] we again we're very
01:22:52
very very different right okay so we we
01:22:55
have completely different perspectives
01:22:57
on lives and how we approach things
01:23:01
and oh I'm a little bit more
01:23:03
conservative so um you know I live a
01:23:06
comfortable life I'm not going to lie
01:23:08
like I've I've don't I've got to you
01:23:11
know I've got some money um I didn't
01:23:13
always have money there was a time when
01:23:15
I had no money but
01:23:19
and I am conservative with that I'm I
01:23:22
would rather people think that I don't
01:23:24
have any money yeah which is a little
01:23:26
bit of the opposite approach for him I
01:23:29
think he doesn't mind um being a little
01:23:31
bit more flashy um with his money but at
01:23:35
the end of the day what does it matter
01:23:38
at the end of the
01:23:40
day he worked hard for his money and I
01:23:44
worked hard for my money and how we
01:23:47
display that it doesn't really matter
01:23:49
it's not illegal money it's not money
01:23:52
from drugs it's not it's hard earned
01:23:54
Blood Sweat and
01:23:56
Tears money the best kind the best the
01:24:00
best kind you have to sacrifice years in
01:24:02
years heartache Blood Sweat tears it's
01:24:05
the best kind of money the money that
01:24:07
you actually have to grel in the dirt to
01:24:09
get pick yourself up and climb to the
01:24:12
highest Pinnacle to get so um that's the
01:24:15
best kind of money hard ear money is the
01:24:17
best money and he's entitled to spend it
01:24:20
and display it however he wants and I'm
01:24:22
entitled to do it how I want different
01:24:24
right yeah I read a quote from you
01:24:26
saying that um if you lived on your own
01:24:28
you could just in your house just have
01:24:29
like one chair one bed one One Bowl One
01:24:33
knife one fork what do you spend your do
01:24:36
you when you fly to like the UFC do you
01:24:38
you you Splash out on business class
01:24:40
seats I do not I do not I I yeah this is
01:24:46
the thing right I I you're you're a big
01:24:49
dude those economy seats are awful yeah
01:24:52
but you're talking about
01:24:56
you're talking about 10
01:24:58
grand yeah you but come on you one of
01:25:02
the top coaches in the UFC you're
01:25:04
talking about it's still 10 grand so
01:25:06
don't matter how much money I get I
01:25:08
still look at I'm like 10 grand why
01:25:10
would I spend 10 grand on a seat for a
01:25:12
13-hour flight I could do so much more
01:25:17
with that 10 grand so much
01:25:20
more and there's two there's that side
01:25:22
of it and and that comes from I just
01:25:24
came from a middle inome I didn't come
01:25:26
from a poor family I came from a middle
01:25:28
inome family so there wasn't there
01:25:30
wasn't there you know we had money but
01:25:31
we didn't have great amounts of money so
01:25:33
10 grand is a lot of money to a middle
01:25:35
income family I'm like 10 grand that has
01:25:37
a lot of value for me no matter how much
01:25:39
money I've got 10 grand on a seat is
01:25:42
just ridiculous right
01:25:45
um but also there's there's another side
01:25:48
of it
01:25:51
and yeah I am I have surrounded myself
01:25:56
with a lot of people some of them are
01:25:58
very wealthy some of them are middle
01:25:59
income some of them are are very poor
01:26:02
and some of those
01:26:03
people have helped
01:26:06
me get to the heights that I've got some
01:26:10
of those people have helped Israel get
01:26:13
to the heights that they
01:26:15
are I'm not going to spend 10 grand on a
01:26:18
seat when I could give that 10 that 10
01:26:20
grand can go to them because if it
01:26:22
wasn't for those people I wouldn't be I
01:26:24
wouldn't have the ability to buy that
01:26:26
seat or I wouldn't have the ability to
01:26:27
support my family and you just can't
01:26:30
justify that that's how I look at things
01:26:32
in my head that's where I that's where I
01:26:34
come from something can I get this 15
01:26:37
grand business set no because I know
01:26:40
people that helped me get through this
01:26:41
journey who I help and support as much
01:26:43
as I can I can't justify getting that 10
01:26:46
or 15 grand seat when I know my mate
01:26:49
would do so much more with that 10 or50
01:26:51
game it's just ridiculous I I love that
01:26:53
so much I I I uh was listening to a very
01:26:57
old podcast you did this morning and um
01:26:59
you told a story about your your sister
01:27:01
who's like the head of um FIFA yeah
01:27:03
women's women's soccer you guys were
01:27:05
comparing your schedules cuz she was
01:27:07
bitching about how much flying she does
01:27:09
so you're comparing schedules and then
01:27:10
uh turns out she she does about the same
01:27:13
amount of flying as you but most of her
01:27:14
flying is either done in first class
01:27:16
business class or even private jets um I
01:27:20
thought but that was an old podcast I
01:27:22
thought you may have changed by now with
01:27:23
all the success is but nah nah what you
01:27:26
say is what you get eh she don't know
01:27:28
about this life
01:27:30
brother she don't know she don't know
01:27:33
anything about the hardship of my life
01:27:35
okay she she's ried up in coton W by
01:27:38
those people in Switzerland she doesn't
01:27:39
know nothing about the hardships of um
01:27:43
being a UFC coach n but yeah I I I will
01:27:48
not spend money unnecessarily if um I
01:27:51
think it's just stupid or a waste of
01:27:53
money or I think people probably more
01:27:55
deserving of that money than me spending
01:27:57
on on something frivolous it's just the
01:27:59
way I am maybe that's the Dutch Side of
01:28:01
Me Maybe that's the Dutch side of me got
01:28:04
I've done over a 100 episodes of this
01:28:06
podcast now I don't know if I've ever
01:28:07
met um anyone that says as comfortable
01:28:10
in their own skin as what you
01:28:13
are yeah that's I think that's a that's
01:28:16
a big compliment I think that's a
01:28:18
massive compliment have you always been
01:28:19
this way or definitely no definitely
01:28:21
haven't always been this way I think
01:28:23
fighting and martial arts helped me
01:28:25
become that way I think um I was not a
01:28:28
particularly confident person um when I
01:28:30
was at school or when I was at
01:28:32
University or or playing rugby but
01:28:36
there's something about like there's
01:28:39
something about walking into a cage
01:28:41
walking into a ring and fighting someone
01:28:43
that there's something about doing that
01:28:46
and taking away from that what you take
01:28:48
away from that is that man such a
01:28:51
difficult thing to do
01:28:54
why would it be difficult for me to talk
01:28:56
to Mark Zuckerberg I've done that I've
01:28:59
walked in the cage I've trained for 12
01:29:01
weeks he essentially wants to beat the
01:29:03
[ __ ] out of me I want to beat the [ __ ]
01:29:05
out of him I've shook his hand at the
01:29:07
start I've shook his hand at the end
01:29:09
tremendously hard for me to overcome
01:29:11
that um I managed to do that why would a
01:29:13
conversation with Mark Zuckerberg or a
01:29:15
podcast with dom Harvey or any sort of
01:29:17
conversation or anything in life be
01:29:20
difficult after that yeah the answer is
01:29:21
that when you really think about it that
01:29:24
that's the hardest thing I've done in my
01:29:25
life that's the hardest thing I've done
01:29:27
in my life everything else is easy
01:29:28
compared to that so it's a funny sort of
01:29:31
perspective that not everybody's going
01:29:32
to agree with or not everybody's going
01:29:33
to have but that's kind of My Philosophy
01:29:36
that's how I kind of look at things
01:29:38
that's my world view if you like you
01:29:40
think getting in a cage is tough have
01:29:41
you ever done economy Oakland to New
01:29:43
York 17
01:29:44
hours no that's hard I believe I believe
01:29:48
no I believe I have I believe I have
01:29:51
you're unbelievable I believe I have
01:29:53
it's [ __ ] tough but this is
01:29:57
like I I will do it but you know who
01:29:59
won't do it my wife and if she goes she
01:30:03
she goes up to business or then [ __ ] I'm
01:30:06
not going to stay down on
01:30:09
economy I love that there a little part
01:30:12
of me that like when I when I'm on a
01:30:14
trip with my wife it's like oh [ __ ]
01:30:15
thank God she's on this trip my I don't
01:30:17
have to get economy General hey um one
01:30:20
thing I want to ask you about is your
01:30:21
thoughts on um like to Poppy syndrome
01:30:23
and uh I suppose in particular what I'm
01:30:25
thinking about is um you've you've have
01:30:27
you ever been nominated for Coach of the
01:30:29
Year at the hellberg I have you've been
01:30:31
nominated but you've never won I've
01:30:33
never won but
01:30:36
um so what well to me that seems that
01:30:40
seems I'm probably projecting here but
01:30:41
if I was if I was in your position and I
01:30:43
was um you know wild had the success
01:30:47
that you'd had with um City
01:30:49
kickboxing got these guys into the UFC
01:30:52
had all the success
01:30:54
I'd want some acknowledgement back home
01:30:57
I I don't know I think I'd I'd be a
01:30:58
little bit upset maybe no because um I
01:31:04
didn't do it to win a hellberg no no no
01:31:07
I did it to win for me Israel could be
01:31:10
recognized as the best fighter and the
01:31:13
best coach in the world and I that was
01:31:15
the and I did it so that Israel could be
01:31:18
the best fighter in the world that was I
01:31:19
didn't even really do it so I could
01:31:21
become the best coach but that comes
01:31:22
with it um and I didn't didn't do it for
01:31:24
hellberg so I wasn't particularly yeah I
01:31:28
didn't care that I didn't get it I was
01:31:31
happy that the lady that got it noene oh
01:31:34
tyu yeah tyu got it that year I think I
01:31:37
don't know a lot about nple but the they
01:31:41
won the World Championship and that's an
01:31:42
amazing feat as well it's a it's an
01:31:45
award show there can only be one and
01:31:48
you've got a whole lot of magnificent
01:31:51
achievements only one of them can win
01:31:52
the award so
01:31:54
it is what it is God you're so laid back
01:31:57
are you bothered by anything like what
01:31:59
does anything what like what tell you
01:32:02
what I'm bothered by people that are
01:32:03
born after the year
01:32:08
1995 what does that back 29 yeah yeah I
01:32:11
guess so I just have a group of young
01:32:13
people in my gym that I call the 95s and
01:32:15
that's anyone born in the year anyone
01:32:17
born in the year
01:32:20
1995 onward I just think yeah I just
01:32:24
give them so much [ __ ]
01:32:27
what look this is a very generalized
01:32:30
saying okay and it's probably going to
01:32:32
get me in trouble but they just don't
01:32:34
have the common sense that I used to
01:32:36
have or me and my peers used to have
01:32:38
when we were you know 25 21 20 they just
01:32:43
they've got nothing it's weird that's a
01:32:46
big generaliz there must be some of them
01:32:48
that have some initiative or I'm I'm
01:32:50
obviously I'm taking that I'm taking for
01:32:53
the most part I'm taking the piss um for
01:32:55
the most part right I'm taking the piss
01:32:58
but there are a few that are just
01:33:01
clueless they're just clueless and so
01:33:03
they should all suffer because a few of
01:33:04
them are clueless in front
01:33:07
M so so they all get loved into the same
01:33:10
group and they called the 95s they some
01:33:14
of the dumbest people I know and they
01:33:16
have a leader which is a young man named
01:33:18
Neo Sterling who seems to have adopted
01:33:21
their kind of leadership of the their
01:33:22
little gang within the gy but yeah I
01:33:25
don't know it's just young people I
01:33:27
don't know sometimes they feel or seem
01:33:30
like to me that they're not getting any
01:33:32
smarter than we were when we were young
01:33:34
so yeah and the the second half of your
01:33:37
life what's that going to look
01:33:40
like you're going to you're going to
01:33:42
you're going to die in the gym you're
01:33:44
going to still be
01:33:46
working taking hits to the pads in your
01:33:48
80s Orin it's a funny thing because I I
01:33:52
I try not to make a big thing of it Dom
01:33:56
but when
01:33:58
you're doing what you want to do in your
01:34:00
life when you say oh this is what I want
01:34:02
to do in my life and you're actually
01:34:03
doing
01:34:04
it youve found a very special
01:34:09
place and I why I say I don't try to
01:34:13
make a big thing of it is because most
01:34:15
people they honestly don't really get to
01:34:17
achieve that my parents for instance you
01:34:20
know may be in retirement but not as
01:34:22
early as I found found this sort of
01:34:25
Freedom you know what do I want to do in
01:34:28
life well [ __ ] I'm doing it every day so
01:34:30
every day like I don't work every day
01:34:33
fantastic to me every day is it's a
01:34:35
holiday every single day I'm doing what
01:34:38
I want to do it's a special place not
01:34:39
everybody gets to gets to that place so
01:34:42
um what am I going to do be doing and
01:34:45
the second half of my life is I'm
01:34:47
probably going to be doing the same
01:34:48
thing bro probably the same thing I
01:34:51
would like to spend a bit more time with
01:34:54
my family though I am softening to
01:34:59
that I am softening to that as I get
01:35:02
older I can see like yeah I was a very
01:35:06
young parent I was
01:35:08
17 and uh I'm 100% a better parent in my
01:35:11
40s than I was when I was 17 I can see
01:35:13
that now yeah my my um my younger boys
01:35:17
um spend as much time as I can with them
01:35:20
and I would like to as they get a bit
01:35:21
older be with them a lot more than I was
01:35:24
with my older two who are 22 and 18 now
01:35:28
so that that's a little goal of mine
01:35:29
make up for a bit of lost time with them
01:35:31
yeah and and don't let that time get
01:35:33
away on these young my young three and
01:35:36
fivey old that I've got now so that
01:35:38
that's probably what I need to
01:35:39
concentrate on it's hard to way because
01:35:40
you can't get time back you know that at
01:35:42
the age they are right now they're only
01:35:44
that age today 100% And also maybe you
01:35:46
won't like them because they're all up
01:35:48
born after
01:35:50
95 yeah that's the ironic thing but yeah
01:35:54
do you see yourself in them is there is
01:35:57
there a bit of Eugene in all of them in
01:35:59
terms of like personality traits and
01:36:01
attitude and no no for sure for sure I
01:36:03
see a little especially my older boys I
01:36:05
feel uh I see a lot of me in them um
01:36:10
some some of the negative things some of
01:36:13
them are negative things that I saw in
01:36:14
myself that are in them and so I'm able
01:36:16
to recognize them and try and help them
01:36:17
with that and some of them are the more
01:36:19
positive things for sure what what are
01:36:21
the negatives what are you what are you
01:36:23
claws or things that you need to work on
01:36:25
not well I've worked on them I've worked
01:36:27
on a lot of them but when I was young I
01:36:29
was a very very shy introvert I tried I
01:36:32
didn't try to intermingle with people I
01:36:35
only had a few friends um and sometimes
01:36:38
when you're interv you're missing out on
01:36:40
so much sometimes you need to get out
01:36:41
there and just live life and do more
01:36:45
sometimes it holds you back um so yeah
01:36:48
one of my sons is probably just a bit
01:36:50
too conservative need to get out there
01:36:51
more and just be a bit more more open
01:36:54
and open to possibilities yeah um but um
01:36:58
yeah both my sons are great people they
01:37:00
work you know they they tremendously
01:37:02
hard workers which is something I've
01:37:04
carried on from my father true to me
01:37:06
true to them so yeah there's a lot of
01:37:08
positive things as well I love that hey
01:37:11
this has been a really enjoyable chat
01:37:13
hope hopefully it hasn't been uh too
01:37:14
punishing for you no no like I I haven't
01:37:18
done a good podcast uh for a while and I
01:37:20
tell you what I enjoy doing a good um
01:37:24
kiwi podcast bro yeah I appreciate it
01:37:26
and I I appreciate you for all that you
01:37:28
are like there's um yeah it's it's it's
01:37:31
kind of old
01:37:32
school you know it's uh the one thing
01:37:35
I've learned from doing this podcast
01:37:36
I've had some really successful people
01:37:37
on is that the only check code is hard
01:37:39
work and that's that that's it and I
01:37:42
feel like you're um you're a poster boy
01:37:43
for that yeah and just being a southman
01:37:47
i that's that's my one advice to people
01:37:49
who are just running into all of a
01:37:51
sudden in their life running into heaps
01:37:52
of media and reports and press
01:37:54
conferences and podcast interviews is
01:37:57
just man just all I've the best advice I
01:38:00
got was just be yourself don't worry
01:38:02
about what people think and um when I
01:38:05
get in front of an interviewer or a
01:38:07
press conference I just talk as if we've
01:38:09
known each other for you know the last
01:38:11
20 years and just I just be myself you
01:38:13
can never go wrong like that when you
01:38:15
start to [ __ ] and pretend and sound
01:38:17
a certain way pretend like you're
01:38:18
something else that's when it just goes
01:38:19
close it just goes to another level and
01:38:22
you just dig yourself a hole so yeah oh
01:38:25
I want one final thing um then we'll let
01:38:28
you go uh yeah in the sty binder movie
01:38:31
there's a scene where you talk about um
01:38:33
him like reading reactions and you
01:38:36
dealing with social media and stuff yeah
01:38:38
how I I don't know if this is something
01:38:40
that you just born with and it's in your
01:38:41
DNA um but how can you like ignore the
01:38:44
noise and ignore other people's opinions
01:38:47
and things like
01:38:51
that [ __ ] it's tough way it's tough
01:38:54
because I am the way I am so it's easy
01:38:56
have you just always been this way or
01:38:58
did you grow into
01:39:00
this I've always been this way but I'm
01:39:04
not I'm going to say that I have slipped
01:39:06
up a few times yep when YouTube started
01:39:09
to come into prominence like years and
01:39:12
years and years
01:39:13
ago I remember reading a comment and I
01:39:17
had a friend it was a com it was my
01:39:20
fight and it was a negative comment
01:39:22
about my fight and a friend of mine
01:39:24
found out who it was and I saw that
01:39:27
person
01:39:28
like two years later and I went up to
01:39:31
that yeah I went up to that person I was
01:39:33
like you and then we had some pretty
01:39:35
strong strong words yeah but then so
01:39:40
that was way back then but I I come I
01:39:43
mean I mean how how old are you if you
01:39:45
don't mind me ask you're 51 yeah I mean
01:39:48
man we come from we come from a
01:39:49
different generation right there was a
01:39:50
little bit more accountability for what
01:39:52
you said
01:39:54
yeah now there's no accountability at
01:39:56
all you can hi you can save from a
01:39:58
distance anything you want to but I
01:40:00
don't come from that era I like if
01:40:03
someone said something to me on the
01:40:05
playground that person was literally 10
01:40:07
m away from me and if I didn't like it
01:40:09
or if it was insulting then I had the
01:40:11
chance to rebut that or I could not
01:40:15
acknowledge it or I could acknowledge it
01:40:17
now you can't do that and that's the
01:40:19
problem there's no accountability and
01:40:21
when there's no accountability you
01:40:23
should just stay the hell away from it
01:40:25
in my opinion because those people are
01:40:28
in a much stronger position than you
01:40:31
they can say whatever you
01:40:33
want they can say whatever they want to
01:40:35
you and you can't say anything back or
01:40:38
do anything about it and in that sort of
01:40:40
environment I I suggest people just stay
01:40:43
away from it it's a very difficult thing
01:40:45
for young people to do very difficult
01:40:48
it's one of the things that Israel
01:40:49
struggles with but it's one of the
01:40:51
things that un fortunately some of his
01:40:54
competitors have found out about him
01:40:56
it's like a weak a weak point it's a
01:40:59
weak point and they know it and they
01:41:01
they they man they they know how they
01:41:04
they know where his weak pointers and
01:41:06
they know they can get to them through
01:41:07
that social media a lot of Fighters now
01:41:09
uh have got that Archilles heel and a
01:41:12
lot of other Fighters are using that
01:41:14
Archilles heel to break through and it
01:41:16
only takes you're talking about small
01:41:18
percentages and if you're emotional or
01:41:21
if you're a certain way before a fight
01:41:23
that takes your decisionmaking processes
01:41:26
that Skuse them a little bit that could
01:41:28
be the fight so um very difficult thing
01:41:30
we deal with in this modern era but um
01:41:33
yeah there's no accountability just
01:41:36
ignore that stuff easy for me to say
01:41:37
harder to do easier see than done yeah
01:41:39
yeah for sure D um hey mate thank you so
01:41:42
much for your time Eugene it's been
01:41:44
awesome and I I I can't wait to see um
01:41:48
who is the next star that comes out of
01:41:49
City kickboxing cuz you've got these
01:41:50
guys and what was like a fringe or a
01:41:52
niche Sport and you've made them like
01:41:53
household names and um but beyond that
01:41:56
you're just a good guy and you're
01:41:58
teaching like good lessons good morals
01:42:00
and good values to a lot of people and I
01:42:02
love it appreciate it Dom thank you for
01:42:04
having me on the podcast couple years
01:42:05
we'll do it again when you're bigger and
01:42:06
B eh keenz keenz The Nutty no what was
01:42:09
your nickname not the Nutty Prof the mad
01:42:11
scientist the mad scientist scientist
01:42:14
hey thanks so much mate no Wicked
01:42:23
oh
